Hum along, Russians!
IS RUSSIA a post-communist country where the flag is a white-blue-and-red tricolor, the national symbol a double-headed eagle and the tsars venerated in stone and marble? Or is it really still a Soviet land, in which Lenin's embalmed body hogs the spot of honour in Red Square, where Stalin reposes in undisturbed dignity in the Kremlin wall behind, and the national anthem may soon again proclaim “the unbreakable union of Soviet republics?” Bizarre as it may sound, the answer is a bit of both. For Russia is in a muddle over its national symbols—as it is, perhaps, over its identity in the modern world.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Hum along, Russians!”
From the April 12th 1997 edition
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