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7/25/1964 - Wedding Palaces - A New Custom in the U.S.S.R. by Mildred K. Marcy

INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS Garmisch Partenkirchen Bavaria Germany WEDDING PALACES July A NEW CUSTOM IN THE USSR Mr Richard H Nolte Director Institute Current World Affairs Madison Avenue New York New York Dear Dick We practice attending weddings palaces invited But sunny June afternoon Leningrad Intourist guide uninvited unwelcome wished Soviet newlyweds fortune happy together The bride white organza short makeup tremulous The groom eually young twice nervous resignation His brushed black shiny shoes failed confer elegance probably craved Just The thirty solemn relatives fellow workers clutched Pravda wrapped clusters peonies poppies smiled stiffly other commented tones about their resplen surroun dings For palace wedding nobility communist labor The principals workers communist industrial enter prise assembly lathe operator Their romance blossomed lunches state factory canteen evenings spent meetings Komso Young Communist League young people through Other evenings weekends during weather strolled numerous public Parks Rest Recreation where certs lectures increased their understanding messianic nature communism During Russian winter tures government movies enjoyed local Palace Culture state Prior civil marriages Soviet couples place fusty office buildings before colored ictures Marx Lenin starboard Since communism doesn recognize religious sanctity marriage exceptional couple scorn their peers possible retaliation their superiors insisting decadent procedure church wedding But apparently regime recognized mysterlous something lacklng The solemnization marriage often Just dingy event lives In Leningrad years decided invest civil ceremony ritual The first Palace Weddings obvious success necessary second Leningrad Other cities since followed Wedding Palaces doing booming business Moscow Kiev Rostov Don other cities Tears shone Tanya guide interpreter revelled solemnity music flowers magnificent surroundings wedding watching Her wedding years custom wedding palaces consisted matter procedu offices local Soviet where husband simply signed their names marriage register given certificate That married Even three partially subsidized honeymoon Black Sea resort Sochl Tanya husband bruised resentment still having processed robots should perfect their lives Perhaps reason responded eagerly I asked would permissible without embarrassment attend wedding oldest Palace Weddings USSR In formerly beautiful mansions mostly offices multiple family dwellings Revolutionary former Russian Ambassador France restored Its shell evoked glimpse magnificent though attempt replace rococo furnishings Double doors swung tugged reveal spacious parquet floored entrance stories From small anterooms entrance smiling young woman assistant Director Wedding Palace Recorded music concealed loudspeakers musical score movie I Going Moscow enveloped climbed carpeted marble stairways curving opposite sides entrance meeting Joining central landing rising onward second floor Here corner assistant proudly showed where groom could minute present bride Enamelled brass objects India African carvings boxed glassware pottery minute shopper wedding bands priced between twenty dollars Explaining needed elsewhere palace assistant showed dimly shadowed vacant waiting where another moments wedding party filed silently Bringing Australian couple confided intentions morning breakfast along their Intourist guide We MM9 Australians feeling interlopers private family party tried elaborate woodwork contemplated soulfully beautifully carved fitted wooden ceiling incongruous Danish modern furniture wished someone would volume lnappropriate music Indulgent smiles tweaked corners eager little visored straw begged strangers wedding something ebony grand piano while waited The groom white cardboard spared necessity refusal Finally after twenty minutes shuffling downcast recorded strains Mendelsohn wedding march echoed through double doors swung inward blindingly white Pots hydrangeas coleus wooden stands stained glass colors Oriental provided color relief white crystal paradise At behind table stood buxom pleasant faced middle women dressed nearly identical suits The first Director Wedding Palace short speech inquiring Tanya reported serious intent young couple build marriage glory communism state future children Soviet citizens The bride andgroom nodded soundlessly behind table signed their names marriage certificate They resumed their places center facing table witnesses young looking groom younger brother stand directions awkwardly holding bunch white peonies mlddle blonde green print waist length imitation pearls clasping similar clump peonies advanced table signed their names certificate Then other woman member City Soviet Leningrad carrying metal bands double ceremony behind table stand before bride groom Rings exchanged Soviet official nounced married At point relatives friends surged around couple pressing wilted fists garden flowers newsprint bride groom The palace assistant reappeared unobtrusively herded group staircase another wedding party ascending opposite staircase As Carl focused camera bride groom before tossed their flowers stair I stepped moment wedding Something missing I vaguely I couldn remember seeing familiar board running lights Soviet Ship State Marx Lenin No picture Marx right table potted plants yourself But Carl Just completed picture I prove familiar larger sized Lenin plastered white match background Big Brother watching after Outside again third wedding couple their entourage arrived taxis A pretty place dently filling beauty ceremony ritual But guide explained weddings performed On other building registra births A substitute infant baptism christening asked But Tanya understand words explain Soviet Union state officially recognize birth citizens enting medal parents babies At ceremony friends relatives present member local Soviet awards medal parents Above engraved Red Star circling words Born Leningrad Below background banner birth Instead brides grooms there another where relatives clothing There where champagne reception either marriages birth registrations order especially occasions One couldn wondering about psychological needs people overthrown violent brutal revolution which repressive cruel elegant gracious The demanding taste honey themselves innovation wedding palace visited seemed example communist recognition cannot bread alone people become dissatisfied there cannot fulfillment their yearning beauty moments sacrament could rituals symbolism religion substance It forty years since Russian Revolution deposed oligarchy Czars organized church which considered communists Czarist controlled repression rather matter passionate personal philo sophical conviction The communist interpretation religion church convenient device which masses could subjection rulers Since Revolution religious practice Soviet Union discouraged succes waves religious persecution propaganda Russian Orthodoxy characteristic religion although other faiths However observance religious practice primarily older generation utilizing remaining churches which allowed their doors Before Revolution there churches Moscow alone Now population immensely greater there called working churches In Moscow visited handfullsof people present nearly elderly women There seems little longer regime resort religious persecution Their wiping religion substituting communism religion seems virtually accomplished Organized religion withering those believe Force greater dying It unexpected certainly understandable seine members American British diplomatic community Moscow attend regular weekly church services fidelity living Washington London serving nearly other foreign assignment except Soviet Union Though lacking church services every Sunday American nbassy British Embassy Several American friends admitted regularity their church attendance partly because rebellion against system which directly subtly prohibits religious piety Soviet people And constancy their worship continue assert Just their religious belief important their faith political system which overseas representatives which permits safeguards every individual right worship worship accordance personal religious convictions On morning Saturday Palace Weddings Leningrad visited publlcizd Museum Religion which cribed working church The imposing museum occupied former Kazansky Cathedral fronted clrcular colonnade reminiscent St Peter Rome Our guide urged spending there mistakenly interpreted insistence veiled telling Go yourselves Religion Soviet Union We visited museum without Intourlst guide Had along would understood Russian texts criptive signs meaning displays paintings pictures unmistakable So cultural heritage Imperial Russia preserved Leningrad magnificent museums The Hermitage former Winter Palace banks Neva River envisioned Museum Religion being implied museum history religion there would probably priceless collection ikons ritual objects vestments treasures But being expected primarily display formation center atheistic propaganda True there paint traditional religious scenes These portrayed realism tyrannical cruelties priests czars whose tools supposed exhorting sants things which church money crops firewood enforced labor Nothing imagina methods torture terrify Some instruments torture displayed glass cases groups children Young Pioneer uniforms white shirts blouses pants skirts neckerchiefs spellbound contemplation No wonder religion dying older generation Any Soviet citizen under taught Church Just instrument exploitation which masses subjected Just domination unism represents salvation But their virulent attack church teachings limited before communist In basement cathedral there large section different picture however These mostly newspaper photo graphs press United States Western Europe depicting racial violence denial civil rights The simple message course disparity between teachings church actions professed followers Imagine Western newspapers magazines regime determined euate religion hypocrisy But imagine culture shock communlst receives upstairs cathedral precise where altar stood bronze statue Lenin large placard containing Points That trying euate religion eommunlsm This started reportorial ccount familiar human event marriage ceremony The typewriter digressed writing about another universal concern religion Perhaps transition abrupt unrelated The baffled confusion experienced seeing appears familiar finding unfamiliar important sense In culture totally strange Moslem East always conscious ignorance customs traditions therefore constantly searches meanings explanations hesitates superficial conclusions which based appear ances preconceived ideas But European Russia which Soviet Union visited sights symbols similar those always known lulled feeling familiar therefore understood One familiar trappings church wedding white bridal dress flowers traditional music realizes though associated religious ceremony religious outward symbols Confused remembers civil ceremony solemnized officials Soviet One search familiar accoutrements civil ceremony symbol government national state evidence governmental authority white plaster Lenin Deity To those reared society which believes separation church state unsettling outward symbolism gious ceremony civil ceremony Again cathedral expecting museum history religion Russia found instead museum atheistic propaganda Where altar stood there Lenin backdropped political precepts Moses Ten Commandments Religious dogma articles belief denie replaced communist dogma propaganda It Jolt mental bearings reminded simple things going wedding cathe scenery characters familiar radically changed When words wedding church sound familiar different implications better appreciation difficulties communication between Soviet Union United States about involved concepts freedom peace democracy Sincerely Mildred K Marcy Received New York August