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| An application of the dog-rubbing luck charm |
A couple of years ago I read in someone’s Russian LiveJournal about the custom among the Muscovites: to touch, rub and sometimes even kiss a sculpture of a dog on the underground station, The Revolution Square. The station takes you to the very centre of the city, close to the Kremlin, the Red Square, and the General Store.
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| The Revolution Square station interior |
The station was opened on March 13, 1938, and is famous for its 76 bronze sculptures of Soviet people: sailors, soldiers, mothers with children, sportsmen, and pupils (altogether there are 20 different images that are then repeated throughout the station). During the Great Patriotic War the sculptures were evacuated to the Soviet Middle East; they were returned to Moscow in 1944. The figures are placed in chronological order, from October 1917 until December 1937. Granite was used for the station’s floor, while the walls were made of Armenian black marble, accompanied by other types of marble. The station is located 116m above the sea level.
The sculptures were placed in the arcs; design thus dictated that the figures couldn’t stand in full height. Thanks to this, the station soon became an epitome of the Soviet realities; the joke had it that “the station shows that the Soviet people either sit, or kneel“.
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| The kneeling Soviet woman with a lucky hen |
Back to the lucky dogs: in the recent years the custom has become to rub the sculptures to attract luck. Strictly speaking, it isn’t just the dogs that are considered lucky: you can recognise the “lucky bits” by their unhealthy polished surface, and so luck is also brought to you by hens, boots, and even some armaments. Observing people rubbing the bronze is a surreal experience. Some stop and religiously yet gently wipe the bronze; some nonchalantly touch the sculptures as they rush past; some even smudge a kiss; and some scour the nose or a shoe, while silently reciting a sort of prayer or a wish. However they do it, the bronze rubs off, revealing the fruits of popular ardour.
Still, this underground station is a popular place to meet up and even has its personal Ploschad Revolutsy website.
Before you ask, though: I couldn’t bring myself to rub the lucky canine… yet.
Image of the station interior is courtesy of Egor Chernorukov’s Studio.
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| Another lucky dog… and not so lucky schoolgirls |
