Late in the afternoon, Thursday 12 Oct 2000, I went to look for the "Pavlik Morozov Children's Park" in the Krasnopresnenskaya area 2-3 kilometers west of the Kremlin.

The park was substantially changed from 1990. Pavlik's statue had been removed, apparently to some storage area, but I didn't understand where. (It was not, however, to the "Park Isskustv" 1-2 km SW [upstream] from the Kremlin where statues of Dzerzhinsky, Stalin, and others now wait in exile.) The formerly immaculate lawn had now grown rough, though the park was still used as a children's playground.

Most importantly, however, the park was located just 200 meters north of the former Russian Parliament building, which Yeltsin shot up during the October 1993 "coup" or "coup attempt" (depending whose side you're on). The entryway to the park is now an anti-Yeltsin shrine to those who died defending the building in 1993. Some elements of the shrine are Soviet/Communist, while others have a right-wing Russian Orthodox slant.

The current Russian Parliament building is in the heart of Moscow, on Okhotnyj Ryad -- perhaps they figure that would be a more embarrassing target, should someone like Yel'tsin deploy the tanks again.

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