KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The infamous Red Square is undergoing a transformation of sorts. As CNN's Jill Dougherty reports, there's less emphasis on communist traditions and politics and more on just plain old fun.</s>JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Four hundred years ago, you could have your head chopped off on Red Square if you violated the czar's law. Even in modern times, Red Square has been a stern and somber place where the embalmed remains of a dead communist ruler were put on permanent display, a shrine for those who still believed, protected by a goose-stepping honor guard. Before the Revolution, the czar reviewed his troops on Red Square. In 1945, Stalin watched as the Red Army celebrated its victory over the Nazis. Red Square always seemed a place more fit for missile launchers than for people, but it started out as a merchants' bazaar. (on camera): Now, Red Square is returning to its roots, a place for fun, a place for trade, a place to hang out. (voice-over): Lenin's body is still in the mausoleum, but the honor guard is gone. Now you can get a healthy dose of capitalism right across the square at Gun (ph) shopping center. In the shadow of Lenin's tomb, the new skating rink is open. Most of the kids we met here have never been to Lenin's mausoleum. One little girl wasn't quite sure of who Lenin was. Maybe a writer? Kristina thought he was a Communist and a president. "Some people liked him and some didn't," she says, "and because they didn't like him, he was kidnapping them right from their homes. He was a bad man." In Russian, "Red Square" actually used to mean "beautiful square," and that's what it's become once again, a square that's full of life while Lenin sleeps. Jill Dougherty, CNN, Moscow.
Russia's Red Square Now Bursts With Life