On certain days, you can wait in line to see Lenin's body lying in repose in his black stone tomb, then subsequently be fed out onto Red Square's brick expanse. Directly opposite, you'll see a the long-sided facade of GUM, the State Department Store.
Red Square is best at twilight, when most tourists have headed back to their hotels, exhausted, and when most Russians have finished their work day. The sun sets especially late in the summer, and its weakened rays washing over the rusty paving stones and filtering through St. Basil's spires bring history and present into perspective, dimming signs of modernity and welcoming shadowy ghosts.
Red Square has been the site of public ceremonies, grand parades, and even assassinations and executions. Today, though a place of congregation for tourists, Red Square has lost none of its gravitas or symbolism.
