In fact the Moscow Canal that enabled our ship to reach the Volga River was dug out by hand during the Stalin era by Gulag prisoners.

Photos are posted here.

In September 2010, I took a river cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg, Russia with my wife and some relatives. I grew up during the midst of the cold war and it was hard not to think of the former Soviet Union as I traveled through Russia.  Indeed, almost everywhere we went we saw landmarks, monuments and buildings that were marked with Soviet history in some way.