You were?  It's been quite a while since I've been there, but I was always surprised to see the presence of hammer and sickle emblems people had never bothered to remove.  

Well, firstly, Victory Day (the occasion on which these tanks were paraded about) celebrates the Soviet defeat of the Nazis.  

Secondly, there have been some official attempts to integrate Russia's history, the Tsarist, Soviet and current regimes, to arrive at a collective Russian identity.  As with the national anthem.  Which is one of the reasons Putin was chided - promoting the idea that the USSR might be a valid chapter in their history.  

Overall, I think the West is more prone to compartmentalizing Russian history than Russians are.  

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

If you have a chance to see pictures of war veterans at the parade in Moscow, take a close look at the medals they're wearing. All of them are medals awarded when the veterans were in the Red Army, which was renamed "Soviet Army" after the Second World War. The Soviet Union with hammer and sickle cannot be divorced from the history of the war. Here are some Soviet medals and what's on them.

Thanks so much poemless, that's such an enjoyable read!

I was a little surprised to see a hammer and sickle in the background of the first picture.

The soviet emblems are to be seen everywhere in today's Russia, train stations, public buildings, squares - hammer and sickles, statues of Lenine showing the way, statues of the deserving miner, etc.

I suppose people are actually attached to them, and are proud of their history. They remind them of the good old times, when everyone had a job, first-rate education, free medical care, when society actually took care of its people.

Why those emblems should be taken down, I have no idea. Would a properly Western-formatted mind explain that to me ?