Red Moscow

A look of astonishment appeared on Xiao Ma's face: "Will anyone buy such a shabby helmet?"

"I don't think anyone will buy it." Sokov told the other party firmly: "I have seen this helmet at least five years ago. Since it is still here, it proves that no one buys it at all."

"Are you sure this helmet is the one you saw five years ago?"

"Yes, I'm very sure." Sokov nodded his head with his hand and continued: "Look at the right side of the helmet, is there a bullet hole? I don't think the stall owner can find two helmets in the same place. A helmet with bullet holes in it.”

Xiao Ma looked at the helmet carefully, nodded and said, "Yes, there is indeed a bullet hole on the right side of the helmet. It seems that it is really the one you saw five years ago."

The two left the stall selling military uniforms and continued walking forward.

It was Xiao Ma's first time to come to a place like this. Everything he saw was strange and he had to stop and look at almost every stall. And Sokov came here countless times, so naturally he was not interested in many things.

When the two stopped in front of a stall selling medals, the stall owner sitting in the stall's eyes lit up, and then he stood up and asked in blunt Chinese: "Friends, what do you need? See if there is anything here. What you want."

Hearing that the other party actually spoke Chinese, Xiao Ma was a little surprised and asked Sokov in a low voice: "Brother, how come they can speak Chinese?"

"It's normal. Most of the people who visit the flea market are Chinese, and they are the main force of consumption." Sokov explained to Xiao Ma: "Think about it, if you are in a foreign country and hear the language you are familiar with, , will there be a sense of intimacy?”

"Yes, it is indeed so."

"As long as they make you feel friendly, you will be more likely to consume, and maybe they will be able to sell you the goods on their stalls at a high price."

"Really?" Xiao Ma said in disbelief: "Are the prices of the things they sell really expensive?"

"Let me give you an example." Sokov said lightly: "This flea market is usually open on Wednesday and Sunday. But the people who come to the market on Wednesday are all manufacturers from nearby small cities, who come here to sell their products. Matryoshka dolls. Because it is wholesale and retail, the sales price is only one-third of what it was on Sunday.”

"What, one-third?" Xiao Ma was shocked again: "Is the price difference so far apart?"

When the two were chatting, the stall owner couldn't hear what the two were talking about, so he could only be anxious, but he didn't dare to rush, for fear that the two gods of wealth would walk away.

After finally waiting for the two of them to come to an end, he asked cautiously: "What do you want to buy?"

Xiao Ma asked Sokov with some concern: "Brother, can the stall owner understand what we just said?"

"Don't worry, they don't understand what we are saying except for a few Chinese sentences to attract customers."

Xiao Ma nodded, picked up a red flag medal on the stall, and asked carefully: "How much does this cost?"

When the stall owner saw that Xiao Ma picked up the Red Flag Medal, his face showed joy, and he gestured and said: "This, 300."

Although Xiao Ma has not been in Moscow for a long time and his Russian is not good, he can still understand the price quoted by the other party: "300 rubles?"

"No, no, no," the stall owner waved his hands and said, "It's not 300 rubles, but 300 US dollars."

Sokov stared at the medal and easily recognized that it was not the real thing, but an old imitation. According to the exchange rate of 1:60 US dollar to ruble at the moment, this small medal will cost 18,000 rubles. Let alone imitations, even if they are genuine, they cannot be sold for so much money.

"Brother," Xiao Ma held the medal in his hand and looked at it over and over again. When he had finished reading it, he raised his head and asked Sokov: "What do you think of the price?"

Sokov did not answer his question immediately, but turned to the stall owner and asked: "Where is the certificate of award for this medal?"

As a traveler who had been to the Great Patriotic War, Sokov himself had received several Orders of the Red Banner. Naturally, he knew that in addition to having a number on the back of each medal, there was also a certificate of honor, which stated that this medal To whom is the medal awarded?

Hearing Sokov's question, the stall owner's face was full of embarrassment: "I accidentally lost the certificate of honor."

"I'm sorry, we can't ask for it without a certificate of honor." Sokov took the medal from Xiaoma's hand, gently put it back on the stall, and nodded to the stall owner: "I'm sorry to cause you any trouble. ”

"Wait a minute, friend." The stall owner saw that the business that finally came to his door was so bad, and said quickly: "You guys wait a moment, I will look for it to see if I can find it." After saying that, he got out from under the table of the stall. He took out a woven bag, opened it and started rummaging through it.

Xiao Ma couldn't understand the conversation between Sokov and the stall owner. When he saw him rummaging for something, he asked curiously: "Brother, what is he looking for?"

"The Order of the Red Banner is an unprecedented military award established in 1918. It is awarded to Soviet citizens who directly participated in the battle and fought bravely and heroically." While the stall owner was looking for something, Sokov gave Xiao Ma some common knowledge about the Order of the Red Banner: "The medal is composed of two layers: white enamel as the base color, with a gold-cast hammer and sickle, and two golden wheat ears surrounding the red star. The outer background has a pattern of "black hammer" and "black sickle" crossed, torches and red flags. The flag is engraved with: "Proletarians of the world, unite", surrounded by two larger golden wheat ears, and the abbreviation of the Soviet Union is written at the bottom of the badge: CCCP."

After listening to Sokov's popular science, Xiao Ma's face was full of admiration: "Big Brother, you know a lot. "

After a pause, he asked again: "Do you think the price of 300 US dollars is expensive?"

"There are more than 580,000 Red Banner Medals awarded in total, but this one doesn't look like one of the hundreds of thousands." Sokov said bluntly: "Would you spend hundreds of dollars to buy a replica?"

"Ah, it turns out to be fake." Xiao Ma now understood that if it weren't for Sokov's reminder, he might have spent a huge amount of money to buy this worthless replica. He quickly grabbed Sokov's hand: "Brother, let's go."

Sokov nodded and was about to leave, but the stall owner took out an old photo album from the woven bag, which attracted his attention.

He picked up the album and slowly flipped through it, and found that it was full of yellowed black and white photos. At the beginning were family photos, a chubby-looking young woman, a second lieutenant of almost the same age, and three children, two boys and one girl. Turning back, there were either photos of three children or officers.

The young officer was a second lieutenant at first, but the higher the rank, the higher it was. When the rank on the collar was replaced by the rank on the shoulder strap, he was already a captain.

When the album was almost finished, Sokov saw a shocking photo: it was a group photo of five or six people. At this time, the officer's shoulder strap was wearing the rank of major. The person standing in the middle of the photo was himself, and the person standing on his left was actually Military Commissar Lunev.

Seeing this kind of photo, the muscles on Sokov's face twitched violently. He never dreamed that he would see his own photo in an old album.

"Boss." In order to figure out what was going on, Sokov felt it necessary to take the photo back and study it carefully. He held up the album in his hand and asked the owner as if nothing had happened: "How much is your album?"

The owner stopped searching, looked at Sokov and said: "My friend, the photos in the album are 200 rubles each, there are 76 photos in total, 15,200 rubles. I see that you really want to buy it, so you can just give 15,000 rubles."

Although Sokov really wanted to buy the album, he felt that the owner's offer was too expensive, so he shook his head and said: "I can only give you 1,500 rubles at most."

"No, no," the stall owner shook his head after hearing the price Sokov offered. "Although you can bargain, you can't bargain so much, directly cutting off 90% of the price."

"Then I want to hear, what is the lowest price you can sell it for?"

The stall owner thought for a while, and then said: "14,000 rubles, take it if you want."

Sokov shook his head, "2,000 rubles, if you don't sell it, I'll leave."

"No, no, the price you offer is too low, I can't sell it."

Sokov is also a businessman, and naturally knows that if the other party finds out that he really wants to buy this album, he will definitely not lower the price easily. He put the album on the table, shook his head, and said: "Since you don't want to sell it, I won't force it, so forget it."

After that, he called Xiao Ma to leave the stall together.

Seeing that the business that had finally come to him was about to fail, the stall owner was anxious and ran out of the stall and shouted to Sokov: "How about 12,000 rubles?"

Sokov stopped and turned to the stall owner and said: "2,500 rubles, this is the highest price I can offer."

"No, 2,500 rubles won't sell it." The stall owner continued: "If you really want it, then give me 10,000 rubles."

Sokov shook his head and turned around and walked away again.

The stall owner's photo album was originally left at home by his neighbor after he moved away. He got it without spending a single ruble. At this moment, he heard that Sokov could only offer 2,500 rubles at most. After a brief thought, he gritted his teeth and stomped his feet: "2,500 is 2,500, I'll sell it to you."

Sokov returned to the stall, opened the photo album again and flipped through it. After confirming that it was the one he had just looked at, he took out 2,500 rubles and handed it to the other party.

"Brother, why did you buy this album?" As the two continued to walk forward, Xiao Ma asked in confusion: "It's almost 50 US dollars."

"I just want to understand the lives of ordinary Russians." Sokov naturally would not tell Xiao Ma that he saw himself in a photo in the album, but perfunctorily said: "The album can give you a partial understanding of the situation."

"Oh, so it's like this." Xiao Ma nodded, not quite understanding, and asked: "Brother, where are we going next?"

The flea market is divided into upper and lower sides. The lower side is where the most tourists are, while there are far fewer people on the slope. Sokov pointed to the stairs not far away and said: "Let's go up and see if we can buy any rare things."

The products on the slope are mainly oil paintings, copper tableware and silver candlesticks from various households. There are not many things to buy. Sokov brought the pony up, just to let him learn more. It seems that What's in Lao Maozi's flea market?

Climbing up the slope, Xiao Ma was immediately attracted by a row of oil paintings hanging on the wooden wall in front. These oil paintings depicted either forests, grasslands or villages, which were very consistent with the style of Russian oil paintings. Xiao Ma stood in front of an oil painting of a birch forest, looking at it over and over again, as if he had discovered some new world.

He looked at it for a long time, then turned around and asked Sokov, who was standing next to him: "Brother, do you think there are any world-famous paintings among these oil paintings?"

Sokov was amused by his words: "Why are you laughing? How can there be famous paintings in a place like this? If you want to see famous paintings, you can go to the Tretyakov Gallery, which is one of the most famous galleries in Moscow. There are countless paintings there. Thousands of world-famous paintings.”

"Apart from the place you mentioned, where else can I see famous oil paintings?"

"There are also the Russian State Museum, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the Moscow Museum of Natural History, all of which contain thousands of world-famous paintings." Sokov said, pointing to the oil paintings hanging on the wooden wall: "These are hot chickens."

"No, I think the painting is pretty good."

"Come closer and take a closer look." Sokov asked Xiao Ma to get closer to the oil painting, and pointed at the surface of the oil painting and said: "Except for a few uneven places, is the surface of your oil painting smooth in most places?"

Xiao Ma watched it carefully for a long time, then nodded slowly and said, "Yes, the surface in most places is indeed very smooth. What's the reason?"

"The reason is very simple." Sokov said: "Because the oil paintings in front of you are basically electronically spray-painted, so that a large number of oil paintings can be mass-produced in a short time. In order to confuse people who want to buy paintings, they use oil paints Just apply the pen to certain areas, and the original spray painting will become a hand painting, and the price will increase by ten or twenty times. "

"Oh my God." Xiao Ma couldn't help being surprised after hearing this: "I originally wanted to buy one and take it home, but after hearing what you said, I didn't even dare to buy it."

"Just take a look at these paintings. There is no need to buy them." Sokov said to Xiao Ma: "A spray painting that sells for forty or fifty in China, and you spend thousands to buy it back here, that's not a complete advantage." What?”

"Brother, you know so much." Xiao Ma said happily: "Fortunately I followed you out today, otherwise I don't know how much money I would have spent."

"But there is a place in Moscow that specializes in selling oil paintings." Sokov continued: "You can buy good oil paintings there, even old oil paintings from more than a hundred years ago, but the procedures for taking them out of the country are a bit troublesome."

"What, you have to go through the formalities when bringing an oil painting back to China?"

"Of course." Sokov once helped others handle the procedures for exporting oil paintings, so he naturally understands the relevant procedures: "You must first take a photo of the oil painting, and then take the photo to the appraisal office of the Tretyakov Gallery for appraisal to confirm that you are ready Only if the oil painting being taken out of the country is not a precious oil painting that is a Russian national treasure, they will issue a certificate for permission to leave the country. After arriving at the customs, you have to hand the certificate to the customs officers and let them check it carefully. Only after they confirm that it is correct, can the oil painting be allowed. Outbound.”

After hearing Sokov's story, Xiao Ma couldn't help but retreat: "I really didn't expect that buying an oil painting and bringing it back home would require such cumbersome procedures. Forget it, I won't buy this oil painting."