The lift was broken at the Royal Academy this afternoon ... which lent authentic ambience, as their exhibition of Soviet architecture is - gasp - right - gasp - at the very top. At least I wasn't hauling a shopping bag full of cabbages. There was something very poignant about Richard Pares' stunning photographs of factories and workers' housing, built with such high ideals and so many of these strikingly elegant buildings are now crumbling and derelict. But I couldn't help laughing at the top picture of a workers' club in Moscow - because, if you look carefully, you can see that the human urge for flouncy knicker-blinds can never be suppressed. When I got home I discovered a couple of interesting interviews with Richard Pares here and here. And was sorry that I hadn't read them before I went. But I'd only gone in to oil the wheels of capitalism by buying some Christmas cards.