Moscow Architecture

The spires and cupolas of the city capture Moscow for me. But Moscow also has majestic commercial and artistic buildings.

St Basil's Cathedral  at the end of Red Square fits my image of Moscow.

A monastery off Red Square completes my image.

Other buildings are also most impressive.  This is the Mayor of Moscow's residence and office building.  In the 1890's it was the palace of the Governor General of Moscow.  The incredible thing about this building is that in the Stalin era the government decided to widen the main street of the city upon which this building stands.  Our guide told us engineers somehow put the building on rollers and moved it back 50 square feet.  I think that is a marvel of engineering!

This is the main street today with the Mayor's building safely 50 feet back.

Stalin asked for a hotel to be built that would be a national hotel and impressive to all the foreign guests who came to the country.  The architect he commissioned sent plans of the final design to Stalin with two options: build the hotel with the design on the left of the buillding or the design on the right of the building.  Stalin looked at the blueprints and signed off "OK"  Rather than go back and tell Stalin he did not answer the question of which option he wanted, the architect built the hotel with both options.

The darker concrete on the first floor of this building is actually red granite that Hitler ordered to be brought in from Finland to build a monument to his defeat of the Soviet Union which he thought was imminent. It now adorns a nondescript building on Moscow's main street.

This is the famous Metropol Hotel, the site of many heads of state visits and background for numerous movie spy dramas .

This is the home of the Bolshoi .We think of the Bolshoi as the Bolshoi Ballet but there is also a Bolshoi Opera and a Bolshoi Drama company.  Unfortunately for us, the building was under renovation. It is a living museum.

The Palace of Delegates, built in 1961, is on the Kremlin grounds.  This 6,000 seat hall was built to be a meeting place of the Communist Party and also to  serve as a second home for the Bolshoi.  It is now used only as a concert hall.

Our guide told us a great story . He said Nikita Khrushchev gave long speeches here but always "kept his shoes on, "a reference to the infamous shoe pounding incident at the UN in 1960.   He then added Khrushchev was partial to expensive Italian designer shoes.

At the time of the incident, was he using one of his designer shoes to denounce opponents of communism ?

The cause of the outburst were remarks made by Lorenzo Sumulong, the Philippine delegate, who said the Soviet Union had swallowed up Eastern Europe and deprived the people of their civil and political rights.  An enraged Khrushchev denounced Sumulong as a "jerk, a stooge, a lackey and a toady of American Imperialism"