Soviet Legacy

VDNKh

The country’s largest exhibition-cum-park complex was first opened in 1939 as the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition. By the middle of the twentieth century, the Exhibition was already a favorite place for Muscovites to visit, and one of the main tourist attractions of the capital.

After major restoration in the 2010s, VDNKh is now the largest museum complex in the world. You can walk for hours around the gigantic space (325 hectares!) filled with historical pavilions, unique museums, ponds, parks, alleys, flower beds and sculptures.

One of the main draws of VDNKh is a breathtaking series of fountains. The most famous of these is the “Friendship of Peoples” fountain in which beautiful, golden sculptures symbolizing the republics of the Soviet Union dance in a circle. People come here on dates, or just sit by the water to enjoy the beauty of how the shimmering sun plays on its surface. And yes, gorgeous photos are guaranteed!

Address and Operating hours

Prospekt Mira, 119. Metro VDNKh, Exhibition Centre (monorail). Daily, round the clock; pavilions and exhibitions have individual schedules.

Website

Victory Museum

The Moscow Victory Museum on Poklonnaya Hill, designed by Marshal Georgy Zhukov, is the country’s main museum of military history. The vast territory of 16 hectares unites more than 385,000 exhibits and about 400 samples of military equipment!

Here you will find stunning exhibitions — “The Feat of the People”, “The Battle for Moscow. First Victory!”, “The Feat of the Army” — with sections on each year of the war and dioramas dedicated to the most important battles. Combined with multiple halls — of Historical Truth, Memory & Sorrow, Glory, and Military Leaders — this museum makes a stunning impression.

Address and Operating hours

Victory Square, 3. The nearest metro station is Park Pobedy. Wednesday — Sunday: 10:00 — 20:30, Tuesday: 13:00 — 20:30, Monday — day off.

Website

Frunzenskaya Embankment

Although founded in 1872, much of its current architectural splendor was created during the Soviet era. It has many buildings in the famous Stalinist style, views of the grandiose Moscow State University’s high-rise Seven Sisters skyscraper, as well as the country’s main sports complex, Luzhniki. While all of this has remained unchanged since the Soviet Union, it has also been supplemented with elegant modern buildings.

All along the embankment there are bicycle lanes, and luxurious restaurants interspersed with cozy bistros and coffee shops. On the other side of the Moskva River you can find Gorky Park and Neskuchny Garden, accessed by crossing the Pushkin Bridge.

Moscow Metro

The Moscow Metro is often referred to as the world’s best underground museum. Many stations used to be called “palaces for the people, » and they employ various artistic styles in their architecture and decoration. The most impressive Soviet-era stations were inspired by styles like constructivism and neoclassicism, art deco, classical and realism. There are no analogues for a metro system like this in the whole world.

It is Europe’s largest urban railway transport system. The first line opened in 1935, and had 13 stations. Today, if you include the Moscow Koltsevaya Line, the Moscow Central Diameters and the Bolshaya Koltsevaya Line, there are 333 stations!

Highly recommended for a visit:

Kievskaya (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya and Koltsevaya lines)
Mayakovskaya (Zamoskvoretskaya line)
Teatralnaya (Zamoskvoretskaya line)
Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line)
Arbatskaya (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line)
Novoslobodskaya (Koltsevaya line)
Komsomolskaya (Koltsevaya line)
Dostoevskaya (Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya line)
Taganskaya (Koltsevaya line)
Kurskaya (Koltsevaya line)
CSKA (Bolshaya Koltsevaya Line)
Elektrozavodskaya (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line)

Seven Sisters

One of the main achievements of Moscow architecture in the twentieth century. Seven grandiose skyscrapers stand from between 136 meters to 240 meters in height, and perform a variety of functions — from the home of Moscow State University to an “ordinary” residential apartment block. The design of the Seven Sisters was inspired by monumentalism, Gothicism, Art Deco and other architectural styles. Yet the general concept is Stalinist architecture.

Walk around Moscow and admire the “Sisters” from the south-west to the north-east!

In ascending order:

Leningradskaya Hotel, 136 metres. Address: Kalanchevskaya Street, 21/4
Building on Krasnye Vorota, 138 metres. Address: Sadovaya-Spasskaya Street, 1
Building on Barrikadnaya Street, 156 metres. Address: Kudrinskaya Square, 1
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 172 meters. Address: Smolenskaya-Sennaya Square, 32/34
Building on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment, 176 metres. Address: Kotelnicheskaya Embankment, 1
Hotel Ukraine, 206 meters. Address: Kutuzovsky Prospekt, 2/1
Moscow State University, 240 meters. Address: Leninskie Gory, 1

Leninsky Prospekt

This giant, 14-kilometer-long street dates back to the sixteenth century. As part of the reconstruction of Moscow in the 1930s, new houses were built along what is now Leninsky Prospekt. Much of this construction has survived to this day.

Today, Leninsky Prospekt has largely preserved its historical appearance. If you fancy a change of scenery, the first section of the avenue gives access to Gorky Park and Neskuchny Garden. If you go south from Oktyabrskaya metro station, after a few kilometers you will find yourself on Gagarin Square.

Address

Nearest metro stations: Oktyabrskaya Koltsevaya, Oktyabrskaya Radial, Leninskiy Prospekt, Troparevo, Ploshchad Gagarina (Moscow Central Circle Line)

Lenin’s Mausoleum

This mausoleum on Red Square serves as the tomb of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, whose preserved body has been on public display since shortly after his death in 1924. It is free to enter, and provides you with a unique, quiet, and somewhat solemn experience. We recommend visiting with a guide who can enrich your visit.

The mausoleum structure itself incorporates some architectural elements from ancient mausoleums such as the great pyramids of Egypt, Iran’s Tomb of Cyrus the Great and, to some extent, Mexico’s Temple of the Inscriptions.

Nearest metro stations: Okhotny Ryad, Ploshchad Revolyutsii

Address

Red Square,1

Soviet Arcade Machines Museum

The museum contains 59 arcade machines that were wildly popular in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Among them are the legendary “Battleship”, and “Sniper”. There is also a separate hall with Soviet-made video game machines, which include “Safari”, “Snow Queen”, and “Autorally”, as well as the unique exhibits “Cat Fisherman”, “Humpbacked Horse”, and “Memory”.

You can have a glass of soda, or an oxygen or milk cocktail made according to classic Soviet recipes. The retro feeling will become even more powerful if you get some photos taken in the analog photo booth.

Nearest metro station: Kuznetsky Most

Address

12 Rozhdestvenska Street

Website

Luzhniki

The country’s main stadium, which was built during the Soviet era, has now grown into an ultramodern sports complex with a huge surrounding area of parks, walkways and sports facilities that provide plenty of scope for active recreation, including for families.

It is better to admire the grandiose facade of the Luzhniki Stadium from afar so you can see the scale of the building, but even up close the arena shocks with its sheer monumentality. This stadium has hosted global-level sporting events, including the opening ceremony of the 1980 Olympics and the final of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

You can join the throngs of sports enthusiasts at Luzhniki: there are many kilometers of paths for runners, cyclists and rollerbladers; areas for fitness training and rock climbing; rope parks; and much more. And if you just want to relax, you can stroll through the long alleys and squares filled with flowers and fountains shimmering with rainbows in the sun.

Address and Operating hours

Luzhnetskaya Embankment. Nearest metro stations: Vorobyovy Gory, Sportivnaya, Luzhniki (MCC). Daily, round the clock

Northern River Terminal

This spectacular building with a 27-meter spire is the calling card of north Moscow. Designed in the Stalinist style, it alludes to the image of a steamship: three tiers of open verandas symbolize decks, while the central tower and the spire are pipes.

Nearby is a charming park, which was reconstructed in the late 2010s. And if you walk just ten minutes further north, you will see another iconic object from Soviet times: the former Dynamo water sports complex, where, since reconstruction in the 2000s, a yacht club has been based. The modern water sports complex is located next to where its predecessor once stood, and is considered one of the best sports facilities in Moscow.

Address

51 Leningradskoe Shosse. The nearest metro station is Rechnoi Vokzal.

Russian State Library

The largest public library in Russia holds over 48 million books, manuscripts, documents and other objects!

Its main building is a majestic Stalinist masterpiece decorated with sculptures and bas-reliefs depicting great scientists and writers. It’s nice to spend some time on the wide steps leading to the library’s entrance, where you can sit with a cup of coffee and admire the view of the walls and towers of the Kremlin, which are located right across the street.

The Russian State Library also owns the neighboring Pashkov House, a fantastic example of classicism and one of the most beautiful buildings in Moscow.

Address and Operating hours

3/5 Vozdvizhenka Street. Metro: Lenin Library, Borovitskaya. Mon-Sat, 9:00 — 20:00.

Website

About the place

The building was constructed in 1963-1970 for the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA), an intergovernmental organization of socialist countries. The 106-meter "book house" immediately became one of the most famous buildings in Moscow. This was due to the architectural solution - the building in the form of an open book and the use of advanced technologies at that time, in particular, multilayer exterior panels. Since 1991 the building has been used by the structures of the Moscow City Hall.