Let me lead you through the streets of Moscow

by Anni Pelmeni

Each big city has an unique atmosphere. It is not only a place where people live, it is also history preserved in stones and concrete. Politics and culture are interlinked in the old and new streets of the big cites. The propaganda and political system are reflected in the main streets where the power-related establishments are located. This is the facade of the regime, this is the means for intimidating, this is the self-reflection of history and current rulers. Someone has said that to judge the live style of people living hundred years into the future, one would just need to read a glossy magazine. To judge the political regime – one would just need to look at the façade of the city center.

My blog is all about Moscow which does have a turmoil history and has experienced multiple political paradigm changes. You are sure to find the traces of that history in the streets and buildings designs. Here I have made my first tentative hypothesis that there are 3 main trends in the nowadays Moscow streets life: the Kremlin, the Stalin’s Empire and post modern high buildings.

The Kremlin ever since 13 th century has been a symbol of monarchy, invincibility of Russian spirit and proud stance of Russian city. Moscow has never been conquered by force despite the multitude of war conflicts that took place in the feudal time. Later in 1812 Napoleon did enter Moscow after Russian army has retreated without a fight, but that did not ensure Napoleon’s victory, on the contrary it was the beginning of his downfall.

Stalin’s Empire style was supposed to represent to the rest of the world the power of Soviet regime and the high standards of Soviet life style. This architecture was created to inspire proud feelings in the hearts of Soviet people, to intimidate the enemies and to strike the allies with awe.

The post-modern creations of glass and concrete of the last 10-15 years are indeed the islands of incredible luxury in the seas of poverty. This is such a honest picture of Russia’s economic and political status quo. This is where the life beats in Moscow, this is where money flows and the major decisions are made. Wait couple of decade for this high-tech facade to become a history and they will also have a lot to tell.

Picture by Gerald

Moscow is not your typical European city. Moscow combines the traits of European merchant’s cities with a major commercial square – the Red Square was indeed a commerce place and it has a defense fort which is typical for medieval Europe. But Moscow also has Asian features with vast bazaars and public bathhouses.

What stories the streets of your city can share with you? To explore history vs politic of your city here

by Anni Pelmeni

Today I’d like to continue with the Stalin’s Empire architecture (I started the thema last week with the previous posts of part 1 and part 2). One of the traits of this style is underlined uniqueness of each project. Each designed was tailored to the function and location of the building. The buildings alongside of Sadovoe koltso are the best examples of this approach.

The motto of urban development in 1940s-1950s was to variety and diversity. That’s is why though the buildings belong distinctly to the same architecture style, they are unique in both technical and decoration solutions.

Several common traits make these buildings easily recognizable. They all have high ceilings (more then 3 meters); spacious entrance halls and broad stairs; quite often there are outside elevators. Definitely the façade will be decorated with some Soviet symbols: stars, hammer and sickle etc. The buildings form living quarters with separate inner yards. It was originally designed in such a way that it would not be possible to build another house on that inner space. That’s why the areas of Stalin’s Empire were not transformed in the current flow of construction in Moscow. Those areas are intact and look exactly as they used to in early 1950s. You may enjoy watching some movies made in Moscow at that time and you will surely recognize those little corners.

The price of the apartments in the Stalin’s buildings beats everything else on the real-estate market. On the one hand those buildings are situated in the center of the city and in the megapolises one has to pay for the location. On the other hand, the quality of construction was also one of the highest as it was controlled by the state with the threat of death penalty for any misconduct.

Interesting fact the post-war Stalin’s Empire architecture has usually 8-14 floors. It was a personal directive from Stalin himself that the buildings should no be lower then 8 floors. This decision was on the one hand stimulated by the needs of living space of increasing number of people, but on the other had it was supposed to intimidate with the superiority of Soviet lifestyle.

It is really ironic that the power of the Soviet state was actually built on the pain and deprivations of those people who were supposed to benefit from the Soviet lifestyle.