Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
might of the Soviet state. Monumental classicism inspired a 400m-high design for Stalin's
pet project, a Palace of Soviets, which (mercifully) never got off the ground.
Stalin's architectural excesses reached their apogee in the seven wedding-cake-style sky-
scrapers that adorn the Moscow skyline, also known as the 'Seven Sisters'.
In 1955 a decree ordered architects to avoid 'excesses'. A bland modern style was intro-
duced, stressing function over form. The State Kremlin Palace is representative of this peri-
od. The White House was built later, but harks back to this style.
STALIN'S SEVEN SISTERS
The foundations for seven large skyscrapers were laid in 1947 to mark Moscow's
800th anniversary. Stalin had decided that Moscow suffered from a 'skyscraper gap'
when compared with the USA, and ordered the construction of these seven be-
hemoths to jump-start the city's skyline.
One of the main architects, Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky, had worked in New York dur-
ing the skyscraper boom of the 1930s, and his experience proved essential. (For-
tunately, he'd been released from a Gulag in time to help.)
In addition to the 'Seven Sisters' listed here, there were plans in place to build an
eighth Stalinist skyscraper in Zaryadie (near Kitay Gorod). The historic district was
razed in 1947 and a foundation was laid for a 32-storey tower. It did not get any further
than that - for better and for worse - and the foundation was later used for the gar-
gantuan Hotel Rossiya (demolished in 2006).
With their widely scattered locations, the towers provide a unique visual reference
for Moscow. Their official name in Russia is vysotky(high-rise) as opposed to
neboskryob(foreign skyscraper). They have been nicknamed variously the 'Seven
Sisters', the 'wedding cakes', 'Stalin's sisters' and more.
Smolenskaya)
Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya
(Kalanchevskaya ul 21/40;
Komsomolskaya)
Kotelnicheskaya apartment block
(Kotelnicheskaya nab 17/1;
Taganskaya)
Kudrinskaya apartment block
(Kudrinskaya pl 1;
Barrikadnaya)
Krasnye Vorota)
