Category: Architecture

As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…

On Dec. 2 Robert K. Massie, author and historian of Europe and pre-Revolutionary Russia, passed away in Irvington, New York at the age of 90. The cause was complications associated with Alzheimer’s. Massie’s works on Russian, European and military history sold more than 6 million copies worldwide. He began his literary career with “Nicholas and…

On Dec. 1, 1934 Sergei Kirov, Party boss of Leningrad, was gunned down as he left his office. In the Soviet Union, this case turned out to be like the Kennedy assassination in the U.S.: a charismatic leader murdered in his prime by a lone assassin, whose death would burnish his memory and go on…

Daniil Kharms was born Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachyov in St. Petersburg in 1905. His father, a former member of the revolutionary group The People’s Will who had been imprisoned and exiled in his younger years, was a professor of philosophy. Kharms first went to school in Tsarskoye Selo and then attended the German Peterschule, where he…

As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…

St. Petersburg is always a magical place to visit, but it’s especially glorious in the lead-up to the grand New Year’s and Christmas holidays. Here are our picks for best exhibitions and a couple of must-see concerts. Alexander Deineka and Alexander Samokhvalov The Manege has put on a breath-taking show of two major artists of…

On Nov. 28, 1880, Alexander Blok was born into a prominent academic family in St. Petersburg, although he spent many years in his childhood at the estate of relatives outside Moscow. After studying law and philology at St. Petersburg University, he married Lyubov Mendeleyeva, daughter of the famous scientist, to whom he dedicated a volume…

The Red Bull SoundClash Nov. 24 double concert made headlines this week when both bands — Leningrad and Noize MC — were fined for swearing on stage. Red Bull SoundClash capitalizes on the recent trend of rap battles but uses a different format. Rather than two performers battling each other on one stage, SoundClash juxtaposed…

Moscow’s VDNKh park has reopened the largest artificial ice rink in Europe just in time for the park’s 80th anniversary. The park’s ice rink, which was closed last winter for renovations, has been a holiday treasure in Moscow ever since the first rink was opened there in 1954. In 1960 the first Russian Winter Festival…

To foreigners, Moscow might seem like a closed fortress, always “defending and disguising itself,” as Walter Benjamin once wrote. But under the city facades there is another hidden life waiting to be discovered. Right in the city center on Kostyansky Pereulok, the past has burst into the present with the sign “Streletsky Bakery” (“Стрелецкая пекарня”)…

Can billionaires be good, honest people? Alexander Lebedev, a Russian oligarch turned philanthropist and media mogul, certainly wants us to think he is. His new memoir, “Hunt the Banker,” begins with a preface that laments the burdens of immense wealth. Lebedev confesses that the millions he made during the unbridled capitalist 1990s have brought him…

On Nov. 19, a small sculpture was unveiled on a tiny patch of courtyard on one of Moscow’s narrow little side streets before a handful of people — a deceptively modest ceremony to mark a momentous event. The sculpture was created by Vadim Kosmatschof and placed in front of the Austrian Embassy. It was the…

Bogatyrs play an important role in the Russian literary and artistic imagination. Epic poems of the exploits of these fierce and powerful warriors are part of Russia’s rich oral tradition, first written down in the early 19th century. At first, warriors were basically gods or shape-shifters with superhuman strength. Then they became very strong human beings. Ivan Savkin…

Mikhail Lomonosov was Russia’s most famous and most impressive polymath: a scientist, geographer, writer, historian, poet and grammarian, who was one of the founders of Moscow University. Among his many accomplishments was the discovery of Venus and the law of conservation of mass in chemistry. The son of a prosperous peasant family in Russia’s far…

It was not a smooth beginning or a novelty in the history of the LGBT Festival Side by Side when the opening ceremony of the 12th festival in St. Petersburg was interrupted on Thursday evening by a bomb threat. Being regularly disrupted by hoax bomb threats, pickets of conservative activists, and even  by the anti-gay…

Investigative journalists Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan began to concentrate on the Russian security services with the site Agentura.ru in 2000. Their latest book, published in October, is “The Compatriots: The Brutal and Chaotic History of Russia’s Exiles, Émigrés, and Agents Abroad,” which follows four other volumes. “The Compatriots” looks at the work of the…

St. Petersburg opened an international competition Friday for designs of a new park in the city center that local officials say will rival Moscow’s award-winning Zaryadye Park. Plans for the new park — to be located on an abandoned lot along the Neva River in the heart of the city — were first announced last April…

ST. PETERSBURG — A controversial proposal from a Moscow architecture expert to tear down St. Petersburg’s historical center as a cost-saving measure sparked heated debate at an international cultural forum on Thursday. Architect Vladimir Shukhov first proposed the plan in September, arguing that Russia’s second-largest city could not afford to preserve its aging historical center…

The 1990s were a time of huge change and upheaval for Russia — and especially for Moscow. What was life like for Muscovites that decade? What did people look like? How were they dressed? Were there long lines and dour faces? These photos of the iconic Moscow metro from The Moscow Times’ archive offer answers…

The largest retrospective works by Vasily Polenov, a prominent Russian painter of the second half of the 19th – early 20th century, opened at the New Tretyakov Gallery. The retrospective is dedicated to the 175th anniversary of the painter’s  birth. Polenov, a member of the “Wanderers” (Peredvizhniki) group of realist painters, is primarily known for…

No issue is as constant in Russian history as food. For the vast majority of the population, food —or its lack— has been a primary driver for many of the historical movements and milestones in Russia’s long history. This is particularly prevalent in the Soviet era. Despite the introduction of technological innovations such as preservation…

In the 1880s the mansion was purchased by Prince Mikhail Volkonsky, son of the Decemberist Sergei Volkonsky. Then from 1892 right up to 1917 it was owned by a merchant of the 1st Guild, Alexander Yeliseyev of the famous emporium family. Alexander Yeliseyev partially reconstructed the building and lived with his family in a 23-room…

On the last day of October, a film premiered in Moscow that was rare in several ways: it was the first film made by the director in 30 years, it was in black and white, and it was mostly about people who were either recently out of prison camps or on their way in to…

As darkness descended on St. Petersburg this weekend, the city’s historic buildings lit up in a spectacular way for the fourth annual Festival of Lights. With the help of 3D mapping technology, the traditional architecture of Russia’s northern capital was transformed into a menagerie of light, music and optical illusions. This year, the event’s theme…

At first there doesn’t seem to be anything special about a children’s playground in the town of Gryazi, Lipetsk region. The only difference is that it is more colorful and inventive than most, with miniature buildings, swings, a truck, ship, and what seems to be a working fireplace. But it is unique: it was built…

As a brown woman who has lived in Moscow for over three years now, I must admit that I approached “A Brown Man in Russia: Lessons Learned on the Trans-Siberian,” a book about a young American’s journey through Russia to Mongolia in the depths of winter, with some skepticism. And indeed, encounters were familiar and…

A part of history just went on sale for less than $1 million in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-biggest city and former capital. Two beautiful apartments rented by Russian literary classic Alexander Pushkin in the 19th century will only set you back 55 million rubles, or around $858,500. The celebrated poet moved there in 1834 to…

More than 1,000 people flocked to the Yandex tech company’s flagship store in Moscow on Wednesday with hopes of becoming one of the first to get their hands on the new mini version of its “smart” speaker. The Russian tech company had announced that anyone could exchange their old audio equipment for the new Yandex.Station…

Designed by Lev Kravetsky, the building was constructed in 1909. It has everything: griffins, dragons, firebirds, crowned swans, fire-breathing dogs, two-head birds, and a lion in its splendid solitude, with a human face and a luxurious mustache. mos.ru

The Ural Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art is less than a decade old, but today it’s considered one of the largest international exhibition projects in Russian contemporary art. Every two years it transforms factories and non-typical cultural spaces of Yekaterinburg and the cities of the Sverdlovsk region into vibrant museums of cutting-edge art. For the…

On Oct. 30, 1974 a group of dissidents imprisoned in Soviet labor camps in Mordovia and Perm declared the date the Day of the Political Prisoners in the U.S.S.R. Led by Kronid Lyubarsky, the prisoners put forward a list of demands, which included recognition of political prisoner status; separation of political prisoners from criminal convicts…

Ivanovo, like many cities in Central Russia, is finding it hard to redefine itself to attract tourists. It used to be “the capital of textiles” and then “the city of brides,” — who worked in the textile factories — but today it’s just a stopover on the popular Golden Ring route. Some guidebooks on Russia…

On an early Sunday evening in central Moscow, journalists and members of the public gathered for a specially curated exhibition called “Polly’s Cracker” — a reference to a song by the group Nirvana “Polly” about a young girl who escapes her kidnapper and sexual abuser. “I’d like to stress how a loving relationship can turn…

The town of Vyborg in northwestern Russia boasts a historic heritage unlike any other in the country. Lying just 40 kilometers south of Russia’s border with Finland, it is full of medieval, Art Nouveau and constructivist architecture that reflects the towns’ many owners—the Swedes, Russians, Finns and Soviets. In recent years however, the town was…

Before Maxim Shrayer became a professor of literature and Jewish Studies at Boston College, he spent over eight years as a refusenik in the Soviet Union. The son of Jewish-Russian intellectuals, Shrayer was born in 1967 and grew up in Moscow until he and his family emigrated in 1987. He arrived in the U.S. at…

Can Russia’s meat-loving population embrace Meatless Mondays? The country’s biggest restaurant group is counting on it. In mid-October, Rosinter restaurants in six major cities launched their Meatless Mondays initiative, which encourages diners to opt for a meatless meal by taking 20-25 % off the price of any non-meat home delivery order from their most popular…

What if I were to tell you that the most exciting contemporary art in Moscow today lies an hour-and-a-half drive through the traffic-choked motorways towards Domodedevo airport? It gets worse. Those who brave the tailbacks and hold-ups will find themselves arriving not at a gallery, museum or even studio complex, but rather at a real-estate…

Venedikt Yerofeyev was born near Murmansk on Oct. 24, 1938, the son of a former political prisoner. After graduating from grade school in Murmansk, he began language and literature studies at Moscow State University, but was soon expelled for failure to fulfill his military service requirements. For much of the rest of his life, Yerofeyev…

This month the Yasnaya Polyana Literary Awards, a joint project of the Tolstoy Estate Museum and Samsung Electronics, announced the 2019 winners. Sergei Samsonov won the main award in Contemporary Russian Prose for his novel “Hold On To This Land” (“Держаться за землю”). The Foreign Literature Prize went to Hernán Rivera Letelier for his novel…

Lev Yashin was born in Moscow exactly 90 years ago. He would go on to become the most recognized goalkeeper in history and the most famous Russian athlete of the 20th century. Yashin started off from humble beginnings. Both of his parents worked in factories in Moscow when he was growing up. The family was evacuated…

As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…

On Saturday evening the Zaryadye Concert Hall was filled with blue and red hair: on stage, one singer was blue and another was red; in the audience, blue rinses and bifocals mingled with hipster multi-colored streaks. The occasion for all this color was “The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” —  not the monumental sculpture created by…

For the first time  in history, the original manuscript of Leo Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” has left Russia and the Tolstoy Museum in Moscow for a stay at the Martin Bodmer Foundation museum in Geneva. Three pages of one of the most famous Russian novels, written between 1864 and 1869, became part of an exposition devoted…

Lesser-known than the Kremlin and the Hermitage, the vast Kolomenskoye estate in southern Moscow is still a true gem well worth a visit. The estate, which was a favorite country estate for Russia’s grand princes and tsars, is full of historic constructions and natural beauty. Here’s a bit more about what it has in store:

The Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography is presenting an exhibition of the work of Gennady Bodrov as part of its research project “Anthology of Russian Photography of the XXth Century. Photos 80-90.” 2019 marks the 20th anniversary of Kursk-born Bodrov’s tragic death at 41 in a botched robbery. Considering himself to be first and foremost…

On this day in 1990, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Mikhail Gorbachev, then president of the U.S.S.R., “for his leading role in the peace process which today characterizes important parts of the international community.” By that time, Gorbachev had withdrawn Soviet troops from Afghanistan, had not interfered in the fall…

Moscow has jazz clubs, concert halls, circuses, puppet theaters, drama theaters, music halls, and another hundred or so venues that hold concerts and other events every evening. Here are a few of our picks for fall. Zaryadye Concert Hall Moscow’s first concert hall in more than 20 years is a beautifully designed and acoustically perfect…

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In October 1917, Lenin’s Bolshevik Party seized power and inaugurated the first communist workers’ state, founded on the principles of Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital.” Almost immediately, the race was on to turn antiquated, almost feudal imperial Russia into a communist utopia. It was a tall order in Russia: the vast majority of the population of…

Autumn is one of the best times to visit Russia’s majestic and enchanting manors and palaces. The Kuskovo Estate in eastern Moscow is one of these places. Built in the mid-18th century by the wealthy Sheremetyev family, it is one of the oldest estates of its kind still standing in Russia’s capital. The family used…

Старый пердун: old fart We’re all adults here. We understand that we all, from time to time, produce a variety of noises and smells. There’s nothing to ashamed of. We might eat too much of certain kinds of food and then you know what happens: Beans, beans, they’re good for your heart, the more you…

For over two hundred years, the epicenter of Imperial Russian power was more often found on the outskirts of St. Petersburg than in its heart. The Romanovs had many residences, but none symbolized the dynasty’s autocratic power more than the opulent Catherine Palace, the jewel in the crown of Tsarskoye Selo, “the Tsar’s village.” A…

Marina Tsvetayeva was born in Moscow in 1892 to a professor of art history – who founded what is today known as the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts – and a mother of German and Polish ancestry. Tsvetayeva’s family was one of wealth and influence, albeit not supportive of their daughter’s poetry.  When Tsvetayeva was…

In 1881 the Russian writer Nikolai Leskov wrote a short story called “The Tale of Cross-Eyed Lefty and the Steel Flea” about a group of blacksmiths in Tula led by a left-handed master. In the story, Tsar Alexander I brought back a miniature mechanical flea made of steel from England. His son, Tsar Nicholas I,…

One of my superpowers is the ability to come up with names for dishes. I play with puns, literary allusions, alliteration, and assonance. But in the case of this particular eggplant recipe, I cannot, for the life of me, come up with anything better than the name by which it is known in my immediate…

After a long, warm summer of shashlik in the park and skateboards on the streets, Moscow is settling into colder nights and shorter days. But before winter gets here, we’re enjoying the colors and shades of autumn! Here’s a look at the capital this season.

From yoga to pho to escape rooms, Moscow has gone through more than its fair share of fads in the past couple of decades. While predicting what the next wave will be is like trying to guess which of your aunt’s cat videos is going to go viral on YouTube, one sleeper contender for Moscow’s…

The year was 1909. Mahatma Gandhi was 40 years old and just starting out; Leo Tolstoy was 81 and one of the most famous men in the world.  In a letter written on Dec. 14, 1908 by Tolstoy in response to an Indian revolutionary, the Russian writer argued that only through the principle of love could…

Legendary game designer Hideo Kojima has arrived in Russia to promote his latest game, “Death Stranding,” at the IgroMir computer and video game expo. “Death Stranding” is a post-apocalyptic action thriller created exclusively for the PlayStation 4 and set to be released on Nov. 8. The game’s main characters were designed to resemble stars like…

As comic culture continues to catch on in Russia, Moscow’s annual Comic-Con has delighted, enthralled and captivated fans of comics and superheroes alike. This year’s event alone is expected to draw more than 160,000 people. Similar to Comic-Cons in other countries, the event is a pop culture smorgasbord, showcasing the latest in movies, television and…