Landmark Moscow Cathedral to Host ‘U.S.S.R. Hit Parade’ Concert

Moscow’s largest and most famous cathedral will bring guests back to the U.S.S.R. this fall when it plays host to a concert of popular Soviet songs.

The “Hit Parade of the U.S.S.R.” concert at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral appeared on top ticketing services Afisha, Yandex.Afisha, Redkassa and Ticketland, the independent Meduza news website reported Wednesday.

The Sept. 16 concert will feature songs by famous Soviet artists including Edita Pyekha, Muslim Magomayev, Eduard Khil and Joseph Kobzon performed by soloists from Moscow opera theaters.

“A person born in the U.S.S.R. has many reasons to indulge in nostalgia for a bygone era,” the press release announcing the concert states. It asks readers to remember “how good ice cream used to be” and how “people used to be kinder, more sympathetic.”

“Perhaps there is no easier and faster way to travel back to the longed-for past than once again to get in touch with its music — light, soulful and incredibly catchy,” the statement says.

Tickets are currently unavailable for purchase online, as aggregator sites either don’t have an option to buy tickets or report that all tickets are sold out. 

The concert venue’s website allows hopeful ticket-buyers to leave a purchase request.

According to the Cathedral Hall website, this is at least the second time the concert has taken place. An event of the same name was held at the venue on June 10.

The Christ the Savior Cathedral was demolished under Soviet ruler Josef Stalin and for decades was the site of the world’s largest open-air swimming pool. The cathedral was rebuilt from 1995-2000. 

The modern-day cathedral was where the first Russian President Boris Yeltsin lay in state ahead of his funeral in April 2007 and was the site of punk activist group Pussy Riot’s 2012 “Punk Prayer” performance that saw its members sentenced to prison.

Nostalgia for the Soviet past has risen steadily in Russia in recent years, bolstered by the Kremlin’s promotion of the U.S.S.R. as a great power and glorification of the Soviet victory in World War II.