Moscow's Seven Sisters

[Jack]

Just after the end of World War II, Soviet authorities decided to erect eight tall skyscrapers here in a design similar to that of the Palace of the Soviets. Only seven were constructed. Stalin pressed Soviet architects into the service of the state, which often meant the service of his personal tastes. In the early 1930s, independent architects were forced to close their practices and work for government design bureaus. Originally, most of the buildings did not have spires, but Stalin took a fancy to one that did, and soon they all had them -- made of metalized glass and sparkling in the sun. One political reason for adding the spires was to distinguish the towers from American skyscrapers of the 1930s. As a leader, Stalin created and sustained a system of repression. Every element of society was under control of the state. Architects (though not as dramatically as artists and writers) were subjected to such control. Because he had total control, many of Stalin's personal tastes became the law.

Stalin selected his architects - they were considered to be among the elite of society. They lived in lavishly furnished apartments, and built priceless personal libraries, all during a time of poverty and suffering. It was Stalin's goal to "wipe clean the slate of the past...and rebuild the world from top to bottom

[Jack]

Two of the buildings are hotels; two house government ministries; two are apartment houses; the seventh is Russia's most prestigious university.  The Moscow State University building was largely constructed by German prisoners of war. For years, the university tower was the tallest building in Moscow. But it was recently surpassed by one of the the city's shiny new skyscraper erected by the Russian natural gas monopoly, Gazprom.

• Moscow State University [/*]
  
• Block of Flats on Kotelnecheskaya enbankment [/*]
  
• Block of Flats on Krasnaya Presnya [/*]
  
• Hotel "Leningradskaya" [/*]
  
• Hotel "Ukraina" [/*]
  
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs [/*]
  
• Ministry of Transport [/*]

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[Ste]

I have a BBC Documentary about one of the ones thats an apartment block, very interesting, 50% about the construction of it, 50% about the folks who lived in it.

I can torrent it.....

Ste

[jb]

My wife graduated from Moscow State University's Physics Department, we prolly have over 100 photos of the place from as many different angles.