Visit Moscow's Best Stalinist Park
Moscow's All-Russia Exhibition Centre Gives A Taste Of Old Communism
Moscow's All-Russia Exhibition Centre is a former 1950's Stalinist style park, which is still operating today. It's a good place to soak up the communist atmosphere.
Many visitors to Moscow are surprised at how few visible reminders from the communist era remain. The centre of Moscow in particular is now much like any other city. Even in Red Square, Moscow has rebuilt the cathedrals destroyed to create the vast communist era May Day parade ground. Meanwhile, the adjacent GUM department store is festooned with bright fairy lights and advertising hoardings.
Fortunately, for those wanting a taste of the communist years, the All Russia Exhibition Centre (the Vserossiyskiy Vystavochniy Tsentr or VVT) retains much of its 1950’s Stalinist feel.
The communists originally used the All Russia Exhibition Centre to display their technological and agricultural wonders, including a working nuclear fusion display. Today, the park ekes out a living in the capitalist world selling souvenirs to tourists, and huge skewers of cheap Chicken Shashlik (Georgian barbeque chicken) and bottles of beer to locals.
Touring The All Russia Exhibition Centre
Allow at least a half day to explore the 500 acres of the All Russia Exhibition Centre. There are plenty of walkways, fountains, statues, formal gardens and solid display pavilions to explore.
The grand entrance to the park is a huge granite arch. Statues of triumphant workers stand on top, holding aloft a giant sheaf of wheat. This demonstrated to the workers how the Soviet Union was a bountiful country with plenty of food.
A Tribute To Russian Cosmonauts
At the front of the park, a 100-metre high statue shows a flying rocket with a plume of stone vapour behind. It stands in tribute to the brave Russian Cosmonauts of the 1960’s. Many of the retired heroes still have houses in the area.
An original Vostok Rocket (the type that propelled Gagarin into orbit) stands at the other end of the park. The tiny size of the rocket demonstrates how brave and uncomfortable the first manned orbit around the world must have been.
The House of the Peoples of Russia and the Fountain of the Friendship of Peoples
Further into the park, the House of the Peoples of Russia is a grand “wedding cake” style building, beloved by Stalin. A smart and purposeful statue of Lenin is in front of the while marble columns of the palace. In a sign of the times, a modern plastic mould of Shrek now beckons youngsters to the skating rink that extends over the lower ground floor.
The Fountain of the Friendship of Peoples is another grandiose communist image. This is a huge, rather garish, but strangely impressive gold fountain. A circle of gold women dressed in one of the national dress of the republics of the old Soviet Union stand beneath a store of bountiful wheat and sunflowers.
Inside The Pavilions At The All Russia Exhibition Centre.
Many of the Pavilions are constructed in the style of one of the Soviet Republics and are worth a closer look. One of the Pavilions is wooden (complete with a wooden fresco depicting hard working Russians), while another is Middle Eastern in style, with Moorish mosaics and delicate plasterwork. The details on the Pavilions belie the old Western propaganda that communist buildings were shoddily built.
Although the atmosphere and goods on sale today are very different from the communist era, the All Russia Exhibition Centre gives a good picture of the architecture and values of the time.
The All Russia Exhibition Centre is a short underground train ride from the centre of Moscow (metro stop: VDNKh on line 6 going north). The Exhibition Centre is a good antidote to the bustling commercial centre of Moscow, and entrance to the park and the exhibits are free.
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