Moscow is, in a word, grand! I was there only for a few days, and each time I looked out of the window of my hotel room or stepped outside, it took my breath away. As I stood on a bridge on the Moskva River (there are about 50 bridges over the river and its canals in Moscow), looking at the Kremlin, the power emanating from this self-contained Russian city was palpable. Moscow has a large number of palaces, armouries, and churches, including a medieval fortress that links the modern nation to its legendary past. By the middle of the 14th century the Kremlin had gained such preeminence, that Moscow was made the seat of the Russian Orthodox Church and Muscovite rule extended over all of Russia. The glorious Cathedral of the Assumption was also built within the Kremlin’s walls. Over the next two centuries, until Peter the Great transferred the capital of Russia to St. Petersburg, the Kremlin remained the central stage for the magnificent and intermittently ghastly history of the tsars. With the shift of power to St. Petersburg, the city and the Kremlin declined. However, the Bolsheviks’ choice of Moscow as their capital in March 1918 returned it to preeminence, and during Soviet rule the Kremlin experienced its second life as a great centre of power.

Traversing the walkway to reach Vladimir Lenin’s Mausoleum, one encounters the busts of assorted former Russian presidents, including Joseph Stalin. Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks, was the premier of the USSR from 1922 until his death in 1924. Cameras are not allowed inside Lenin’s tomb where his embalmed body lies in state. The clock tower seen here in the background is known as the Spasskaya Tower. It was built in 1491 by an Italian architect, Pietro Antonio Solari. The clock on the Spasskaya Tower is referred to as the Kremlin Chimes, and designates official Moscow time. The Tower Gate was once the main entrance into the Kremlin. In czarist times, anyone passing through the gates had to remove their headgear and dismount their horses. This tradition was broken in the Soviet era.

Perhaps Saint Basil’s Cathedral, now a museum, situated at the foot of the ramparts of the Kremlin on the Red Square, is the most famous and iconic building in Russia. Its façade is spectacular, but so too its interior. The cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century to commemorate a military victory over Mongol forces. Apparently, when built, the cathedral was all white to match the white-stone Kremlin, and the stylistic onion domes were gold, not multi-coloured, and each patterned differently as they are today. The bell tower was added in the 17th century, the gallery and staircases were covered with vaulted roofing, and the domes were replaced with decorated ones. The complex and unique design of the cathedral has remained unchanged since 1860.

The bronze statue in front of Saint Basil’s Cathedral commemorates Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Mini. The two had gathered an all-Russian volunteer army to repel Polish-Lithuanian forces marching on the city in 1612. The statue was erected in 1818 and became the first Russian monumental sculpture. The pediment is inscribed with the words: “To Citizen Minin and Prince Pozharsky, from a grateful Russia.”

Contrary to popular belief, the Red Square’s name has nothing to do with Communism. The name is derived from ‘krasnyi,’ which once meant ‘beautiful’ but has come to mean ‘red’ in contemporary Russian. It is said that the Red Square began as a shanty town of wooden huts that was the abode of criminals, drunks and peddlers. Their low status forced them to live outside the boundaries of the medieval city. At the end of the 1400s it was cleared on the orders of Ivan III, and it became the location of public executions. It was also known as ‘Fire Square’ to recall the number of times medieval Moscow burned. However, in the 20th Century the Red Square became most famous as the site of official military parades held to demonstrate to the world the might of the Soviet armed forces. Since Perestroika, Mikhail Gorbachev’s reformation movement within the Communist Party during the 1980s, the Red Square has been increasingly used for classical music performances, rock concerts, fashion shows, festivals and other art-related large scale projects. In the process, the brutal and bloody history of the square has been all but forgotten.

The prime example of the architectural style that Stalin proscribed is the tall Gothic Seven Sisters buildings — the skyscrapers of Russia. The former Hotel Ukraina, now known as the Radisson Royal Hotel, is one of those ‘Seven Sisters.’

The gleaming domes of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour located atop a hill on the northern bank of the Moskva River a few blocks southwest of the Kremlin, are visible from a distance. With a height of 103 metres, it is the tallest Orthodox Christian church in the world. The original church was destroyed and then re-built in 2000.  In the 1920s, Stalin wanted to demolish the Church. His idea was to build a huge monument — a palace — in its place. In 1930, the golden domes, sculptures and other remnants from destroyed Soviet monasteries kept inside the Cathedral were removed and the marble walls were used in nearby Moscow metro stations. However, the construction that was started before World War II had to be stopped due to the Nazi invasion. The steel was used in bridges and other significant buildings. In 1995, after the Russian Orthodox Church received permission from the government, construction of the new Cathedral began.

On a beautiful square in downtown Moscow, not too far from the Kremlin, is the Bolshoi Theatre. The temple of Russia’s culture, the Bolshoi is one of the world’s biggest opera and ballet theatres. The original theatre, then known as Petrovsky Theatre, was built in March 1776, but was burned down. The present structure with the magnificent chariot of Apollo over its portico, a symbol of eternal movement of art and life, was opened in January 1825 as the Bolshoi Theatre. The beautiful building in classical style is decorated in red and gold inside. Its five-tier house is renowned for its size and excellent acoustics. There is gilded stucco and murals on the ceiling, from which is suspended a magnificent crystal chandelier. The theatre seats over 2,000 people.

The Moscow Metro was one of the USSR’s most extravagant architectural projects. There are close to 200 metro stations in Moscow. It is one of the cheapest and most efficient — and the world’s fourth busiest — transit systems in the world. The stations are lavish “palaces for the people.” Stalin, the iron-fisted Soviet leader, had ordered the metro architects and artists to design structures that would encourage commuters to look up and admire the stations. After Stalin’s death in 1953, his images were gradually withdrawn from the Moscow Metro, and sculptures, mosaics and reliefs were removed. The new stations that were built during the time were devoid of any stucco work and mosaics, but fortunately, the original architecture of the early stations was left intact. The Komsomolskaya Station (1935) has tall pillars and an imposing Baroque ceiling with paintings.

Mayakovskaya is considered to be one of the most beautiful stations in Moscow. The station features graceful columns faced with stainless steel and pink rhodonite, white ufaley and grey diorite marble walls. There are 34 ceiling mosaics by Alexander Deyneka with the theme ‘24-Hour Soviet Sky.’ The flooring pattern is of white and pink marble, and there are 35 niches — one for each vault. This station became an air raid shelter during World War II, and on November 7, 1941, Stalin addressed a mass assembly of party leaders and ordinary Muscovites in the central hall of the station.

The Ploshchad Station is decorated with no less than 76 sculptures.  These are arranged thematically showing children, parents, students, athletes, farmers, industrial workers, hunters and soldiers.

Novoslobodskaya (1952) is best known for its 32 stained-glass panels done by Latvian artists. Each panel is set into one of the station’s pylons and illuminated from within. On one end of the platform is a mosaic by Pavel Korin titled ‘Peace throughout the World.’

The Russian or ‘Matryoshka’ dolls are famous nesting dolls. The first of these were made in early 1890, inspired by souvenir dolls from Japan. A set of Matryoshka dolls consists of a large wooden doll that can be pulled apart to reveal another figurine inside. Take that apart and another will emerge, and so on. The number of dolls can vary from three to 20. They are typically made of wood obtained from linden trees.

This photo feature was originally published in Newsline’s April 2016 issue.