Moscow
Whoever has been to Moscow knows Russia
Moscow State University
There are seven skyscrapers in Moscow and one of them is the home of
the best known university of Russia. It is situated on Sparrow Hills, or as they are
sometimes called Lenin Hills. The place got the name Sparrow Hills from a man whose name
was Vorobey (Sparrow). He went there to build a modest house and a church. Soon
people started settling around him and finally formed a village. Today the only evidence
of its existence is the church located near the site where the panoramic view on Moscow
opens.
It is believed that Ivan the Terrible always came to the Hills with
foreign ambassadors, and Anton Chekhov said that to understand Russia it is necessary to
see the city from this spot.
Architects set their sights on the Hills for the first time in the 19th
century when the decision to build the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was taken. However,
in 1828 Tsar Nicholas I halted the project, despite the fact that 16 million gold rubles
had already been spent on it. Alexander Vitberg, the main architect, was accused of
stealing money, and was exiled. Nevertheless, the cathedral was built, but later, on
another site.
In 1920 the Sparrow Hills were given Lenin’s name and there are at
least two versions that explain such a change. According to the first one, it was because
Lenin liked to walk in the area; according to the second, it was the great leader’s
fervent admirers who just crossed out the former name on the map and changed it to
Lenin’s.
In the same year the Hills were chosen as the spot for the construction
of the International Red Stadium, and five years later an architect won the international
competition. However the winner created only the open-air amphitheatre which was soon
destroyed.
After World War II the government decided to offer the building site to
Moscow State University because its only building, on Mohovaya Street, could not house all
its faculties. The work was given to Lev Rudnev who by that time had already built a
considerable number of edifices.
According to the decree, MSU was offered a generous grant of 165
hectares, four times the area given to the Vatican. The task the architect had to cope
with was not so simple. Rudnev was supposed to create a building for lecture halls,
dormitory rooms, a concert hall, cafeterias, a swimming pool, as well as flats for the
most distinguished professors.
Soon it became clear that it would be impossible to house all these
faculties in a single building, and Rudnev managed to persuade the government to permit
him to build two adjacent 10-story buildings. The most surprising thing is that he got
permission! Today the faculties of philology, history, philosophy, and law are in the
Humanities Building, and the other similar building houses the faculties of economy and
information science.
The construction schedule was not easy to fulfill either: Rudnev was
asked to present a scheme for the building just four months after the decree was issued.
Work on the foundation started in 1949 and in 1953, just three months following Stalin’s
death, the university was officially opened on September 1.
Today it is possible to visit several museums in the main building of
the university, to attend concerts organized in the Dom Kulturi and, of course, to
eat in the famous professorskaya stolovaya. In the center of the building, just
under the stolovaya, lifts will transport you to higher floors. It is interesting
to visit the 24–28th floors, where the museum of soil science is situated. There you
will see scientific trinkets, like a 40-kilogram meteorite for example, and will get a
bird’s eye view of Moscow.
Perhaps, the most attractive part of the building is the large
geography faculty located on the 21st floor. It also has its museum, and you will see its
halls are very comfortable.
It is interesting to note that there is a MSU twin in Poland, more
precisely in Warsaw. It was a gift of the Soviet government to the Polish people in 1954.
However the Poles, in contrast to Muscovites, do not like the building at all. Today the
edifice attracts mainly foreigners who are turning it into office space.
The point of view of Nikita Khrushchev on housing construction was not
like Stalin’s. The former leader’s era housing was expensive. Just remember those huge
apartments in the house on the embankment, for example, where a family consisting of only
three or four members could occupy a luxurious flat. Khrushchev wanted to build many small
flats for all the families living in Moscow and to resolve the problem of those living in
communal flats. Today such houses can be still seen in the capital; and in our days they
are far from prestigious. However, we should not forget that at that time these houses
permitted a lot of people to move into their own flat and not to continue living with
neighbours in the same space.
Consequently, many Stalin buildings fell under criticism under
Khrushchev for their “decorativeness” and “unnecessary” use of costly building
materials. It is not surprising that Rudnev came under fire as well.
At the end of the 1950s the idea appeared to build the huge Palace of
Soviets on Sparrow Hills. The building was destined to house congressional and reception
halls, and the government was finally to leave the Kremlin.
Strangely enough, the project was abandoned, and eventually the
architect Mikhail Posokhin built the alternative to the Palace of Soviets right on the
territory of the Kremlin – the Palace of Congresses. The new building hid many beautiful
constructions of the old fortress, and today only very inquisitive people will find
ancient historical monuments beyond the Palace.
Questions to the Next Part:
1. Where does the word metro come from?
2. When did the idea of building the metro in the USSR appear for the first time?
3. What was the first line of the Moscow metro?
4. How many lines are there today in the Moscow metro?
5. What is the Komsomolskaya station similar to?
6. The design of what station got a prize in New York?
7. When was the Vorobievy Gory station closed?
Compiled by Alevtina Kozina
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