Russian - Moscow: Spring 2009 Updates from the Field

    This weeks excursion was a somewhat impromptu tour of Kitai Gorod, after finding out that the museum we had planned on visiting was closed. 
    Kitai Gorod, or “China Town,” has no relation to the nation of China, but may have gotten its name from and old word meaning “braid.”  The story of Kitai Gorod begins early in Moscow’s history, when merchants began to settle outside of the Kremlin Walls.  To protect this settlement, the Kitai Gorod Wall was constructed around this settlement in the 16th century, forming the second piece of Moscow’s concentric ring structure. 
    The first stop on our tour took us to Building 11A, a stark, architecturally unremarkable structure, which stands where there was once an infamous street market before the 1917 Revolutions.  When the Communists took power, they dealt with the vices associated with this market by erecting a school in its place.  
After snapping a couple of photos of Building 11A, it was back to the metro, which we took to Kuznetsky Most just beyond the former Kitai Gorod walls.   The Street “Kyznetsky Most” was once a place for dandies and rich ladies to buy fashionable overpriced French clothing.   After walking through the Tsum, a neo-gothic shopping center from the beginning of the 20th century, we concluded that nothing has changed.

     We saw a few more historical buildings while walking along Okhotniy Ryad Ulitsa.  First the Dvoryanoe Sobiranie (House of unions).  In this building Aristocrats would gather during their winter stay in Moscow to have balls, arrange marriages, and generally be entertained.  In soviet times the beautiful building was put to use as an auditorium; it was the site of show trials under Stalin and as well as Lenin’s and Stalin’s funerals. Now it has been restored to its original purpose.  Members must prove their ancestors were aristocratic Russians.  Continuing west on  Okhotniy Ryad, we next came across the stern façade of the building that houses Russia’s congressional body, the State Duma.  This building’s architecture is distinctly Soviet, impressive for its menacing glare rather than its aesthetic charm.  

The next notable building we came across, a light yellow neoclassical structure, brought us back into the 19th century.  This was the original location of the Moscow State University Campus, and still holds the college’s African and Asian Studies and Journalism Departments.  We took a brief look inside, and found its interior, with a marble stairway and painting-covered walls, more pleasing to behold than the hammer-and-sickle-covered concrete monstrosity on the University’s main campus.   Not far from this towers Lenin’s Library, another relic of the communist era.   Architecturally similar to the State Duma, the building is now the Russian State Library, but still depicts workers standing proudly around the top of the building.  Our walk down Okhotniy Ryad left us with the impression that the varying facades of Moscow’s center stand in disharmony, but reflect the manifold changes throughout the city's history.