Let me lead you through the streets of Moscow

by Anni Pelmeni

Today I’d like to continue with the Stalin’s Empire architecture (I started the thema last week with the previous posts of part 1 and part 2). One of the traits of this style is underlined uniqueness of each project. Each designed was tailored to the function and location of the building. The buildings alongside of Sadovoe koltso are the best examples of this approach.

The motto of urban development in 1940s-1950s was to variety and diversity. That’s is why though the buildings belong distinctly to the same architecture style, they are unique in both technical and decoration solutions.

Several common traits make these buildings easily recognizable. They all have high ceilings (more then 3 meters); spacious entrance halls and broad stairs; quite often there are outside elevators. Definitely the façade will be decorated with some Soviet symbols: stars, hammer and sickle etc. The buildings form living quarters with separate inner yards. It was originally designed in such a way that it would not be possible to build another house on that inner space. That’s why the areas of Stalin’s Empire were not transformed in the current flow of construction in Moscow. Those areas are intact and look exactly as they used to in early 1950s. You may enjoy watching some movies made in Moscow at that time and you will surely recognize those little corners.

The price of the apartments in the Stalin’s buildings beats everything else on the real-estate market. On the one hand those buildings are situated in the center of the city and in the megapolises one has to pay for the location. On the other hand, the quality of construction was also one of the highest as it was controlled by the state with the threat of death penalty for any misconduct.

Interesting fact the post-war Stalin’s Empire architecture has usually 8-14 floors. It was a personal directive from Stalin himself that the buildings should no be lower then 8 floors. This decision was on the one hand stimulated by the needs of living space of increasing number of people, but on the other had it was supposed to intimidate with the superiority of Soviet lifestyle.

It is really ironic that the power of the Soviet state was actually built on the pain and deprivations of those people who were supposed to benefit from the Soviet lifestyle.

Stumbe it!