Digenis.org

(This is part two of an eleven-part series. The first part is here.)

In 1947 the Communist Party Central Committee ordered for 8 skyscrapers to be built in Moscow. In Russian, they’re called vysotnye zdaniy? (???????? ??????) or simply vysotki (???????). It’s said that Stalin was so impressed by the Municipal Building in NYC that he wanted build several buildings in the same Roman Imperial style. Khrushcev recalls it like this:

«????? ??? ? ??????? ???????? ???? ????????? ???????? ??????. ?? ????????? ????? ???????, ??? ???????? ????????????, ? ???, ??????? ??, ?????? ?????? ??????????, ?????? ?? ??????, ? ? ??? ??? ???????? ??????. ??? ????? ?????????? ?????? ? ?????????????????? ?????????. ?? ???????? ????????? ?????».

Roughly:

“I remember how Stalin had the idea of building the skyscrapers. We finished the War victoriously, we were hailed as the victors, and he said that foreigners would start coming to our city. They would walk around Moscow, but there wouldn’t be any tall buildings. Then they would compare Moscow with the capitals of capitalist countries. We would suffer a moral loss.”

But from what I understand, there is some debate among historians concerning exactly how much direct participation Stalin had in the architecture during his rule. Dmitri Khmel’nitsky has written a lengthy article (in Russian) arguing that Stalin was very much involved.

As the plans came together and architects were selected to construct the skyscrapers envisioned by Stalin, this grand task of architectural landscaping was seen not as eight separate projects, but rather as one huge project with eight similar elements.

Here’s how the buildings, including the Palace of the Soviets, were to be set out across the city:

Kotel’nicheskaya Naberezhenaya

The first of the sisters to be built was the residential building on Kotel’nicheskaya Naberezhnaya, near where the Yauza River meets the Moscow River. It’s actually just down the street about 5 minutes from where I live.

The lead architects were Dmitri Chechulin, who also worked on several Moscow metro stations and Hotel Rossiya, and Andrei Rostkovsky. Both were awarded State Stalin Prizes of the Second Degree for their work. It’s said that much of the laborers used in the construction were POW’s and convicts.

The 176-meter, 30-story building is split into three parts: sector A, which is located along Kotel’nicheskaya Naberezhenaya and the Moscow River; sector ?, the tall triangular section in the center; and sector B, which is closer to the Yauza riverbank. Though sectors A and B look similar at first glance, they’re quite different once you get inside. Sector A was built before the War and the apartments there are a bit smaller and more humble. Each landing has four apartments (two 2-room and two 3-room). In comparison, sector B, which was built after the War, has two larger apartments per landing. It also features what Russians call a black staircase (chernaya lestnitsa) - a secret staircase that would often descend into a basement bomb shelter. The number of apartments per floor in the central, triangular tower (sector ?) varies. Floors 5-17 each have one 4-room, three 3-room, and thirteen 2-room apartments. Floors 18-24 each have six identical 2-room apartments. The remaining top 6 floors are not residential, but I’m not sure what’s there. It’s well known that the building is used for weather observation, so it’s possible that there are some meteorological offices and equipment up there.

The exact number of apartments has been rather difficult to track down. This Russian website has sources who quote anywhere from 344 to ‘about 800′, but the author leans toward the estimate of somewhere between 700 and 800.

The first floor of the building houses a bakery, three food-shops, an electronics store, a post office, and a movie theater.

If you’d like to see more pictures of the Kotel’nicheskaya skyscraper and the other vysotki, browse through the Seven Sisters Group I created over at Flickr.