Russia 2007 Architecture in Moscow

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	This is St. Basil's Cathedral, in Red Square. The main floor is actually up one level. You can see the stairs at the bottom of the pictures.
	St. Basil's Cathedral.
	St. Basil's Cathedral.
	This is the iconostasis, or icon screen, inside St. Basil's. The icon screen, a common feature in Russian Orthodox churches, separates the altar area from the rest of the church. Only priests are allowed behind the screen. The icons are pictures of saints and religious figures. Note the door at the bottom of the icon screen that leads to the altar area.
	Moscow was filled with buildings like this one. Many have been restored in recent years and many more are awaiting restoration.
	Inside the GUM store. It was originally built in the 19th century as an indoor market. Today it is basically a mall, with separate shops from companies around the world.
	Inside the GUM store. GUM stands for Glavnyi Universalnyi Magazin, which means State Universal Store.
	This is outside of Red Square, in another large public area.  Red Square is through the gate in the middle of the picture. That building—Resurrection Gate—was destroyed by Stalin so that tanks and large military vehicles could enter Red Square. It was rebuilt in  1995. Note the giant watch advertisement on the left. It is covering a building under construction. Capitalist progress?
	This is a detail of the Resurrection Gate.
	This is a Russian Orthodox church just inside Resurrection Gate.
	Our hotel was in an old residential neighborhood, with many old apartment buildings like this one.
	Also in the neighborhood were estates such as this one. All of these fancy homes were taken over by the Soviet regime and used for state purposes.
	This is one of Stalin's "Seven Sisters", gigantic skyscrapers built during Stalin's reign. This is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
	One of Moscow's subway stations, supposedly the busiest system in the world, transporting more than eight million passengers every day. This is the Kropotkinskaya Station.
	The Church of Christ the Savior. The original church was built in the 19th century and then dynamited by Stalin in 1931. Plans to build another giant skyscraper on the spot never materialized. The site was used instead as the world's largest swimming pool. The current reconstruction was completed in 2000.
	The Church of Christ the Savior. The bridge in the foreground is a pedestrian bridge that leads across the Moscow River.
	Another nice Russian building.
	This is Spaso House, the official residence of the U.S. Ambassador since 1933. We were given a tour of this historic home.
	Another one of Stalin's Seven Sisters. This is an apartment building at Kudrinskaya Square.
	This is the White House—the parliamentary building of the Russian Federation. It was here than Boris Yeltsin defied a coup attempt in 1991. Communist hardliners attempted to take power from Gorbachev, who was out of the city. Muscovites constructed barricades around the White House, and Yeltsin climbed on top of a tank and gave a speech to the gathered crowd: "Soldiers, officers, generals! The clouds of terror and dictatorship are gathering over the whole country. They must not be allowed to bring eternal night."
	Detail of another Russian building.
	This is the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.
	This is a restaurant inside the Metropol Hotel, one of Moscow's fanciest places to stay.
	These are buildings connected with the Krasny Oktabr (Red October) chocolate factory, on an island in the Moscow River.
Go on to the Architecture in St. Petersburg page.

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