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Year 2011
Central Museum of the 2ndWW
GUM department store
Metro Station MezhdunarodnayaA walk down Tverskaya
Starting from the Kremlin and heading north, Tverskaya is the Main Street of Moscow. Stay on it and keep on going, after 700 km you'll get to St. Petersburg but for this tip we'll take a shorter walk, from Mayakovskaya metro station back down the hill to the Kremlin. If you've taken the metro to get to the starting point of the walk, be sure to look up at the ceiling of the station before you leave, the mosaic panels and light fittings are some of the features that earned Mayakovskaya the epiphet of the "most beautiful" of all Moscow's stunning metro stations. Next door to the station, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall plays host to some 300 musical recitals each year.
Before you reach Pushkinskaya (Pushkin Square - where Tverskaya crosses the Boulevard Ring) with its melancholy statue of Russia's favourite poet, over on the right hand side of the street you'll pass a handsome red and white building hung with banners. Once the city's English Club, in Soviet times it became the Revolution Museum. Nowadays it houses the Museum of Contemporary History and is the place to come to check out a vast collection of Bolshevik memorabilia, including Lenin's armoured car which is parked in the forecourt.
Also on the right, and also handsome and red and white, but with not a banner or a hammer and sickle in sight, is the classical edifice that is the office of the Mayor of Moscow. Built for the city's governor-general in the late 1700s, its pediment once more displays a golden image of St George (the patron saint of Moscow) and his Dragon. Down at street level, set into the wall of a nearby building, you'll find a bas-relief portrait of Lenin (photo 5), one of only a handful to survive the post-Soviet purge of images of the heroes of the Revolution.
Across the road from the Mayor's Office, the statue of the equestrian knight is Yury Dolgoruky, the 12th century Prince of the Rus, credited with being the founder of Moscow.
By now you'll certainly have noticed the plethora of exclusive shops that line Tverskaya, making it one of the world's most expensive shopping streets. Believe me - it wasn't like that the first time I came to Moscow, back in 1971. Just about the only survivor from those days is the Yeliseyev Grocery Store at No 14. The lavish decor pre-dates the Revolution - it opened in 1902 - but for the 70 years of Soviet rule only the Party elite had any idea of what lay behind the doors.
You'll find plenty of cafes and restaurants along the way, but the grande dame of the bunch has to be the Hotel National right at the end of the street, opposite the Kremlin. A coffee here will set you back a bunch (maybe as much as $15 - a vodka or a beer will be cheaper) but you'll be sipping it in the company of the ghosts of the the city's Imperial and Revolutionary past who have slept and eaten here since the doors opened in 1903.
