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Walking routes in Moscow

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      All day: Soviet Moscow

      ⏱ 10 h 30 min🚶 6 km + 🚇🍽 2📍 12 stops
      🚶 Moderate — 3–7 km

      The Mausoleum, metro palaces, a Cold War bunker and Stalinist skyscrapers — and for dinner Doctor Zhivago with a view of the Kremlin.

      🏛 History and architecture
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps (with transit)
      1. 1
        🏛 Red Square
        The country's main square, paved with cobblestones, between the Kremlin, GUM, the State Historical Museum and St Basil's Cathedral.
        The Mausoleum is open Tue, Wed, Thu and Sat from 10:00 to 13:00 — arrive at opening time and without large bags
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Red Square
        © Юрий Д.К. · CC BY 4.0
        Red Square
        © Олег Токарев · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Red Square
        © Leokand · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The name "Red" ("beautiful") stuck to the square in the second half of the 17th century; before that it was called Torg ("the Market") and Pozhar ("the Burnt Place").
        • The square measures about 330 by 75 metres.
        • In 1990 Red Square, together with the Kremlin, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
        • The Lobnoye Mesto is mentioned from 1549; contrary to legend, executions were usually held not on it but next to it.
        • The Minin and Pozharsky monument by Ivan Martos was unveiled in 1818 and moved to St Basil's Cathedral in 1931.
        • GUM, formerly the Upper Trading Rows, was built in 1890–1893 to a design by Alexander Pomerantsev.
        • The present granite Lenin Mausoleum was built to a design by Alexey Shchusev in 1930.
        • On 7 November 1941 troops leaving the parade marched from here straight to the front.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🏛 Ploshchad Revolyutsii metro station
        Under the hall's arches are 76 bronze figures by Manizer: workers, soldiers, students, athletes and families of the Soviet era.
        Bronze sailors, border guards and Manizer's students; the nose of the border guard's dog is polished for luck
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Ploshchad Revolyutsii metro station
        © Cossrad · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • There were originally 80 figures, but in 1947 four were removed when a blast door was built; in all, the station has 20 different characters.
        • In 1941 the sculptures were evacuated to Central Asia and returned in pieces in 1944.
        • All the figures except the pioneers sit, kneel or lean over, otherwise they would not fit in the arches.
        • The prototype of the student was the USSR high-jump record holder Arkady Gidrat, who died in 1941.
        • Students rub the nose of the border guard's bronze dog before exams, which is why it shines.
        • The end of the hall was decorated with Manizer's bas-relief "Stalin and Lenin"; it was removed in 1947.
      4. 🚇 change to Okhotny Ryad, red line to Komsomolskaya (4 stops), change to the Ring Line hall
      5. 3
        🏛 Komsomolskaya metro station (Circle line)
        A 1952 metro station with Baroque-style vaults, chandeliers and mosaics on the ceiling.
        Korin's mosaics and yellow vaults — the grandest hall on the Ring Line
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Komsomolskaya metro station (Circle line)
        © A.Savin · FAL 1.3
        • The station was built to a design by Alexey Shchusev; in 1952 he was posthumously awarded the Stalin Prize for it, together with the artist Pavel Korin.
        • The central nave, 11 m wide and 9 m high, is the largest of any column station in the Moscow metro.
        • Korin's eight ceiling mosaics show Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Minin and Pozharsky, Suvorov, Kutuzov and soldiers at the Reichstag.
        • Korin himself redid the two panels with Stalin in 1963: they now show Lenin before the Red Guards and the Motherland statue by the Spasskaya Tower.
        • In 2021 the transport department named Komsomolskaya the busiest metro station, with 29.1 million passengers a year.
        • In 1991–1992 it was proposed to rename the station Kalanchevskaya or Three Stations.
      6. 🚇 on the Ring Line from Komsomolskaya to Taganskaya (2 stops), then about 10 min on foot to the Yauza
      7. 4
        🏛 Kotelnicheskaya Embankment skyscraper
        A residential Stalinist skyscraper at the confluence of the Yauza and the Moskva River, 176 m tall, with three wings and a spire.
        The skyscraper is best seen from Bolshoy Ustinsky Bridge
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Kotelnicheskaya Embankment skyscraper
        © Ludvig14 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Kotelnicheskaya Embankment skyscraper
        © Safa.daneshvar · CC BY 4.0
        • The first block along Kotelnicheskaya Embankment was built as early as 1938–1940, and the high-rise part in 1948–1952.
        • The authors were Dmitry Chechulin and Andrei Rostkovsky; Chechulin, after falling out of favour, also received a flat in this building.
        • Originally the building had 540 flats.
        • Faina Ranevskaya, Galina Ulanova, Alexander Tvardovsky, Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Vasily Aksyonov lived here.
        • The Galina Ulanova apartment museum, opened in 2004, operates in the building.
        • The cinema in the building received the name Illyuzion in 1966 and began showing films from the State Film Fund.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🖼 Bunker-42 on Taganka
        5-й Котельнический пер., 11
        🎟 ticket · guided tours only
        A former Cold War backup command post with tunnels under the street and halls for tours.
        A descent of 65 metres; tours run on a schedule — buy your ticket in advance on the website
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Bunker-42 on Taganka
        © Fastboy · CC BY-SA 3.0
        • The bunker was built from 1950 using metro technology; its tunnels connect to Taganskaya station.
        • It was the backup command post of Long-Range Aviation, a classified "Facility No. 20" covering more than 7,000 m².
        • During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 the bunker operated autonomously, with up to 2,500 people on duty.
        • The museum opened in 2006, when a private company bought the former facility.
        • From the military furnishings, the airtight doors, steel wall lining, an old telephone and a portrait of Karl Marx have survived.
      10. 🚇 Taganskaya metro (Ring Line) to Kievskaya (5 stops), blue line to Smolenskaya (1 stop), 5 min on foot
      11. 6
        ☕️ Mu-Mu on the Arbat
        Карманицкий пер., 9 (БЦ «Арбат»)
        ▮▯▯▯▯
        Lunch: a canteen with trays — borscht, a cutlet with mashed potatoes and kompot
        🍴 An inexpensive Mu-Mu canteen on the 2nd floor of the Arbat business centre, two minutes from Smolenskaya. What to order: a cutlet with mashed potatoes, borscht or another homemade soup, blini.
      12. 🚶 on foot
      13. 7
        🏛 Foreign Ministry skyscraper on Smolenskaya
        The Stalinist Foreign Ministry skyscraper on Smolenskaya Square, 172 m tall, with a spire and the Soviet coat of arms.
        The Foreign Ministry skyscraper on Smolenskaya — the strictest of the "Seven Sisters"
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Foreign Ministry skyscraper on Smolenskaya
        © Юрий Д.К. · CC BY 4.0
        Foreign Ministry skyscraper on Smolenskaya
        © Юрий Д.К. · CC BY 4.0
        • The skyscraper was built in 1948–1953, designed by Vladimir Gelfreikh and Mikhail Minkus, for the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
        • The building is 172 metres tall, with 27 floors in the central part.
        • The spire was added at the last moment on Stalin's orders; it is decorative, made of steel sheets, because the building could not have supported a stone superstructure.
        • It is the only one of the seven Stalinist skyscrapers without a star on its spire.
        • On the facade at a height of 114 m is a reinforced-concrete Soviet coat of arms of about 144 m².
        • In 2016–2017 the old spire was dismantled and a new one put up, almost identical in appearance but 100 tonnes lighter.
      14. 🚶 on foot
      15. 8
        🏛 Kudrinskaya Square skyscraper
        A residential Stalinist skyscraper of 1954 on Vosstaniya Square, with stepped wings and a spire.
        A residential skyscraper from 1954; the best angle is from Novinsky Boulevard
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Kudrinskaya Square skyscraper
        © Vsatinet · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The skyscraper was built in 1948–1954, designed by Mikhail Posokhin and Ashot Mndoyants.
        • Construction was overseen by the Ministry of Aviation Industry, and many flats went to aircraft designers and test pilots, hence the nickname "House of Aviators".
        • The central part has 33 floors, 22 of them residential.
        • For Soviet housing the building was innovative: underground parking, a pram room on the ground floor, centralised dust removal.
        • At the bottom were Gastronom No. 15, covering 6,000 m² and the city's largest shop, and the 540-seat Plamya cinema.
      16. 🚶 on foot
      17. 9
        🏛 Narkomfin Building
        Новинский б-р, 25, корп. 1
        🎟 ticket · a residential building: inside only by guided tour with advance booking
        Moisei Ginzburg's Constructivist communal house on pilotis (stilts) with ribbon windows.
        A Constructivist communal house from 1930 — compare it with the skyscraper opposite
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Narkomfin Building
        © Retired electrician · CC0
        • The building was built in 1928–1930 by Moisei Ginzburg, Ignaty Milinis and engineer Sergei Prokhorov; Ginzburg called it an "experimental house of a transitional type".
        • The People's Commissar of Finance Nikolai Milyutin built himself a two-level penthouse on the roof, in a volume intended for a ventilation chamber.
        • The colours of the flats were chosen by the Bauhaus professor Hinnerk Scheper; the brightest tone was applied to the ceilings.
        • Residents were offered meals in the canteen of the communal block and a mechanical laundry for their linen.
        • The building has three times been on the list of the "100 world buildings under threat of destruction"; in 2016–2020 it was restored by Ginzburg Architects.
      18. 🚶 on foot
      19. 10
        🏛 Mayakovskaya metro station
        A light columned hall of 1938 with arches and pink rhodonite; a ceremonial meeting was held here in November 1941.
        Deineka's ceiling mosaics "A Day of the Soviet Sky" — look up
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Mayakovskaya metro station
        © Sergey A. Demidov · CC BY 4.0
        • In 1939 the station's design won the Grand Prix at the New York World's Fair.
        • The stainless-steel strips for finishing the columns and arches were made at the Dirizhablestroy plant in Dolgoprudny.
        • The mosaics in the ceiling niches, from sketches by Alexander Deineka, form the theme "A Day of the Soviet Sky"; of the 35 panels, one is lost.
        • The station was to be called Triumfalnaya Ploshchad, and then Ploshchad Mayakovskogo.
        • On the night of 17 to 18 July 2017 the first episode of season seven of Game of Thrones was shown at the station.
        • Since 2021, wedding ceremonies have been held on the platform at night.
      20. 🚇 green line to Teatralnaya (2 stops), change to Okhotny Ryad, red line to Universitet (7 stops), then 15 min on foot
      21. 11
        🏛 Moscow State University Main Building
        The tallest Stalinist skyscraper, 235 m with its spire, with a clock, a star on the spire and sculptures on the facade.
        The MSU main building at sunset
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Moscow State University Main Building
        © Dmitry A. Mottl · CC BY-SA 3.0
        Moscow State University Main Building
        © Uwe Brodrecht · CC BY-SA 2.0
        • The building was built in four years: construction began in 1949, and by 1 September 1953 the university had its new building.
        • The first chief architect was Boris Iofan, but he was removed, and the project was completed by Lev Rudnev and his co-authors.
        • Iofan wanted to crown the tower with a huge statue, but in the end the building was finished with a spire and a star, like the other skyscrapers.
        • Until the 1990s the MSU main building was the tallest in Europe.
        • The dial of the tower clock is 8.74 m in diameter; as of 2014 it was the largest tower clock in Europe.
        • The parts of the spire were lifted through a temporary shaft inside the building, in which railway tracks were laid.
        • The building has 5,754 dormitory rooms for students and postgraduates and 184 flats.
        • The facade sculptures were made by Vera Mukhina's workshop; her proposal to put The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman in front of MSU was rejected.
      22. 🚇 15 min on foot to Universitet metro, red line to Okhotny Ryad (7 stops), exit toward the National
      23. 12
        🍽 Doctor Zhivago restaurant
        ул. Моховая, 15/1, гостиница «Националь»
        ▮▮▮▮▯
        Dinner: pelmeni, Olivier salad and Napoleon cake at the National; book a window table in advance
        🍴 A modern Russian restaurant by Rappoport in the National hotel with a view of the Kremlin, open around the clock. What to order: pirozhki (small pies), pelmeni (dumplings), crayfish, and for dessert the Tsvetaeva pie.

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