Hotel Ukraine, Moscow

Photo: www.knifethrower.com

This is one of the seven sisters Stalinist buildings in Moscow.

From the site, www.gather.com:

Moscow's Seven Sisters are an architectural legacy of the most ambitious building program ever conceived. They were built at the orders of Jozef Stalin. These towers were built for the glorification of the Soviet State after WWII. The sisters were intended to rival the USA’s skyscrapers that had gone up in the 1930's. Each Sister was designed according to Stalin’s personal specifications and wishes. The architectural beauties are constructed in what is known as a ‘wedding-cake’ style, that concentrates the eye's focus toward the central tower. Stalin mandated that each and every one be given a spire, to differentiate them from their American counterparts. These huge buildings are distinctive in their design as well as their history.

Moscow's Seven Sisters (this one wasn't built)

This is Chechulin's draft for Zaryadye skyscraper from wikipedia's article on "Seven Sisters Moscow".
The Seven Sisters (called высотки, vysotki, the summits in Russian) are seven Stalinist skyscrapers in Moscow, Russia. They were built 1947-1953 in an elaborate combination of Russian Baroque and Gothic styles, and the early twentieth century technology of American skyscrapers. Similar buildings were built in Warsaw, Chelyabinsk, Kiev and Riga.

I find these buildings very spectacular and beautiful. At the same time, I guess they're kind of fascist.

Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852)

From site http://realc.emory.edu/russian/DOSTOEVSKY/writers.html

A short-story writer and novelist of Ukranian origin, Gogol worked as a clerk in St. Petersburg while writing his first works. This experience influenced seminal works such as The Overcoat. Dead Souls, his final work offers caricatures human folly and sin. A realistic but fantastic writer, Gogol believed strongly in the unique power of the Orthodox Church to save Russia from impending doom.

They didn't mention that he wrote some famous plays. And I didn't know there were any photographs of him! Gogol's Dead Souls, The Nose and Diary of a Madman, are some of the best works ever written by anyone! They are witty and bizarre. He was, after all, crazy.

Ivan Bilibin (3)

Vassilisa outside Baba Yaga's House. Note the amanita mushrooms in the margins.

Ivan Bilibin (2)

DOBRYNIA NIKITICH FREES ZABAVA PUTIATICHNA FROM GORYNYCH THE DRAGON. Illustration to "The Tale of the Capital City of Kiev and of the Russian Bogatyrs" by N. Vodovozov. 1941. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/liberal_arts/foreign/russian/art

Magical Places - St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg Church Domes
Originally uploaded by Brenda M.

Church built where Czar Alexander II was assassinated, hence its name, "Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood". from flickr

The Vladimir Mother of God (detail)

detail of the Vladimir Mother of God
Originally uploaded by jimforest.

So powerful...