My First Two Visits to Moscow in 1990

Computers used at Moscow stores.

• Kremlin. I took this photo me in 1990, but I do not know where I was. Moscow was a strange place at that time. Since then I took many of the same scene from the places I could recognize.
  1. 1999, from the Moskva River.
  2. 2010 from the bridge at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

• Red Square (1990). Moscow's Address No.1. Since then I have been there many times. Click here for the photos.

• Red Square guards after their duty at the Lenin Mausoleum (1990). Here is another photo of 1990. I was inside the Mausoleum to see Lenin's body. These guards moved to the memorial pond for soldiers on the west wall of Kremlin.

• St. Basil's Cathedral at the Red Square. This Cathedral was built on the order of Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible) during the period 1555-1560. He was very happy to be able to expand the Russian territory to the Volga River by conquering the city of Kazan.

• Soviet Army Uniforms (1990). Alas, I spotted Soviet soldiers. The Soviet soldiers who came to Korea in 1945 were wearing the uniforms looking exactly like these. During this 45-year period, Americans changed their uniforms several times, but Soviets did not. I was indeed happy to see those uniforms again. Click here for an interesting story.

• Bolshoi Theater north of the Red Square.
  Czar's Seat in the Theater.

• Moscow Subway (1990). Russians are very proud of Moscow's subway system. It was indeed great and it still is.

• Pepsi-Cola. In 1990, the Cold War was beginning to melt down. Russians started wearing blue jeans and drinking Coka-Cola and Pepsi-Cola. This photo was taken at Moscow's Arbat Street as the street sign shows.

• Kitaisky Restaurant. Chinese Restaurant in Moscow. I went there with my Russian friend. It was his first time to go to a Chinese restaurant. The Soviet communist system had a strict control of restaurants. In 1990, there was only one Chinese restaurant in Moscow with eight million people.

• Statue of Friedrich Engels. It was nice to see him again 20 years later in 2010, especially because Russians were talking about removing this statue.

• Soviet Rubles with a portrait of Vladimir Lenin. The other side of those rubles. How do they look these days?

• Leptop Computers used at Russian stores.

• I stayed at the Hotel Uzkoye during my first visit in July 1990 , and at the Hotel Akademicheskaya in October 1990. During this October visit, Russians heard a news that Mikhail Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize. Russians had mixed reactions to this news.

Red Square and Kremlin

• The Red Square is surrounded by four major structures. The Kremlin wall and the GUM Store are on the south and north sides respectively. The State History Museum and the Cathedral of St. Basil are at the western and eastern ends of the Square. Thus, you can enter the Square from either side of the Museum building.

• This is a photo of the west side of the Museum building. You can thus enter the Square from either side of this building. There are thus two entrances.
  1. The southern entrance is wide open between the Museum and the Nikolaskays Tower of the Kremlin. Here is another photo.
  2. The northern entrance is blocked by the Iverskaya Chapel. Here is another photo. This chapel has two openings for those who like to enter the Square. ccasionally, these openings are guarded by the troops of Ivan IV (the Terrible).

• Near these gates, I met three Russian soldiers and had a photo with them. The statue of Marshal Zhukov is seen.
  1. Thus, I decided to have a photo with Marshal Zhukov.
  2. Here is a photo of the same area without me taken in 2014, and this is a photo taken in 1990. I was in the same area in 1999, I did not see the statue. It appears thus that this statue was erected in a recent year.

  3. From Zhukov on his horse, we are now able to understand how he was so successful his 1939 battle against Japanese troops in Mongolia and also in decisive battles against Germans during World War II.

     The statue tells Zhukov grew up as a cavalry officer, and he learned how to use horses to storm the enemy bases. To him, each Russian tank was one Russian horse.

• This is the Iverskaya Chapel seen from the Red Square. This small building is between the History Museum and GUM Department Store (white building) in this photo.
  1. Kazan Cathedral is just inside the the northern entrance at the northern end of the GUM Store.
  2. Both northern and southern entrances seen from the Red Square. Kremlin's Nikolaskaya Tower is also seen in this photo.
  3. Let us look at video. During the 5.9 Victory celebration, Russian tanks come to the Square through the southern entrance because the northern entrance is blocked by the Iverskaya Chapel.

     This chapel has a stormy history. It was destroyed by the communists in 1931. The purpose was to make a way for the military units to enter the Red Square through both south and north entrances. This video shows the Russian tanks entering the Square from both entrances. In 1995, this Chapel was reconstructed. Too bad, only the southern entrance is available for the troops.

  4. GUM Department Store on the northern edge of the Red Square.
  5. Kremlin Wall on the southern edge of the Square.

• Lenin's Mausoleum is the prime spot on the Red Square. It faces the square, and its back is the Kremlin's red wall. I was inside the Mausoleum to see Lenin's body during my first visit to Moscow in 1990.
  1. This is a close-up side view of the Mausoleum. Also in this photo are the Spasskaya Tower with its clock and the Cathedral of St. Basil.
  2. On May 9 of every year, on this Mausoleum, Russian dignitaries review their troops marching though the Red Square. Let us click here to see how those troops march. The background music is "Proschanie Slavianki." You will be interested to hear that my high school band in South Korea used to play this march before 1950, and this is still my favorite military march. Vladimir Putin also likes this march, so does every Russian. Click here for more about the Proschanie Slavianki and military parades at the Red Square.

  3. This Square can accommodate many other interesting people. This Russian girl is showing her talent. Here is another photo.

  4. Here is a photo of the square surrounded by the Kremlin wall, the Cathedral of St. Basil, and the GUM Store. Here is another photo. These three structures seen from the opposite side of the Square (from the Kremlin Bridge).

• I am standing in front of the GUM Store. GUM means State Department Store, and its interesting history.
  1. I took this photo in 1990 while Russia was still a communist country. It was a capitalistic place. It is said that this luxury store flourished during the communist era thanks to the wives of high-ranking communist officials who wanted to be in pace with European fashions. Presumably, the entire store was under one organization. This is a photo of the same place taken in 2014. Let us go to the third floor.

  2. These days, this building consists of many different upscale shops, such as Louis Vuiton, Brooks Brothers, and Mont Blanc. There are also electronic shops such as Samsung, as well as a shop with old gadgets.
  3. There is a fountain at the western entrance.
  4. There is a cafeteria on the first floor, as well as several fast-food places on the second floor.

  5. There are benches for senior citizens like myself. Young people also need rest. It is always a pleasure to talk with young people wherever I go.
  6. I met these two Russian sisters from Samara on the second floor. It is said that women from Samara are supposed to be beautiful, and they became impressed when I told them why. This is a story well known to all Russians.

• The Cathedral of St. Basil is the landmark of Moscow and has a very interesting history. Everybody who visited Moscow has a photo of himself/herself with this Cathedral in the background. I have one for myself taken in 1992.

  1. This photo was taken from the center of the Red Square, and is familiar to everybody in the world. The only problem is that I was not able to find T-shirts carrying this photo in any of the gift shops in Moscow. Sooner or later Russian business people will see this money-making opportunity.

  2. The Cathedral looks better if shown together with the the Spasskaya Tower.

  3. The Cathedral and the Tower seen from the Kremlin Bridge (2014). The same photo taken in 1992.

  4. The Cathedral and the Gum Store seen from the Moskva River (1999), plus the Spasskaya (Clock) Tower taken in 2014.

  5. Since the architecture of this Cathedral is so unique that there are theories about its origin. The Wikipedia story mentions also a possible influence from the Kul-Sharif Mosque in Kazan. Let us construct of a theory of how this happened.

     Ivan the Terrible in Kazan.

     The Cathedral of St. Basil was constructed during the era of Ivan IV or Ivan the Terrible (1547-1584). His biggest achievement was to extend the border of Russia eastward to the Volga River. In so doing he had to conquer the strong Moslem city of Kazan with an elegant Mosque called Kul-Sharif.

     Ivan IV ordered his troops dismantle the Mosque to move it to Moscow. He then reconstructed the structure to build the Cathedral. Let us compare the Cathedral with the present form of the Kul-Sharif Mosque.

     These day, one half of the Kazan population are Moslems. They reconstructed their modern version of the Kul-Sharif Mosque according to the original version. While the exact picture of the original mosque is not available (because stolen by Ivan the Terrible), they constructed the model based on what they heard from their ancestors. Click here for the image of the original mosque.

     Kazan is an interesting Russian city. Catherine the Great was there. Hilary Clinton was there. I have been there three times. Click here for my Kazan page.

• Bolshoi Theater in Moscow (1990), north of the Red Square.
  1. Bolshoi Theater (2010) still being refurbished.
  2. Inside the Theater during the performance of a North Korean musical entitled "A girl who sells flowers" (1990).
  3. Czar's Box. Those seats these days for Russian president, prime minister, and dignitaries from foreign countries.
  4. Theater's Control Room of 1990.
  5. Karl Marx overlooking the Theater (2010). Marx is still an important person in Moscow. He is also an important person to me, and I visited his grave in London. I like what he says about philosophers.

• The Kremlin is a triangular area between the Red Square and the Moskva River.
  1. This is the wall along the River, and its northern wall with Lenin's Mausoleum faces the Red Square.

  2. Along the western wall, there is the memorial for soldiers who sacrificed their lives during their Great Patriotic War (World War II).
     • This memorial is guarded by two Russian soldiers.
     • Every hour on the hour, there is a change of the guards. These soldiers come in for their new duty. They raise their legs like this. I cannot do this.
     • After their duty, the guards march away from their posts. The third person is the commander of the guards. This is the side view of this three-man team, and the front view.

     • In 1990, when the country was still the Soviet Union, people were allowed to come to the edge of this memorial pond. I met there this Stalingrad veteran. He was thinking of hard times he spent with his comrades in the battle fields. A very nice-looking gentleman! He was with his wife.

     • About 50 meters of south of this pond, there is a Kremlin gate containing the stones used for the original Kremlin walls built in the 11th Century.

  3. Inside the Kremlin Walls, there are many interesting items. I was inside the Walls in 1992, but I have not been there since then. Thus, I do not have too many good photos, but let us look at some old photos.
     • Tsar's Bell and Tsar's Canon are among the most impressive items within the Kremlin walls. It appears that they were used during the Tsar's coronation before Peter the Great moved to St. Petersburg.
     • I had a photo of myself with this Canon with a Russian soldier.
     • Another photo of the Canon in front of the Cathedral of Archangel.
     • Lenin's statue is also there, and I had a photo of myself with Lenin.
     • This photo taken from the Moskva River shows the Kremlin Palace, Domrmiton Cathedral, Cathedral of Archangels. The tallest structure is the Ivan the Great Bell Tower.

  4. Kremlin Theater is just inside the Kremlin's western wall at the Troitskaya Tower/Gate.
     • It is the white building in this photo of the Troitskaya Tower seen from the outside of the Wall. This is a photo taken inside the Wall.
     • This modern structure was built in 1961. It was Nikita Kruschev's idea. Who was Kruschev? Click here.

     • In 1992, I was fortunate enough to be inside to sew the performance of Mikhail Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila. Who was Glinka? Click here. Here is a photo of myself at Glinka's monument in St. Petersburg.
     • Music lovers are coming to the Theater. They are well-dressed. Russians have a great respect for Glinka as the father of Russian music.
     • I was there in 1992 with Paolo Tombesi, Margarita Man'ko, Roy Glauber, and Daesoo Han, while attending the second meeting of ICSSUR (International Conference on Squeezed States and Uncertainty Relations).

West of the Red Square

Pushkin at Arbat Street (top), and Pushkin in Washington, USA

• Arbat Street is a pedestrian street about one km long. It stretches from the Arbat Metro Station (1 km west of the Kremlin west wall) to the Stalin Tower of Foreign Ministry. about 1 km southwest of the Arbat Metro. There are no cars on this street. There are many shops, and there are also many interesting people.
  1. Taste of America in 1990, Russians became intensely interested in American things. A cup of Coca-Cola or Pepsi-Cola was the first step to taste. This photo was taken at the western end of the street.

  2. Statue of Pushkin and his wife. Pushkin lived in their house on this street (not at this spot). Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) was a poet and novelist, and regarded as the father of Russian literature. His most famous book is about Boris Godunov. He was the first Russian ruler to recognize that Russia consists not only of the Tsar and his family, but also the people of Russia.

     Modest Mussorsky was a Russian composer. He wrote an opera "Boris Godnov" based on Pushkin's story. I watched this opera in 1997 at the Grand Festival Hall in Salzburg (Austria). My ticket costed me US$360 (big money at that time. This is a photo of the stage at the end of the performance. It was a grand opera.

     Russians will be happy to see this photo of Pushkin on the campus of George Washington University near the White House in U.S.A. This statue of set up in 1999.

  3. Vakhtangov State Academic Theater and a golden statue of a ballerina. I am not able to tell who this ballerina was. Who was Vakhtangov? Click here.

  4. There are many interesting stores.
     • Matryoshka dolls are the most popular Russian item for tourists. Here is a Matryoshka. It is likely that you have one of those on your bookshelf to prove you have been in Russia.
     • Another souvenir shop with a Matryoshka sign. Inside the shop, Enough Matryoshka dolls.
     • There are many road-side book stores telling that Russians are book-reading people.
     • Russian Souvenirs in Russian and One Sale in English.
     • Amber products at one of the shops. Ambers are collected from the Baltic costs and they are expensive jewels.
     • Amber products at one of the shops.
     • Starbucks Coffee, and McDonald's. McCafe inside.

     • Russian dishes are different on dining table, but they are made from the same set of materials. This is a photo of a photo of a Russian lady at one of the grocery stores. I asked her to pose with me for this photo. She felt somewhat embarrassed but happily agreed.

       The store had fresh vegetables, sea catches. The store also had Coca-Cola as well as enough bottles of Vodka.

  5. There are also many interesting people. When I was there in 1990, there were young Russians reciting Russian poems at the western entrance to the street. I was not able to see them when I was there in 2014.
     • Soviet Army Uniforms (1990). Alas, I spotted Soviet soldiers. The Soviet soldiers who came to Korea in 1945 were wearing the uniforms looking exactly like these. At the end of the Pacific war, Korea was divided into North and South along the 38th parallel. This line went through the front yard of my house, I had to greet Soviet soldiers. However, since my family had an American connection, we moved by boat to the South by bribing the communist officials in the North. We were like the refugees from the Moslem world you see from your TV screens these days.

     • In 2014, I noticed two Russian men dressed like Lenin and Stalin. Their job is to collect tips after posing with tourists for photos. If they do not have customers, they show their boredom. The Soviet communists are gone, but they should not act like beggars. I did not like their appearance. Russians seem to have the same opinion.

     • Dressed like a bear, this person talks to a group of young ladies.
     • Solo violinist and Solo magician.
     • Young lady who likes to have her portrait like to one of those she respects, including Marilyn Monroe.
     • Four Russian ladies completely innocent: one grandmother and three granddaughters.

     • One Russian student wearing an Oxford shirt. She spent one summer at Oxford University in England. She plans to go back. I met her at one of the gift shops. She became happy when I told her I am a professor in U.S.A.
     • While I was resting at the fountain in front of the Vakhtangov State Academic Theater, this Chinese tourist came to the fountain side. She said she came from Hong Kong. I told her I have been to her city. We had this photo together.

  6. There is New Arbat Street one block north of Arbat street. This is a business-oriented street with heavy traffic jam. The Church of Simeon Stolpnik is at the eastern entrance of this wide street. This church was built in 1679, and defied many Moscow city plannings. Recently, there was a talk about removing this old building in the process of widening New Arbat Street, but the Church survived. This humble-looking church is a landmark in Moscow, since its appearance is so different from other buildings in this area.
     • The church seen from New Arbat Street.
     • Inside the Church..
     • I am standing in front of the Church. I asked a passing-by Russian lady to pose with me, and she kindly agreed.

• When I was in Moscow in June of 2014, I had a lunch at a cafeteria near the Moscow Conservatory of Music. That area was totally strange to me, but I became happy to see the headquarters of the Russian news agency known as TASS. The word TASS used to sound to me as a Soviet propaganda agency during the Cold-War period, and is thus quite familiar to me.
  1. In that area, there was an eye-catching cafeteria. It appeared like a place for young students, and I was right.
  2. The lunch menu was OK, the environment was also good. As usual, I enjoyed talking with students. Since they were music students, we talked about music. They seem to like Russian composers. They are Russians.
  3. I then noticed a very old piano. It has two candle stands. Thus the piano was produced before the age of electric lights. I then asked the cafeteria manager whether it is still operational. He said Yes, and told me to wait about 15 minutes until the tune-up man came.

  4. Great! I was able to see the piano strings as well as the trade mark while the technician was working. It was written in Russian, but I was able to figure out.

  5. This piano was made by a French company in St. Petersburg in 1810, two years before Napoleon's invasion of 1812. I like music and I like instruments. I took many photos. Click here to see them.

• Tchaikovsky's statue in front of the main hall of the Moscow Conservatory of Music.
  1. This student is studying piano at the Conservatory. I asked her whether she likes Chopin. She said she likes Rachmaninoff better.
  2. This student is from Kazakhstan is studying harp. She said she has many Korean friends in her hometown.
  3. Irina Bochkova is a professor of violin at this Conservatory. She played Beethoven's violin Sonata No. 5, during a physics conference held in a Volga city of Kazan in 2000. She is a sister-in-law of the principal organizer of the conference. After her performance, I told her the Spring Sonata was one of my favorites since my high school years, and I gave her a postcard carrying the photo of the four string instruments Beethoven used to own. I usually carry a copy of this postcard in my portable photo album.

• Tchaikovsky Concert Hall about 1.2 km northwest from the Bolshoi Theater.
  1. Close-up view of the Hall.
  2. Tchaikovsky's Bust in the main lobby. I am with another music lover, more precisely Tchaikovsky lover.
  3. Exhibition Boxes in the Lobby.

• International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians.
  1. Young American musician who came from New York with her mother.
  2. Young participant from Korea who came from Seoul with her aunt living in Los Angeles (USA).

  3. Three music Students. I met them not far from the Moscow Conservatory of Music, also known as the Tchaikovsky Conservatory (2014). They said they are singers attending a better music school. We talked about some of the opera songs. They said they like Michael Jackson, and are fond of singing Proschanie Slavianki.

Along the Moskva River

• On a hot summer day of June 1999, I met Professor Iraida Kim of Moscow State University at the Academicheakaya Metro station. e then walked to her office at the Sternberg Astronomical Institute of the University. I had a photo with her and her assistant at the entrance of this prestigious institute.

  She was born in Kazakhstan and I was born in Korea. Since we had the same last name, we felt like brother and sister. After spending some time in her office and laboratory, we walked down the hill to a boat stop for the Moskva River. This photo shows how high of the Sparrow Hill is and how tall the University main building is. There we had this photo together while waiting for the cruise boat. I took some photos while on the boat.

  1. While waiting for the boat, we saw the Luzhniki Stadium was just on the other side of the River. With its capacity of 100,000 seats, this stadium played the central role during the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Moscow. Click here for more photos and stories of this stadium.

  2. Statue of Peter the Great at the father of the Russian navy. His statue is at the point where the Moskva River channel branches out. This narrow channel was constructed for the flood control of the City. As far as I know, this is the only notable statue of this great Russian in Moscow, and was set up as late as in 1998. Why? I asked my Russian friends. The answer was that he abandoned Moscow to go to his new city. Go to St. Petersburg to see his statues. I will see enough of them there.

  3. The Cathedral of Christ the Savior in 1999, one year before the complete reconstruction in 2000. This church had a stormy history during the 70 years of anti-Christian communism. I remember being at the church site in 1992 when the preparation for reconstruction was taking place. The place was full of concrete blocks. I was told by Russian friends how important this place was and still is. Click here for more recent photo of this Cathedral.

  4. Borovitskaya Bridge and Borovitskaya (left) and Vodovzvodnaya Towers of the Kremlin.

  5. Vodovzvodnaya Tower and Kremlin Palace. The tallest structure in the background is the Ivan the Great Bell Tower.

  6. We can rely only on Russians. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russians thought the life would be easy and Americans were their best friends. However, by 1999, Russians are beginning to see nothing is free in capitalism. Thus, Russians realized they can trust only themselves.

  7. Cathedral of St. Basil and the Gum Store on the Red Square viewed from the Moskva River (1999).

  8. Novospassky Monastery is about 2 km east of the Kremlin. Its chapel has colorful towers. In 2014, I was at a visible distance from this Monastery, and took this photo.

• Since the Moskva River meanders through the city with a large amplitude, almost every spot is within a walking distance from the River. For instance, the Kremlin is built along the River. The Moscow State University is on the top of a hill along the River. Let us see some more photos.

• The Novodevichy Convent viewed from the River.
  1. This convent has a very interesting history.
  2. There is a lake outside the wall of the Convent. There is a land between this lake and the Moskva River.

  3. During the night, the Convent look like this.
  4. This is closer view of the convent walls.

• This photo contains both the White House for Russian government and the Stalin Tower for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This photo was taken under the Boktana-Khmelnitskogo Bridge across the Moskva River.

• White House in Moscow. This white structure was built in 1981 for the government of the Russian Republic of the Soviet Union. This building is now called the House of the Government of the Russian Federation. The prime minister's office is in this building. This white building weathered the constitutional crisis of 1993. Click here for a story.

• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in one of Moscow's Stalin Towers. Russians produced many famous foreign ministers, including
  1. Vyacheslav Molotov (1939-49, 53-56),
  2. Andrei Gromyko (1957-85), and
  3. Sergey Lavrov (2004 - present),
  who served for more than ten years and whose names are well known to the world. Thus, the foreign ministry headquarters is an interesting place to all visitors to Moscow. Let us look at photos.
  1. Stalin Tower seen from the Borodinskiy Bridge across the Moskva River.
  2. Get closer. This building appears to be very old, without central air conditioning.
  3. Entrance to the building, and government officials going home for the evening.
  4. New additions to the building. New buildings have been added around the tall tower.

  5. This Stalin Tower is about 100 meters south of the entrance to Arbat Street. See this street sign.

• Hotel Ukraina is another Stalin Tower that can be seen from the Moskva River.
  1. This is a front view of the Hotel.
  2. The entrance door says Radisson Royal, but it still preserves the engraving saying Hotel Ukraina in Russian.
  3. Near this area is the railroad station Kiyev.

  4. In the same area, there is metro subway station called Kiyevskaya. Inside this station is an art museum. Let us look at photos.
     • This is the hall way.
     • This wall says Kiyevskaya.
     • Images of happy farmers, and factory workers.

     All three of these structures after the second world war. From this, we can say that Stalin sensed the desire of Ukrainians for separation from the Soviet Union. He wanted to do prevent it by showing a strong unity. He asked an Ukrainian architect to design the Stalin Tower for the Hotel.

• Luzhniki Stadium in on the northern shore of the River. On the southern shore is a hill where the Stalin Tower of Moscow State University stands. With its capacity of 100,000 seats, this stadium played the central role during the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Moscow. This stadium looks like this from the opposite direction. Click here for more photos and stories of this stadium.

• Click here for Moscow State University on the Sparrow Hills.

• Cathedral of Christ the Savior. When I went to Moscow in 1990, I was told by Russian friends that there was an important church at a empty spot not far from the Red Square. The place was full of concrete stones. In 1999, when I was on a cruise boat along the Moskva River, there was a shiny church building. Let us look at photos.
  1. Front view of the Cathedral.

  2. Worshippers in the Cathedral.

  3. The Cathedral viewed from the the Russian State Library south of the entrance to the Red Square.

  4. Viewed from the opposite side of the Moskva River.

  5. The Patriarshiy Bridge added across the Moskva River.
     • The River without this bridge (1999).
     • The River with the bridge (2010).

  6. The Patriarshiy Bridge serves as a wide open space above the River, proving a place to meet interesting people and take photos of important places in Moscow.
     • I had a photo with this Russian student. The Kremlin towers are seen in the background.
     • Borovitskaya Bridge and Borovitskaya (left) and Vodovzvodnaya Towers of the Kremlin. The tallest structure is the Ivan the Great Bell Tower inside the Kremlin Wall. I have a photo of the same set of objects taken from a river boat taken in June of 1999. Click here to see the old photo.
     • Jungle of towers along the western wall of the Kremlin.
     • This apartment building was constructed during the Stalin era for government officials. Each room was bugged by KGB, and it is said that many of the residents were executed by Stalin's police.
     • Monument of Peter the Great is also seen from this bridge. This photo clearly shows how Peter the Great is stretching his right arm.

• The Kremlin's southern wall is along the River. Click here for the Kremlin photos.

• Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building is an apartment building designed originally for scholars and artists. This residential building dominates the eastern shore of the Moskva River east of the Kremlin. This huge structure is one of the four Stalin Towers visible from the Moskva River.
  1. Photo from the River.
  2. From the other side of the River.
  3. From the KGB ground, north-east of the Red Square, and east of the Bolshoi Theater.

  4. The real name of this KGB building is the Lubianka building, but it had many different names in the past. During the Soviet era, it served as the headquarters of the KGB, which was known as the most powerful branch of the government. It is still known as the KGB building. Vladimir Putin started his political career as a young KGB officer.

• Moscow's International House of Music. Panoramic view from the opposite side of the Moscow River (2010).
  1. Trees grew up (2016) on the river bank. They were hiding the Music Hall.
  2. Close-up View. This new music hall has the state-of-the-art electronic environment, but people say its acoustic environment is not as good as those of Moscow's traditional music halls.

Moscow State University

• The Stalin Tower of the University seen from the Moskva River.
• The main building has its own architectural style. It is one of the Seven Stalin Towers in Moscow, which used to dominate Moscow's skyline during the Stalin era. These buildings were designed to entertain Stalin's own architectural instinct. Stalin of course was totally dedicated to his creation of the socialist heaven. In either case, those towers are great museum pieces today, but they still serve very useful purposes.

• There is a large front yard, and the edge of the yard is the cliff above the Moskva River, with a panoramic view of Moscow. The Stalin Tower of the Hotel Ukraina is seen in this photo.
  1. This area is regarded as one of the sacred places, where newly-wed couples visit after their wedding ceremonies
  2. The Luzhniki Stadium is the most prominent structure that can be seen from the cliff.
  3. In The Russian Academy of Science (tall building) is also seen. The same building seen from the Moskva River. I was there in 1992 to attend the International Shakharov Conference. John A. Wheeler came to this conference with his grandson.
  4. This photo of 1990 shows a power generating station diligently putting out steams and smokes to the city, but no longer in in 2010. The chimneys are still there.

• Let us go back to the campus of the University. This is the entrance to the tall building. There is a statue of a student holding her book.

  At the top of the entrance to the main bundling, there are wordings in Russian. In English, it says "Moscow State University -- Lomonosov." Who was Lomonosov? In the capitalistic world, he could be regarded as the person who contributed money to build the campus.

  1. Russia was not a capitalist country when this building was completed in 1955. Then Lomonosov must have been a prominent communist who made an important contribution to the revolution, since the postal address for this campus used to be "Leninsky Gory" (Lenin Hill). The answer is No. He was born more than 100 years before Karl Marx.

  2. Mikhail Lomonosov (1711-1765) was the most brilliant man in Russian history. He was a physicist, chemist, historian, poet, and everything. Although largely unknown outside Russia, he is respected by everybody in his country. Ask a taxi driver in Moscow. He/she will tell you proudly about Lomonosov. There are many Lomonosov statues in Russia. This is his statue in the academic area west of the Kremlin Wall on Mokhovaya Street.

• The backyard of this Stalin Tower is much richer. The statue of Lomonosov is there. This is a close-up view of the statue.
  1. This is a side view of the Tower.
  2. The statue of male and female students is next to the back entrance to the building. This is a communist-style statue.
  3. There are the physics building and the chemistry building. Unlike the Stalin Tower of the main building, these science buildings are box-like utility-oriented buildings.

  4. The main library appears to have been built in recent years. This photo was taken in 2010. The construction work was still going on in this area.
  5. Click here for a brief tour of the campus.

• I have been inside the physics building. I also have been in the Sternberg Astronomy Institute.

• How about the main building? Yes, I have been in the main lobby in 1991. There I noticed plaques of the sages including Socrates, Aristotle, Marx, and others. I assume these people were selected during the communist era. Jesus was not there, and I did not check whether Apostle Paul was there.
  1. However, I noticed the plaque of Zhu Xi. Do you know who Zhu Xi was? You all heard about Confusions. About 2,500 years ago, he wrote the books telling you what to do and what not to do. China's Han Dynasty (200 BC - 200 AD) and Tang Dynasty (600 - 900 AD) used the Confucian doctrines as their constitutions. Indeed, this is how Chinese civilization was constructed and remains so strong.

  2. There are however problems in Confucianism. Confucius tells you to respect elderly people, but he does not explain why. During the Tang period, some people started asking why?

     About 800 years ago, Zhu reformulated Confucianism using the logic of Taoism. Zhu gives reasons why you should respect the elders. Zhu's Confucianism is known as "Neo-Confucianism" in the Western world.

  3. About 600 years ago, Koreans constructed their dynasty based on this Neo-Confucianism. This dynasty lasted for more than 500 years until 1910. You will be interested to hear that Koreans impeached their king twice during this period. The reason was that those impeached kings violated the rules of this Neo-Confucianism.

  4. In unified Japan, 400 years ago, Tokugawa Iyeyasu established his dynasty, which lasted for 250 years until 1850 when Japanese started adopting Western systems. This dynasty used Neo-Confucianism as its constitution, and maintained a research institute for this ideology. This institute may still be active in their imperial palace. One of my Japanese colleagues claims her grandfather was a member of this prestigious institute.

  5. How about China? Since the influence of the original Confucianism was so strong that they did not need anything new. Click here if you are thinking of visiting China.

  6. Click here about Christianity and Neo-Confucianism.

  My photo with Logunov, and with his staff members (1999).

• In 1991, when I was in the main building of the University, I noticed that the president of this University was Anatoly Logunov. He was in this position for 15 years from 1977 to 1992. I had a temptation to knock his door, but refrained from doing so. I met him earlier in 1990 when he visited the University of Maryland. In this photo, I am standing next to him.
  1. When I was a graduate student (1958-61), I was interested in what Russian physicists were doing. Logunov and his co-workers were actively publishing in physics journals. I read their papers carefully, and I published my first paper the March issue of PRL in 1961. There, I proved Logunov was wrong. Logunov was aware of my paper of 1961 when I met him 1990.

  2. In 1999, Logunov was the director of the Institute of High Energy Physics in Protvino (about 120 km south of Moscow). He invited me to a conference held there. At that time, he was interested in the Poincaré group, and I was publishing papers on the same subject. I had a photo with him while there.

  3. In 1990, South Korea established diplomatic relations with a number of communist countries including the Soviet Union, and Korea started issuing visas to Russians. Scholar-respecting Koreans gave their first visa (Visa # 1) to the president of Moscow State University, and Logunov went to Korea in 1990. When I met Logunov in 1999, he was telling me how courteous Koreans were to him.

• As far as universities are concerned, I enjoy talking with students much more than with rectors or presidents. When I was in the main building in 1999, I noticed many shops and cafeterias. I talked with many students, but I did not take photos with them. I did not have a digital camera at that time, and I could carry only limited number of film roles.

  In 2010, when I was in Moscow again, I met these young students. I asked them why they were so neatly dressed. They said they were going to their graduation ball. I was very happy to have a photo with them. I was sad. I was too old to go to the party with them.

More Photos

• I have many more Moscow photos to post. I will do so when I have time. In the meantime, I would like to thank my Russian friends for telling me and teaching me about this great city.

• You may also be interested in the following pages.
  1. Saint Petersburg. You all know how important this is to Russians.

  2. Kazan. Catherine the Great went there, So did Hilary Clinton.

  3. Kaliningrad. This area used`to be a german province called "East Prussia," but became a Soviet naval base after 1945. These`days, this area plays an interesting role in the world economy.

  4. Minsk. David Sarnoff came from Minsk. Do you know who Sarnoff was? Click here. Did you know Feynman's father came from Minsk?

  5. Popov. Russia's wireless communication. You may be interested to know why Russians had to develop their own wireless communication.

  6. Landau was a great Soviet physicist. You may visit this page to see how you were influenced by him.

  7. Russian Cameras. Germans used to and still make best lenses in the world. Their Leica cameras were envied by everybody in the world. Japanese attempted to copy the Leica and ended up with their own version called "Canon." Russians also attempted to produce their own Leica cameras. This webpage explains how they did.

  8. Soviet Tanks played the major role during the initial stage of the Korean War (1950-53).

  9. Tolstoy and Korean literature. Why is Tolstoy so popular among Koreans?

  10. Click here for interesting Russians I met while travelling around the world.

What do they say about me? Video from Marquis Who's Who. Video from IAOTP (International Association of Top Professionals).

How did he talk with Einstein?

• copyright@2017 by Y. S. Kim, unless otherwise specified.
  1. Click here for his home page.

  2. Photo-bio.

  3. Awards and Recognitions.

  4. Einstein Magazine.

  5. Princeton page.

  6. Travel page.

  7. Style page.