Ed_Haynes

Not sure we quite have the "where" of this . . . quite . . . ??

You may have it, say it?

Thanks for these, Christophe. Another stop for the travel agenda!

. . . a past that only a now-aging generation now seemed to recall, and with what mixed memories?

. . . but, mostly, it was just a place for Moscow residents to go, be in the sun, shop, and only occasionally be reminded of the past . . .

. . . and of the old socialist realism . . .

There were occasional displays of the old iconography of power . . .

. . . seeming rather strange and nostalgic (at least to my guide), as reminders of what the USSR once included.

. . . and many of the old republic pavilions still stand . . .

. . . newly re-gilded . . .

The fountain of friendship among the republics is still there . . .

. . . but with cheap imported (mainly Chinese) electronics for sale inside.

. . . and reminders of the old days . . .

. . . still presided over by Lenin outside . . .

The central exhibition hall . . .

Inside . . .

But some inspiration was still to be had.

But what about the place, the Vystavka Dostizheny Narodnogo Khozyaystva (VDNKh) SSSR, or USSR Economic Achievements Exhibition?

When I went there (with a guide much bemused as to why anyone would want to visit the place, she had last been there as a school kid in the 1960s), it was an interesting experience. The famous sculpture (shown on the medals) had been removed "for cleaning", but most thought it was gone for good.

. . . interior. (I am using those from the Lidias Vasilovna Shapovalona group here -- see http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=2735 for all.)

And their document . . .

We know these medals . . .

And all the exhibits had been sold off. Some to foreigners, most to the Russian "new rich". One of the surviving Soviet space shuttles has been converted into a bar down by Gorky Park.

It was however hosting a home and garden show.

The saddest was the space museum out at the VDNKh exhebition (deserving of a thread in its own right!) I had expected a great deal out of the Cosmonautics Museum.

And one more. Generally, this is not an "artform" I especially like, but these weren't badly done.

Another.