Bulldozed through the capital’s historic heart and lined with Soviet-era skyscrapers, Noviy Arbat, or New Arbat, is one of Moscow’s busiest, most boisterous and fashionable avenues. The project, however, was delayed by
World War II, and works finally began almost 30 years later, during the rule of Nikita Khrushchev.
Read more about Nikita Khrushchev on RussiapediaNew Arbat ripped through the historic neighborhood where scores of pre-revolutionary buildings were destroyed – even the house where
Lenin’s mother once lived was sacrificed.On one side of New Arbat, four 26-storey office blocks resembling giant opened books were erected. The side other had five apartment towers meant for the Soviet elite – top party officials and artists.The high-rises were specifically demanded by Khrushchev. According to an urban legend, he was so impressed by several American-built skyscrapers in Cuba that he decided Moscow must have something similar, and New Arbat provided a perfect setting.The street quickly became one of the city’s symbols, but was also fast dubbed “Moscow’s dentures” as many Muscovites thought the towers looked like teeth sticking out of a mouth. Meanwhile its official name didn’t last – in 1963 it became Kalinin Avenue, after Bolshevik revolutionary Mikhail Kalinin. After the fall of the USSR, however, the original name was returned.As Khrushchev’s plan was to make New Arbat a favorite leisure spot for Muscovites, in 1967, to mark the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, a massive cinema was built – fittingly called “The October”. Now revamped, it hosts film festivals and blockbuster premieres.Another famous Soviet-era construction which opened the same year is the Moscow House of Books. It was the country’s largest book store, and still remains the capital’s biggest and best-known, with all sorts of books in a variety of languages.Not all historic buildings were wiped out, though. Some gems of the old Moscow remain, like the 17th Century church of St. Simeon Stolpnik. Beautifully decorated, it was popular with the nobility and many high society couples walked down the aisle of the church.In the 1930s, parts of it were torn down, while the New Arbat construction put the entire building under threat. Backed by public support, the church survived, but was transformed into an animal and bird exhibition. Only in the post-Soviet 1990s was it restored to its former glory.As well, the street boasts the house of
Mikhail Lermontov, a 19th century poet and author of the novel
“A Hero of Our Time,” which continues to captivate readers worldwide. It is one of Moscow’s few surviving wooden houses, built shortly after
the war with Napoleon in 1812. Lermontov spent his teenage years here, writing some 200 poems.Today, New Arbat, with its top-end boutiques, popular bars and huge shopping malls, is a wonderful mix of the old, Soviet, and new Moscow.
RT
