Park of the Fallen Idols – New Tretyakov Gallery – Metro Ride – Lunch featuring USSR cuisine – Space Museum or All-Soviet Exhibition.
Touring Russia is not only churches, cathedrals and palaces; the Soviet Russia left behind an impressive and tangible heritage. The USSR was a huge and ambitious state, an empire covering one-sixth of the Earth, a true superpower with many global achievements on the list. The most visible landmarks commemorating this period of the Russian history are pompous Stalin-era buildings, lavishly decorated Metro stations heavily laden with Soviet propaganda, WW2 monuments and museums, and the tokens of the Soviet space exploration programme.
The Soviet Moscow Tour includes most of the above: a ride on the metro, a tour of VDNKh, or the All-Soviet Exhibition of Socialist Economic Achievements, possibly coupled with a visit to the Museum of Space Exploration; this programme also allows you to explore the controversial past – the Park of the Fallen Idols and the New Tretyakov Gallery.
9.30 am Meet your guide at the hotel.
If the Mausoleum opening hours do not match the dates you have available for the tour, or as an option to the Mausoleum Visit, we suggest taking a tour of the Park of the Fallen Idols followed by a tour of the Soviet Social Realism Exhibition at the New State Tretyakov Gallery located next door.
The Park of the Fallen Idols is an outdoor exhibition of monuments to Soviet leaders that were removed from key locations in Moscow during Perestroika in 1990-1991. Here you will see one and only monument to Joseph Stalin, as all of them were destroyed during Nikita Khrushchev’s personality cult denunciation campaign, couple of Brezhnevs and at least four Lenins, complete with 11-meter statue to Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the KGB and the mastermind behind Red Terror policy of the early 1920s, as the Bolsheviks strived to stay in power.
The New Building of the State Tretyakov Gallery houses a vast exhibition of the Russian and Soviet 20th century art. The most interesting parts of the exhibition are Russian avant-garde paintings as experimentation by artists thrived during the early days of the 1917 Revolution, followed by an impressive display of the key Social Realism works as the Soviet Government tightened the bolts and accepted a straightforward, propaganda-focused approach to any works of art, be it literature, film industry, paintings or sculpture. This tour will allow you to trace the changes in the society from sheer optimism to feelings of depression and despair revealed in the Soviet underground art of the 1950-1960s.
ca. 12.30 pm Continue the programme with the tour of the Moscow Metro and ride to VDNKh Station, your next destination.
ca. 2.00 pm Lunch featuring USSR cuisine.
ca. 3.30 pm Tour of the Museum of Space Exploration (or Tour of the All-Soviet Exhibition of Achievements of the Socialist Economy)
Half way between the Moscow City centre and the Central Mission Control in the suburbs of Moscow, next to the Avenue of Peace there stands, proud and tall, the Monument to the Russian Achievements in Space.
The basement of the monument houses the Museum of Space Exploration. The Soviets were the first to launch an artificial satellite, or sputnik, and a first man into space. Both stories are represented in the museum, complete with the first two space travellers, stuffed dogs Belka and Strelka. Real Soyuz space ships, return vehicles, models and parts of rocket engines are also on display, and MIR space station copy used for training by Russian cosmonauts is the highlight of the tour – you can walk inside and see how crammed the living conditions are for the astronauts.
ca. 4.45 - 5:30 pm ride back to your hotel.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Total duration of the tour: ca. 8 hours. Please note that this tour involves a lot of walking, as we will visit pedestrian-only areas. All transfers are by metro. A convenient minivan can be arranged to cut down walking and for some of the transfers.
Hired vehicle and/or lunch can be included on a special request. Additional sights/museum visits (such as Gorky Park, GULAG Museum or Cold War Bunker) can be included on request. Please ask for a quotation.
Languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and other foreign languages.
| Number of participants | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 |
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Soviet Moscow Tour*, up to 8h., p.P. |
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Back to the USSR, up to 8h, p.P. |
Every day except Monday. Guide whole day, admission to museums and sights, metro ride fare and taxes included. Lunch not included.
