This huge diorama of Moscow (officially called “Москва—столица СССР,” or “Moscow—Capital of the Soviet Union”) was created by Efim Deshalyt at the request of the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1977. It was then shipped off to the US for an exhibition celebrating 60 years of the Revolution/Soviet state. Apparently thousands and thousands of people came to see it every day when it was on display in New York and Neil Armstrong wanted to buy it. “Our country is not for sale,” went the answer to his request, or so the story goes. In 2007 it was auctioned off (things are for sale now in Russia, if you haven’t heard) to the Hotel Ukraine, one of the Stalinist skyscrapers that has recently been fully redone by Radisson. It is now prominently displayed in the hotel’s lobby (see photo above directing patrons to “lobby bar, reception, diorama”) and is just rad, even if the audio guide to it is a bit propagandistic. It’s wonderful to see structures like the Rossiia hotel glorified here (the hotel has since been torn down) and to imagine the city in its Brezhnev heyday. Who among us does not love a diorama?
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