One of our stranger and more memorable visits was to the All-Russian Exhibition Centre (VVTs).
It opened in August 1939, so WWII effectively put the centre on hold. After the war the site was promoted to be a communist showground showing all that was great from the different countries making up the old USSR.
At its height it attracted 11 million visitors a year.
Its website has a useful Interactive Map.
The Monument to the Conquerors of Space was erected in Moscow in 1964 to celebrate achievements of the Soviet people in space exploration.
The monument is 110 m high and is just outside the VVTs.
After the tacky stalls and rides just inside the entrance to the complex, this is the first of the original major pavilions that we came across.
It is the tallest pavilion, 100 metres to the top of the star.
A very large fountain with gilded statues in the traditional costumes of the countries within the USSR.
The gardens and fountains by this pavilion were supposed to remind the visitor of Peterhof. Not to me, it doesn’t
Most of the pavilions have stalls in them selling anything from tourist tat to domestic goods for Muscovites - a real eclectic mixture. Private enterprise here has driven out any communist ideals.
Originally the Moscow pavilion, designed to resemble Stalin's "Seven Sisters". Subsequently renamed the Grain Pavilion.
The layout of the VVTs has these central gardens and fountains running down most of its length with most of the pavilions on either side. At the start is Pavilion 1 and at the other end is the Ukraine Pavilion (no. 58).
Another large fountain with its centre designed as a sheaf of wheat.
Lots of charming details round the fountain, such as these geese.
By far the most elaborately decorated pavilion. However, sadly, it is unused and so has been left to decay.
The facade is made of alabaster panels.
Yes that is a real Tupolov aircraft to the left of this photo and a life sized model of the Vostok rocket that sent Gargarin into space (in 1961) in front of the Aerospace Pavilion.
The Vostok mock-up in its gantry.
The most famous Stalinist-era monumental sculpture is a towering 24m tall. It was made for the 1937 Paris World's Fair. It has been used as the iconic image of the USSR ever since. The (male) worker holds aloft the hammer and the (female) collective farm labourer (Kolkhoz) holds the sickle.
