Another architectural symbol of the Soviet era, the Hotel Rossiya on the bank of the River Moskva next to the Kremlin, will be soon gone. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has recently signed a resolution to knock down the Soviet Hilton. Although Rossiya has no architectural charm or historical aura, Ekho Moskvy polls have shown that 70% of the Muscovites are against its demolition.
The fate of the hotel is on the front pages in Russia and abroad. Germany-based Die Tageszeitung has published a nostalgic article about "this hotel and its Soviet charm." Similar articles were published at a time when the Hotel Moskva's fate was being determined. However, it has been disassembled (though, reconstruction was promised). Presently, old hotels are demolished in Moscow to be replaced with new and more comfortable ones. Moscow intends at least to double the inflow of foreign guests and tourists in 2005.
The gigantic building of the Khrushchev-Brezhnev era, completed in 1967 and designed for 5,000 people, can hardly be called beautiful. Originally, there were plans to build a Stalin-style skyscraper, like the Seven Sisters of Moscow, designed by prominent architect Dmitry Chechulin. However, Nikita Khrushchev, the then Soviet leader, ordered to build a hotel for 4,000 people for deputies sitting in the Kremlin Palace of Congress. Built on the foundation of the skyscraper, Rossiya looked too extended and broad. It did not blend into the Kremlin panorama and upset the harmony of its neighbors - small churches, ancient chambers and other historical buildings. "A monster," "a false tooth" - these were the epithets people used to describe the hotel as well as other modernist and postmodernist buildings of the 1960s-1980s.
Rossiya's contribution to the history and culture is far less substantial than, say, that of National, Metropol or Moskva. World stars rarely stayed in Rossiya for the night. The hotel hosted virtually no fatal political and artistic meetings and receptions. However, the clumsy "box of glass and marble" included in the Guinness Book of Records is dear to the Russian heart. For some, Rossiya is a nostalgic symbol of the bygone Soviet era, a naive evidence of the Soviet power and grandeur. Some recall pleasant evenings spent in the local restaurants with cognac and delicacies that were in deficit at the time.
Finally, the majority of the Muscovites see the decision to demolish Rossiya as another step toward demolishing the old and dear image of Moscow. Paradoxically, the "blatantly Soviet" hotel has long been seen as an integral part of the "old town", whose elimination the Moscow intelligentsia is actively opposing.
"Rossiya is a three-star hotel standing at the site where better hotels should be," says Moscow's chief architect Alexander Kuzmin. The land in the center is incredibly expensive and inefficiently run. "There should be underground car parks," says Mr. Kuzmin. When concerts of world stars like Paul McCartney are held on Red Square, spectators have nowhere to park their cars.
Rossiya will be replaced with eight hotels, offices, restaurants, entertainment and fitness centers. Experts estimated Rossiya's profitability at 25-30%. The new project is expected to be far more profitable. Hotels will be smaller, but more comfortable. The new complex will be built in the classical architectural style to fit into the Kremlin ensemble.
