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Monday, 23.07.2007
ZDKh – Art, Music and Soviet Fossils
The Central House of the Artist is a place to take note of. It holds exhibitions ranging from pop-art to socialist realism, and also the best concerts for all musical directions outside the mainstream.
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All year round, artists sell pictures and sculptures to tourists in front of the bulky building, and usually supply an export licence as well. In Soviet times, the ZDKh café was famous for being one of the few places in the metropolis where decent coffee was served.
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For some years now, hidden behind the ZDKh, lies a genuine secret tip for all interested in art and history:
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A significant number of statues of Stalin, Brezhnev and their comrades were removed from their pedestals after the failed putsch in 1991. Some of them found a retirement home in the park behind the KDKh.
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| Coordinates: |
Krymskii Wal 10
Nearest metro station:
Oktyabrskaya, Park Kultury
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The garden of sculptures is a curious mixture of Soviet ideological junk and modern sculptures and constitutes a peculiar form of coming to terms with the past. Communist fossils were not melted down, but simply made to stand in the corner.
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The whole ensemble seems small, modest and unpretentious – in startling contrast to the neighbouring monstrous statue of Peter the Great by the Moscow court sculpture Zereteli. The park is still a secret tip for weekend trips.
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Better to visit soon: The ongoing climate change in Moscow politics might soon see some of the exhibits leave the garden and return to their pedestals: Felix Dzhershinskii, the brutal founder of the Soviet secret police, is one of patriotic politicians’ candidates to be reinstalled in front of the KGB Lubyanka HQ. The KGB, it seems, is back in fashion.
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(rUFO/kp).
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