Incredible neighborhood

                                           Moscow Palace of Pioneers and Youth in the Lenin Hills 1969

Idea of writing about an actual building came to me while walking near my home. I found it interesting that many people get really impressed by some events or exhibitions or other things that take place in some particular time but rarely notice something incredible that have always been around. This happened to me a lot and the only way to fix it was to try to see exciting in every ordinary surround. However, the word “ordinary” is hardly suitable to the building and park that I am going to write about.

  Moscow Palace of Pioneers and Youth in the Lenin Hills was built in 1959-1963 by a group of architects

V.S.Egerev, V.S.Kubasov, F.A.Novikov, I.A.Pokrovsky, M.N.Khajakian and constructor U.I.Ionov. The project of this building was the winner of the open competition and in 1967 got the State Prize of the RSFSR. Built in the best traditions of Soviet modernism the Palace should have become a place of additional education for children from 6 to 18 years where they could learn some unusual skills and try their hand in sciences and subjects that go beyond General Education. The Palace was not only for these purposes but also for a strong soviet propaganda for children and youth. That’s why the Palace and park around it are full of soviet symbols and monuments.

  Nowadays it is hard to “read” all those symbols especially for people who live nearby. For any Russian native communistic past is something habitual.

  The Palace is surrounded with a big park full of places for different activities: sports stadium, driving school, greenhouse, open stages and other. The plan and landscape of the park are fascinating. The building itself located on a flat surface on the top of the hill near ravine covered with trees that create an amazing view. The whole complex of buildings is enormous and accommodate more 1200 groups of children studying different subjects.

Plan of the complex

  The Palace of Pioneers is an incredible place to visit, buildings are beautiful in their proportions and sometimes decorations, park is the best place in the district for a walk because of the atmosphere and small number off people. It feels like a journey to another time and place. It is a museum of the USSR and modern Europe at the same time. I believe it is a great place to visit.

by Ekaterina Frolova