They are no longer the only high-rise buildings in Moscow, but the Seven Sisters remain the most striking. The skyscrapers, dubbed wedding cakes by critics of their neo-classic, tiered appearance, are emblematic of the city's history, at once absurd, terrible and beautiful.

Their reputations have also changed over the years from a grim representation of the Soviet era to buildings seen as an essential part of Moscow's landscape. And they continue to be reimagined. 

The buildings were part of a post-war reconstruction of Moscow. The original plan, conceived before World War II, was to build eight buildings, an oblique tribute to the 800th anniversary of Moscow, which was celebrated in 1947. The eighth, the Zaryadye Administrative Building, was never built.

The Seven Sisters were not the only skyscrapers planned for Moscow. The Palace of Soviets, with a quintessential utopic design, was high on grandeur and low on practicality. It would have been the tallest building in the world at that time with a massive statue of Lenin on top. The 19th-century Christ the Savior Cathedral was blown up so that construction could begin, but the project was abandoned when the war started in 1941. That site later became an open-air swimming pool and is now the site of a rebuilt cathedral.

The Seven Sisters went up within the space of 10 years, a remarkable feat for a country in ruins after the end of the war. When finished, there were two hotels, the Leningradskaya and the Ukraina; two government buildings, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Smolenskaya and the Red Gates Administrative Building; Moscow State University; as well as two residential buildings, the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building down the road from the Kremlin and the House on Kudrinsky Square. 

"It was the first large-scale construction in Europe after the war, and the first to bring skyscrapers to Europe," said Natalya Dushkina, a professor at the Moscow Architectural Institute, whose grandfather, Alexei Dushkin, was one of the architects involved in the creation of the Red Gates Administrative Building.

Stalin's Seven Sisters have drifted in and out of favor over the decades. They began with Soviet fanfare and a brief heyday when they were seen as a symbol of a country reborn after the war, Dushkina said. She said they returned a sense of scale to a city that had been hit badly by the war and by the destruction of the old city under Stalin.

American Connections

Before they were built, Soviet officials famously noted in a decree that they were to be "original works of architecture. They should not be a repetition of the kind of multi-storeyed structures found in other countries." But anyone who has seen them can trace their lineage, or at least some of the inspiration behind them, to the skyscrapers of Manhattan and Chicago. Some students of architecture have even drawn direct parallels for each building, suggesting that you can see the Manhatten Municipal Building in Moscow State University's home; Chicago's Wrigley Building in the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building; and Cleveland Ohio's Terminal Tower in the Kudrinsky Square House. From certain angles, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs resembles New York's Woolworth building.

After Stalin's death, the buildings were seen as representative of his regime and the style and the architects -- who were stripped of their Stalin prizes -- fell out of favor.

Interest is growing again in the buildings. Dushkina said that she will soon supervise a Spanish student who is writing a dissertation on the Red Gates Administrative Building. There have also been calls by Russian and German preservationists for the buildings to be put on the World Heritage List.

The foreign ministry building, best approached from a nearby bridge, is the most imposing in its Gothic appearance. Originally, the building was designed without a tower, but Stalin is said to have insisted that one be added. When Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev came to power, the architect is said to have asked him if the spire could be removed and the new leader reportedly said, "Let the spire remain as a monument to Stalin's foolishness." 

The building does have its advantages: There is a subsidized canteen on the 17th floor, which offers one of the best views in Moscow.

The buildings have their tales of horror, especially concerning the involvement of German prisoners of war, as well as prisoners from the Gulag system, in the buildings' construction. The 22nd floor of the university building was said to have been turned into a mini-camp as prisoners worked on its construction.

French writer Anne Nivat wrote of the fear and spying that went on in the House on Kotelnicheskaya during Soviet times. Nivat, who lived in the building, quoted one resident as saying, "Some of the residents of this monster are monsters themselves." The building housed high party officials and other favored persons.

Today, the apartments are some of the most sought after in the city, and if the federal government moves out of the center - as Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin promises - there will be two more Stalin Sisters open to new residents.

The hotels have managed best to adapt to the post-Soviet era. Opened in 1954, the Hotel Leningradskaya with its view of Moscow's three train stations received a major overhaul in 2006-2009. Today, it is a five-star hotel managed by the Hilton chain. The number of rooms has dropped from 330 to 273. The Hotel Ukraina, built on the bank of the Moscow River in 1957, was also given a serious face-lift. Since 2010, it has been known as the Radisson Royal Hotel, and returning foreigners stop by just to see the transformation and recall the old Ukraina. 

 

Take a tour through a reinvented relic of the Soviet Union, which recently re-opened its hotel doors to guests and the general public