Russian splendor and elegance are on display throughout the country at Christmas time. In the year of coronavirus, a glance across Russia shows spectacular splendor and elegance of Christmas and New Year decorations that are some of the most beautiful on the planet. From our friends over at Russia Beyond, we’ve chosen the following few Christmans images of Russian splendor and elegance far across the country – from Moscow to the Caucasus mountains. We added the background information and historical context to explain the locales better. Christmas in Russia next year might indeed be a good idea.
1. Splendor and Elegance of Moscow
Manezhnaya Square in front of the Historical Museum.
Manezhnaya (Russian: Манежная площадь, IPA: [mɐˈnʲeʐnəjə ˈploɕːɪtʲ], Manege Square) is a pedestrian open space in the Tverskoy District, at the heart of Moscow. The Hotel Moskva binds it to the east, the State Historical Museum and the Alexander Garden to the south, the Moscow Manege to the west, and the 18th-century headquarters of the Moscow State University to the north.
The square forms a vital part of downtown Moscow, connecting Red Square (which sprawls behind the Iberian Gate immediately to the south) with the major traffic artery Tverskaya Street, which starts here and runs northwestward in the direction of Saint Petersburg. Three Moscow Metro stations: Okhotny Ryad, Ploshchad Revolyutsii, and Teatralnaya, serves this area. Coronavirus has not diminished the splendor and elegance on display this year.
Bolshoi Theater
Russia’s Bolshoi beautifies with splendor and elegance for Christmans. According to the Bolshoi’s website, on 28 March (17 according to the old style) 1776, Catherine II granted the prosecutor, Prince Pyotr Urusov, the “privilege” of “maintaining” theatre performances of all kinds, including masquerades, balls and other forms of entertainment, for ten years. Its official history traces back to open day on 20 October 1856 – Tsar Alexander II’s coronation day.
The Bolshoi building is regarded as one of Moscow’s main sights. On 29 October 2002, the Bolshoi was given a New Stage, from which it presented its performances while undergoing massive reconstruction and refurbishment.
The GUM Department Store – Red Square
It’s a giant elegant gingerbread house. GUM (Russian: ГУМ, pronounced [ˈɡum], an abbreviation of Russian: Главный универсальный магазин, tr. Glávnyj Universáľnyj Magazín, literally “Main Universal Store”) is the leading department store in many cities of the former Soviet Union, known as State Department Store (Russian: Государственный универсальный магазин, tr. Gosudárstvennyj Universáľnyj Magazín) during the Soviet era (until 1991). Similarly-named stores operated in some Soviet republics and in post-Soviet states.
This is the most famous GUM – the large store facing Red Square in Moscow’s Kitai-gorod trading center. As of 2020, the building functions as a shopping mall. Before the 1920s, the location was known as the Upper Trading Rows (Russian: Верхние торговые ряды, tr. Verhnije torgovye rjady). As of 2020, GUM carries over 100 different brands, with cafes and restaurants inside the mall.
Novy Arbat’s Elegant New Year Tree – Central Moscow
A sleek splendor and elegance that evades New York’s Rockefeller Center this year. Novy (New) Arbat Avenue (Russian: Но́вый Арба́т) is a major street in Moscow running west from Arbat Square on the Boulevard Ring to Novoarbatsky Bridge on the opposite bank of the Moskva River. The modern six-lane avenue (originally named Kalinin Prospekt from 1968-1994), along with two rows of high-rise buildings, was constructed between 1962 and 1968, cutting through the old narrow streets of the Arbat District.
The North River Terminal – Restored & Reopened in September 2020
Rivaling Paris’ Champs Elyseés, nothing shows off Russia’s splendor and elegance like the restored North River Terminal. The North River Terminal or Rechnoy Vokzal (Russian: Речной вокзал, meaning “River Station”), is one of two passenger terminals for river transport in Moscow. It is also the central hub for long-range and inter-city routes. The station was built in 1937 and renovated and upgraded from 2018 to 2020.
Poklonnaya Hill’s Shining Ball.
New York’s Times Square New Year’s Eve ball can hardly compete in elegance this year. Poklonnaya Gora (Russian: Покло́нная гора́, literally “bow-down hill”; metaphorically “Worshipful Submission Hill”‘), at 171.5 meters, was one of the highest spots in Moscow, since 1936, when the city incorporated it. The Victory Park on Poklonnaya Hill is famous for its display of tanks and other military assets used in the Second World War.
The two summits of the Victory Park used to be separated by the Setun River until one was razed in 1987. Historically, the hill had great strategic importance, as it commanded the Russian capital’s best view. It derives its name from the Russian (“To bow down”), as everyone approaching the capital from the west was, at one time, expected to pay homage there. During the French invasion of Russia in 1812, it was the spot where Napoleon had vainly expected the Russians to bring him the keys to the Kremlin.
Moscow’s Rostokino Park
The park in the Rostokino District elegantly goes polar bear.
Zaryadye Park near Kremlin.
Not to be outdone, Zaryadye Park splendidly announces its welcome of 2021, as do us all. Zaryadye Park (Russian: Парк Зарядье), an urban park adjacent to Red Square on the site of the former Rossiya Hotel, is the first public park built in Moscow in over 50 years – the previous, the Soviet Friendship Park built for the 1957 Festival of Youth and Students. Zaryadye Park was inaugurated on 9 September 2017 by Russian Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin. Time magazine included Zaryadye Park on its 2018 list of the World’s Greatest Places.
TSUM department store near the Bolshoi Theater
According to its website, TSUM is the signature fashion department store of Russia – a historical symbol of Russian splendor and elegance in Moscow for more than 110 years. With some 70,000 square meters, TSUM is the largest department store in Eastern Europe. It offers collections of the world’s leading fashion brands, including Valentino, Louis Vuitton, Celine, Gucci, Chanel, Ralph Lauren, Dior, Kiton, Brioni, Ermenegildo Zegna, Tom Ford, Alexander McQueen, Prada, Fendi, and others.
Likewise, its jewelry and watches span the range of Rolex, Patek Philippe, Hublot, Chopard, Garrard, Graff, Mikimoto, and others. Its porcelain and glass by Baccarat, Bernardaud, Christofle, Lalique, Daum, and its perfumery and cosmetics of the leading brands has no equal outside of Paris, New York, or London.
Lubyanka Square Christmas Tree
Isn’t it rich
Barbara Streisand, “SendIn The Clowns”
Aren’t we a pair
Me here at last on the ground
You in mid-air
Send in the clownsIsn’t it bliss
Don’t you approve
One who keeps tearing around
One who can’t move
Where are the clowns?
Lubyanskaya Square (Russian: Лубянская площадь, Lubyanskaya ploshchad’), or simply Lubyanka in Moscow lies about 980 yards north-east of Red Square. The history of its name dates back to 1480 when Moscow’s Grand Prince Ivan III, who conquered Novgorod in 1471, had settled many Novgorodians in the area. They built the church of St Sophia, modeled after St Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, and called the area Lubyanka after the Lubyanitsy district of their native city.
2. Splendor and Elegance of Saint Petersburg
Over the years, tourists have lauded Saint Petersburg as one of the most beautiful parts of Russia. And why wouldn’t it be? It was founded by Peter the Great, the man who the cultural revolution that replaced the traditionalist and medieval social and political systems with modernity and scientific Westernised systems and designs based on the Enlightenment. Peter’s reforms had a lasting impact on Russia, and many institutions of the Russian government trace their origins to his reign. Saint Petersburg was the capital of Russia until 1917.
Nativity scene installation at the Kazan Cathedral
A nativity recreation would be expected at the Kazan Cathedral or Kazanskiy Kafedralniy Sobor (Russian: Каза́нский кафедра́льный собо́р). It is also known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan, a Russian Orthodox Church cathedral on the Nevsky Prospekt in Saint Petersburg. It is dedicated to Our Lady of Kazan – one of the most venerated icons in Russia.
The main Christmas tree at Palace Square
The elegant Palace Square (Russian: Дворцо́вая пло́щадь, tr. Dvortsovaya Ploshchad, IPA: [dvɐˈrtsovəjə ˈploɕːɪtʲ]), connecting Nevsky Prospekt with Palace Bridge leading to Vasilievsky Island, is the central city square of St Petersburg – and of the former Russian Empire. Many significant events took place there, including the Bloody Sunday massacre and parts of the October Revolution of 1917. Between 1918 and 1944, it was called Uritsky Square (Russian: площадь Урицкого), in memory of the assassinated leader of the city’s Cheka branch, Moisei Uritsky.
The earliest and most celebrated building on the Square, the Baroque white-and-turquoise Winter Palace (as re-built between 1754 and 1762) of the Russian tsars, gives the Square its name. Though designed in the Neoclassical style, the adjacent buildings perfectly match the palace’s scale, rhythm, and monumentality.
Manege Square Fair
The usual site of a Christmas fair, St. Petersburg’s Manezhnaya Square – Malaya Sadovaya and Klenovaya Streets in the historic city center – offers a rich program for local and international visitors that includes holiday gifts and other surprises. It reenacts the traditions of Catholic meeting Orthodox Christmas – the ceremony of meeting Ded Moroz and the lighting of the New Year tree against the backdrop of a colorful light show on the walls of the Mikhailovsky Manege. This year, the coronavirus has kyboshed the festivities, but that has stopped the erection of the imagery.
Bolshaya Morskaya Street
Bolshaya Morskaya Street (in 1920-93 – Herzen Street, after A.I. Herzen) has always defined the splendor and elegance of Saint Petersburg. Its left side was constructed in the early 18th century in Morskaya settlement (hence the name), its right side in the 1760s, and the street fully completed somewhere around 1834. Once known as Bolshaya Gostinaya (Gostinnaya), it regained its name, Morskaya Bolshaya Street, in the early 19th century. Bolshaya Morskaya Street is known for its fabled history as the address of some of Russia’s most notables and the architects who designed the buildings (homes) for the elite.
Building 61 is the former mansion of M.V. Lomonosov (1750-60s, reconstructed in the 1840s by architect A.K. Cavos). Alexander Pushkin lived in Building 26 in 1832. A.I. Herzen lived in Building 25 in 1840. Building 12 is the former house of Kotomin. Building 14 was owned by the Eliseevs since the middle of the 19th century. Building 11 is the former private house of architect P.P. Jacot (1830s). The Faberge firm owned Building 24 (1899, architect K.K Schmidt). Ural factory owner P.N. Demidov owned building 43 (1836-40) and 45 (1835-40) (architect A.A. Montferrand). The Nabokov Family owned building 47 (1898-1902, architects F.M. Geissler, V.F. Guslisty). Today it houses the Museum of V.V. Nabokov),
The Elegance of Malaya Sadovaya
Malaya Sadovaya Street (Russian: Малая Садовая Улица, meaning “Little Garden Street”) is a pedestrian street of cafes, terraces, and fountains in the heart of St. Petersburg. It runs between Italian Street and the Nevsky Prospect. Spanning a single block at about 574 feet, it St. Petersburg’s shortest street. Malaya Sadovaya Street also gained fame in a 1979 oil painting by the Russian artist Alexander Semionov, depicting Malaya Sadovaya Street in Leningrad on a rainy day.
The street’s Nevsky Prospect terminus is at Catherine Square, which features the monument to Catherine the Great by the sculptors Mikhail Mikeshin and Matthew Chizhov and by the architects Victor Schröter and David Grimm. The Italian Street leads into Manege Square, where there is a view of the portico of the great stables designed by Vincenzo Brenna and Karl Rossi.
Nevsky Prospect – Main Street
Recognized for its historical elegance, The Nevsky Prospekt is a part of UNESCO’s World Heritage list. Nikolai Gogol described the life of the avenue in his 1835 story, “Nevsky Prospekt.” Fyodor Dostoevsky used the Nevsky Prospekt as the setting in “Crime and Punishment” (1866) and “The Double: A Petersburg Poem” (1846). The café-restaurant that hosted the famous 19th-century writers of Russia’s Golden Age of the Russian literature remains today as the “Literary Cafe” on Nevsky Prospect.
Named after the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, the monastery which stands at the eastern end of the street, Nevsky Prospect (Russian: Не́вский проспе́кт, tr. Nevsky Prospekt, IPA: [ˈnʲɛfskʲɪj prɐˈspʲɛkt]) is the main street (high street) in the city of St. Petersburg. It commemorates the Russian hero Prince Saint Alexander Nevsky (1221-1263).
Following his founding of Saint Petersburg in 1703, Tsar Peter I designed the Nevsky Prospekt to lead to Novgorod and Moscow. It runs from the Admiralty in the west to the Moscow Railway Station and, after veering slightly southwards at Vosstaniya Square, to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Major sights include the Rastrelliesque Stroganov Palace, the grand neoclassical Kazan Cathedral, the Art Nouveau Bookhouse (originally the Singer House), Elisseeff Emporium, half a dozen 18th-century churches, a monument to Catherine the Great, the Great Gostiny Dvor, the Passage, the Russian National Library, the Alexandrinsky Theatre, and the Anichkov Bridge with its horse statues.
3. Gelendzhik
Black Sea Resort Christmas Tree – The Caucasus Mountains in background
Gelendzhik or Gelenjik (Russian: Геленджи́к) is a resort town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the Gelendzhik Bay of the Black Sea, between Novorossiysk (31 kilometers (19 miles) to the northwest) and Tuapse (93 kilometers (58 miles) to the southeast). Greater Gelendzhik runs for 102 kilometers (63 mi) along the coastline and covers 303,330 acres.
Formerly a Middle-Age mercantile trading area for Genoese traders, the bay later became a slave trading post for the mountaineers and the Ottoman Empire. Russia acquired the coast in the Treaty of Adrianople (1829). Gelendzhik derives its name from when Ottoman Turks traded gold and other commodities for Circassian beauties, taken as wives and concubines to Turkish seraglios. The market place became known as “Gelendzhik” (“Gelincik” – “little bride” in the Turkish Language).
4. Krasnodar
Krasnodar Stadium Park
The southern city Krasnodar (/ˌkrɑːsnəˈdɑːr, -noʊ-/;[16] Russian: Краснода́р, IPA: [krəsnɐˈdar]) on the Kuban River in Southern Russia is the largest city and the administrative center of Krasnodar Krai. Krasnodar dates back to 1793 as a fortress built by the Cossacks, which later became a trading center for southern Russia.
It is the sixteenth largest city in Russia, the second-largest city in Southern Russia, and the Southern Federal District. Krasnodar is a significant economic hub in southern Russia. In 2012, Forbes named it the best city for business in Russia. It was heavily damaged in World War II but rebuilt and renovated after the war. Krasnodar is home to the elegantly decorated Krasnodar Stadium (pictured) and FC Krasnodar, a professional football club in the Russian Premier League.
5. Belgorod
Cathedral Square in the south-western city of Belgorod
Belgorod (Russian: Белгород, IPA: [ˈbʲeɫɡərət]) is a city and the administrative center of Belgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the River Vezyolka near the Seversky Donets River 40 kilometers (25 mi) north of the Ukraine border. Belgorod is the closest major Russian city to Ukraine.
Belgorod (“white town” – likely from its distinctive chalk hills formations from the Campanian age in southwestern Russia), was generally considered to have been founded in 1593 (or 1596) during the reign of Tsar Feodor (1557-98), son of Ivan the Terrible and last ruler in the Riurikid dynasty. The story is that on Boris Godunov’s advice, the Tsar developed a series of fortified settlements to protect Muscovy’s southern borderlands. The Belgorod fortress became the anchor in the 17th century’s “Belgorod Line” – an essential bulwark against Crimean Tatars’ incursions.
6. Yakutsk
Yakutia Capital Christmas trees – Russia’s coldest region
Yakutsk (Russian: Якутск, IPA: [jɪˈkutsk]; Yakut: Дьокуускай, Cokuuskay, pronounced [ɟokuːskaj]) is the capital city of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located about 450 kilometers (280 mi) south of the Arctic Circle, in the Central Yakutian Lowland and is a major port on the Lena River. With an average temperature of −8.8 °C (16.2 °F), Yakutsk is generally the second coldest large city in the world after Norilsk. But as Yakutsk experiences colder temperatures in the winter, it is the coldest large city globally – the largest in continuous permafrost.
7. Samara
Europe’s largest luminous fountain – Volga River embankment in Samara.
Located at the tip of the Volga and the Samara rivers, Samara (Russian: Сама́ра, IPA: [sɐˈmarə]), known from 1935 to 1991 as Kuybyshev (Куйбышев; IPA: [ˈkujbɨʂɨf]), is the largest city and administrative center of Samara Oblast. It is the eighth-largest city in Russia. Once a closed city, Samara is now a large and important social, political, economic, industrial, and cultural center in Russia, hosting the European Union – Russia Summit in May 2007.
For centuries, the Volga River has been the lifeline of Samara, serving as Russia’s main commercial thoroughfare. Samara’s riverfront is a favorite recreational place for visiting Russians and foreign tourists. After the Soviet novelist Vasily Aksyonov visited Samara, he remarked: “I am not sure where in the West one can find such a long and beautiful embankment.” Its lighted fountain does the talking here.
Hope you enjoyed this small historical tour and tribute to Russian splendor and elegance this Christmas.
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