All-Russia Exhibition Centre
Encyclopedia
All-Russia Exhibition Centre (Всероссийский выставочный центр - called also: "All-Russian Exhibition Center") is a permanent general-purpose trade show in Moscow
, Russia
.
The "All-Russia Exhibition Centre" is a state joint-stock company, officially abbreviated as GAO "VVC", which stands for "Gosudarstvennoye Aktsionernoye Obshchestvo 'Vserossiyskiy Vystavochny Centr'".
VVC is a member of exhibition associations: IUEF (since 1991) and UFI
(since 1997).
The exhibition was established February 17, 1935 as the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (VSKhV) . An existing site (then known as Ostankino Park, a country territory recently incorporated into the city limits), was approved in August, 1935. The master plan by Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky
was approved in April, 1936, and the first show season was announced to begin in July, 1937.
However, plans did not materialise, and three weeks before the deadline Joseph Stalin
personally postponed the exhibition by one year (to August 1938). It seemed that this time everything would be ready on time, but again the builders failed to complete their work, and regional authorities failed to select and deliver proper exhibits. Some pavilions and the 1937 entrance gates by Oltarzhevsky were torn down to be replaced with more appropriate structures (most pavilions were criticised for having no windows). According to Oltarzhevsky's original plan, all of the pavilions were to be constructed from wood. In 1938, a government commission examined the construction and decided that it did not suit the ideological direction of the moment. The exhibition was considered too modest and too temporary. Oltarzhevsky was arrested, together with the Commissar for Agriculture and his staff, and eventually released in 1943. Later, he worked on the 1947-1953 Moscow skyscraper project
.
As a result, in August 1938 Nikita Khrushchev
, speaking at the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union assembly, declared that the site is not ready, and the opening was extended to August, 1939. It opened indeed August 1, 1939, and worked in 8AM - 11PM mode until October 25 (40,000 daily attendance). 1940 and 1941 seasons followed; after the German invasion
, July 1, 1941 the exhibition was closed - until the end of World War II
.
1939 pavilions, as presented in 1950 album and today:
.jpg)
By 1989 the exhibition had 82 pavilion
s with the exhibition area of 700,000 square metres. Each pavilion (including the 1939 "regions") had been dedicated to a particular industry or a field: the Engineering Pavilion (1954), the Space Pavilion (1966), the Atomic Energy Pavilion (1954), the People's Education Pavilion (1954), the Radioelectronics Pavilion (1958), the Soviet Culture Pavilion (1964).
During the Soviet times, each year VDNKh hosted more than 300 national and international exhibitions and many conferences, seminars and meetings of scientists and industry professionals. These events attracted about 11 million visitors annually, including 600,000 guests from outside the Soviet Union
. The "Radioelectronics" exhibition hall for some years housed the working (and unique) prototypes of the most advanced ES EVM
computers to date, which were time-shared by many research organisations right on the premises.
The most memorable feature of the exhibition site was the statue Worker and Kolkhoz Woman
(Rabochiy i Kolkhoznitsa), featuring the gigantic figures of a man and woman holding together the famous "hammer and sickle
". The sculpture, which reaches 25 meters toward the sky, was created by Vera Mukhina
and originally crowned the 35-meter-tall Soviet pavilion at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937)
. The statue was featured on a logo of Mosfilm
, Russia's largest movie studio.
of production, Model 005) in front of the pavilion was dismantled on September 14, 2008. This Tupolev Tu-154 was used as a flight testbed.]]
In 1992, VDNKh was renamed, receiving its current name VVC. It occupies 2,375,000 square metres of which 266,000 square metres are used for indoor exhibits. The territory of VVC is greater than that of the Principality of Monaco
and has approximately 400 buildings. Inadequate maintenance of Vera Mukhina's statue caused such disrepair that the statue was disassembled (see 2006 photographs of what's left). It was slated to be refurbished and installed on the top of the new pavilion by 2008, but funding shortages lead to dragged-out restoration. It was finally reerected in December 2009, now standing atop of a large constructivist pavilion, apparently recreating the original exhibition pavilion from the 1937 World's Fair in Paris
that it was designed for.
The term "VDNKh" is still in use, including the name of a nearby subway station
.
Currently, the larger international exhibitions are mostly held at the new facilities of Moscow Expo Center
.
to create a cultural center by a Soviet city figure that glorify the ideology of communism and socialism. The place that was selected was Moscow's northern suburb called "Ostankino". The main planner was the architect Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky
who was planning a central avenue with fountains with small roads and at the end of the avenue a big square facing the central pavilion. A statue of Vladimir Lenin
used to stand in the front of the pavilion. In the central square there is a big fountain called "the friendship of people fountain" which was created to glorify the people of the Soviet Union pending later there is another fountain that called "stone flower fountain" facing the "Ukraine Pavilion". Later there is another little square facing the Space Pavilion which in the center of the square standing a Tupolev Tu-154
aircraft, placed there in the 1960s after the pavilion of "agricultural machinery" become the "space pavilion". A big statue of Joseph Stalin
stood in the square until 1948. This had previously stood on the banks of the Moskva River
in the center of the city. the square is called "the Industrial Square".
The northern area of the site is a common area between the exhibition center and the botanic garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences
nearby and in it an agricultural pavilions and estate Pools vegetation with the "Michurin's Garden" and the "golden spike fountain". All the fountains in the center are covered with gold. There are also many statues scattered on site and especially statues of the leaders of the Soviet Union. In addition in the site there are also cinemas, cafe houses, theatre
pavilions and also a church built after the fall of the Soviet Union.
In the southern area of the site near the central entrance there is an Amusement Park
with the Moscow-850
Ferris wheel
, built in 2004 as part of Moscow's 850th anniversary celebrations. also built the restord pavilion of the soviet pavilion that was on Expo 67
that was in 1967 in Montreal
and become the "Moscow pavilion". All the pavilions and the fountains were planned by Soviet architects and the fountains were designed by Soviet artists. All designed in Stalinist architecture
, some pavilions were built in wedding cake style like the "central pavilion" that was famous in the communist states in that time.
In 2008 the "big constructivist pavilion" was built as a replica of the original Soviet pavilion of 1937 Expo that stood opposite the Nazi pavilion. In 2009 the renovated Statue of Worker and Kolkhoz Woman
was erected on top of that building.
In 1954 building the gates with the central entrance gate and the "tractor driver and sovkhoz woman" statue that was stood near the central pavilion in the 1930s. To the center exhibitions there are six gates and today can be rent a car or bicycles that can be used to travel around the site.
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
The "All-Russia Exhibition Centre" is a state joint-stock company, officially abbreviated as GAO "VVC", which stands for "Gosudarstvennoye Aktsionernoye Obshchestvo 'Vserossiyskiy Vystavochny Centr'".
VVC is a member of exhibition associations: IUEF (since 1991) and UFI
UFI
UFI, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, is the association of trade show organisers, fairground owners, national and international associations of the exhibition industry, and its partners.UFI was founded on April 15, 1925, in Milan, Italy, by 20 European international trade fairs...
(since 1997).
1935-1939 construction
This section is based on Soviet public documents, available in Russian at www.bcxb.ruThe exhibition was established February 17, 1935 as the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (VSKhV) . An existing site (then known as Ostankino Park, a country territory recently incorporated into the city limits), was approved in August, 1935. The master plan by Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky
Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky
Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Oltarzhevsky was a Russian Soviet architect. He was one of the first Soviet experts in skyscraper construction, notable for his collaboration with Arkady Mordvinov on Hotel Ukraina...
was approved in April, 1936, and the first show season was announced to begin in July, 1937.
However, plans did not materialise, and three weeks before the deadline Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
personally postponed the exhibition by one year (to August 1938). It seemed that this time everything would be ready on time, but again the builders failed to complete their work, and regional authorities failed to select and deliver proper exhibits. Some pavilions and the 1937 entrance gates by Oltarzhevsky were torn down to be replaced with more appropriate structures (most pavilions were criticised for having no windows). According to Oltarzhevsky's original plan, all of the pavilions were to be constructed from wood. In 1938, a government commission examined the construction and decided that it did not suit the ideological direction of the moment. The exhibition was considered too modest and too temporary. Oltarzhevsky was arrested, together with the Commissar for Agriculture and his staff, and eventually released in 1943. Later, he worked on the 1947-1953 Moscow skyscraper project
Seven Sisters (Moscow)
The "Seven Sisters" is the English name given to a group of Moscow skyscrapers designed in the Stalinist style. Muscovites call them Vysotki or Stalinskie Vysotki , " high-rises"...
.
As a result, in August 1938 Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
, speaking at the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union assembly, declared that the site is not ready, and the opening was extended to August, 1939. It opened indeed August 1, 1939, and worked in 8AM - 11PM mode until October 25 (40,000 daily attendance). 1940 and 1941 seasons followed; after the German invasion
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, July 1, 1941 the exhibition was closed - until the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
1939 pavilions, as presented in 1950 album and today:
1948-1959 renovation
In October, 1948 the State ordered to renew the Exhibition, starting with the 1950 season. Again, the opening was postponed more than once; the first post-war season opened in 1954 (still as Agricultural exhibition). In 1956 season the planners set aside an Industrial area within the main territory; more restructuring and rebuilding followed. In 1959 the park was renamed Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy or ВДНХ/VDNKh.Pavilion (structure)
In architecture a pavilion has two main meanings.-Free-standing structure:Pavilion may refer to a free-standing structure sited a short distance from a main residence, whose architecture makes it an object of pleasure. Large or small, there is usually a connection with relaxation and pleasure in...
s with the exhibition area of 700,000 square metres. Each pavilion (including the 1939 "regions") had been dedicated to a particular industry or a field: the Engineering Pavilion (1954), the Space Pavilion (1966), the Atomic Energy Pavilion (1954), the People's Education Pavilion (1954), the Radioelectronics Pavilion (1958), the Soviet Culture Pavilion (1964).
During the Soviet times, each year VDNKh hosted more than 300 national and international exhibitions and many conferences, seminars and meetings of scientists and industry professionals. These events attracted about 11 million visitors annually, including 600,000 guests from outside the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. The "Radioelectronics" exhibition hall for some years housed the working (and unique) prototypes of the most advanced ES EVM
ES EVM
ES EVM was a series of clones of IBM's System/360 and System/370 mainframes, released in the Comecon countries under the initiative of the Soviet Union since the 1960s. Production continued until 1998...
computers to date, which were time-shared by many research organisations right on the premises.
The most memorable feature of the exhibition site was the statue Worker and Kolkhoz Woman
Worker and Kolkhoz Woman
Worker and Kolkhoz Woman is a 24.5 meter high sculpture made from stainless steel by Vera Mukhina for the 1937 World's Fair in Paris, and subsequently moved to Moscow. The sculpture is an example of the socialist realistic style, as well as Art Deco style...
(Rabochiy i Kolkhoznitsa), featuring the gigantic figures of a man and woman holding together the famous "hammer and sickle
Hammer and sickle
The hammer and sickle is a part of communist symbolism and its usage indicates an association with Communism, a Communist party, or a Communist state. It features a hammer and a sickle overlapping each other. The two tools are symbols of the industrial proletariat and the peasantry; placing them...
". The sculpture, which reaches 25 meters toward the sky, was created by Vera Mukhina
Vera Mukhina
Vera Ignatyevna Mukhina was a prominent Soviet sculptor.- Life :Mukhina was born in Riga into a wealthy merchant family, and lived at Turgeneva st. 23/25, where a memorial plaque has now been placed. She later moved to Moscow, where she studied at several private art schools, including those of...
and originally crowned the 35-meter-tall Soviet pavilion at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937)
Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937)
The Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne was held from May 25 to November 25, 1937 in Paris, France...
. The statue was featured on a logo of Mosfilm
Mosfilm
Mosfilm is a film studio, which is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. Its output includes most of the more widely-acclaimed Soviet films, ranging from works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein , to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production and the epic Война и Мир...
, Russia's largest movie studio.
Present day
In 1992, VDNKh was renamed, receiving its current name VVC. It occupies 2,375,000 square metres of which 266,000 square metres are used for indoor exhibits. The territory of VVC is greater than that of the Principality of Monaco
Monaco
Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...
and has approximately 400 buildings. Inadequate maintenance of Vera Mukhina's statue caused such disrepair that the statue was disassembled (see 2006 photographs of what's left). It was slated to be refurbished and installed on the top of the new pavilion by 2008, but funding shortages lead to dragged-out restoration. It was finally reerected in December 2009, now standing atop of a large constructivist pavilion, apparently recreating the original exhibition pavilion from the 1937 World's Fair in Paris
Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937)
The Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne was held from May 25 to November 25, 1937 in Paris, France...
that it was designed for.
The term "VDNKh" is still in use, including the name of a nearby subway station
VDNKh (Metro)
VDNKh is a Moscow Metro station in Ostankino District, North-Eastern Administrative Okrug, Moscow. It is on the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya Line, between Alexeyevskaya and Botanichesky Sad stations....
.
Currently, the larger international exhibitions are mostly held at the new facilities of Moscow Expo Center
Moscow Expo Center
Expocentre is an internationally acclaimed exhibition company. In 2009, it has celebrated its 50th anniversary. During all these years, Expocentre has maintained its status as the largest organizer of international exhibitions and conventions in Russia, the CIS, and Eastern Europe as well as an...
.
The site
The exhibition center was rebuilt by the vision of Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
to create a cultural center by a Soviet city figure that glorify the ideology of communism and socialism. The place that was selected was Moscow's northern suburb called "Ostankino". The main planner was the architect Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky
Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky
Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Oltarzhevsky was a Russian Soviet architect. He was one of the first Soviet experts in skyscraper construction, notable for his collaboration with Arkady Mordvinov on Hotel Ukraina...
who was planning a central avenue with fountains with small roads and at the end of the avenue a big square facing the central pavilion. A statue of Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
used to stand in the front of the pavilion. In the central square there is a big fountain called "the friendship of people fountain" which was created to glorify the people of the Soviet Union pending later there is another fountain that called "stone flower fountain" facing the "Ukraine Pavilion". Later there is another little square facing the Space Pavilion which in the center of the square standing a Tupolev Tu-154
Tupolev Tu-154
The Tupolev Tu-154 is a three-engine medium-range narrow-body airliner designed in the mid 1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. As the mainstay 'workhorse' of Soviet and Russian airlines for several decades, it serviced over a sixth of the world's landmass and carried half of all passengers flown...
aircraft, placed there in the 1960s after the pavilion of "agricultural machinery" become the "space pavilion". A big statue of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
stood in the square until 1948. This had previously stood on the banks of the Moskva River
Moskva River
The Moskva River is a river that flows through the Moscow and Smolensk Oblasts in Russia, and is a tributary of the Oka River.-Etymology:...
in the center of the city. the square is called "the Industrial Square".
The northern area of the site is a common area between the exhibition center and the botanic garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....
nearby and in it an agricultural pavilions and estate Pools vegetation with the "Michurin's Garden" and the "golden spike fountain". All the fountains in the center are covered with gold. There are also many statues scattered on site and especially statues of the leaders of the Soviet Union. In addition in the site there are also cinemas, cafe houses, theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
pavilions and also a church built after the fall of the Soviet Union.
In the southern area of the site near the central entrance there is an Amusement Park
Amusement park
thumb|Cinderella Castle in [[Magic Kingdom]], [[Disney World]]Amusement and theme parks are terms for a group of entertainment attractions and rides and other events in a location for the enjoyment of large numbers of people...
with the Moscow-850
Moscow-850
Moscow-850 is a giant Ferris wheel located at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre, Moscow, Russia.Moscow-850 has a diameter of and an overall height of . Constructed for Moscow's 1997 850th anniversary, it was promoted as the highest attraction in Moscow and Eastern Europe. It has 40 passenger cars,...
Ferris wheel
Ferris wheel
A Ferris wheel is a nonbuilding structure consisting of a rotating upright wheel with passenger cars attached to the rim in such a way that as the wheel turns, the cars are kept upright, usually by gravity.Some of the largest and most modern Ferris wheels have cars mounted on...
, built in 2004 as part of Moscow's 850th anniversary celebrations. also built the restord pavilion of the soviet pavilion that was on Expo 67
Expo 67
The 1967 International and Universal Exposition or Expo 67, as it was commonly known, was the general exhibition, Category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It is considered to be the most successful World's Fair of the 20th century, with the...
that was in 1967 in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
and become the "Moscow pavilion". All the pavilions and the fountains were planned by Soviet architects and the fountains were designed by Soviet artists. All designed in Stalinist architecture
Stalinist architecture
Stalinist architecture , also referred to as Stalinist Gothic, or Socialist Classicism, is a term given to architecture of the Soviet Union between 1933, when Boris Iofan's draft for Palace of the Soviets was officially approved, and 1955, when Nikita Khrushchev condemned "excesses" of the past...
, some pavilions were built in wedding cake style like the "central pavilion" that was famous in the communist states in that time.
In 2008 the "big constructivist pavilion" was built as a replica of the original Soviet pavilion of 1937 Expo that stood opposite the Nazi pavilion. In 2009 the renovated Statue of Worker and Kolkhoz Woman
Worker and Kolkhoz Woman
Worker and Kolkhoz Woman is a 24.5 meter high sculpture made from stainless steel by Vera Mukhina for the 1937 World's Fair in Paris, and subsequently moved to Moscow. The sculpture is an example of the socialist realistic style, as well as Art Deco style...
was erected on top of that building.
In 1954 building the gates with the central entrance gate and the "tractor driver and sovkhoz woman" statue that was stood near the central pavilion in the 1930s. To the center exhibitions there are six gates and today can be rent a car or bicycles that can be used to travel around the site.
See also
- A comprehensive architectural history of the Exhibition in Russian: www.bcxb.ru
- Stalinist architectureStalinist architectureStalinist architecture , also referred to as Stalinist Gothic, or Socialist Classicism, is a term given to architecture of the Soviet Union between 1933, when Boris Iofan's draft for Palace of the Soviets was officially approved, and 1955, when Nikita Khrushchev condemned "excesses" of the past...
- Moscow Expo CenterMoscow Expo CenterExpocentre is an internationally acclaimed exhibition company. In 2009, it has celebrated its 50th anniversary. During all these years, Expocentre has maintained its status as the largest organizer of international exhibitions and conventions in Russia, the CIS, and Eastern Europe as well as an...
External links
- VVC website
- map of the VVC in infoservices website
- general information in russianmuseums website
- virtual tours and panoramas of the VVC
- Editing All-Russia Exhibition Centre in WikiMapiaWikimapiaWikiMapia is a privately owned, online map and satellite imaging resource that combines Google Maps with a wiki system, allowing users to add information, in the form of a note, to any location on Earth. Users may currently use this information for free...
website