Diorama, Culture & Art

Diorama of Moscow

A unique Moscow diorama was made in 1977 following a request by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of USSR for the occasion of having a national exhibition in the USA. This diorama became a sensation: every day up to 40 thousand persons came to see it at the Deer Park in New York. Later on, in the 1980s, this diorama was taken to Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Germany and France. When it finally came back to the home country, it was at first shown at the Exhibition of Economic Achievement in Moscow and later on at the exhibition hall on Namyotkin street. In 2007 the Moscow diorama was acquired by the hotel, carefully restored and refitted. This work required three years (2007-2010) to be completed, as long as the refurbishing and the modernization of the hotel lasted.

  • The diorama shows the area of downtown Moscow and its surrounding neighborhoods (from Sofiiskaya to Luzhnetskaya Quays) as they looked in 1977. It features multiple details, high degree of precision and accuracy. Lighting equipment create an illusion for changing daylight or night-time effects. During active mode the presentation of the diorama can be followed in Russian, English, French, German and Chinese languages. A screen is available for viewing a slide show.
  • Diorama is available at any time.
  • Name: Moscow Diorama
  • Year when created: 1977
  • Authors: a group of layout artists under painter Efim Deshalyt.
  • Characteristics: scale 1:75, exposition area is ca. 400 sq. m.; the area of the painted canvas is 97.5 sq. m.
  • Collection of sculptures

    During the hotel’s restoration from march 2007 till 2010, its cultural artifacts collection was, both, delicately restored and enlarged with diorama of Moscow and 57 sculptures of the Soviet period. The collection of sculptures is of great art value, as it consists of unique works, gathered over Moscow and Saint-Petersburg studios of talented artists. Some sculptures were possible to restore, some were anew casted.

    • Bright images of the socialistic realism- ideological and people’s, allegoric and portrait, expressed in marbles, bronze, plaster and porcelain, - fill with life the space of the hotel. Pushkin, Lermontov, Esenin, Chekhov, Tolstoy, Mayakovski, Kutuzov, Gagarin were not its guests, however they “live” here in sculpture images, created over 50 years ago by genius art masters, such as: N.S. Kochukov, P.A.Yakimovich , M.R.Gabe ,O.K.Komov, A.A.Murzin, I.A. Venkova, A.M. Ignatyev and a famous artist, author of unique sculpture works, beatifying the Moscow Metro G.I.Motovilov.
    • Collection of paintings

        UKRAINA Hotel’s art collection of original paintings contains 1,256 canvases.

      • The collection represents the famous and most recognizable classic artists of the socialist realism period: Alexander Deineka, Aristarkh Lentulov, Dmitry Nalbandyan, Nikolay Romadin, Michael Suzdaltsev, KuKryNikSy and many others, who are not so familiar in expert and amateur circles. The most interesting artists of the Soviet period are also presented, such as Y. Romas, M. Birnshtein, A. Nikich, S. Luchishkin, G. Nissky, M. and E. Aslamasyan, P. Sokolov-Skalya, N. Denisovksy, and M. Ivanov. Added to this collection are the works by Vasily Polenov: sketches of 1910-1912, created during his travels around Sudak (Crimea).
      • Most of the paintings date from after the war until the end of the 50s. They were provided to the Hotel by the Center for Painting and Art Design at the RSFSR Arts Foundation.
      • Painted ceiling lamp

        The famous painted ceiling lamp called Festival of Labor and Harvest in Hospitable Ukraine was created in 1957 for the decoration of the hotel lobby representing a striking example of the “Stalinist Empire” style.

      • The picture shows a popular festival in Soviet Ukraine: elegantly dressed industry and agriculture workers from this socialist republic “descend” to the viewer over the wide staircase carrying in their hands both their instruments and the harvested results of their toil. National emblem, flying flags, sheaves of wheat are all the characteristic elements of the period which can also be seen in the architectural decoration of the building.
      • During the modernization of the hotel (2007-2010) this painted ceiling lamp was restored and, in keeping with the original idea, dramatic painted frame and accent lighting were added to it.
      • Name: Festival of Labor and Harvest in Hospitable Ukraine
      • Year when created: 1957
      • Authors: A. Gavrikov, I. Vaynman, Ch. Akhmarov
      • Ceiling lamp diameter: 10 meters