ИСТИНА

All-Union Exhibition of Economic Achievements, (VDNKH) in Moscow has just reclaimed its original name and is ready for another series of urban transformations. Current trend in growing interest to the Soviet cultural heritage, awareness among professionals and common people, the need to maintain and use the dilapidating propagandistic temples and palaces, as well as its misused public space have pursued the City Administration to look for investors and balance between the preservation and remodeling. This art-deco ensemble with many listed monuments, opened in 1939 as the All-Union Exhibition of Agriculture (VSKHV) meant to show the success of the Soviet economy, collectivization, mechanization and the road to the bright future. The media, documentary and fiction films broadly portrayed VSKHV festivals, shows, lectures, races and its overall theatrical abundance. Closed during the war, it was redesigned by 1954 with the allusions to the Empire Style, expressed in sophisticated shapes of buildings with the military décor. In 1959, pavilions became venues of industry branches, lost their flamboyant facades behind modernistic shields or just disappeared together with Stalin’s images. The park was renamed All-Union Exhibition of Economic Achievements (VDNKH). Perestroika of 1990s opened doors of spacious palaces to kiosks of popular goods and fast foods; new pavilions for commercial fairs were built. In 2013, Moscow City Administration proposed a new Plan of the Exhibition development to recreate the Soviet buildings and atmosphere. At the same time, new constructions arouse much criticism among historians and common people, who blame the authorities for the corruption, lack of historical expertise and public hearings. VDNKH has always mirrored even slight political, economic and social changes in the country and worldwide, which is true even today.