Moscow's communist-era carbuncle

By Steve Rosenberg BBC correspondent, Moscow

Pulling down the Hotel Rossiya - a giant 1960s eyesore in Red Square - will surely improve central Moscow, but perhaps we underestimate exactly what the building means to the Russian people.

St Basil's is one of the most recognisable buildings in Russia

Legend has it that when Ivan the Terrible had finished building St Basil's Cathedral on Red Square, so overwhelmed was he by its beauty, its twisting onion domes, its kaleidoscope of colours, that he ordered the eyes of the architects be gouged out... just to make sure they could never build anything more stunning than his unique church.

I recall this gruesome story every time I go down to Red Square and look at what the Soviets managed to build next to St Basil's, 400 years later.

A construction so grey, so hideous, that if Ivan the Terrible had ever had the misfortune of being around to see it, he would surely have taken the hot poker to his own eyes.

I am talking about the Hotel Rossiya; once the biggest hotel in the world, still the biggest - and possibly one of the ugliest - in Europe.

Three thousand rooms buried inside a belly of steel and concrete - the size of 20 football pitches.

It rises above the centre of Moscow like a greedy monster, blotting out the beauty of St Basil's and the Kremlin.

A communist-era carbuncle.

Fleeing the past

Back in the 1960s, though, when the hotel was built, architectural monstrosities were all the rage.

Hotel Rossiya is surrounded by historic buildings

Anything big was considered beautiful, especially if it happened to be bigger than anything the Americans could come up with.

A Russian friend of mine, Boris, hailed it as a modern masterpiece.

"When I first saw the Rossiya", Boris told me, "it made me so proud to live in the Soviet Union."

Boris must have noticed my eyebrows rise in disbelief, he quickly added some explanation.

"You must understand, Steve, life was so different then. We were brought up to despise the Tsarist past - all the onion domes, the beautiful palaces.

The Hotel Rossiya gained a reputation for being a three-star hotel offering five-star nightmares

"To me St Basil's was the Beast, the Hotel Rossiya - the new Beauty."

It all sounded very revolutionary.

I had visions of Boris goose-stepping his way down the Rossiya's dark corridors in search of communism, a portrait of Lenin in one hand, a hotel key in the other.

But then again, it was precisely for revolutionaries that the Rossiya was built.

Moscow was in desperate need of a hotel large enough to accommodate the thousands of communists who descended on the Soviet capital for party functions.

Clashing of eras

Looking up at this architectural ogre today, it is hard to believe that for many years the Rossiya was the most prestigious hotel this side of the Berlin Wall.

Hotel Rossiya boasted a health club, nightclub and cinema

Waiting lists for rooms were as long as the Russian winter. Getting in was a sign of getting on, of climbing the party ladder.

Not surprisingly, this glorious chapter in the Rossiya's history is well-documented in the hotel's museum. It is packed full of Lenin busts, and various trophies awarded to the hotel by the Communist Party.

Rather bizarrely, there are also photos of George Bush Sr having his hair cut in the hotel's salon on a past trip.

But then, just like the party it was built to serve, things began to go wrong for Russia's premier hotel.

In 1977 a fire killed more than 40 guests and destroyed a large section of the building. There were problems with hygiene.

Foreign tourists began complaining about cockroaches and bed bugs and the hotel became synonymous with surly Soviet service.

It gained a reputation for being a three-star hotel offering five-star nightmares.

And then the Iron Curtain came crashing down.

It meant that Russians, like Boris, were finally able to travel the world. And when they did, the bubble burst.

"It's only when I saw London and Paris", Boris told me, "that I realised how ugly our Hotel Rossiya was and how much it spoilt the centre of Moscow."

Mayor Yuri Luzhkov is changing the landscape in Moscow

In the past 10 years capitalism has dealt a heavy blow. With the appearance of luxury five-star hotels in the Russian capital, the Rossiya has become an embarrassing eyesore.

The writing was on the wall.

Those walls will soon be coming down.

The city's Mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, says he is going to demolish this giant piece of Soviet hotel history and replace it with something more in keeping with the historical beauty of Moscow.

Mr Luzhkov enjoys knocking things down. He has already razed two other Soviet-era hotels in the centre to make way for top of the range accommodation.

My friend Boris has mixed feelings about the decision.

"There's so much history within these walls," he told me.

He went all nostalgic, recalling the girlfriends he wined and dined in the hotel cafes and the stars of stage and screen he bumped into here.

"It may be an ugly old building", he concluded, "but it's still part of my life."

From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday, 14 August, 2004 at 1130 BST on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission times.