VDNKH EXHIBITION: STALINIST MAIN PROPAGANDA VENUE AND ITS TRANSFORMATIONS OF TODAY

The Moscow All-Union Exhibition of Agriculture (VSKHV) since 1939 or, as it has been known since 1959, the All-Union Exhibition of Economic Achievements, (VDNKH), has just reclaimed its second original name and is ready for another series of urban transformations. The current trend of the growing interest in Soviet cultural heritage, awareness among professionals and common people, together with the need to maintain and use the dilapidating propagandistic Stalinist “temples” and “palaces”, as well as its misused public space have convinced the City Administration to look for investors and balance between preservation and remodelling. This paper explores both professional and public attitudes toward this place, how bloggers and web-pages reflect on what is going on there, and asks whether the Exhibition is seen as a glorious history of the fallen regime or is it still a vision of a bright future, as once declared by the designers of the Exhibition.