Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy (, ''Vystavka dostizheniy narodnogo khozyaystva'', abbreviated as VDNKh or VDNH, , ) is a permanent general purpose trade show and amusement park in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Between 1991 and 2014, it was also called the All-Russia Exhibition Centre (). It is a state

joint-stock company A joint-stock company (JSC) is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareho ...

Location and transportation

VDNKh is located in

Ostankinsky District Ostankinsky District, also called simply Ostankino, is an administrative district (raion) of North-Eastern Administrative Okrug, and one of the 125 raions of Moscow, Russia. VDNH exhibition center and Ostankino Tower, the tallest structure in E ...

of Moscow, less than a kilometer from

Ostankino Tower Ostankino Tower () is a television and radio tower in Moscow, Russia, owned by the Moscow branch of unitary enterprise Russian TV and Radio Broadcasting Network. Standing , it was designed by Nikolai Nikitin. , it is the tallest free-standin ...

. It is served by VDNKh subway station, as well as by

Moscow Monorail The Moscow Monorail (, ) (Line 13) is a monorail line located in the North-Eastern Administrative Okrug of Moscow, Russia. It runs from the Timiryazevskaya via Fonvisinskaya and VDNHa metro stations to Sergeya Eisensteina street. The monorail ...

Cosmonauts Alley Cosmonauts Alley () is a wide avenue in northern Moscow leading to the Russian Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics and the Monument to the Conquerors of Space. The pedestrian-only avenue connects the museum and monument to the VDNKh subway station.< ...

and the

Worker and Kolkhoz Woman ''Worker and Kolkhoz Woman'' () is a sculpture of two figures with a Hammer and sickle, sickle and a hammer raised over their heads. The concept and compositional design belong to the architect Boris Iofan. It is 24.5 metres (78 feet) h ...

statue are situated just outside the main entrance to VDNKh. It also borders Moscow Botanical Garden and a smaller , and in recent years the three parks served as a united park complex.

History

1935–1939 construction

The exhibition was established February 17, 1935 as the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (VSKhV) (; Vsesoyuznaya selsko-khozyaystvennaya vystavka). 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 Konstantinovich Oltarzhevsky (, 17 March 1880 – 24 April 1966) was a Russian and Soviet architect. He was one of the first Soviet experts in skyscraper construction, notable for his collaboration with Arkady Mordvinov on Radisson Ro ...

was approved in April 1936, and the first show season was announced to begin in July 1937 and was designed as a "City of Exhibitions" with streets and public spaces, which was very common in the 1930s. However, plans did not materialise, and three weeks before the deadline

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

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 Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...

, addressing the assembled

Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union The Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (SSUSSR) was the highest body of state authority of the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1936 to 1991. Based on the principle of unified power, it was the only branch of government in the So ...

, declared that the site was not ready, and the opening was postponed until August 1939. It finally opened on 1 August 1939, and was open to the public until 25 October. The 1940 and 1941 seasons followed but following German invasion in 1941 the exhibition was closed until the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. 1939 pavilions, as presented in 1950 album and today: Image:Pavillion Kirgizia VDNKh 01.jpg, Pavilion of

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains, Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Kyrgyzstan, largest city. Kyrgyz ...

Image:Belarus 2-VDNH-101008.jpg, Pavilion of

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

Image:Pavillon Uzbekistan 01.jpg, Pavilion of

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

Image:Pavillion Karelia VDNKh 01.jpg, Pavilion of

Karelia Karelia (; Karelian language, Karelian and ; , historically Коре́ла, ''Korela'' []; ) is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Russia (including the Soviet Union, Soviet era), Finland, and Sweden. It is currentl ...

Image:ВДНХ. Павильон №58 («Украина»).jpg, Pavilion of

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

Image:Pavillion No2 VDNKh 02.jpg, Pavilion of

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, or Ciscaucasia, is a subregion in Eastern Europe governed by Russia. It constitutes the northern part of the wider Caucasus region, which separates Europe and Asia. The North Caucasus is bordered by the Sea of Azov and the B ...

Image:"утраченный павильон Туркменской ССР на ВСХВ".jpg, Pavilion of

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

Image:VDNKh-Armenia.jpg, Pavilion of

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

1948–1959 renovation

In October 1948 the State ordered the renewal of 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 the 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 (, Vystavka dostizheniy narodnovo khozyaystva) or ВДНХ/VDNKh. By 1989 the exhibition had 82 pavilions with an exhibition area of 700,000 square metres. Each pavilion (including the 1939 "regions") had been dedicated to a particular industry or field: the ''Engineering Pavilion'' (1954), the ''Space Pavilion'' (1966), the ''Central Industrial Zones Pavilion'' (1955), the ''Atomic Energy Pavilion'' (1954), the ''People's Education Pavilion'' (1954), the ''Radioelectronics Pavilion'' (1958), the ''Soviet Culture Pavilion'' (1964). During Soviet times, each year VDNKh hosted more than 300 national and international exhibitions and many conferences, seminars and meetings of scientists and industry professionals. The most memorable feature of the exhibition site was the ''

'' (''Rabochiy i kolkhoznitsa'') statue, featuring the gigantic figures of a man and woman holding together the "

hammer and sickle The hammer and sickle (Unicode: ) is a communist symbol representing proletarian solidarity between industrial and agricultural workers. It was first adopted during the Russian Revolution at the end of World War I, the hammer representing wo ...

". The sculpture, which reaches 25 meters toward the sky, was designed by

Vera Mukhina Vera Ignatyevna Mukhina (; ; – 6 October 1953) was a Soviet sculptor and painter. She was nicknamed "the queen of Soviet sculpture". She was one of the members of the art association ‘ The Four Arts’, which existed in Moscow and Leningrad ...

and originally crowned the 35-meter-tall Soviet pavilion at the Paris

Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937) The ''Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne'' (International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life) was held from 25 May to 25 November 1937 in Paris, France. Both the Palais de Chaillot, housing the Mu ...

Present day

In 1992, VDNKh was renamed, receiving the new acronym VVC, which remained in use until 2014. It occupies 2,375,000 square metres of which 266,000 square metres are used for indoor exhibits. The territory of VDNKh is greater than that of the Principality of

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

and has approximately 400 buildings. Inadequate maintenance of Vera Mukhina's statue caused such disrepair that the statue was disassembled. 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 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 "VDNKh" (or VVTs) complex still operates including the name of a nearby

subway station A metro station or subway station is a train station for a rapid transit system, which as a whole is usually called a "metro" or "subway". A station provides a means for passengers to purchase Train ticket, tickets, board trains, and Emerg ...

and some sights. During winter, VDNKh converts into a main Skating Rink.

Restoration

On 14 May 2014 the previous name VDNKh was restored, following an interactive poll. In addition, the mayor of Moscow announced that the Russian space shuttle, the structural test article - TVA, which was an attraction and restaurant at Gorky Park in Moscow was to be moved to the VNDKh, to be displayed near the

Vostok Vostok () refers to east in Russian but may also refer to: Spaceflight * Vostok programme, Soviet human spaceflight project * Vostok (spacecraft), a type of spacecraft built by the Soviet Union * Vostok (rocket family), family of rockets derived ...

rocket in front of the Cosmos hall. It was moved 5–6 July 2014 and re-assembled by 21 July. In September 2018, Sergey Shogurov was appointed as CEO of VDNK. New museum and exhibition spaces were opened, a Landscape Park was created, and objects of cultural heritage were carried out, public electric transport was launched. In 2019, the restoration of the "Fraternity of peoples" and "Stone Flower" fountains was completed. File:Russia-Moscow-VDNH-3.jpg, Central Pavilion File:VDNH joy-wheel.jpg, Moscow-850 Ferris wheel File:Pavilion_"Agriculture"_Павильон_«Земледелие».jpg, Pavilion "Agriculture" File:Moscow VDNKh Russian SFSR Pavilion asv2018-08.jpg, The Pavilion of Atomic energy File:"вход на ВСХВ 1939 года в 2009 году".jpg, The old entrance gate to the exhibition centre File:Russia-Moscow-VVC-KrugovayaKinopanorama.jpg, Cirkorama theatre File:Центр Космонавтики и Авиации, Москва 20 - Cosmonautics and Aviation Center, Moscow.jpg, The Cosmonautics and Aviation Centre located in the Cosmos pavilion

The site

The exhibition centre was built in the era of

. The place selected was Moscow's northern suburb Ostankino. The main planner was

who planned a central avenue with fountains, small roads and a large square facing the central pavilion at the end of the avenue. A statue of

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

used to stand in the front of the pavilion. There is a fountain called "

The Stone Flower Fountain The Stone Flower Fountain () stands in the so-called "Industrial Square" of the VDNKh (Russia), Exhibition of Economic Achievements (VDNH) in Moscow, Russia. It was named and designed after the eponymous flower from Pavel Bazhov's fairy-tale "The S ...

" facing the ''Ukraine Pavilion''. There is a smaller square facing the ''Space Pavilion'' in the centre of which stood a

Tupolev Tu-154 The Tupolev Tu-154 (; NATO reporting name: "Careless") is a three-engined, medium-range, narrow-body airliner designed in the mid-1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. A workhorse of Soviet and (subsequently) Russian airlines for several decades, ...

aircraft, placed there in 1976 after the pavilion of ''Agricultural Machinery'' became the ''Cosmos Pavilion''. This aircraft was scrapped on 13 September 2008. A large statue of

stood in the square until 1948. This had previously stood on the banks of the

Moskva River The Moskva (, ''Moskva-reka'') is a river that flows through western Russia. It rises about west of Moscow and flows roughly east through the Smolensk and Moscow Oblasts, passing through central Moscow. About southeast of Moscow, at the cit ...

in the city centre. The square is called ''The Industrial Square''. The ''

'' sculpture was originally created to crown the Soviet pavilion of the 1937 World's Fair in Paris. The organizers had placed the Soviet and Nazi pavilions facing each other across the main pedestrian boulevard at the Trocadéro on the north bank of the Seine.

Gallery

File:030523-VDNKh-Moscow-IMG 9338-2.jpg, Main entrance arch VDNH,

File:030523-VDNKh-Moscow-IMG 9331-2.jpg, Main entrance arch VDNH,

File:030523-VDNKh-Moscow-IMG 9349-2.jpg, Pavilion № 1 Central, VDNKh,

File:Central pavilion Центральный павильон.jpg File:Moscow. Central pavilion VDNKh P5293171 2350.jpg File:Central Pavilion (fragment) Центральный павильон (фрагмент) 6812.jpg

References

External links

Official website
in infoservices website
General information
in russianmuseums website
Virtual tours and panoramas of the VDNH VDNH
in WikiMapia website
A comprehensive architectural history of the Exhibition in Russian
{{Authority control Tourist attractions in Moscow Buildings and structures built in the Soviet Union Buildings and structures in Moscow Soviet art Economy of the Soviet Union Trade fairs in Russia Convention centers in Russia Buildings and structures completed in 1939 Stalinist architecture Soviet phraseology Trade fair venues Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Moscow