Before and after: How Moscow has changed over the past 150 years

We selected the most interesting photographs of Moscow from different parts of the 19th and 20th centuries and then visited the same places with a camera to see how the capital has changed over time.

1980s: Pyatnitskaya Street

Pyatnitskaya Street (June 1, 1988 - Aug. 30, 1991) / 2020

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1972: Chugunny Bridge

View of Pyatnitskaya Street from Chugunny Bridge (June 11, 1972) / 2020

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1994: Pyatnitskaya Street

View of Pyatnitskaya Street (Feb. 1994) / 2020

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1963: Monument to the Conquerors of Space

Monument to the Conquerors of Space during construction (1963) / 2020

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1956: Main entrance to VDNKh

Main entrance to VDNKh (March 15, 1956) / 2020

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1940: Worker and Kolkhoz Woman

Worker and Kolkhoz Woman. Sculpture by Vera Mukhina. (1940) / 2020

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1991: View of Bolotnaya Square

Moscow streets in the late 1980s (June 1, 1988 - Aug. 30, 1991) / 2020

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1880s: View of the Kremlin from Sofiyskaya Embankment 

View of the Kremlin from Sofiyskaya Embankment (1878-1883) / 2020

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1970s: Rossiya Hotel / Zaryadye Park

View of the Moskva River with Hotel Rossiya and the Concert Hall (1970s) / 2020

The enormous hotel was built in the 1960s and dismantled in 2006. Zaryadye Park was built on the site.

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1890s: Pashkov House

Pashkov House (1897-1898) / 2020

In 1831, a museum was opened in Nikolay Rumyantsev's mansion on the Angliyskaya (English) Embankment in St. Petersburg. In 1861, the museum was transferred to Moscow. It was installed in the Pashkov House and merged with the Moscow Public Museum.

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1880s: Cathedral of Christ the Savior

View of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and Church of Praise to the Blessed Virgin Mary in Bashmaki from the Bersenevskaya Embankment (1880s) / 2020

The original cathedral, left of photo, was demolished in 1931 as part of the plan for reconstructing Moscow under Stalin. The present cathedral had been rebuilt by 1999. The Church of Praise to the Blessed Virgin Mary has not been rebuilt.

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1933: Krymsky Bridge

Panoramic view of Bolshoy Krymsky Bridge during construction (1933) / 2020

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1955: Entrance to Gorky Park

Entrance to Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure (1955) / 2020

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1893: House of the Merchant Igumnov

House of the Merchant Igumnov in Moscow (1893) / 2020

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1890s: GUM Department Store

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1896: Teatralnaya (Theater) Square

Teatralnaya Square during the Coronation of Nicholas II (May 1896) / 2020

About the photo: The Coronation of Emperor Nicholas II Aleksandrovich and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna took place on Tuesday, May 14 (May 26 in the current calendar), 1896, in the Moscow Kremlin’s Cathedral of the Dormition.

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1980s: Church of St. John the Warrior

Church of St. John the Warrior (May 1, 1984 - Oct. 31, 1985) / 2020

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