Yuri Luzhkov scrapped what he disliked about Moscow, and put up what he liked
1997 Yuri Luzhkov, proud mayor of Russia’s capital, threw a three-day birthday party. It had been three years in the planning, down to the last almost Godlike detail, seeding the clouds to keep the rain away. A huge pageant, with 1,200 performers and a fire-breathing dragon, filled the streets. A son-et-lumière show was beamed onto the hilltop façade of Moscow State University.
And so he did: scrap what he disliked, put up what he liked. Since Catherine the Great had left half-built her palace at Tsaritsyno, he finished it with an entrance pavilion, new decor inside and a whole new park of bridges and follies. And if, amid the symphony of wrecking balls, he demolished buildings people really cared about, such as the Art Nouveau Voentorg department store or streets of 18th-century houses, he could always put up facsimiles that were bigger and better.
The first focus of his own energy was to bring back Moscow’s greatness. If the capital flourished, then Russia would, too. A fair chunk of the city’s revenues went to good Russian causes, such as supporting the dependants of the Black Sea fleet in Sebastopol, which was, he insisted, a Russian city.
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