Depending on how you count it, the Izmailovo Hotel complex was the biggest hotel in the world when it opened in 1979. It opened in time for the 1980 Olympics, a fact that many cities who host the games will be impressed by. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The scale of late Soviet architecture really was quite impressive. The style of architecture is sometimes called brutalist. It is easy to see why with the simple, unadorned, but massive structures. That does not mean they are not impressive. The list of countries that could complete such a project without outside help being so much shorter the list of countries that could not. I once stayed at the Great Wall Sheraton in Beijing from the same era, and it was constructed and even managed by people brought in from outside. This hotel even had air conditioning. air filtration and computerized control systems all done by Soviets. Quite an achievement. In the 1990s and 2000s there was a rush to tear down some of the most famous brutalist structures. I am glad the Izmailovo Hotel avoided that fate. It was an important period when the Soviets were a superpower. There need to be a few reminders architecturally of the period even if the politics have changed. Berlin is quick to be rid of Third Reich and DDR buildings. I think that is short sighted historically.
Todays stamp is issue A2493, a 20 Kopeck stamp issued by the Soviet Union on December 15th, 1983. It was part of a 5 stamp issue in various denominations, that showed off new buildings of Moscow. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.
With the upcoming Olympics due in Moscow, it was decided that there must be new hotels constructed. This happens in most cities after they are awarded the right to host a future Olympics. What I have often wondered about is what the cities plan for the new hotels after the Olympics are over. To be fair, Moscow was the capital city of a superpower with representatives of client states and representatives of far off areas of the Soviet Union visiting for instruction or conferences. Most of these guests are probably not paying though, whatever that maters to a state run organization. It is natural for a citizen to want to visit their countries capital to experience the high culture and drink in the history. The histories of the hotel I have read make no mention of who stayed 1980-1991, but I hope it was possible for an average Soviet citizen to stay there.
The Izmailovo Hotel opened in 1979 and was the biggest hotel in the world if you count by the number of guests that could be accommodated. It surpassed another Moscow hotel the Rossiya Hotel built in 1967. The Rossiya was torn down in 2006 in the hope that the prime location could have something more in keeping with the surrounding older architecture. Instead a clownish Disneyish pastiche of Moscow’s past was built, taking 11 years to construct. Welcome to the modern world. The Izmailovo was itself surpassed by the MGM Grand Hotel in Los Vegas in 1993. The First World Hotel in Malaysia is the current largest. The Izmailovo is still open and currently number 6 in the world but still biggest in Europe.
Well my drink is empty and you can guess where I will be staying if I am ever lucky enough to visit Moscow. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.