(Russian student) Guo Tianjiao
Thanks to the selection of the UNESCO Association of Gansu Province, in the autumn of 2019, our group of 50 fresh high school graduates went to Russia to study in Nizhny Lovegorod. After a year of preparatory studies, I was admitted to Moscow University to study Russian for Diplomacy.
On a snowy night, I walked alone from Radisson to the CBD. The snow on the riverside trail is a deep pit, and the river surface is condensed with thick layers of ice. As I walked, I grew a lot of melancholy: the city's growth patterns, which are very different from the mainstream cities in the world today, seem to be frozen by the ice and snow here. And this growth pattern is more like a secret that everyone tacitly believes.
30 years ago, the world had a choice between the two, and there were two very different directions to choose from for the construction and development of cities. But the collapse of the Soviet Union announced that many of the things that were underway were abandoned halfway. One of the most important is the end of the pattern of urban growth typical of Moscow.
Let's assume that the end of the Cold War reversed, and maybe there will be many cities in the world today that are becoming more and more like Moscow. Unfortunately, history does not assume that Moscow is like a time capsule, retaining this obsolete pattern of urban growth.
In fact, many countries today still retain the shadow of when they once followed Big Brother, such as the subway.
The Metro in Moscow has two major characteristics: depth and beauty. Deeply because the Soviet Union once positioned the subway as a means of public transportation, but also used it as a wartime refuge and air raid shelter. Therefore, from the entrance of the subway station to the platform, you need to take a long and steep escalator.
When I stood at one end of the escalator, I couldn't see the end of the elevator at all.
Beauty, on the other hand, refers to the grandeur of the subway platform. Rococo-style suspended ceilings and stone columns, marble floors, sculptures in corners, and huge chandeliers decorate the metro station like a noble palace. It is not difficult to see the elegant taste of the Russian nation.
The influence of the Moscow Metro was once great. The Soviet Union's allies included some Eastern European countries and socialist countries such as North Korea, and the subway design was based on moscow's bottomless model. The city's infrastructure will affect future generations for hundreds of years to come, and Moscow has left a deep mark on this aspect.
The center of Moscow is the well-known Red Square, which was once Stalin's parade square. It was from here that the heroic Red Army of the Soviet Union defeated the French, repelled the Germans, and left the world with the impression of a "fighting nation." The huge square in the city center, which symbolizes the will of the country, has become the standard of the socialist capital. For example, Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, Ba Dinh Square in Vietnam, and so on.
Today's urban development pattern has left the golden area of the city center to high-end office buildings and large shopping malls, and built a CBD with glass curtain walls. The Moscow model is a thing of the past.
Russia, the orthodox successor to the Orthodox Church, has a famous Cathedral of the Ascension of St. Basil next to Red Square. The overall color scheme of the church is very eye-catching, with a hint of Disney romance. In addition to Red Square, Moscow has many majestic buildings, such as the main building of Moscow University and the Radisson Hotel on the banks of the Moscow River.
Around the world, it is now rare to see such a huge and majestic building completed. More are born thin skyscrapers that continue to break through in height.
Moscow is no exception. About two kilometres from the Radisson hotel is moscow's CBD. Several modern glass-walled buildings rise from the ground, which are very different from the surrounding architectural styles. One of the distorted office buildings exaggerated the world's efforts to tell the world that new blood has been injected into Moscow's architectural style.
Russia is still a country that loves art. Not to mention how many excellent opera works and masters Russia has contributed to the world, it is today, when Russia's economic development is slightly embarrassing, every weekend, the city's grand theater is still full. Proud and elegant Russians are dressed up.
Due to the booming aviation industry, routes between Europe and East Asia are becoming increasingly dense. Seizing on Moscow's geographical location at the midpoint of eurasia, Aeroflot has built Moscow into one of the hottest transit cities between Western Europe and East Asia in recent years.
In the first year of studying in Russia, the academic pressure is lighter. I went to several representative Russian cities and found that different cities in different countries of the world are becoming more and more similar. Big cities are equipped with several global classic luxury brand stores, as well as petty bourgeois cafes all over the city. Viaducts will cross the heart of the city. The service logic of the Metro Light Rail is much the same.
In fact, this "urban growth logic" has only become a universally accepted urban development path in the past 30 years. The reason is that the social order established by the only superpower in the world today makes all the cities in the world more and more similar.
In short, it feels like today's Moscow, like a giant ship slowly turning around, but it seems a bit clumsy.
About author:Guo Tianjiao, the first "self-improvement" virtue good teenager in Anning District in 2011; the second virtue teenager in Lanzhou In 2012; the model of filial piety and love for the elderly in Gansu Province in 2013; and the good teenager in China in 2017. In 2019, he was admitted to the agricultural major of Fujian Agricultural University (College of Crop Science); in the same year, he was selected to study basic Russian at Mining University in Russia; and in 2020, he was admitted to moscow University majoring in diplomatic Russian.