The Seven Sisters are familiar Moscow landmarks, practically on par with the Kremlin and Red Square, though not all visitors to the city realise that two of them are residential buildings, and one is part-residential. Both the history and the real estate value of these buildings are of particular interest in this day and age.

These high-rises, or vysotkas, are hallmarks of the grandiose post-WWII era, Stalin’s famous “answer to Western skyscrapers”. Comprised of the Foreign Ministry building, the Moscow State University main building, two hotels (Leningradskaya and Ukraina), the House on Kudrinskaya Square, the House on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment and the Building on Krasniye Vorota Square, they tower imposingly over the city landscape.

Best view of the Kremlin

The House on Kotelnicheskaya is famous for its celebrity residents and views over the Kremlin and the Moskva River.

Construction on this building began in 1948, just three years after World War II, or the Great Patriotic War, ended. Architects Dmitry Chechulin and Andrei Rostkovsky, as well as engineer Leonid Gokhman, were in charge of the construction.

Stalin’s secret police chief, Lavrenty Beria, was the curator of the project and the one who chose the building site.

It therefore does not seem outlandish that listening devices were allegedly installed in all of the apartments, making it convenient for Beria and his hetchmen to spy on the cream of Soviet society.

The building is 176 metres tall and has 32 floors, of which 26 house residential apartments. The total number of apartments on-site is 700.

Famous architects, scholars, artists, writers, military officers and actors have lived in the House on Kotelnicheskaya, making it attractive to Soviet history buffs.

“The main advantage of living inside Stalin’s skyscrapers is the view from the windows and, in the case of the House on Kotelnicheskaya – it can offer the best views of the Kremlin,” Anna Levitova, managing partner of Evans Property, told The Moscow News. Levitova also noted that a big plus of renting or buying an apartment in this particular vysotka is the grandiose entrances in Stalin’s traditional empire style.

The average price for a square metre in the House on Kotelnicheskaya is over half a million roubles, according to Levitova. This figure includes “a high quality building, the good location and status of the house, as well as the fact that the best of the Soviet vysotkas are comparable to elite new buildings.”

Alexander Ziminsky of Penny Lane Realty told The Moscow News that people in various creative professions usually buy apartments on the Kotelnicheshkaya Embankment, and Penny Lane Realty’s prices in this vysotka range from 300,000 to 720,000 roubles per square metre.

Renting an apartment inside the House on Kotelnicheskaya can be cheaper; prices there can range from 55,000 roubles per month for a smaller two-bedroom apartment and 145,000 for a large, 100 square-metre flat, according to Anna Levitova.

There are various shops and other useful places to visit on the first floor of the building – one of them is the Illuzion cinema, which overlooks Bolshoi Vatin Pereulok.

Kudrinskaya’s high-fliers

The House on Kudrinskaya Square was completed in 1954, just a year after the death of Stalin, and it has a KGB chapter in its history as well. The residents of the two top floors were evicted once upon a time, and KGB agents set up shop there with an eye toward spying on the construction of the new American embassy across the road.

The building has 25 floors in total, and is 156 metres tall.

According to Anna Levitova of Evans Property , the Soviet elite imbued the House on Kudrinskaya with a certain atmosphere – the prestige of the place is something that modern buildings try and fail to emulate. “An apartment with historical significance has a particular attraction to buyers – they’re interested in places where famous personalities used to live,” she said.

That is why a 65 square metre apartment on the fifth floor of the House on Kudrinskaya will cost 38 million roubles, and comes complete with classic-style furniture, according to Levitova .

Those future residents of the House on Kudrinskaya Square who own private jets will be delighted to know that during the Soviet era, the building was occupied by many famous pilots and other high-ranking aviation industry professionals.

Prisoners and POWs

The semi-residential Building at Krasniye Vorota Square was finished in 1952, and stands 138 metres tall. It has 24 floors and is located on the highest point of the Garden Ring Road.

This building is, perhaps, the least attractive among the three residential Sisters, though not for reasons that have to do with its shorter height or its overall look, which is considered particularly streamlined and distinctive.

According to Alexander Ziminsky of Penny Lane Realty, some people decide not to buy apartments there when they realise that Gulag prisoners and German POWs helped build it.

Aside from a negative historic aura that can affect sensitive residents, all of Stalin’s Seven Sisters have some obvious drawbacks, which include old elevators and a lack of modern security. Yet both Russians and foreigners alike are still drawn to them due to their uniqueness. For all of history’s twists and turns, it’s very doubtful that anything in their style will be built in oscow again.

The famous residents of the House on Kotelnicheskaya

Galina Ulanova, one of the Soviet Union’s greatest ballet dancers, lived in the House on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment. Ulanova was prima ballerina at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

Another famous resident at Kotelnichaskaya was Faina Ranevskaya, a film and theater actor. Ranevskaya is frequently referred to as one of the greatest actors of the 20th century – and not only in Russia.

Dissident poet Andrei Voznesensky also lived here. This fact was touched upon in famous Soviet film “Moscow doesn’t believe in tears”. The House on Kotelnicheskaya was featured in the movie as the temporary residence of main character Katya Tikhomirova, played by Russian actress Vera Alentova. Voznesensky had a cameo in the movie – he played a poet who was reciting his poetry in the streets of Moscow, while Katya and her friend Lyuda took a walk.

Willy Tokarev (born Vilen Tokarev), a Russian-American singer and songwriter, is currently a resident of the House on Kotelnicheskaya. The singer immigrated to the US from the USSR, but came back to Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed.

Source: The Moscow News