Moscow Guide
Krasnaya Presnya, Fili and the southwest
MGU
Moscow State University (Moskovskiy Gosudarstveniy Universitet) – known by its initials as MGU (pronounced "em-ge-oo") – occupies the largest of the city's skyscrapers. In 1947, the Supreme Soviet decreed that Moscow's skyline should be embellished by eight such buildings (of which seven were raised), grouped around the colossal (but never built) Palace of Soviets. Sixty trains were required to transport the building's steel frame from Dneiprpetrovsk, and thousands of free and slave workers toiled night and day from 1949 to 1953 – a construction period that almost matched the duration of the whole skyscraper programme, overseen by Beria from the half-built main hall of MGU.
The MGU building consists of a 36-storey teaching block flanked by four huge wings of student accommodation, said to have 33km of corridors. Wheatsheaf pinnacles cap the side towers, which bear giant clocks and temperature/humidity indicators, while the central tower is festooned with swags and statues, carved with the Soviet crest, and surmounted by a gilded spire that looks small and light but is actually 240m tall with a star that weighs twelve tonnes. The most impressive facade faces northeast towards the city, across a terrace with heroic statues of a male and female student gazing raptly into the future. Try to plead or bluff your way past the guard outside its massive columned portico, to see the fabulous green-marbled, colonnaded foyers lined with medallions of world-famous scientists, culminating in bronze figures of illustrious Soviet ones. As yet, there is no statue of Gorbachev, who graduated from MGU with a law degree in 1955.