M O S C O W Interview with Leonid Shishkin - Passport magazine

the man-made park, this is a complete contrast, an oasis of
restful forest. It is free and you are free to make your own
fun. Whether you are active on foot, bike or blades, or prefer
idling, snoozing or picnicking on the grass, or enjoying the
leafy views towards the river and nature, you have plenty of
options for solitude, oneness with nature, or a friend. Surprisingly
small swathes of forest feel remarkably expansive.
There are wonderful bird watching opportunities, ornithologically
speaking: see this month’s family quiz on p44. I’d
promise to see you there, but there are more paths than
people, so you are likely to be in luck.
There is more yet. The new edifice of the Russian Academy
of Sciences is a remarkable sight. What looks like a lonely
brutalist concrete block from afar suddenly turns sci-fi or
spy-fi with a wig of gloriously incongruous collection of
gold cubes, shielding what? Dr Who? Dr No? Dr Quatermass?
(Younger readers quiz parents here.) It is absurdly curious,
from below. Once within, it is a coherent if perplexing complex
of modernist architecture. Not only that, you can plot
world domination while Bonding (sorry) in the excellent 22 nd
floor Sky Lounge restaurant, surveying all the Moscow you
command: everything including all the ‘seven sisters skyscrapers’
(beat that) to the Kremlin to the competing Swiss
hotel tower; from the river via Shukov’s radio tower nearby
to the distant Ostankino TV tower. Unbeatable without a
balloon.
Sparrow Hills
Carry on round the outside of the river’s expansive bend,
walking leisurely or cycling in your own style, and you will
soon be in Vorobyovy Gory, the Sparrow (formerly Lenin)
Hills. All my Russian friends tell me that this is their favourite
part of the city. With good reason. Or, use the handy
Red-line Metro shortcut to the station of the same name,
unique in that the platforms are on a glass-walled bridge
over the river, affording a great snapshot of this month’s
landscapes.
Sparrow Hills is a curious name. Hills they are not, more
really the eroded meander scarp. Wildlife abounds and
Your Moscow
June 2010
2