People come here to walk, have fun, see the best examples of Soviet architecture of different styles. Here you can look at dolphins in the Moskvarium, fly the Buran rocket plane, feed goats and ducks at the City Farm, relax by the water in the Fisherman’s Village, taste the dishes of the former Soviet republics in the Moscow Sky restaurant, paint silk and to make stained-glass windows in the “House of Crafts”.
VDNKh hosts many concerts, lectures and exhibitions. Before your trip, check the website so as not to miss an interesting event.
Interesting Facts about Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy
Even if you have never been to VDNKh, you must have seen the exhibition. Its pavilions, fountains, and alleys have become a set for many of the most popular Soviet films. “Foundling” with Faina Ranevskaya and Rina Zelenaya, “The Light Path” with Lyubov Orlova, “Pig and Shepherd”, “The House I Live in”, “Five Evenings”. In modern Russian cinema, the exhibition has also been noted – in “Styles” and “Election Day”.
What to see
You will definitely not pass by the arch of the main entrance, the Main and Central alleys, the Friendship of Peoples Square and the fountain on it.
Moskvarium is a center for oceanography and marine biology, consisting of 80 aquariums. 12 thousand fish and marine animals live here: sharks and sturgeons, rays and seahorses, beluga whales and dolphins. In nature, they live off the shores of Greenland and Kamchatka, in Lake Baikal and on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
The interactive museum inside the model of the Buran orbital spacecraft is a must-see program for all teenage boys and adults who have not lost interest in space flights. Here you can land the Buran yourself at the Baikonur cosmodrome from a height of 80 thousand meters (virtually, of course), admire the approaching Earth, as a pilot of a real rocket plane would do, and compare the domestic project with the American shuttles.
A 5D film about flights to the Moon and distant stars is shown in the Space Pavilion. In this pavilion and the Burana museum, you can taste space food – the same food that astronauts eat in orbit. Borsch, kharcho and lamb in tubes.
“Robostation” is an interactive exhibition inhabited by robots from all over the world: Russian, American, Chinese, Japanese. They are ready to chat with guests, joke, play football. If you have time, you can also assemble your robot with the help of engineers.
City Farm will quickly bring you back to Earth. Goats and sheep, donkeys and raccoons, geese and ducks, roosters and rabbits live here. Vegetables and flowers are grown according to the latest garden science.
VDNKh at different times of the year
The main skating rink of the country – this is how VDNKh calls its “artificial turf” ice rink “modestly”. The Raketa skating rink is truly gigantic: more than 8 thousand square meters, it is designed for 2,400 people. You will ride around the Vostok launch vehicle on the Industrial Square. Or, if you want, right along the Central Alley, the “Flower Garden” skating rink for 1200 people is being flooded there. There are ice dancing parties at the rink on Fridays, and relay races and games on weekends. The Ostankino Park, which is part of VDNKh, also has a skating rink – and there it is free, unlike those at the exhibition itself.
Winter entertainments at VDNKh include a curling pavilion, a tubing slide with five slopes (in other words, riding on “cheesecakes”). The site for team snowball fights in the plans of the exhibition is designated by the incomprehensible word “Yukigassen”. These are the very ones, snowballs.
In summer, bicycles are used instead of skates. There is a rental service at VDNKh, bike paths have been laid in the Ostankino park. People are rollerblading, playing mini-football. There are outdoor simulators, boats on ponds and the largest rope park in Russia.