Moscow State University

I was reminded of my visit by the Russian delegates visiting the World Tech Symposium yesterday. Having worked together now for years, they just now noticed my Estonian roots from a magazine sitting in my office. (pensive pause)

MSU is arguably the oldest, most prestigious and largest university in Russia.

This main building is also the tallest of Stalin’s Seven Sisters, a group of similarly styled high-rises around Moscow. The overbuilt central tower consumed over 40,000 metric tons of steel, and from WW II until 1990, it was the tallest building in Europe.

The scale is visually deceiving: it houses 33 kilometers of corridors and 5,000 rooms including a bomb shelter, concert hall, theater, police station and a library with 9 million books. The 12-ton star on top houses a small room and a viewing platform. The facades contain giant clocks, barometers, thermometers, statues, carved wheat sheaves, and Soviet crests.