Moscow Central Bus Station

Shchyolkovskoye Highway, 75
“My Homeland”, Yu. K. Korolyov
(1966–1971)

The relief that once divided the wall of the second-floor hall of the bus station was structured by Yuri Korolyov in the style of Piet Mondrian. The system of differently colored rectangles was combined, in the manner of multi-scene icon borders, with figurative inserts. Genre scenes in the large “panels” are complemented by still lifes and images of animals and birds in smaller rectangles. The original title of the composition — “Russia and Her Mothers” — is reflected in the largest panel depicting two women of different ages and two children. A cosmonaut in a spacesuit is shown in outer space against a background of planets. A soldier from the period of the Great Patriotic War steps forward to greet arriving passengers. The composition also features a carved stone lion from the Cathedral of Saint Demetrius in Vladimir and the Church of the Transfiguration of the Saviour on Nereditsa in Novgorod — as it was to the north that buses departed from this station. The station building, constructed in 1971, was demolished in 2017. Today, the restored panel is installed in the new transport hub complex.