The last and second tallest of the seven sisters. Today it is a working hotel, which makes it the easiest of them to get into and see the 1950s interiors.
Outside
Hotel Ukraina by day © Юрий Д.К., CC BY 4.0
Hotel Ukraina from Kutuzovsky Prospekt © Юрий Д.К., CC BY 4.0
The tower and spire of Hotel Ukraina © Юрий Д.К., CC BY 4.0
The side wing of Hotel Ukraina © Юрий Д.К., CC BY 4.0
Hotel Ukraina above the Moskva River in the evening © MBH, CC BY 4.0
Hotel Ukraina at night © MBH, CC BY-SA 4.0
History
Hotel Ukraina in 1955, shortly before it opened © А. Устинов, CC BY 4.0
The hotel was founded in 1953 on Dorogomilovskaya Embankment, where Kutuzovsky Prospekt begins at the Moskva River. It was built as the largest hotel in Europe, to host foreign guests and delegations.
One of its architects, Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky, spent more than ten years working in New York in the 1920s and 1930s and knew American skyscrapers well. That experience shows in the silhouette of the tower.
© А. Устинов, CC BY 4.0The hotel opened in May 1957, already under Khrushchev, who was fighting architectural excess. The decoration was simplified, but the building was finished almost as designed. The Ukraina became the last of the seven skyscrapers.
From 2007 to 2010 the hotel was closed for reconstruction. The interiors were restored, the collection of paintings by Soviet artists was kept, and the hotel reopened under the Radisson brand. Its name today is Radisson Collection, but in Moscow everyone still calls it the Ukraina.
© Thomas Taylor Hammond (1920-1993), CC BY-SA 4.0The central tower rises in tiers to a tall spire, with two wings on either side. One wing holds the hotel, the other private apartments. The spire here is especially tall, so the building looks even slimmer.
Marble staircases, bronze chandeliers, stucco and hundreds of paintings by mid twentieth century Soviet artists survive inside.
The Ukraina is the most accessible of the skyscrapers. The lobby, restaurants and exhibition interiors are open to everyone.
Open
The hotel lobby holds a huge 1977 diorama of central Moscow with thousands of miniature buildings. Next to it are 1950s interiors and paintings by Soviet artists. Anyone can come and look.
By booking
Open
The hotel had two main architects, and each had his own story.
Chief architect
President of the USSR Academy of Architecture. Before the Ukraina he mostly built apartment blocks, and the skyscraper hotel became the main work of his life.
Co-designer
In the 1920s he worked in the United States, built skyscrapers in New York and wrote a book about them. He was later arrested and held in the Vorkuta labour camps, and after his release he co-designed the most American of the Moscow skyscrapers.
The hotel has appeared in both Soviet and Hollywood films. Foreign directors love it as a ready-made set of Soviet Moscow.
The heroes come to the hotel construction site looking for their architect friend, climb to the 35th floor and look out at the Foreign Ministry building.
A spy film based on the John le Carré novel. Sean Connery plays a British publisher who comes to the USSR and stays at Hotel Ukraina.
Val Kilmer plays an elusive thief. In the story the hotel houses the headquarters of the villain’s oil company, and many scenes were shot in its interiors.
Daniel Craig plays a historian who comes to Moscow for a conference, stays at the Ukraina and searches for Stalin’s secret diary.
Under Stalin the building was officially called “the hotel structure in Dorogomilovo”. It got the name Ukraina only under Khrushchev, in honour of his homeland.
In A Good Day to Die Hard the heroes head to Hotel Ukraina, but the helicopter then attacks a building that is clearly the Moscow State University Main Building. The visual effects team mixed up the skyscrapers.
The hotel was rushed to open in time for the 1957 World Festival of Youth and Students. Its participants became the Ukraina’s first guests.
The skyscraper stands by the river, so the best shots are from the water and the bridges.
From the bridge you see the whole hotel above the Moskva River. In the evening its lights are reflected in the water.
The embankment runs along the river straight to the skyscraper. It is a good place to shoot the tower from below together with the trees and lamp posts.
From the opposite bank of the river you see the hotel at full height together with Taras Shevchenko Embankment. A good view at sunset.
You can stay in the skyscraper itself or close by, a few minutes away.
Radisson Collection in Hotel Ukraina. Rooms with views of the Moskva River and the White House.
Handy if you arrive from Vnukovo airport on the Aeroexpress.
Modern hotels in skyscrapers on the other bank of the river.
The avenue beyond the bridge, within walking distance of the Kremlin.
Walking times are from the hotel.
The map loads when you tap the button. This keeps the page fast.
Russia, Moscow, Kutuzovsky Prospekt 2/1, building 1
345Kievskayaabout 15 minutes
Metro line 3 (blue) and 4 (light blue) and 5 (brown).
3Smolenskayaabout 20 minutes
Metro line 3 (blue).
Moscow State University Main Building
3
Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building
4
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Building
5
Kudrinskaya Square Building
6
Red Gates Building
7
Hotel Leningradskaya
Yes. You can freely walk into the lobby with the diorama and into the restaurants and bars. Tours tell you more about the interiors.
Officially it is the Radisson Collection hotel. But both locals and navigation apps still know the building as Hotel Ukraina.
206 metres including the spire, of which 73 metres is the spire. It is the second tallest of the seven skyscrapers after Moscow State University.
The nearest metro stations are Kievskaya and Smolenskaya. It is about a 15 minute walk from Kievskaya and about 20 from Smolenskaya.
From Novoarbatsky Bridge and from Taras Shevchenko Embankment. In the evening the lights come on and the building is beautifully reflected in the river.
The Soviet film True Friends, and the Hollywood films The Russia House with Sean Connery, The Saint with Val Kilmer and Archangel with Daniel Craig.
