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State Universal Store, Gosudarstvenniy Universalniy Magazin, GUM (ГУМ, Государственный Универсальный Магазин, pronounced as goom) is a common name for the main department store in many cities of the Soviet Union and some post-Soviet states. The most famous GUM is a large store in Kitai-gorod of Moscow, facing Red Square. Prior to the 1920s the place was known as the Upper Trading Rows.
Moscow GUM
With the façade extending for 242 meters along the eastern side of Red Square, the Upper Trading Rows were built between 1890 and 1893 by Alexander Pomerantsev. The trapezoidal building features an interesting combination of elements of Russian medieval architecture and a steel framework and glass roof, a similar style to the great Victorian train stations of London. Nearby, also facing Red Square, is a very similar building, formerly known as the Middle Trading Rows.
The existing structure — defined by William Craft Brumfield as "a tribute both to Shukhov's design and to the technical proficiency of Russian architecture toward the end of the 19th century" — was built to replace the previous trading rows that burnt down in 1825. By the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the building contained some 1,200 stores. The facade is split into several horizontal tiers, lined with red Finnish granite, Tarusa marble, and limestone. Each arcade is on three levels, linked by walkways of reinforced concrete. Illumination is provided by huge arched skylights of iron and glass, each weighing some 820 tons and containing in excess of 20,000 panes of glass.
After the Revolution the GUM was nationalised and continued to work as a department store until Josef Stalin turned it into office space in 1928 for the committee in charge of his first Five Year Plan. After the suicide of Stalin's wife Nadezhda in 1932, the GUM was used to display her body.
After reopening as a department store in 1953, the GUM became one of the few stores in the Soviet Union that was not plagued by shortages of consumer goods, and the queues to purchase anything were long, often extending all across Red Square.
At the end of the Soviet era, GUM was partially — and then fully — privatized, and passed through a number of owners. It ended up in the hands of the supermarket chain Perekryostok. In May 2005, a 50.25% interest was sold to Bosco di Ciliegi, a Russian luxury-goods distributor and boutique operator.
It is still open today, and is a popular tourist destination for those visiting Moscow. Many of the stores feature high-fashion brand names familiar in the west; locals refer to these as the "exhibitions of prices", the joke being that no one could afford to actually buy any of the items on display. As of 2005, there were approximately 150 stores.
There is a similar historic department store rivalling GUM by its size, elegance and opulent architecture. It is called Central Universal Store (Tsentralniy Universalniy Magazin, abbreviated as TsUM) and sprawls just east of the Bolshoi Theatre.
External links
- Satellite photo of the Moscow GUM
- How to Shop at GUM Moscow
- Moscow Life: A brief introduction to Moscow's GUM shopping centre, with public reviews