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Gosudarstvennyj Universalnyj Magazin (Государственный Универсальный Магазин) is Russian for State Universal Store. More commonly it is called simply the GUM (pronounced goom by Russians). the most famous one is a large department store in Red Square, Moscow in the Russian Federation.
Moscow GUM
Taking up nearly the entirety of the eastern side of Red Square, the GUM was built between 1890 and 1893 by Alexander Pomerantsev. The 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. It was built to replace the Upper Trading Rows that burnt down in 1825. By the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the building contained some 1,200 stores.
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, 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.
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.
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