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Event
Information:
Red
Square is the site of the main new
Year's Eve celebrations for
residents of Moscow and across
Russia, with a massive and
spectacular fireworks display taking
place at midnight and associated
events throughout the day.
For the latest New Year's Eve events
and parties in Moscow see New
Year's Eve Live
The
buildings surrounding the Square are
all significant in some respect.
Lenin's Mausoleum, for example,
contains the embalmed body of
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the founder
of the Soviet Union. Nearby to the
south is the elaborate
brightly-domed Saint Basil's
Cathedral and the palaces and
cathedrals of the Kremlin.
On the
eastern side of the square is the
GUM department store, and next to it
the restored Kazan Cathedral. The
northern side is occupied by the
State Historical Museum, whose
outlines echo those of Kremlin
towers. The Iberian Gate and Chapel
have been rebuilt to the northwest.
The
only sculptured monument on the
square is a bronze statue of Kuzma
Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky, who
helped to clear Moscow from the
Polish invaders in 1612, during the
Times of Trouble. Nearby is the
so-called Lobnoye Mesto, a circular
platform where public ceremonies
used to take place. Both the Minin
and Pozharskiy statue and the
Lobnoye Mesto were once located more
centrally in Red Square but were
moved to their current locations to
facilitate the large military
parades of the Soviet era. The
square itself is around 330 meters
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