Explore the real-world places that appear in Blue Lard by Vladimir Sorokin. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Red Square, The Kremlin, Bolshoi Theatre, Tolstoy Estate Museum (Khamovniki), Pushkin Monument and 5 more.
Moscow center: heart of the alternate Soviet power
In the alternate 1954 Moscow of the novel's second half, the Soviet state under Stalin is the center of a bizarre world. Stalin, Khrushchev and the Party elite are drawn into a surreal union with Hitler. The Earth-Mother cultists bring the blue lard back in time here, and the Kremlin's inner circle goes on to use it. The square becomes the stage for the novel's grotesque political climax.
Red Square has been Moscow's main ceremonial space since the 15th century and holds Lenin's Mausoleum, St. Basil's Cathedral and the Kremlin wall. Soviet parades and state funerals were staged here throughout the 20th century.
Red Square is a pedestrian plaza open to the public and one of Russia's top tourist sites. It hosts Victory Day events and winter markets.
Visit: Red Square (landmark)
Moscow — Stalin's seat of power in the alternate USSR
In the second half of the novel, Stalin in the Kremlin receives the blue lard sent back by the cultists. He and Khrushchev become entangled with the substance's mysterious, erotic and destructive properties. The Kremlin is where the book's alternate-history Soviet leadership decides how to use the lard in a reality shaped by a long-haired Hitler.
The Moscow Kremlin is a fortified complex dating from the 14th century, rebuilt in the 15th. It became the seat of Soviet government after 1918 and remains the Russian president's official residence.
Parts of the Kremlin, including its cathedrals and the Armory, are open as museums. The remainder is a working government complex.
Visit: Moscow Kremlin Museums (museum)
Theatre Square — site of the 2002 protest against Sorokin
The theatre does not appear in the novel's plot. It is tied to the book's real-life scandal: after Blue Lard appeared in 1999, members of the pro-Putin youth group Walking Together gathered in front of the Bolshoi in 2002 and dumped shredded copies of Sorokin's books into a giant papier-mâché toilet. The book's desecration of Russian literary icons is exactly what provoked the protest.
The Bolshoi Theatre opened in 1825 and is the most famous ballet and opera house in Russia. It underwent a major renovation from 2005 to 2011.
The Bolshoi is a working theatre with regular ballet and opera performances. Guided tours and tickets are available to visitors.
Visit: Bolshoi Theatre (theater)
Lev Tolstoy St. 21 — Moscow home of the writer cloned in the book
Among the cloned writers in the lab are Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Nabokov, Pasternak, Akhmatova and Platonov. Each clone is forced into a trance-like script-process, producing pastiche texts in the style of the original. Tolstoy's clone, Lev Tolstoy-4, writes in his master's manner, and the blue lard builds up in his body as he works. Tolstoy's Moscow house represents the monumental literary legacy the novel defaces.
Tolstoy lived at this Khamovniki estate in winters from 1882 to 1901. The wooden house was preserved as a museum after his death.
The house is a museum of Tolstoy's life, with period rooms and a garden. It is part of the State Tolstoy Museum network.
Visit: Leo Tolstoy Estate Museum in Khamovniki (museum)
Pushkin Square — the national poet whose cult the book targets
Sorokin's cloned writers include figures of the Pushkin-descended canon, and the book's pastiches profane that tradition. The monument stands for the sacred Russian literary heritage that the lab turns into a source of fuel. The cloned authors' trance-writing turns literature into raw material for the blue lard.
The bronze monument to Alexander Pushkin by Alexander Opekushin was unveiled in 1880 on Tverskoy Boulevard. It was moved to its present spot on Pushkin Square in 1950.
The statue is a popular meeting point and has been the site of public gatherings and poetry readings. The square is a public space beside cinemas and cafes.
Visit: Pushkin Monument (monument)
Red Square — Soviet sacred relic in the alternate USSR
The book's alternate Soviet Union is steeped in Stalinist ritual and the cult of its leaders, which Sorokin parodies. The mausoleum stands as the emblem of that sacralized power, to which the blue lard's arrival adds a new, perverse mystique. Stalin's circle treats the substance with quasi-religious reverence.
Lenin's Mausoleum was built in 1930 by Alexey Shchusev after Lenin's death in 1924. Stalin's body lay there from 1953 to 1961.
The mausoleum is open a few days a week, with free admission and strict rules of conduct.
Visit: Lenin's Mausoleum (monument)
Sparrow Hills — Stalinist skyscraper, emblem of the era
The book's Stalinist 1954 is a world of monumental architecture and scientific ambition, set against the futuristic lab of the opening. The Stalinist skyscraper is an apt emblem of the book's alternate USSR, where state science, ritual and the blue lard collide. It evokes the era's gigantism that Sorokin parodies.
The main building of Moscow State University was completed in 1953, designed by Lev Rudnev. It was the tallest building in Europe until 1990.
The university remains one of Russia's leading institutions. The grounds and nearby Sparrow Hills observation deck are open to the public.
Visit: Sparrow Hills Observation Deck (park)
Malaya Bronnaya — site of literary Moscow's mythology
Patriarch's Ponds is the setting of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita and is a symbol of literary Moscow. In Sorokin's scheme, the national literary canon is reduced to material for cloning and fuel production. The ponds are an apt stand-in for the lab's source material, the sanctified landscape of Russian letters.
The ponds were named for the Patriarchs of Moscow, who owned the area in the 17th century. Bulgakov's 1930s novel made the park world-famous.
The ponds are a public park with a monument to the fable writer Ivan Krylov. Cafes line the surroundings and the area is popular with locals.
Visit: Patriarch's Ponds (park)
Luzhniki — burial place of Russia's literary and political elite
The novel exhumes the literary dead by cloning them. The clones of Chekhov, Akhmatova and Pasternak reproduce their originals' voices, producing texts for the lab's purpose. Novodevichy, where many such figures are buried, is a fitting site for this desecration of cultural memory.
Novodevichy Cemetery was established in 1898 beside the 16th-century convent. Chekhov, Gogol, Khrushchev and many other figures are buried there.
The cemetery is a popular visitor site with guided tours. The adjacent Novodevichy Convent is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Visit: Novodevichy Cemetery (historic site)
Krymsky Val — Soviet leisure landscape
The alternate USSR of the book is a theatrical Soviet world of parades, rituals and leaders. Gorky Park stands as an emblem of that managed, celebratory Soviet public life. It echoes the grotesque pageantry in which the characters operate once the blue lard arrives.
Gorky Park opened in 1928 as a model Soviet park of culture and leisure. It was redeveloped after 2011 into a modern public space.
The park has paths, riverside promenades, a museum and open-air events. It is free to enter and busy year-round.
Visit: Gorky Park (park)
More by Vladimir Sorokin: All Vladimir Sorokin books
More novels set in Moscow: Browse all Moscow books on Map A Story
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