Photos

A part of the facade of the large department store Gum.

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State Universal Store, Gosudarstvenniy Universalniy
Magazin, GUM (ГУМ) 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.

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.

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.

[from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Universal_Store]