yacht haven grande

Marina at Yacht Haven Grande

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Marina at Yacht Haven Grande - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

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Yacht Haven Grande

What people like about Yacht Haven Grande

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Area Details

Yacht Haven Grande St. Thomas consists of twelve luxurious residences overlooking a world class mega-yacht marina and majestic harbor.  The Residences at Yacht Haven Grande St. Thomas offer an extraordinary opportunity to live in one of the most special destinations in the Caribbean.  This playground of island beauty and urban style offers fabulous shopping, gourmet & casual restaurants, elegant office spaces, world class amenities and exclusive privileges for just twelve residents – to shop, eat, work or spend the day on your yacht, within footsteps of your residence.

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10 of the World’s Top Superyacht Marinas

Yacht Haven Grande, St Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Yacht Haven Grande is often considered as the Caribbean ’s leading superyacht marina. Located alongside the scenic Charlotte Amalie Harbour in St Thomas, the marina encompasses 48 slips for yachts measuring up to 200 metres, as well as a host of services for crew, owners and guests.

One of the highlights of Yacht Haven Grande is its outdoor shopping galleria, which encompasses over 40 shops, including restaurants and bars along its stunning promenade. It also benefits from its tropical setting and convenient location at the heart of the US Virgin Islands .

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St. Thomas' prestigious shopping area located within walking distance from Havensight Mall. Enjoy upscale shops, plenty of parking and nice places to eat. Complimentary luggage check at their Welcome Center 10-5 Tuesday-Saturday. Pick up special offer and discount information. Yacht Haven Grande offers the ultimate in experience in shopping. Open seven days a week, the Galleria at Yacht Haven Grande is St. Thomas’ only upscale shopping destination, featuring top brands and charming local shops. Voted the "Best Shopping" of 2008, 2009 and 2010 by the Virgin Island Daily News Readers Poll!!

Information courtesy of www.yachthavengrande.com

Now Open at Yacht Haven Grande St. Thomas: Aqua Beachwear - Bad Ass Coffee - bebe - Bella Vera Boutique - BCBG Max Azria - Bulgari - Caché -Coach - Diamonds International - Fat Turtle - FirstBank - Global Chic - Grande Cru - Gucci - How 'Bout Your Pet? - Hubbly Bubbly Hookah Lounge - Icing - Kool Kidz - Louis Vuitton - One-Eyed Jack's - Perfumania - Prana Spa - The Preserve at Botany Bay - Sage-Lane Boutique - Salvatore Ferragamo - Sea Glass Properties - Sugar and Spice Luxe Beauty Salon - Sunglass Hut - Tommy Hilfiger - Total Rehab and Wellness - Virgin Islands Charter Yacht League - White House | Black Market - W!kked - Yacht Chandlers - Yacht Haven Family Practice Now Open at Yacht Haven Grande St. Thomas:

AQUA BEACHWEAR

Since 1974 Aqua Beachwear has become well known throughout the swimwear industry for their winning combination of extraordinary customer care, extensive selection and swimsuit expertise. Aqua Beachwear has provided thousands of women from all over the world with high quality top name brand swimwear that both fits and flatters their feminine figure. Yacht Haven Grande 5316 Yacht Haven Grande #30 St. Thomas, USVI 00802 Phone: 340.776.0002

Sugar and Spice Artistry

We are pleased to offer you a relaxing and pampering beauty experience in an luxurious, upscale setting. Whether your going for a glamorous, natural or classic styling, our expert artists will create looks that compliment your personality, preferences and style. Choose from a wide array of services from Hair, Makeup and Spa Treatments that are meant to beautify and rejuvenate the spirt and the senses.

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St. Thomas Beach Guide

St. Thomas has over 40 major beaches along its sun-drenched coasts. There are strands with crystal blue water and swaying coconut trees where a beach bum can enjoy a lazy-lazy day. For more active beach goers there are sandy coves with activities like windsurfing and kayaking. Some shores are rugged and rocky offering beauty, solitude and the opportunity to daydream about castaway fantasies. And there are widely popular bay-like beaches with amenities such as restaurants, rest rooms, chair rentals and complete water sports centers offering a variety of rental equipment .

St. Thomas Weddings / Romance

DID YOU KNOW THAT... Many couples are opting to save the money (not to mention the stress and hard work) of a big wedding at home by escaping to a Caribbean island for a combination wedding/honeymoon. Upon their return, they can share the event by showing the video and photographs at an informal reception. All the islands are beautiful and, on some, weddings have become a major promotional tool. So why should you choose St. Thomas above others?

Moving To St. Thomas

St. Thomas, one of the three United States Virign Islands, along with St. Croix and St. John, St. Thomas is one of the most beautiful island destinations in the world, dressed with powdery beaches and sun-drenched weather. St. Thomas is located in the Lesser Antilles, 1,600 miles south, south east of New York City; 1,100 east, southeast of Miami; 70 miles of San Juan. St. Thomas and its nearby neighbor St. John, lay between the Atlantic and the Caribbean.

St. Thomas Cruise Ship Arrival

St. Thomas has two cruise ports - - The West India Company Dock (almost universally referred to as Havensight) and Crown Bay. Both are located on the south side of the island not far from Charlotte Amalie. Generally, the ships of Carnival Cruise Lines, Norwegian Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, and Royal Caribbean (except Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas) dock at Havensight. Cunard, Princess, Holland America and Oasis and Allure typically dock at Crown Bay. This can change depending on the number of ships in port. Deeper draft ships such as Queen Mary 2, Oasis and Allure are required to dock at Crown Bay.

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●Dive a wall that drops over 13,000 feet 

●Dive a reef that is the largest living reef of any Caribbean Island 

●Dive five wrecks that are within 100 yards of each other 

●Dive a pier

Did you know... Shopping in St. Croix is a sight-seeing tour in itself! Quaint shops are tucked in historic buildings made of cut coral, molasses mortar, and Danish bricks brought as ballast on the trading ships of the 1700 and 1800s! Interesting shaded courtyards in these restored buildings house shopping arcades. Exploring is fun - there is treasure at every turn! Click here for our Shopping Duty Free Section.

Yacht Haven Grande

Play in the heart of downtown baltimore, marina info.

On the island of St. Thomas, near historic downtown Charlotte Amalie, more than 13 acres of upland are being transformed into a playground by the sea called Yacht Haven Grande. Yacht Haven Grande will include a 32-acre, state-of-the-art marina for mega yachts with side-to berthing for yachts up to 400 ft, extra wide concrete docks, in-slip fueling, up to 600 amps of 3 phase power, and piers with secure access. The $160 million first phase of development is planned to be completed by November 2006 and can accommodate up to 50-mega yachts that could range from 80 to 450 ft in length, an 80,000 square foot retail village (including Louis Vuitton, Coach, Bebe, BCBG, Roberto Coin, Little Switzerland, Cache, White House Black Market, Chicos among others), 30,000 square feet of office space, 12 luxury condominiums, a private yacht club and four waterfront restaurants, one of which will extend into the harbor with 360-degree water views.

Location Info

• Mega Yacht Slips

This marina requires a credit card to hold your slip. Your credit card will only be charged if you leave the marina without paying. If you do not call and cancel your reservation within 24 hours of your arrival you will be charged for one nights dockage. Valid reasons for canceling a reservation less than 24 hours of your arrival are at the discretion of the marina.Marina requires copy of the registration/documentation for the vessel and a copy of the declaration page of his insurance upon arrival.

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Max Length (ft):

Approach depth (ft): , dock depth (ft):.

WEDNESDAY to MONDAY 4-10PM AT YACHT HAVEN GRANDE

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Yacht haven grande.

Located in picturesque Yacht Haven Grande, Cutlass and Cane is an exceptionally well-appointed oceanfront restaurant and bar with a relaxed, chic ambience perfect for people watching. Enjoy ocean-table cuisine from a selection of fresh local seafood, international-inspired shared plates, and innovative cocktails.

Whether you’re planning a date night, a business meeting or just catching up with friends, come and see why locals and tourists alike rate Cutlass & Cane as one of the best new restaurants on St. Thomas.

The menu embraces fresh and vibrant flavors using seasonal and sustainable produce, while the bar boasts an extensive selection of fine spirits, vintage wines, signature cocktails and mocktails.

Deviled Egg Diced Shallots, Creme Fraiche, Blini ARS Italica Oscietra, Velvety Firm Texture, Hazelnut, Butter & Sea Urchin Notes

Fresh Blue Point Oysters

Raw with Shallot & Red Wine Mignonette or Baked and topped with Creamy Bacon, Fresh Arugula & Fried Shallot

Pan Seared Scallops

Seared Scallops with Bacon Jam, Pecan Butter, Cured Egg Yolk & Pickled Red Onion

Prosciutto Melon & Brie

Prosciutto, Cantaloupe & Brie dressed with Baby Arugula and drizzled with Balsamic Glaze

Mediterranean Bruschetta

Toasted French Baguette topped with Tomato, Basil & Anchovies

Tuna Tataki

Sesame Crusted and Seared Saku Tuna Loin over Seaweed Salad and fresh Mango Chutney

Fisherman Style Mussels

Fresh PEI Black Mussels in garlic white wine sauce

Jerk Chicken Wings

Jerk seasoned Deep Fried Wings with a Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce

Classic Caesar Salad

Romaine Lettuce with Red Onion, Parmigiano Cheese, Black Pepper, Anchovies & Croutons

Burrata Salad

Mixed Green Salad with Tomatoes, Red Onion, Grilled Artichoke Hearts topped with Burrata Cheese

Grilled Octopus Salad

Tender Octopus Tentacles atop a mélange of Mixed Greens, Cucumber, Tomato, Red Onion and Feta Cheese

Harvest Pear Salad

Mixed Green Salad with Fresh Pear, Toasted Walnuts, Dried Cranberries, Goat Cheese Crumble & Balsamic Vinaigrette

MAIN COURSE

Stuffed caribbean lobster.

Half Lobster with Shrimp and Crab Stuffing, Truffle Mashed Potatoes, Broccolini and a Roasted Garlic Cream Sauce

Seafood Pasta

Linguine Pasta with Mussels, Clams, Scallops & Shrimp in White Wine Cream Sauce

King Alaskan Salmon

Pan Seared King Alaskan Salmon with a mild Mustard Sauce over a bed of Coconut Jasmine Rice & Vegetable Medley

VI Fish Platter

Deep Fried Whole Red Snapper with a savory Creole Sauce, Caribbean Fungi, Vegetable Medley & Fried Plantains

Caribbean Braised Oxtails

Fork Tender Braised Oxtails with Rice & Peas, Mixed Greens Salad & Fried Sweet Plantains

Filet Mignon

8oz Grass-Fed New Zealand Reserve Tenderloin Filet with a decadent Mushroom Sauce, Garlic Mashed Potatoes & Broccolini

Chilean Sea Bass

Herb-Steamed Seabass Filet with Coconut Jasmine Rice, Mixed Green Salad & a Lemon Caper Sauce

Tofu Stir Fry

Snap peas, Carrots, Peppers, Broccoli & Mushrooms served over Coconut Jasmine Rice in a sweet and savory sauce (Vegan)

Chickpea Curry

Curried Chickpeas with Mango Kuchela, Fried Plantain, Coconut Jasmine Rice and Vegetable Medley (Vegan)

SIDES & DESSERTS

Add Shrimp $16, Add Sea Scallops $20, Lobster $65,

Coconut Jasmine Rice

Rice & peas, garlic mashed potatoes, vegetable medley, fried plantains, truffle fries.

Dark Chocolate

Mango Passion Fruit

Pistachio or Chocolate

Passion Fruit or Lemon

Reserve your table at Cutlass and Cane, indulge in a delectable dinner by the Yacht Haven Grande marina tonight! 📞Reservations can be made at Opentable or on website 📱Menu can be found at www.cutlassandcanevi.com 📆Open Wednesday – Monday, 4pm to 10pm

Indulge your taste buds at Cutlass & Cane with our exquisite oyster offerings! Whether you prefer them raw with Shallot & Red Wine Mignonette for a fresh burst of flavor, or baked and topped with Creamy Bacon, Fresh Arugula & Fried Shallot for a savory sensation, we`ve got your oyster cravings covered. 🦪 📍Located at Yacht Haven Grande, St. Thomas 📞Reservations can be made at Opentable 📱Menu can be found at www.cutlassandcanevi.com 📸 @thecaribbeanbreak

Our skilled mixologists craft liquid masterpieces, offering an array of options to choose from. Whether you fancy a classic cocktail or a refreshing mocktail, we`ve got the perfect pour. Cheers to unforgettable moments! 🥂 📞Reservations can be made at Opentable 📱Menu can be found at www.cutlassandcanevi.com 📆Open Wednesday – Monday, 4pm to 10pm

Start your meal with a staff favorite appetizer: The Tuna Tataki! Sesame Crusted and Seared Saku Tuna Loin over seaweed salad and fresh mango chutney. 📞Reservations can be made at Opentable 📱Menu can be found at www.cutlassandcanevi.com

Fresh from the ocean to your table at Cutlass and Cane! Enjoy ocean-table cuisine from a selection of fresh local seafood, international-inspired shared plates, and innovative cocktails. 🦞 📞Reservations can be made at Opentable 📱Menu can be found at www.cutlassandcanevi.com 📆Open Wednesday – Monday, 4pm to 10pm

Cutlass & Cane Open: 4-10pm Daily.

Closed Tuesday.

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Yacht Haven Grande – Miami Becomes the First Marine Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) in Miami-Dade County

by Tammy | Apr 28, 2021

Miami, FL, April 28, 2021 –  IGY is proud to announce that Yacht Haven Grande-Miami at Island Gardens has today been unveiled as the first and only designated Marine Foreign Trade Zone in Miami-Dade County.

A Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) alleviates duty and taxes on imported yachts and foreign flagged craft while in the zone. Simply put, FTZ status enables international superyacht sales brokers to show off and sell their yacht inventory from all over the world to potential US buyers on a specially designated FTZ slip at Yacht Haven Grande-Miami.

Placing ease and efficiency at the forefront, IGY expects to attract savvy yacht sales brokers and yacht owners who are keen to benefit from this highly advantageous program, which eliminates the upfront payment of import duties on new builds and foreign registered yachts prior to offering for sale.

Furthermore, there is no maximum duration for a yacht to stay in the FTZ; the broker merely needs to reserve with YHG-Miami and an agent will complete the paperwork to register the boat into the FTZ.

The marina will work closely with US Customs and Border Protection to adhere to FTZ rules and, while the FTZ area will have restricted access, the marina’s facilities and services will remain easily available to owners, crew and contractors.

“This will be the closest thing to a global marketplace for superyacht sales, it’s the perfect one-stop sales zone,” says Gili Wojnowich, IGY Regional Director. ”At Yacht Haven Grande-Miami, we can accommodate some of the world’s largest yachts for sale with a capacity for berthing up to 550 ft (167m). Miami has always been a prime destination, the ultimate destination to see and be seen, and we are proud to offer a luxe and exclusive venue to showcase the most alluring superyachts on the market.”

The atmosphere will be akin to a rolling mini-Miami yacht show and the marina is very excited about adding this new offering to its current upscale services. IGY looks forward to the prospect of welcoming sales brokers, owners and buyers from all over the world to our wonderful facility.

Yacht Haven Grande Miami at Island Gardens is currently accepting FTZ reservations.  Contact: [email protected] | www.www.igymarinas.com

About Yacht Haven Grande-Miami at Island Gardens Offering 50 superyacht berths up to a maximum length of 550 ft (167m), Yacht Haven Grande-Miami provides secure mooring for some of the world’s largest and most elite private vessels. Boasting a private VIP Marina Lounge of 2,700 sq ft, a sleek waterside office and adjacent deck – all of which are managed by IGY – the space provides the most intimate, discreet and conducive setting for successful sales transactions. Other amenities include onsite fine dining courtesy of The Deck at Island Gardens, recognized as one of Miami’s finest destination eateries, a captain & crew lounge and BBQ area, a conference room and business center, guest transportation and onsite parking. Floating docks offer shore power ranging from 50 – 800 amps and dockside services include golf cart assistance, pump-out, in-slip fueling and waste removal. Close to downtown Miami, Brickell and Miami Beach, YHG-M offers convenient access to the most elite hotels, shopping, dining and nightlife in Miami.

About IGY Marinas  IGY Marinas is the world’s only international superyacht marina network, with 19 marinas operating in 11 countries, including the United States, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Turks & Caicos, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain.  IGY has approximately 4,000 total berths under management and welcomes nearly 2,000 superyachts annually to its marinas.

RESTAURANTS AND SHOPS

From breakfast at the quayside, all the way to dinner on a rooftop terrace, menus range from fresh fish or pizza to traditional Sardinian cuisine that are also available for takeout or delivery onboard. The supermarket, conveniently located on the dock, specialty shop and liquor store offer a wide selection that are available for delivery to your vessel.

BWA YACHTING

BWA Yachting is a worldwide yacht agency and yachting services provider formed to support captains, managers and crew, making their lives easier, assisting with the increasing demands of managing a modern superyacht. Our global office network stretches throughout the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, the Caribbean and the Americas, providing a unique and seamless experience, wherever our clients are cruising. The BWA Yachting service can be anything from planning a complete trip, saving you time and a lot of hassle, with just one point of reference to the handling of a single port call or last minute concierge request. That’s everything from clearance procedures to berthing reservations, bunkering, provisioning, fiscal advice, logistics, technical assistance, travel arrangements, and more.

www.bwayachting.com Tel.+377 93 500 277 [email protected]

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Three decades after the Soviet era, this Moscow street echoes what was.

And hints where russia is heading., welcome to tverskaya street.

MOSCOW — Thirty years ago, the Soviet Union ceased to be. The flag was lowered for the last time on Dec. 25, 1991. That moment still raises deep questions for the U.S.S.R.’s heirs: “Who were we as Soviets, and where are we going as Russians?”

Many of the answers can be found on Moscow’s main thoroughfare — named Gorky Street, after writer Maxim Gorky, from 1932 to 1990, and renamed Tverskaya Street, a nod to the ancient city of Tver, as the Soviet Union was awash in last-gasp reforms.

It was the Soviet Union’s display window on the bright future that Kremlin-run communism was supposed to bring. It was where the KGB dined, the rich spent their rubles, Vladimir Lenin gave speeches from a balcony, and authorities wielded their power against one of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

In the 1990s, Tverskaya embodied the fast-money excesses of the post-Soviet free-for-all. In later years, it was packed with hopeful pro-democracy marchers. And now , under President Vladimir Putin, it is a symbol of his dreams of reviving Russia as a great power, reliving past glories and crushing any opposition to his rule.

Join a tour of Moscow’s famed Tverskaya Street.

Hotel National: Where the Soviet government began

The window in Room 107 at the Hotel National faces Red Square and the Kremlin. It offers a perfect view of Lenin’s tomb — fitting, since he was Room 107’s most famous guest.

The Kremlin was damaged during the Russian Revolution in 1917. So Lenin and his wife moved into Room 107 for seven days in March 1918, making the hotel the first home of the Soviet government.

The Hotel National in Moscow, from top: Artwork in the Socialist Realist style — which artists were ordered to adopt in the 1930s — still adorns the hotel; Elena Pozolotina has worked at the hotel since 1995; the hotel, which contains a restaurant, was built in 1902; the National has hosted notable guests, including Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and actor Jack Nicholson. (Photos by Arthur Bondar for The Washington Post)

The National, built in 1902 during the era of Imperial Russia, also accommodated other Soviet leaders, including Leon Trotsky and Felix Dzerzhinsky, chief of the secret police. The building continued to be used by the Soviet government as a hostel for official party delegates and was renamed First House of Soviets in 1919.

Guests can now stay in the same room Lenin did for about $1,300 a night. In more recent years, the hotel has hosted notable guests including Barack Obama (when he was a senator) and actor Jack Nicholson.

“This hotel feels a little like a museum,” said Elena Pozolotina, who has worked at the National since 1995.

“We have rooms that look onto Tverskaya Street, and we always explain to guests that this is the main street of our city,” Pozolotina said. “This corner of Tverskaya that we occupy, it’s priceless.”

Stalin’s plan: ‘The building is moving’

When Soviet leader Joseph Stalin demanded a massive redevelopment of Moscow in 1935, an order came to transform modest Gorky Street into a wide, awe-inspiring boulevard.

Engineer Emmanuel Gendel had the job of moving massive buildings to make way for others. Churches and monasteries were blown up, replaced by newspaper offices and a huge cinema.

The Moscow Central Eye Hospital was sheared from its foundation, rotated 97 degrees, jacked up, hitched on rails and pushed back 20 yards — with surgeons operating all the while, or so official media reported at the time.

Gendel’s daughter, then about 8, proudly stood at a microphone, announcing: “Attention, attention, the building is moving.” Tatiana Yastrzhembskaya, Gendel’s granddaughter and president of the Winter Ball charity foundation in Moscow, recalls that Gendel extolled communism but also enjoyed the rewards of the elite. He drove a fine car and always brought the family the best cakes and candies, she said.

The largest Gorky Street building Gendel moved was the Savvinskoye Courtyard. The most difficult was the Mossoviet, or Moscow city hall, with a balcony where Lenin had given speeches. The building, the former residence of the Moscow governor general, had to be moved with its basement. The ground floor had been a ballroom without central structural supports.

Moving buildings on Gorky Street in 1940, from left: A mechanic at a control panel regulates the supply of electricity while a house is being moved; a postal worker passes a moving house; a specialist unwinds a telephone cable during a building move to maintain uninterrupted communication; 13 rail tracks were placed under a house, on which 1,200 metal rollers were laid. (Photos by RGAKFD)

Gendel’s skills were used all over the U.S.S.R. — straightening towers on ancient mosques in Uzbekistan, inventing a means to drag tanks from rivers during World War II and consulting on the Moscow Metro.

Like many of the Soviet Union’s brightest talents, Gendel found that his freedom was tenuous. His ex-wife was called by the KGB internal spy agency in 1937 and asked to denounce him. She refused, and he avoided arrest.

“I believe he was not arrested and sent to the camps because he was a unique expert,” said Yastrzhembskaya. World War II, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War, interrupted the Master Plan for Gorky Street.

Aragvi restaurant: A haunt of the KGB

In the 1930s, the head of the elite NKVD secret police, Lavrenty Beria, one of the architects of the Stalin-era purges, ordered the construction of a state-owned restaurant, Aragvi, to showcase food from his home republic of Georgia.

One night, NKVD agents descended in several black cars on a humble Georgian canteen in Moscow that Beria had once visited. The agents ordered the chef, Longinoz Stazhadze, to come with them. The feared NKVD was a precursor to the KGB.

Stazhadze thought he was being arrested, his son Levan told Russian media. He was taken to Beria, who said that he had agreed with “the Boss” (Stalin) that Stazhadze would run Aragvi. Stazhadze had grown up a peasant, sent to work in a prince’s kitchens as a boy.

Aragvi opened in 1938. It was only for the gilded set, a reminder that the “Soviet paradise” was anything but equitable. The prices were astronomical. It was impossible to get a table unless the doorman knew you or you could pay a hefty bribe.

Aragvi, at No. 6 Tverskaya, was a favorite of the secret police; government officials; cosmonauts and pilots; stars of theater, movies and ballet; directors; poets; chess masters. Beria reputedly dined in a private room. Poet Sergei Mikhalkov said he composed the lyrics of the Soviet national anthem while sitting in the restaurant in 1943.

It was privatized in the 1990s and struggled, before closing in 2002. It reopened in 2016 after a $20 million renovation. But the new Aragvi closed abruptly in 2019 amid reports of a conflict between its owner and the building managers.

“You put your entire soul into cooking,” said the former head chef, Nugzar Nebieridze, 59, celebrated for his khinkali, a meaty dumpling almost the size of a tennis ball. He was devastated to find himself unemployed. But other doors opened. He now prefers to travel, giving master classes around Russia.

Stalin’s funeral: A deadly street crush that never officially happened

On March 6, 1953, the day after Stalin died of a stroke, an estimated 2 million Muscovites poured onto the streets. They hoped to catch a glimpse of his body, covered with flowers and laid out in the marbled Hall of Columns near Red Square.

Yulia Revazova, then 13, sneaked from her house with her cousin Valery without telling their parents. As they walked toward Pushkin Square, at one end of Gorky Street, the procession turned into a scene of horror. They saw people falling and being trampled. Some were crushed against metal fences. Valery, who was a few years older, grabbed Yulia by the hand and dragged her out of the crowd.

“He held my hand really tight and never let it go, because it was pure madness,” she recalled recently. “It took us four or five hours to get out of there. People kept coming and coming. I couldn’t even call it a column; it was just an uncontrollable mass of people.”

“I still have this feeling, the fear of massive crowds,” added Revazova, 82. “To this day, if I see a huge group of people or a really long line, I just cross the street.”

Neither Revazova nor her cousin knew about Stalin’s repressions.

“People were crying. I saw many women holding little handkerchiefs, wiping away tears and wailing,” she recalled. “That’s the psychology of a Soviet person. If there is no overarching figure above, be it God or Lenin, life will come crashing down. The era was over, and there was fear. What will we do without Stalin?”

Officials never revealed how many people died that day. The Soviet-approved archival footage of the four days of national mourning showed only orderly marches and memorials.

No. 9: The ruthless culture minister

The Soviet culture minister, the steely Yekaterina Furtseva, was nicknamed Catherine the Third, after the forceful Russian Empress Catherine the Great. Furtseva destroyed writers, artists or anyone else who challenged Soviet ideas. She lived at an elite 1949 apartment building for government officials at No. 9 — an ultra-prestigious address with a view of the Kremlin.

Furtseva, a former small-town weaver, made sure that No. 9 was only for the cream of party officials and other notables, such as famous Soviet actress Natalia Seleznyova, scientists, conductors and architects.

Riding the coattails of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, Furtseva was the only woman in the Politburo and later became the Soviet Union’s cultural gatekeeper despite her provincial sensibilities. She once infamously mixed up a symphony with an opera, and critics were quick to notice.

“She had little in common with the artistic leaders of her country except a liking for vodka,” Norwegian painter Victor Sparre wrote in his 1979 book on the repression of dissident Soviet writers, “The Flame in the Darkness.”

Furtseva was famous for previewing performances and declaring anyone even subtly critical of Soviet policies as being anti-state. Director Yuri Lyubimov described one such visit to Moscow’s Taganka Theater in 1969, when she turned up wearing diamond rings and an astrakhan coat. She banned the play “Alive,” depicting a cunning peasant’s struggle against the collective farm system. She “was livid, she kept shouting,” he told L’Alternative magazine in 1984. She stormed out, warning him she would use her influence, “up to the highest levels,” against him.

He was expelled from the party and in 1984 was stripped of his citizenship. She vehemently denounced Solzhenitsyn, and banned the Bolshoi Ballet’s version of “Carmen” in 1967 over prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya’s sensual performance and “un-Soviet” costumes that did not cover enough leg.

“The ballet is all erotica,” she told the dancer. “It’s alien to us.” But Plisetskaya, whom Khrushchev once called the world’s best dancer, fought back. The ballet went on with some excisions (the costumes stayed) and became a legend in the theater’s repertoire.

Furtseva was nearly felled by scandal in 1974, ordered to repay $80,000 spent building a luxurious dacha, or country home, using state labor. She died months later.

Where Solzhenitsyn was arrested

The Nobel Prize-winning Solzhenitsyn exposed the Soviet system’s cruelty against some of its brightest minds, trapped in the gulag, or prison camps.

Solzhenitsyn was given eight years of hard labor in 1945 for privately criticizing Stalin, then three years of exile in Kazakhstan, a Soviet republic at the time. His books were banned. After release from exile in 1956, he was allowed to make only 72-hour visits to the home of his second wife, Natalia, at 12 Gorky St., Apt. 169. Solzhenitsyn had to live outside the city.

“People knew that there were camps, but not many people, if any, knew what life was like in those camps. And he described it from the inside. He had been there himself, and that was shocking to a lot of people,” said Natalia Solzhenitsyna during a recent interview at the apartment, which became a museum in 2018.

“Many people say that he did make a contribution to the final fall of the Soviet Union.”

Solzhenitsyn, who died in 2008, called Russia “the land of smothered opportunities.” He wrote that it is always possible to live with integrity. Lies and evil might flourish — “but not through me.”

The museum displays tiny handwritten copies of Solzhenitsyn’s books, circulated secretly; film negatives of letters smuggled to the West; and beads made of compacted bread that he used to memorize poems in prison.

“He spent a lot of time here with his children. We were always very busy. And we just enjoyed ourselves — being together,” Solzhenitsyna said. They had three sons.

No. 12 Gorky St., from top: Natalia Solzhenitsyna lived in the apartment for years, and her husband, Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn, was allowed only short visits; the site now houses a museum displaying items connected to him, such as negatives containing a copy of a novel he wrote; another exhibit includes Solzhenitsyn’s clothes from when he was sent to the gulag and beads made of compacted bread that he used to memorize poems; the Nobel Prize-winning writer’s desk is featured at the museum. (Photos by Arthur Bondar for The Washington Post)

Because of KGB bugs, if the couple were discussing something sensitive, they wrote notes to each other, and then destroyed them. Two KGB agents usually roosted in the stairwell on the floor above, with two more on the floor below.

“The Soviet authorities were afraid of him because of his popularity among intellectuals, writers, people of culture and the intelligentsia.”

Her favorite room is decked with black-and-white photos of dissidents sent to the gulag, the Soviet Union’s sprawling system of forced labor camps. “It’s dedicated to the invisibles,” she said, pointing out friends.

Sweden planned to award Solzhenitsyn’s 1970 literature prize in the Gorky Street apartment, but the writer rejected a secret ceremony. A Swedish journalist in Moscow, Stig Fredrikson, was Solzhenitsyn’s smuggler. He carried Solzhenitsyn’s Nobel lecture on tightly rolled film disguised as a battery in a transistor radio, and he took other letters to the West and transported photos taped to his back.

“I felt that there was a sense of unfairness that he was so isolated and so persecuted,” Fredrikson said in a recent interview. “I got more and more scared and more and more afraid every time I met him.”

In 1971, the Soviet Union allegedly tried to poison Solzhenitsyn using a secret nerve agent, leaving him seriously ill. Early 1974 was tense. The prosecutor subpoenaed him. State newspapers railed against him.

The morning of Feb. 12, 1974, the couple worked in their study. In the afternoon, he walked his 5-month-old son, Stepan, in the yard below.

“He came back here, and literally a minute later, there was a ring at the door. There were eight men. They immediately broke the chain and got in,” his widow said. “There was a prosecutor in his prosecutor’s uniform, two men in plainclothes, and the rest were in military uniform. They told him to get dressed.”

“We hugged and we kept hugging for quite a while,” she recalled. “The last thing he told me was to take care of the children.”

He was deported to West Germany. The couple later settled in Vermont and set up a fund to help dissident writers, using royalties from his book “The Gulag Archipelago.” About 1,000 people still receive money from the fund, according to Solzhenitsyna.

When the writer and his wife returned to Russia in 1994, they traveled across the country by train. Thousands of people crushed into halls to hear him speak.

Solzhenitsyn abhorred the shock therapy and unchecked capitalism of the 1990s and preferred Putin’s tough nationalism. He died of heart failure at 89 in August 2008, five months after a presidential election in which Putin switched places with the prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, in a move that critics saw as a ploy to get around constitutional term limits.

No. 6: ‘Feasts of thought’

Behind a grand Stalin-era apartment block at 6 Gorky St. sits an ornate 1907 building famous for its facade, art nouveau glazed blue tiles, elegant arches and baroque spires. Once a monastery dormitory, it was a staple of pre-Soviet postcards from Moscow. But in November 1939, the 26,000-ton building was put on rails and pushed back to widen the street.

Linguists Lev and Raisa Kopelev lived in Apt. 201 on the top floor. Their spacious dining room became a favored haven for Moscow’s intelligentsia from the 1950s to the 1980s.

“People gathered all the time — to talk. In this apartment, like many other kitchens and dining rooms, at tables filled more often than not with vodka, herring and vinaigrette salad, feasts of thought took place,” said Svetlana Ivanova, Raisa’s daughter from another marriage, who lived in the apartment for nearly four decades.

Solzhenitsyn and fellow dissident Joseph Brodsky were Kopelev family friends, as were many other artists, poets, writers and scientists who formed the backbone of the Soviet human rights movement of the 1960s.

As a writer and dissident, Kopelev had turned his back on the Communist Party and a prestigious university position. The onetime gulag prisoner inspired the character Lev Rubin in Solzhenitsyn’s novel “In the First Circle,” depicting the fate of arrested scientists.

“The apartment was a special place for everyone. People there were not afraid to speak their mind on topics that would be considered otherwise risky,” Ivanova said. “A new, different spirit ruled in its walls.”

Eliseevsky: Pineapples during a famine

The Eliseevsky store at No. 16 was a landmark for 120 years — born in czarist Russia, a witness to the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, a survivor of wars, and a bastion during eras of shortages and plenty. It closed its doors in April.

Eliseevsky fell on hard times during the coronavirus pandemic, as international tourists dwindled and Russians sought cheaper grocery-shopping alternatives.

In the palace-like interior, two chandeliers hang from an ornate ceiling. Gilt columns line the walls. The front of the store, looking out at Tverskaya Street, has a row of stained glass.

The Eliseevsky store, which opened in 1901, is seen in April, with a few customers and some archival photos, as it prepared to close as an economic victim of the coronavirus pandemic. (Photos by Arthur Bondar for The Washington Post)

Denis Romodin, a historian at the Museum of Moscow, said Eliseevsky is one of only two retail spaces in Moscow with such pre-revolutionary interiors. But Eliseevsky’s level of preservation made it “one of a kind,” he said.

The building was once owned by Zinaida Volkonskaya, a princess and Russian cultural figure in the 19th century. She remodeled the house into a literary salon whose luminaries included Russia’s greatest poet, Alexander Pushkin.

St. Petersburg merchant Grigory Eliseev opened the market in 1901. It quickly became a hit among Russian nobility for its selection of European wines and cheeses.

Romodin said it was Russia’s first store with price tags. Before Eliseevsky, haggling was the norm. And it was also unique in having innovative technology for the time: electric-powered refrigerators and display cases that allowed goods to be stored longer.

Even in the Soviet Union’s hungriest years, the 1930s famine, Eliseevsky stocked pineapples.

“One could find outlandish delicacies here, which at that time seemed very exotic,” Romodin said. “It was already impossible to surprise Muscovites with wine shops. But a grocery store with luxurious interiors, and large for that time, amazed and delighted Muscovites.”

The First Gallery: A glimpse of openness

In 1989, in a dusty government office by a corner of Pushkin Square, three young artists threw off decades of suffocating state control and opened the Soviet Union’s first independent art gallery.

That April, Yevgeny Mitta and two fellow students, Aidan Salakhova and Alexander Yakut, opened First Gallery. At the time, the Soviet Union was opening up under policies including glasnost, which gave more room for public debate and criticism.

Artists were ordered to adopt the Socialist Realist style in 1934, depicting scenes such as happy collective farmworkers. Expressionist, abstract and avant-garde art was banned. From the 1970s, underground art exhibitions were the only outlets to break the Soviet-imposed rules.

The First Gallery, from top: Yevgeny Mitta, Aidan Salakhova and Alexander Yakut opened the Soviet Union’s first independent art gallery in 1989 and received media attention; Mitta works on a painting that he displayed at his gallery; Mitta recalled recently that he “felt we had to make something new”; an undated photo of Mitta at his gallery in Soviet times. (Photos by Arthur Bondar for The Washington Post and courtesy of Yevgeny Mitta)

“I just felt we had to make something new,” recalled Mitta, 58, who kept his interest in contemporary expressionism a secret at a top Moscow art school in the 1980s.

“It was like nothing really happened in art history in the 20th century, like it stopped,” he said. “The Socialist Realism doctrine was invented and spread to the artists as the only one, possible way of developing paintings, films and literature.”

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, artists had to “learn how to survive, what to do, how to work and make a living,” he said.

McDonald’s: ‘We were not used to smiling’

In the Soviet Union’s final years, a mania raged for all things Western. Estée Lauder opened the first Western-brand shop on Gorky Street in 1989, after meeting Raisa Gorbachev, the wife of reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, in December 1988.

The Soviet Union’s first McDonald’s, located across Pushkin Square on Gorky Street, opened on Jan. 31, 1990 — a yellow-arched symbol of Gorbachev’s perestroika economic reforms. Pizza Hut opened later that year. (In 1998, Gorbachev starred in a commercial for the pizza chain.)

Karina Pogosova and Anna Patrunina were cashiers at the McDonald’s on opening day. The line stretched several blocks. Police officers stood watch to keep it organized.

The Soviet Union’s first McDonald’s opened in 1990 and eager customers lined up to enter; Karina Pogosova, left, and Anna Patrunina were cashiers at the fast-food restaurant on Gorky Street then, and they are senior executives with the company today. (Photos by Peter Turnley/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images and Arthur Bondar for The Washington Post)

“The atmosphere was wonderful. The first day I had to smile the entire day and my face muscles hurt,” Patrunina said. “This is not a joke. Russians do not smile in general, so we were not used to smiling at all, not to mention for more than eight hours straight.”

Pogosova and Patrunina were students at the Moscow Aviation Institute when they learned McDonald’s was hiring through an ad in a Moscow newspaper. Interview questions included: “How fast can you run 100 meters?” It was to gauge if someone was energetic enough for the job.

Pogosova and Patrunina are still with the company today, as senior vice president of development and franchising and vice president of operations, respectively.

“I thought that this is the world of opportunities and this new world is coming to our country, so I must be in this new world,” Patrunina said.

The smiling staff wasn’t the only culture shock for customers. Some had never tried the fountain sodas that were available. They were unaccustomed to food that wasn’t eaten with utensils. The colorful paper boxes that Big Macs came in were occasionally saved as souvenirs.

McDonald’s quickly became a landmark on the street.

“I remember very well that the street and the entire city was very dark and McDonald’s was like an island of light with bright signage,” Pogosova said. “The street started to change after McDonald’s opened its first restaurant there.”

Wild ’90s and a missing ballerina

The end of the Soviet Union uncorked Moscow’s wild 1990s. Some people made instant fortunes by acquiring state-owned enterprises at throwaway prices. Rules were being written on the fly. The city was pulsing with possibilities for those with money or those desperate to get some.

“It was easy to get drunk on this,” said Alex Shifrin, a former Saatchi & Saatchi advertising executive from Canada who lived in Moscow from the mid-1990s until the late 2000s.

It all was on full display at Night Flight, Moscow’s first nightclub, opened by Swedish managers in 1991, in the final months of the Soviet Union, at Tverskaya 17. The club introduced Moscow’s nouveau elite to “face control” — who merits getting past the rope line — and music-throbbing decadence.

The phrase “standing on Tverskaya” made its way into Russian vernacular as the street became a hot spot for prostitutes. Toward the end of the 2000s, Night Flight had lost its luster. The club scene in Moscow had moved on to bigger and bolder venues.

Decades before, No. 17 had been famous as the building with the dancer: a statue of a ballerina, holding a hammer and sickle, placed atop the cupola during Stalin’s building blitz.

Muscovites nicknamed the building the House Under the Skirt.

“The idea was to have Gorky Street as a museum of Soviet art. The statues represented a dance of socialism,” art historian Pavel Gnilorybov said. “The ballerina was a symbol of the freedom of women and the idea that, before the revolution, women were slaves. It is as if she is singing an ode to the regime.”

The crumbling statues were removed by 1958. People forgot them. Now a group of Muscovites, including Gnilorybov, are campaigning for the return of the ballerina.

“It’s an idea that we want to give the city as a gift. It’s not political,” he said. “It’s beautiful.”

Pushkin Square: For lovers and protesters

Pushkin Square has been Moscow’s favorite meeting place for friends, lovers and political demonstrations.

In November 1927, Trotskyist opponents of Stalin marched to the 27th House of Soviets at one end of Tverskaya Street, opposite the Hotel National, in one of the last public protests against the Soviet ruler.

In December 1965, several dozen dissidents gathered in Pushkin Square to protest the trials of two writers. It became an annual event. People would gather just before 6 p.m. and, on the hour, remove their hats for a minute.

In 1987, dissidents collected signatures at Pushkin Square and other locations calling for a memorial to those imprisoned or killed by the Soviet state. The movement evolved into Memorial, a leading human rights group. Memorial was declared a “foreign agent” in 2016 under Putin’s sweeping political crackdowns.

In January 2018, left, and January 2021, right, protesters gathered at Pushkin Square. (Photos by Arthur Bondar for The Washington Post)

Protests in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny were held at Pushkin Square earlier this year. And it is where communists and liberals rallied on a rainy September night to protest 2021 parliamentary election results that gave a landslide win to Putin’s United Russia party despite widespread claims of fraud.

Nearly 30 years after the fall of the U.S.S.R., Putin’s Russia carries some echoes of the stories lived out in Soviet times — censorship and repressions are returning. Navalny was poisoned by a nerve agent in 2020 and later jailed. Many opposition figures and independent journalists have fled the country. The hope, sleaze and exhilaration of the 1990s have faded. Tverskaya Street has settled into calm stagnation, waiting for the next chapter.

Arthur Bondar contributed to this report.

Correction: A map accompanying this article incorrectly spelled the first name of a former Soviet leader. He is Vladimir Lenin, not Vladmir Lenin. The map has been corrected.

About this story

Story editing by Robyn Dixon and Brian Murphy. Photos and videos by Arthur Bondar. Archival footage from the Russian State Documentary Film and Photo Archive at Krasnogorsk; footage of Joseph Stalin’s funeral from the Martin Manhoff Archive, courtesy of Douglas Smith. Photo editing by Chloe Coleman. Video editing by Jason Aldag. Design and development by Yutao Chen. Design editing by Suzette Moyer. Maps by Dylan Moriarty. Graphics editing by Lauren Tierney. Copy editing by Melissa Ngo.