Moscowcultural revolution

Considered the country’s first public art museum, Tretyakov Gallery is home to some of the world’s greatest masterpieces of Russian art, with a permanent collection of more than 150,000 works from the 11th through the 20th centuries. Wander around the two buildings that make up the “Old Tretyakov” and the “New Tretyakov” to see revered icons, 18th-century portraits of nobles, landscape drawings, works of socialist-realism depicting peasants and party leaders and avant-garde classics by the likes of Kazimir Malevich and Wassily Kandinsky. The highlights are many, but look out for recognizable pieces such as Andrei Rublev’s Holy Trinity and Ilya Repin’s haunting portrait of Ivan the Terrible after mortally wounding his son. On the museum grounds is also the Graveyard of the Fallen Monuments, where Soviet-era busts and statues now reside.