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GUM Department Store, Balcony
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Moscow Panorama

GUM Department Store, Balcony

Photographer: Bill Swersey
When I first visited the huge GUM department store in 1991, most stores were empty or stocked with items no one wanted or needed (I recall a wide selection of decorative plastic vegetables). Shoppers nervously dashed from section to section in the hope of finding something worth buying. Peeling paint, dirty floors and missing panes in the glass ceiling were signs that the once-elegant GUM, which simply stands for "State Department Store" in Russian, had fallen from grace. Today, after privatization and a face-lift to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 1993, GUM is again one of the premier shopping malls in the world. Home to such upscale Western retailers as Galeries Lafayette, Benetton, Reebok and Christian Dior, GUM now offers a wide variety of goods, but most are too expensive for average Russians. Still, during the recent holiday season as Ded Moroz (Father Frost) and his granddaughter Snegurochka greeted shoppers beneath a Christmas tree, aisles were packed with shoppers spending money faster than anyone could have imagined five years ago.


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