Of course, the powerful leader got what he wanted.

Completed in 1953, the new skyscraper sprang up on one of the city’s highest points, Sparrow Hills. If things had gone the way Tsarist architects planned years earlier, though, there would have been another imposing building there – Russia’s main cathedral, the cathedral of Christ the Savior. However, it turned out the local soil could not support heavy structures, so the Cathedral was built in the city center instead.

What did not work out in the 19th century was made possible by Soviet engineers. Initially, the Moscow State University buildings were located in downtown, but after the skyscraper’s construction most faculties moved there.

Everything about this high rise was meant to impress. Moscow’s and one of Europe’s tallest building at the time, it was designed to be a fitting home for what was and still is the largest and widely regarded as Russia’s top university.

The skyscraper’s central tower is 36 stories high and is said to have over 30 kilometers of corridors and some 5,000 rooms. The university boasts a concert hall, a theater, a museum, a library, a swimming pool, cafes and restaurants, a police station, a post office and even a bomb shelter. Technically, students entering the building at the beginning of their first term could live, eat and study without ever having to leave the premises until the end of the academic year.

However, some changes were made to the initial plans. The statue of the university’s founder, the scientist and intellectual Mikhail Lomonosov, was originally meant to be bigger and stand on the tower’s rooftop. The architects then scrapped the idea and the roof was adorned with a giant spire. Stalin took a fancy to them, insisting that all Moscow high rises have spires. One reason for that was to distinguish the towers from American skyscrapers of the 1930s.

Meanwhile, the Lomonosov monument story inspired an urban legend which says that the statue on the roof was meant to be that of Stalin but the project was discarded after his death and the statue was bricked up somewhere in the university cellars.

In fact, there are more urban legends about this high rise than about any other Moscow building. The university is thought to have a secret city with a metro station beneath it, and the spire is said to have been a KGB surveillance point to keep an eye on the travels of top party officials around Moscow.

One story that does have a grain of truth is about the university's apple orchard. Again, it was Stalin’s idea. The Soviet leader was pleased with the building’s blueprints but wanting to make at least a small amendment, proposed planting apple trees, which was done without much delay.