Joseph Stalin's skyscrapers are among the most famous landmarks of Moscow.
There are seven, at first glance, completely identical multi-storey buildings which are seen to be mysterious because of the endless legends and secrets associated with them.
Stalin's skyscrapers were laid down at the same moment. On Sept 7, 1947, at 13:00 (1pm local time), the foundation was laid for the famous pyramid towers in honour of Moscow's 800th anniversary.
It is known that initially, according to the project, eight buildings were supposed to be built and the Palace of the Soviets promised to become the greatest among them, but it was not constructed.
With a height of 315m and sporting a 100m statue of Lenin on a dais, the skyscraper was supposed to be located on the site of the current Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.
The palace was built at a breakneck pace, but the completion of the construction was prevented at first by the war, and then by financial difficulties.
According to legend, under Nicholas I, the site on which the reconstructed Cathedral of Christ the Saviour currently stands was cursed and, therefore, unsuitable for building work.
Many researchers agreed that Stalin meant for the Palace of the Soviets to be a tomb for him, which was why he strictly followed the construction process and actively worked with architects.
Then, there's the Moscow State University on Vorobyovy Hills, which is associated with the most number of secrets and legends.
It is not even known how many floors there are in the building's basement. Some believe that under the foundations of the 36-storey, 236m-high building lies a city of the same size.
Rumour has it that a secret tunnel existed underground that connected the university building to Stalin's country bungalow.
There is also a legend that a branch of the secret government LRT-2 from the Kremlin to Vnukovo Airport ran under this building.
Until the 1990s, the building was the tallest in Europe. There are also eerie beliefs about the main building of Moscow State University, as hostel students said they've heard strange voices, rustling and extraneous footsteps.
According to legend, the sounds were that of prisoners who died during the construction of the building, which according to astrologers, has the strongest energy of all high-rise towers.
My personal impression is different. I stayed there for three years and never felt anything strange or unusual.
Next, the House of Artists on the Kotelnicheskaya embankment is considered the most elite Stalinist skyscraper.
It is because Stalin was its chief architect, and KGB chief Lavrentiy Beria was the curator of its construction. Among its famous residents include famous ballerina Galina Ulanova.
Some say there is a skeleton of an unloved foreman bricked up in the walls by disgruntled workers, and in some apartments there are messages from the builders, scratched in with a nail.
Astrologers believe that the House of Artists (like other pyramid towers) has a certain energy.
Due to the unconstructed Palace of the Soviets, this energy cannot manifest itself in full force, and that is why residents sometimes hear incomprehensible voices and encounter frequent accidents in their apartments.
Another skyscraper is the Foreign Ministry building, which has its own mystical story. According to the architects' plans, the high-rise was meant to be built without a spire.
Stalin, upon seeing the nearly completed building, was dissatisfied and ordered a spire to be installed on it. It was impossible to craft the spire out of stone, so, they made it from tin instead.
There's a mystical point of view that without the spire, the building could not be considered a pyramid and would not have the supposed power.
Thus, Stalin's plan to strengthen his power could fail. But, sceptics rejected this notion. Perhaps Stalin simply did not want to make the building look like American skyscrapers.
The towers were inhabited by scientists, famous actors, military and statesmen, that is, people with very strong energies. Who knows, maybe this was also a way Stalin could become even more powerful!
It is difficult to answer the question of why these pyramidal structures were built, but they represent a brighter future.
Today, Stalin's skyscrapers are the face of the Russian capital.
The writer, writing from Russia, was a professor at University Malaya