Stalin's Death, Death of Communism, British Triumph and Americanization of Communism: Snapshot of History Which Passed Much Unknown to Its Contemporaries and the Meaning of Which Emerged Only Several Decades After: Moscow in the Camera of Henri Cartier Bresson

Moscow, 1954--in the midst of the Trotskyist and Menshevik coup by Khrushchev and his hollow men against the background of one of the new Babylonian Towers, commonly known as "Seven Sisters," based on early American high-rise models from New York, Chicago and Cleveland.

Of course, the fact of Stalin's murder (poisoning) by Khruschev and his conspirators in 1953 had been long covered up together with the political and even civilizational and historical meaning of this act. This meaning itself, however, took years and even decades to unfold and to turn and ultimately sink the mighty ship or Titanic of the system and much of the former Russia.

As Nikolai Starikov, who is at his best whenever he can cite British intelligence archives and sensitive information, pointed out Winston Churchill was invested as a Knight of the Garter (becoming Sir Winston Churchill, KG) just two weeks after Stalin's death. According to Starikov, Churchill (and hence British intelligence) were the true masterminders of this coup de grace:

Starikov: "Khruschev is a man who saved the US":

There is thus an interesting "Americanization" of communism and Russia at a glance--from Trotsky and his US ties (later morphing into neo-cons), through Lenin's infatuation with the Taylor management and production methods to Stalin's Babylonian/neo-ghotic/US skyscraping architecture down to Russian oligarchs living their Miami Vice dreams. However, as you can see from the other pictures, it was also time when both education and ideology were still taken seriously.

Needless to say, Nabokov's Lolita--a story of a Russian emigrant's pedophile fatal infatuation with an American beauty is also an important moment in the "Americanization" of the Russian gene and fate.

Compare one of the Moscow Sisters above with her US models/originals/fathers/brothers:

But the true and mightiest Babylonian Tower was supposed to be the building of the Supreme Soviet--the Palace of the Soviets that was to be built

on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The architectural contest for the Palace of the Soviets (1931–1933) was won by Boris Iofan's neoclassical concept, subsequently revised by Iofan, Vladimir Shchuko and Vladimir Gelfreikh into a skyscraper. If built, it would have become the world's tallest structure of its time. Construction started in 1937, and was terminated by the German invasion in 1941. In 1941–1942, its steel frame was disassembled for use in fortifications and bridges. Construction was never resumed. In 1958, the foundations of the Palace were converted into what would become the world's largest open-air swimming pool, the Moskva Pool. ...  Sergey Kirov, speaking at the Congress, proposed building a congress palace "on the sites of palaces once owned by bankers, landlords, and tsars". Very soon, Kirov said, existing halls would be too small to fit the delegates from new republics of the Union. The palace "will be just another push for the European proletariat, still dormant...to realize that we came for good and forever, that the ideas...

The original Church of Christ of the Savior on the site of the intended Babylonian Tower from a 1905 postcard:

The Church of Christ the Savior being demolished in 1931: