Vintage Moscow Bolshoi Theatre Soviet Union USSR Color Postcard Unposted For Sale

Vintage Soviet-era color postcard showing the Bolshoi Theatre and surrounding city traffic in Moscow, Russia.

The elevated view looks across Theatre Square toward the theater’s monumental neoclassical façade, with its eight-column portico, broad entrance steps and famous sculptural group of Apollo driving a four-horse chariot above the pediment. Numerous Soviet automobiles, pedestrians, landscaped areas, streetlights and neighboring buildings provide an excellent period view of central Moscow.

The reverse identifies the subject in both Russian and English:

“Moscow. The Bolshoi Theatre”

The Bolshoi Theatre is one of Russia’s most celebrated cultural institutions and is internationally associated with ballet, opera and classical music. Although the company traces its history to 1776, the present theater building opened in 1825 and was substantially rebuilt following an 1853 fire.

The automobiles, printing style and postcard format suggest that this example dates from approximately the 1970s or early 1980s, when Moscow was the capital of the Soviet Union. The card is unused, with no handwriting, address, postage stamp or postal cancellation.

An attractive piece of Soviet travel ephemera featuring one of Moscow’s best-known architectural and performing-arts landmarks.

ITEM SPECIFICS

• Type: Printed color postcard
• Era: Soviet era
• Approximate date: Circa 1970s–early 1980s
• Subject: Bolshoi Theatre
• Location: Theatre Square, Moscow, Russia
• Printed Russian caption: “Москва. Большой театр”
• Printed English caption: “Moscow. The Bolshoi Theatre”
• Scene: Theater façade, Soviet automobiles, pedestrians and city traffic
• Architectural style: Neoclassical
• Visible feature: Apollo quadriga above the portico
• Postage condition: Unposted
• Writing: None
• Stamp: None
• Postmark: None
• Country at time of publication: Soviet Union
• Present-day country: Russia
• City: Moscow
• Theme: Theater, ballet, opera, Soviet architecture and travel
• Original/Reproduction: Original vintage Theatre postcard, Moscow Russia postcard, Moscow USSR, Soviet Union postcard, Soviet era travel, Большой театр, Москва postcard, Russian theater, ballet postcard, opera house postcard, Theatre Square Moscow, Apollo quadriga, Soviet automobiles, 1970s Moscow, vintage Russian postcard, unposted USSR postcard, communist era ephemera and Moscow architecture