Old photos · Russia
Old photos of Moscow
More photographs than any other city on these pages — nearly three in four of them from 1955 or later, the Moscow of trolleybuses, prospekts and new districts, alongside the churches and walls that came down before it.
Time Portal's archive holds about 302,000 photographs of Moscow, taken between 1845 and 2000, each pinned to the spot where the photographer stood. 73% of them date from 1955 or later and are free to browse at map.timeportal.app with no account; the older ones open with Pro. The oldest, dated 1845–1847 in the archive, shows the old Armoury building in the Kremlin, before it was rebuilt in 1852–55 — a daguerreotype.
- Photographs
- 302,000
- Oldest
- 1845–1847
- Busiest decade
- 1980s
- Free, 1955 on
- 73%
How many photographs, decade by decade
The busiest decades for Moscow are the 1980s and the 1970s — 59,444 and 56,001 photographs. 7,559 were taken before 1900. Everything from 1955 onward is free to open on the map; the older photographs are part of Pro.
| Decade | Relative size | Photographs |
|---|---|---|
| before 1860 | 290 | |
| 1860s | 355 | |
| 1870s | 769 | |
| 1880s | 1,968 | |
| 1890s | 4,177 | |
| 1900s | 9,291 | |
| 1910s | 9,188 | |
| 1920s | 11,221 | |
| 1930s | 19,126 | |
| 1940s | 11,646 | |
| 1950s | 35,944 | |
| 1960s | 46,306 | |
| 1970s | 56,001 | |
| 1980s | 59,444 | |
| 1990s | 36,604 |
Where the photographs were taken
Counted in a small square around each place — about 250 metres each way — so a number is every photograph taken there, of the place itself or of the street beside it. Each place opens the map on that spot.
| Place | Photos | Oldest |
|---|---|---|
| Red Square | 10,486 | 1845–1847 |
| Tverskaya Street and Pushkin Square | 4,590 | 1855 |
| The Arbat | 2,238 | 1881 |
| The Bolshoi Theatre | 4,193 | 1856 |
| Lubyanka Square | 2,335 | 1873–1878 |
| The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour | 2,336 | 1852 |
What changed
Moscow was rebuilt more than once in the century these photographs cover. The general plan of 1935 widened Tverskaya — Gorky Street from 1932 — into a boulevard of Stalin-era apartment blocks, and whole buildings were moved back on rails to make room for it. Churches, gates and walls came down: the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was blown up in December 1931, the Sukharev Tower was demolished in 1934, and most of the Kitay-gorod wall went the same year.
After the war the city grew upwards — seven Stalin skyscrapers went up between 1947 and 1957 — and in the 1960s New Arbat was cut through the old lanes west of the Kremlin. The cathedral was rebuilt in the 1990s. The tower and the wall were not.
Questions about old photos of Moscow
Where can I see old photos of Moscow on a map?
On Time Portal: about 302,000 photographs of Moscow, each pinned where it was taken, most with the direction the camera faced. The map is free in any browser at map.timeportal.app — photographs from 1955 on need no account — and there is an app for iPhone and iPad.
What is the oldest photograph of Moscow in the archive?
The oldest precisely dated photograph, from 1845–1847, shows the old Armoury building in the Kremlin, before it was rebuilt in 1852–55 — a daguerreotype. 7,559 of the Moscow photographs were taken before 1900.
Which years of Moscow are best covered?
The 1980s, with 59,444 photographs, and the 1970s, with 56,001. 73% of the Moscow photographs date from 1955 or later.
Open Moscow on the map
One place in Moscow, across a century: The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour: Moscow Then & Now. Other cities: Saint Petersburg, Kyiv, New York, Berlin, Paris, Prague, Tbilisi, Odesa, Riga, Rome, London. Or search any address on the map, or in the app.
The counts on this page are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 — credit Time Portal and link here. The photographs are not ours to license: they belong to their photographers and the archives that keep them.