Mosselprom building

Constructivist commercial building near the Arbat, erected in 1925 as headquarters of the Moscow Trust for the Processing of Agricultural Products. Mosselprom was the young Soviet state's monopoly distributor of beer, tobacco, chocolate and confectionery, and the building doubled as a giant advertising surface. It became famous for the huge facade lettering designed in 1925 by avant-garde artist Alexander Rodchenko together with poet Vladimir Mayakovsky: blocky red, black and ochre letters carrying the slogan Nowhere except at Mosselprom. The advertisement is considered a key work of the Soviet avant-garde and was restored in the 1990s after decades of overpainting. Today the block houses offices under regional heritage protection; facade enthusiasts come for the lettering, not the interior.