Moscow’s New Russian Mecca Burns Down
It seems to be a general rule of thumb that once the mainstream American press hypes something, it’s a sure sign that that phenomena is doomed to extinction.
Two years ago, the New York Times hailed Tallinn, Estonia as the ‘Party Capital of the Year’ just when the bubble was bursting on its once-hedonistic scene. Today, shops stop selling alcohol at 8 pm and the city is even sleepier than neighboring Helsinki. TIME made Putin the man of the year in 2007, just before his exit, and the end of the psychotic Putin era. It also devoted two pages in its Putin issue to Diaghilev, Moscow’s extravagant ‘New Russian’ hotspot, saying with the headline, ‘It Makes Me Want to Sing and Shout.’ The article went on to say, “Everybody who should be here is here: models, would-be models, oil barons, metals magnates, media tycoons, an actor, a director, a Duma Deputy, a gaggle of designers, the occasional expat (mouth agape).”
One of Dyagilev’s Last Parties
It’s no wonder then that having been cursed by TIME Magazine, the club’s doomsday clock was ticking. No surprise then that it self-immolated on a bleak Wednesday night in February (the night before the Chinese were set to celebrate their New Year’s party there!), destroying everything, including the baroque loggias, the catwalk, and the VIP Chill Room where billionaires paid $10,000 a table to hang with waify teenage models.
The fire was the talk of the Russian blogosphere, with most claiming that it was deliberate. Having partied with co-owner Gorobin in Amsterdam, I don’t doubt it. He’s a shrewd, smart and manic businessman (I’ll never forget him obsessively drawing the blueprint for his first ‘big’ club Zima on a tablecloth in Amsterdam) and he must have sensed that the club’s time was over. Even for hype-obsessed Muscovites, the club’s over-the-top New Russian snobbery was getting boring. Knowing Gorobin, he’ll be back with a sexier, smarter Diagilev in six months. Watch this magazine for an update.
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