Alla Aronova is a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, State Institute of Arts, Moscow, Russia. She earned her Master of Architecture with specialization in restoration and historic preservation from the Moscow Architectural Institute in 1980, and her PhD from the State Institute of Art Criticism, Moscow, in 1993. Alla Aronova's research interests are directed towards Russian art and architecture in the end of the 17th and the 18th centuries, with special focus on the history of Westernization of Russia under Peter the Great and his immediate successors. She is a leading expert on the subject of Russian festivals and festival architecture, has published a large number of articles in major Russian art history journals such as Isskustvoznanie (Art History Review), contributed chapters to edited volumes such as Moscow Kremlin in the 15th Century (Moskovskii Kreml’ XV stoletiia), Moscow: Volkhonka, 2011, and runs scientific seminar, "Arts and Culture in the eighteenth century," at State Inst. She is a recipient of numerous grants, such as Russian State Foundation for Humanities Grant, Deutscher Akademischer Ausrauschdienst Grant, and Swedish Institute Foundation Grant.Alexander Ortenberg is a professor at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, USA, where he teaches architectural history and theory, and design. He earned his MArch from the Moscow Institute of Architecture, Russia, in 1980 and his PhD from UCLA, USA, in 2004. His research interests include the history of architectural practices, the history of representation, and the history of exposition architecture. His publications include 'Joy in the Act of Drawing: Maybeck’s Palace of Fine Arts,' published in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (JSAH) in March 2011 and The Architecture of Great Expositions (2015) which he co-edited.

• Introduction Part I (Prologue): 1700-1775. Westernization of Russia 1. Peter I: The Celebration as an Architectural Object 2. Architecture of Death: The Funeral of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna 3. The Post-Petrine Metamorphosis of Triumphant Military Celebrations Part II: 1829-1901. Industrial Revolution and the Search for the Sources of Russian Exceptionalism 4. Kremlin on the Trocadero: The Unexpected Claim to Modernity in Russian Architecture at the World’s Fairs 5. Russian Domestic Expositions, 1829-1896, Through the Lenses of Domestic Critics 6. The "Russian Street" at the 1901 Glasgow International Exhibition Part III: 1925-1940. Revolution as Rapid Modernization 7. Objects-Organizers: The Monism of Things and the Art of Socialist Spectacle 8. Between Vanguard and Establishment: Boris Iofan’s Two Pavilions—Paris 1937 and New York 1939 9. Temporary Architecture and Life-Building, 1925-1940 Part IV: 1958-1978. The Cold War and Westernization of the USSR under Khrushchev and Brezhnev 10. The Soviet Pavilion at Expo ’58 and the Search for a Modern Socialist Style 11. The 1967 World Exposition in Moscow: In Search of a Project 12. The Soviet Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal: The Power and the Limits of a Symbol Epilogue 13. Ancient History and Present Day Politics in the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics