This is Moscow, Russia — the way it was in 1970, when I travelled there as a very young man, the first of many trips to come. Beautiful yet repulsive; attractive yet intimidating; the capital of the empire which promised not to rest until the system rules the world.

The East-German ORWO slides faded hopelessly over the 30 years before I had them scanned, but colors could be recovered in postprocessing — not so bad for images this old.