Then, as now, the Kremlin’s denizens measured themselves in comparison to the United States. Stalin thought people would find Communism deficient if Moscow lacked skyscrapers.

Yet simply aping American style would not do, either.

“They go to America and they say ‘Ah, the buildings are so huge’,” the Soviet dictator said, according to a 2011 history of the buildings. “Let them come to Moscow and see that type of building. Let them say, ‘Ah!’”

The government decree issued in 1947 to start construction ordered that the buildings look uniquely Russian. So the décor is Russian baroque, even if various American landmarks heavily influenced the architects, including the Wrigley Building and the Tribune Tower in Chicago, as well as the Woolworth and Municipal buildings in Lower Manhattan.

Some people find the resulting confection magnificent, others eerie and intimidating. The heavy stone cladding and crenelations of their fortresslike exteriors would fit right into Gotham City. On a dark snowy night, with exterior lights casting deep shadows across their imposing facades, one almost expects the Batmobile to come roaring out of any one of them.

In a city previously dominated by church bell towers, the buildings’ spectacular scale reshaped the skyline. They became symbols of Moscow and defined the modern face of the Soviet Union. Clones were constructed in various outposts of the empire, including Warsaw, Riga and Bucharest.

After Stalin died in 1953, the new leader, Nikita Khrushchev, found the entire project ostentatious, so construction of the 8th building, just off Red Square, was canceled. The rest, costing what was at the time a staggering $500 million overall, were completed by 1957.