Cherkizovsky Market

Cherkizovsky Market was a marketplace in the Izmaylovo District of Moscow that covered more than 200 hectares near Lokomotiv Stadium. The sprawling site consisted of multiple zones with thousands of stalls, aisles and storage areas where goods of all kinds were sold.

The marketplace emerged in the 1990s after the end of the Soviet Union and grew into one of the largest trading hubs in Eastern Europe. Moscow authorities ordered the closure of the site on June 29, 2009.

Vendors from Central Asia, China, Vietnam, India and Turkey ran stalls throughout the complex, creating a trading hub where multiple languages mixed in daily conversation. Some sections of the grounds became spaces where Chinese served as the common language among traders and shoppers.

The site stood near Cherkizovskaya metro station and could be entered through multiple gates that led into different market zones. Visitors who came to the grounds walked through a maze of aisles where thousands of vendors displayed their products.

The complex employed roughly 100,000 workers who supplied goods to vendors across much of European Russia from this location. This enormous workforce made the site function almost like its own city within the capital.