Krugovaya Kinopanorama, Moscow

Krugovaya Kinopanorama, or the Circular Cinema Panorama, is a purpose-built panoramic cinema at VDNKh that opened in 1959. Created on the personal initiative of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, the building was designed by architect Nikolai Strigalev and constructed in only a few months.

The idea was influenced by foreign circular-cinema technology, but the Soviet system was developed independently for the exhibition complex; the claim that Khrushchev ordered it after seeing such a cinema during his 1959 visit to the United States is chronologically inaccurate, since the attraction had already opened before that trip. The cinema surrounds spectators with a 360-degree moving image. Its original system used two tiers of 11 screens and 22 synchronized 35-millimeter projectors; a later version simplified this to 11 projectors and 11 film images while retaining the panoramic effect. Sound was recorded and reproduced through a nine-channel stereophonic system, with speakers positioned around the hall, including above and below the audience. Traditionally, spectators watched while standing in the center of the circular auditorium, turning freely to follow action unfolding in every direction. Films were made specifically for this unusual format and featured landscapes, cities, cultural scenes, and regions across the Soviet Union. Between 1959 and 1993, 19 panoramic films were produced for the system.

After extensive restoration, the cinema reopened to visitors in 2023, with 11 restored film projectors and a hall accommodating about 80 people, preserving the historical projection technology rather than replacing it entirely with a conventional digital presentation.