Walk through the colonnades at VDNKh these days, and it's hard to believe that this former showcase of Soviet industrial bounty was ever anything but a mall waiting to happen.


VDNKh, "The Exhibition of the People's Economic Achievements", is now an unrivaled consumer experience, with its 72 pavilions gradually differentiating into 72 shopping centers. Electronics is the name of the game. The competition between name-brand audio and video concessions has brought prices down lower than any other venue in town, and that's what draws the crowds of shoppers.


Other than that, the inventory tends to be the standard mix of fur-lined leather-look booties, cellular phones and macram? evening wear. But somewhere between the Pavilion of Consumer Cooperation (Belgian sauna fittings) and the Pavilion of Optics (sewing supplies) are some real bargains. For those of you with plenty of leisure time and a good sense of humor, here is a smart shopper's guide to the "People's Economic Achievements" on offer today:


The Pavilion of Health. Fittingly, the Pavilion of Health is stocked with imported medications at different levels of pharmaceutical legitimacy. A broad variety of perfectly respectable toothpastes and dental flosses are nestled next to "Andrew's Answer to the Morning After," an American product marketed "To Help Wherever It Hurts After Over-Indulgence." A homeopathic booth dispenses bag after bag of dusty herbs, while sexual aids ("Spanish Fly! Genuine!") change hands tactfully on the next aisle. Most impressively, one booth offers what appears to be an entire iron lung, locally produced, for the astonishingly low price of $375. You may not want to trust this pavilion with your respiratory system or your reproductive health, but it does supply a good variety of over-the-counter drugs for low prices.


The Pavilion of Physics. Outerwear mania! With a few deviations in the direction of halogen lamps ($80-150) and meat grinders ($69-159), this exhibition leans toward clothing. The Pavilion of Physics offers a vast selection of leather jackets, winter boots, and other guards against the coming winter. The quality of leather goods varies little from one concession to the next, unfortunately, although the shearling coats (in the $500 range) stand out.


The Pavilion of Standardization. Go figure. This pavilion, once an ebullient tribute to "standardization, measurement and certificatization," now specializes in light firearms, bulk popcorn production and fishing equipment. A selection of hunting rifles -- all in line with Russian gun control legislation -- retail from $82 to $182. BB guns and gas guns are priced at around $100. This is one of the few spots at the exhibition that offers serious fishing paraphernalia, including a pair of fly-fishing hip boots complete with shoulder straps.


The Pavilion of the Cosmos. Beginning with the YaK-42 toaster showroom out front, the Pavilion of the Cosmos is one of the most spellbinding shopping experiences in town. Maybe it's the space modules in the corner; maybe it's the modified Chinatown upstairs, which offers a good selection of ginseng tea, baby corn, fireworks, freeze-dried Sichuan vegetables and ramen noodles. The textiles are, by and large, low quality, but they are more than compensated for by a line of hologrammed Virgin-Mary jewelry.


The Pavilion of Metallurgy. The molten fruit of Russia's forges has been replaced by spangled lingerie, taffeta ball gowns and sewing machine parts. Also, there is a new business called Intercommerce, which supplies the raw materials for a supermarket, such as grocery carts (these deceptively simple vehicles will set you back $75 apiece), turnstiles, industrial refrigerators and merchandising material.





VDNKh is located on Prospekt Mira opposite the Kosmos Hotel. Most concessions work from 10 A.M. until 5 P.M. Nearest metro: VDNKh.