‘Muscovite Disneyland’ Is Planned to Ease Boredom

MOSCOW —  There may not be a Russian-speaking Mickey Mouse on hand for the grand opening, but a newspaper reported Saturday that Moscow hopes to have its own Disneyland-style theme park, called Wonderland, by 1997.

Moskovsky Komsomolets, the capital’s youth daily, said a plan has been tentatively approved to build the park on 890 acres on the banks of the Moscow River.

The paper said the park, which it dubbed a “Muscovite Disneyland,” would help solve what it called one of Moscow’s biggest problems--the lack of things to do.

“There’s simply no place for people to go,” Moskovsky Komsomolets said. “Children’s parks that were created in the 1930s just don’t satisfy Muscovites anymore with their poor-quality attractions.”

According to the report, the park’s center would be called the Magic City, and it would combine a fairy tale Russian city, a medieval castle and an Oriental city.

The Soviet film makers’ union has volunteered to build the Magic City, which it wants to be able to use as a movie set, Moskovsky Komsomolets said.

Construction is planned to begin next summer, it said. The paper added that some of the country’s best scientists and artists would be asked to help design the park.