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The testiness is understandable. Not since Napoleon's unwelcome visit in 1812 has Moscow faced the prospect of so many Westerners all at once: 300,000 in three weeks next year, or more than half the number the city normally sees in an entire year. These tourists will have unprecedented freedom, if very little time, to move about on their own—and, interestingly, to use cameras and tape recorders in the cities they visit.
The Soviets are approaching the Olympic challenge much as the ancient pharaohs went about building pyramids, with single-minded intensity and a cast of thousands. A total of 99 construction projects, either new buildings or major re-buildings, have been undertaken in connection with the games. Of these, 76 are in Moscow, where the competition is centered. The rest are spread among the four other Olympic cities—Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk and Tallinn.
Construction began in the spring of 1977 and has proceeded almost on schedule, despite an unusually cold winter and the usual bureaucratic and planning snags. Specialists have been recruited from all over the Soviet Union, thousands of Young Communist League volunteers have taken up shovels to help out, and materials and manpower have been diverted from non-Olympic projects. Construction battalions from the Soviet army are working at many sites.
Unofficial estimates put construction costs at about $375 million, or less than half the totals for both Munich and Montreal. While refusing to give an official cost estimate, the Soviet government does say that income from sports lotteries, tour ism, commemorative stamp sales, souvenirs and television rights should more than cover building costs. The Soviets also point out that all the new Olympic facil ities will be put to good use after the games. The Olympic Village (see box), for example, will become a housing project for 12,000 lucky citizens. Indeed, the 1980 Olympics will be not just a sporting event, but a festival of architecture and technology. Some of the highlights:
> Lenin Stadium, now 23 years old, has been thoroughly refurbished. On the newly installed track, times were slow last week, but that could have been partly because of the paucity of world-class sprinters. As at most Olympic venues, the seating is bleacher-style and tough on the back and posterior. Rest rooms are a testament to the Soviet bladder: one ladies' room, for example, serves for nearly 10,000 spectators with just three toilets.
> The indoor stadium in the Olimpiisky Sports Center will be the largest covered arena in Europe. Standing 16 stories high and seating 45,000, it can accommodate a single event, or be divided by a soundproof wall so that two contests—a basketball game and a volleyball match, for example—can go on at once.
> The swimming arena, located next to the indoor arena, will have separate pools for swimming and diving under a graceful, dished roof and will seat 10,000.
> The rowing canal in the Moscow suburb of Krylatskoe is the best in Europe, even though the stands, seating 10,000, were erected on the wrong side for the prevailing winds, sheltering the inner two lanes and making them calmer and faster than the outer two.