Russia Travel Guide: Moscow

Moscow is one of the world's great cities. Soviet Communists ruled half the world from the Kremlin - now all that has changed. Old Russia is rediscovering itself. and Moscow is a cosmopolitan city of great churches and museums, endless boulevards and vast suburbs of apartment blocks, parks and rivers, winter ice and lazy summers. But the real flavour of this city is in its small nooks and crannies, each of them unique.

If St. Petersburg is Russia's imperial crown, Moscow is its familial heart. It is a city in which one comes face to face with all that is finest and all that is most frustrating in Russia. The gregarious geniality of its people is as evident as the extreme tensions of a city coming to terms with the confusions of rapid social change. More than anywhere else in the country, it is in Moscow where the Soviet past collides with the capitalist future. Lenin's Mausoleum remains intact, but today it faces the newly chic GUM (pronounced goom), which is becoming ever more akin to Macy's or Harrod's.

Yet, as the new Moscow emerges, it is becoming increasingly clear that any move into the future will be marked by a strong appreciation of the city's rich and varied heritage--a heritage that vastly predates the era of Soviet rule. Indeed, the most striking aspect of the city today is not Moscow's much-publicized embrace of Western culture but its self-assured revival of its own traditions. Ancient cathedrals are being restored and opened for religious services, innovative theaters are reclaiming leadership in the arts, and traditional markets are coming back to life. Moscow is once more assuming its position as the capital and mother city of the ancient state of Russia.
Moscow Attractions:

Moscow Kremlin: The Moscow Kremlin is the heart of the Russia capital: major thoroughfares of the city either converge on the Kremlin, or form series of concentric circles around it. Red Square: The square itself is not very big (695 meters long and 130 meters wide), it impresses one by the richness and variety of its forms, which merge in austere harmony. The Kremlin and the Lenin Mausoleum, which stands by its walls, dominate the ensemble. St. Basil's Cathedral: St. Basil s Cathedral on Red Square, considered to be a true symbol of Russia and an integral part of Moscow scenery, is one of the most remarkable monuments and the supreme achievement of ancient architecture of the capital. Great variety of architectural forms of the pillar-towers on the one hand and wild fantasy of the colorful decor and a rare unity of all the parts of the monument as a whole on the other indicate the brilliant talent of its creators who dared to boldly break the traditional canons of erecting a religious building. Novodevichy Convent: Novodevichy Convent was founded in 1525 by the Great Prince Basil III. That was the promise he had given: to establish a monastery in honor of Smolenskaya icon of the Virgin on condition that Smolensk was freed from the Lithuanians. A special place was chosen for the erection of the building.

Pushkin Museum: The Museum was opened on May 31, 1912 as a Museum of Fine Arts named after Emperor Alexander III under the University of Moscow, but the solemn ceremony of stone laying of the Museum took place on August 17, 1898 in the presence of the Emperor Nikolas II and members of the royal family.. Kolomenskoe: High up over the steep banks of the Moskva River in a picturesque landscape an ancient site of Kolomenskoye stands surrounded by near-by settlements where sacred things of the Russian people have been created, shown to the world and kept carefully for centuries. 2,5 thousand of years ago one of the most ancient Moscow settlements called Dyakovo gorodishche (Dyakovo site) appeared. Tretyakov Art Gallerye: The founder of the gallery was the entrepreneur Pavel Tretyakov (1832-1898), who was from the merchant class. Beginning in 1856, Tretyakov made a hobby of collecting works by the Russian artists of his time. He was a famous patron of arts who helped support the peredvizhniki (literally, the travellers - a movement consisting of realistic painters in the second half of the 19th century). Sergiev Posad: Sergiyev Posad, a town of the Moscow region, is located 71 kilometers north-east of Moscow. The pilgrimage to the Holy Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius is very precious for the spiritual consciousness of Russian society. St. Sergius of Radonezh who founded the monastery in the mid-14th century is the most venerated saint.