Moscow

/mos"koh/ or, for 1, 2, /-kow/, n.

1. Russian, Moskva. a city in and the capital of the Russian Federation, in the W part: capital of the former Soviet Union. 8,967,000.

2. Also called Grand Duchy of Moscow. Muscovy (def. 1).

3. a city in W Idaho. 16,513.

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I

Russian Moskva

Capital and largest city (pop., 2001 est.: 8,546,000) of Russia.

It is located on both sides of the Moskva River in western Russia, about 400 mi (640 km) southeast of St. Petersburg and about 600 mi (970 km) east of Poland. Inhabited since Neolithic times, the site was first mentioned as a village in 1147 and became the capital of the principality of Moscow (Muscovy) in the late 13th century. It expanded in the 15th and 16th centuries under its grand dukes Ivan III and Ivan IV and became the capital of a united Russia (1547–1712). In 1812 it was occupied by the French under Napoleon and was almost entirely destroyed by fire. In 1918 it became the capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and expanded greatly. It suffered much damage from German bombing in World War II. In 1993 it was the scene of armed conflict between opposing government factions after the dissolution of parliament by Boris Yeltsin. The spiritual home of the Russian Orthodox church for more than 600 years, it is a political, industrial, transportation, and cultural centre. Its most notable structure is the Kremlin, a medieval fortress on the Moskva with Red Square along its eastern wall. The Lenin Mausoleum is nearby, and St. Basil's Cathedral is at the southern end of the square. Moscow is also home to the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow State University, and many other institutions of higher education.

II

(as used in expressions)

Moscow Art Theatre

Moscow school

Moscow State University

Moscow River

Moskva River

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▪ Idaho, United States

      city, seat (1888) of Latah county, northwestern Idaho, U.S. The city is situated on Paradise Creek, in the Palouse country just north of Lewiston, near the Washington border. The area was settled in 1871 and developed as a stagecoach station. Local farmers called the area Hog Heaven. The origins of the name Moscow are disputed; some hold that the town was named by Jonathan Neff, a homesteader who had lived near the hamlet of Moscow, Pennsylvania, and who liked the romantic associations of the name, while others believe that the name comes from the Nez Percé masco, meaning “flax,” which grew abundantly in the region. The establishment of the University of Idaho (Idaho, University of) (1889) there was a major factor in the city's development. Moscow is also the seat of New St. Andrews College (1994). Agriculture (peas and wheat), lumbering, and clay production are the major economic activities in the surrounding area. St. Joe National Forest is to the northeast. Inc. town, 1887; city, 1893. Pop. (1990) 18,519; (2000) 21,291.

▪ Russia

Introduction

Russian  Moskva 

  city, capital of Russia, in the far western part of the country. Since it was first mentioned in the chronicles of 1147, Moscow has played a vital role in Russian history. It became the capital of Muscovy (the Grand Principality of Moscow (Moscow, Grand Principality of)) in the late 13th century; hence, the people of Moscow are known as Muscovites. Today Moscow is not only the political centre of Russia but also the country's most populous city and its industrial, cultural, scientific, and educational capital. For more than 600 years Moscow also has been the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox church.

      The capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) until the union dissolved in 1991, Moscow attracted world attention as a centre of communist power; indeed, the name of the seat of the former Soviet government and the successor Russian government, the kremlin (Russian: Kreml), was a synonym for Soviet authority. The dissolution of the U.S.S.R. brought tremendous economic and political change, along with a significant concentration of Russia's wealth, into Moscow. Area 414 square miles (1,035 square km). Pop. (2006 est.) city, 10,425,075.

Character of the city

      If St. Petersburg (Saint Petersburg) is Russia's “window on Europe,” Moscow is Russia's heart. It is an upbeat, vibrant, and sometimes wearisome city. Much of Moscow was reconstructed after it was occupied by the French under Napoleon I in 1812 and almost entirely destroyed by fire. Moscow has not stopped being refurbished and modernized and continues to experience rapid social change. Russia's Soviet past collides with its capitalist present everywhere in the country, but nowhere is this contrast more visible than in Moscow. Vladimir Ilich Lenin (Lenin, Vladimir Ilich)'s Mausoleum remains intact, as do many dreary five-story apartment buildings from the era of Nikita Khrushchev (Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeyevich)'s rule (the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s); yet, glitzy automobiles and Western-style supermarkets, casinos, and nightclubs are equally visible. Many Orthodox churches, as well as some synagogues and mosques, have been restored, Moscow's novel theatres have reclaimed leadership in the dramatic arts, and traditional markets have been revived and expanded. These markets, which under the Soviets were known as kolkhoz (collective-farm) markets and sold mainly crafts and produce, are now more sophisticated retail establishments.

      It has become habitual to compare Moscow with St. Petersburg, its rival and the former (1712–1918) capital of Russia. While St. Petersburg has absorbed western European influences, Moscow is viewed as a traditional Russian city. Unlike its rival, Moscow has a well-defined city centre marked by the Kremlin. Other characteristics of Moscow are its physical layout in radial spokes and rings that have been extended over time, its hodgepodge of architectural styles, and its historical buildings that were mainly built by Russian architects. Moscow's buildings were predominantly wooden until the 1920s, when brick and stone came into use.

Landscape

City site

      Moscow is located in western Russia about 400 miles (640 km) southeast of St. Petersburg and 300 miles (480 km) east of the border with Belarus. It stands on the Moscow River (Moskva River), a tributary of the Oka (Oka River) and thus of the Volga (Volga River), in the centre of the vast plain of European Russia. The city and its surrounding area, the oblast (Moscow) (province), lie in the northwest corner of the most highly developed and densely populated part of Russia. Moscow is situated in the broad, extremely shallow valley of the Moscow River and its tributaries.

      The advances and retreats of glaciers during the Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,806,000 to 11,800 years ago) deposited a thick mantle of boulder clays and morainic sands and gravels into which the sinuous Moscow River cut its wide valley in successive stages, marked by four corresponding levels. Geologically recent alluvial deposits cover their surfaces. Beside the river itself is a narrow belt of floodplain; a few feet above this is the first terrace, which yields to the successively higher second and third levels. The last of these terraces, rising up to 100–115 feet (30–35 metres) above the river, is the most extensive, and much of Moscow is built on it. Northward the third terrace merges imperceptibly with a plain of clays and sands, which slopes up very gradually to the Klin-Dmitrov morainic ridge some 40 miles (60 km) north of the city. Similarly, eastward and southeastward the surface gradually merges into the vast, almost completely flat, and very swampy clay plain of the Meshchera Lowland, which extends far beyond the city limits.

      Almost everywhere, surface relief is minor. The legend that Moscow was built on seven hills, as Rome was, is an exaggeration, though there are a few small hills in and around the city centre. Only in the southwest of the city is there an upland area—on Cretaceous rocks, covered by glacial morainic material. This is the Teplostanskaya Upland, which rises more than 400 feet (120 metres) above the Moscow River and which includes the highest elevation within Moscow's limits, 830 feet (250 metres) above sea level. One of the sweeping bends of the river has cut into the edge of the Teplostanskaya Upland a steep cliff, the Vorobyëvy Hills (also known as the Sparrow Hills or the Lenin Hills), from the top of which there are panoramic views of the city.

      Long periods of occupation have extensively altered the natural setting of Moscow. The “cultural layer,” consisting of debris of buildings demolished long ago and of other materials deposited by humans, is up to 50 feet (15 metres) deep in some parts of central Moscow. Almost all the small rivers and streams that once flowed into the Moscow River through the city area have now been put into underground conduits or have been filled in. There are still visible tributaries, however—i.e., the Yauza and two of its appendages on the left (northern) bank and the Setun. The Yauza and the Moscow are controlled by stone embankments for most of their winding courses through the city. The Moscow River has been diverted in places, with cuts made through the necks of its loops, and it has also been both widened and deepened; in certain places it is 800 feet (245 metres) wide. In the past the river was icebound from November to April, but a channel is now kept open throughout the winter. The Yauza receives additional water from the Volga, by way of the Moscow Canal and its branch, the Likhobory Canal. Two dams on its lower course have raised the level of the Yauza and have made the lower reaches navigable.

      Part of Moscow's water supply comes from some 1,000 deep bores in the city that tap the artesian water of the underlying Carboniferous beds. Overuse has greatly lowered the levels of these underground waters, however, and most water needs are now met by surface sources—i.e., the reservoirs north of the city built in connection with the Moscow Canal, in particular the Ucha Reservoir. Water is also drawn from the Moscow River and pumped into underground storage reservoirs. The discharge of untreated sewage and industrial effluents polluted the Moscow River and adjacent groundwater until the mid-1960s, when antipollution and water-purification measures were enforced.

Climate

      The climate of Moscow is dominated by westerly winds from the Atlantic. Precipitation is moderate, about 23 inches (580 mm) a year. Snow is common, beginning usually about mid-November and lasting generally until mid-March; the city is well-equipped to keep the streets clear. Winters are long, yet they are significantly milder than in similar climatic regions of North America. Southerly airstreams occasionally bring days with temperatures above freezing. Conversely, northerly winds from the Arctic bring very sharp drops in temperature, often accompanied by clear, brisk weather with low relative humidity. Thus, although the January average temperature is 14 °F (−10 °C), there can be considerable variation; temperatures have dropped to near −45 °F (−43 °C). Spring is relatively brief, and the temperature rises rapidly during late April. Summers are warm, and July, the warmest month, has an average temperature in the mid-60s F (about 18 °C); temperatures nearing 100 °F (38 °C) have been reached in August. Rainy days are not uncommon, but the summer rainfall often comes in brief, heavy downpours and thunderstorms. Autumn, like spring, is short, with rapidly falling temperatures.

      Until the late 1950s there was increasing air pollution in Moscow. Smog was common, often with heavy concentrations of sulfur dioxide. A major campaign to control noxious emissions was launched, assisted greatly by a changeover from coal to natural gas as the principal fuel. Some factories that had contributed to pollution were moved out of the city. Slight improvement in Moscow's air had been marked, but since the 1980s the growing number of motor vehicles and the increase in the number of power generators have once again bolstered the concentrations of such exhaust pollutants as carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide in Moscow.

City layout

 A map of Moscow presents a pattern of concentric rings that circle the rough triangle of the Kremlin and its rectangular extension, the Kitay-gorod, with outwardly radiating spokes connecting the rings; the whole pattern is modified by the twisting, northwest-southeast-trending Moscow River. These rings and radials mark the historical stages of the city's growth: successive epochs of development are traced by the Boulevard Ring and the Garden Ring (both following the line of former fortifications), the Moscow Little Ring Railway (built in part along the line of the former Kamer-Kollezhsky customs barrier), and the Moscow Ring Road.

The Kremlin

  As throughout its history, the Kremlin remains the heart of the city. It is the symbol of both Russian and (for a time) Soviet power and authority, and it has served as the official residence of the president of the Russian Federation since 1991. The Kremlin's crenellated red brick walls and its 20 towers (19 with spires) were built at the end of the 15th century, when a host of Italian builders arrived in Moscow at the invitation of Ivan III (the Great). One of the most important towers, the Saviour (Spasskaya) Tower, leading to Red Square, was built in 1491 by Pietro Solario, who designed most of the main towers; its belfry was added in 1624–25. The chimes of its clock are broadcast by radio as a time signal to the whole country. Also on the Red Square front is the St. Nicholas (Nikolskaya) Tower, built originally in 1491 and rebuilt in 1806. The two other principal gate towers—the Trinity (Troitskaya) Tower, with a bridge and outer barbican (the Kutafya Tower), and the Borovitskaya Tower—rise from the western wall.

 Within the Kremlin walls is one of the most striking and beautiful architectural ensembles in the world: a combination of churches and palaces, which are open to the public and are among the city's most popular tourist attractions, and the highest offices of the state, which are surrounded by strict security. Around the centrally located Cathedral Square are grouped three magnificent cathedrals, superb examples of Russian church architecture at its height in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. These and the other churches in the Kremlin ceased functioning as places of worship after the Russian Revolution of 1917, but services recommenced in most Kremlin churches beginning in 1990. The Cathedral of the Assumption is the oldest, built of white stone in 1475–79 in the Italianate-Byzantine style. Its pure, simple, and beautifully proportioned lines and elegant arches are crowned by five golden domes. The Orthodox metropolitans and patriarchs of the 14th to 18th centuries are buried there. Across the square is the Cathedral of the Annunciation, built in 1484–89 by craftsmen from Pskov (though burned in 1547, it was rebuilt in 1562–64). Its cluster of chapels is topped by golden roofs and domes. Inside are a number of early 15th-century icons attributed to Theophanes The Greek and to Andrey Rublyov (Rublyov, Saint Andrey), considered by many to be the greatest of all Russian icon painters. The third cathedral, dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel, was rebuilt in 1505–08; in it are buried the princes of Moscow and the tsars (tsar) of Russia (except Boris Godunov (Godunov, Boris)) up to the founding of St. Petersburg.

 Just off the square stands the splendid, soaring white bell tower of Ivan III; built in the 16th century and damaged in 1812, it was restored a few years later. At its foot is the enormous Tsar Bell, cast in 1733–35 but never rung. Nearby is the Tsar Cannon, cast in 1586. Beside the gun are located the mid-17th-century Cathedral of the Twelve Apostles and the adjoining Patriarchal Palace.

      On the west of Cathedral Square is a group of palaces of various periods. The Palace of Facets—so called from the exterior finish of faceted, white stone squares—was built in 1487–91. Behind it is the Terem Palace of 1635–36, which incorporates several older churches, including that of the Resurrection of Lazarus, dating from 1393. Both became part of the Great Kremlin Palace, built as a royal residence in 1838–49 and formerly used for sessions of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.; its long, yellow-washed facade dominates the riverfront. It is connected to the Armoury Palace (Armoury Museum), built in 1844–51 and now housing the Armoury Museum, with a large collection of treasures of the tsars. Along the northeast wall of the Kremlin are the Arsenal (1702–36), the former Senate building (1776–88), and the School for Red Commanders (1932–34). The only other Soviet-period building within the Kremlin is the Palace of Congresses (1960–61), with a vast auditorium used for political gatherings and as a theatre.

The Kitay-gorod

  The Kitay-gorod is a historic quarter of Moscow and a major tourist site. Within the Kitay-gorod, along the east wall of the Kremlin, lies Red Square, the ceremonial centre of the capital and the scene of holiday parades. The modest Lenin Mausoleum blends into the wall, which itself contains the graves of most of the U.S.S.R.'s leadership. At the southern end of Red Square is the Church of the Intercession, better known as the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed (Saint Basil the Blessed). Built in 1554–60 to commemorate the defeat of the Tatars (Tatar) (Mongols) of Kazan and Astrakhan by Ivan IV (the Terrible), it is a unique and magnificent architectural display, each of its 10 domes differing in design and colour. Along Red Square facing the Kremlin is the State Department Store—usually called by its Russian acronym, GUM (Gosudarstvenny Universalny Magazin)—with its long aisles, iron bridges linking the upper floors, and vast skylights. The slightly earlier State Historical Museum (1875–83) closes off the northern end of the square. In 1990 the Kremlin and Red Square areas were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.

      Many old churches survive in the Kitay-gorod. Of particular note is the Church of the Trinity of Nikitniki (1628–34), built for the merchant Grigory Nikitnikov. Other notable churches in this quarter are the 15th-century Church of St. Anne of the Conception and the Epiphany Cathedral (1693–96). The Kitay-gorod was for centuries the commercial centre of Moscow, and its narrow, crowded streets still contain former banks, the stock-exchange building, and warehouses. Many of the old buildings near the river, however, were demolished in the 1960s to make room for the massive Rossiya Hotel (completed in 1967; torn down in 2006); nevertheless, a row of buildings, including the 16th-century house of the Romanov (Romanov Dynasty) boyars (boyar) and Old English Embassy and the 17th-century Monastery of the Sign, remain.

The inner city

      Inner Moscow functions like a typical central business district. In this area are concentrated most of the government offices and administrative headquarters of state bodies, most of the hotels and larger shops, and the principal theatres, museums, and art galleries. The inner city's function as a residential area has not been completely lost, however; although many large prerevolution and Soviet-style apartment buildings were transformed into offices in the 1990s, some quiet residential neighbourhoods linger within the Garden Ring, mostly consisting of luxury apartments for Russia's new elite.

      In the remainder of the central part of Moscow, within the Garden Ring, are buildings representative of every period of Moscow's development from the 15th century to the present day. Scattered through the inner city are several fine examples of 17th-century church architecture, notably the Church of All Saints of Kulishki, built in the 1670s and '80s to commemorate those killed in the Battle of Kulikovo (Kulikovo, Battle of) (1380), and the Church of the Nativity of Putniki (1649–52). This was the period of development of the Moscow Baroque style; one of its best examples, located outside the city centre on the site of the former village of Fili, is the Church of the Intercession (1693). Buildings of the Classical period—beginning about the latter half of the 18th century and covering the rebuilding of Moscow after the fire of 1812—abound within the Garden Ring and the Boulevard Ring (the latter forming a rough horseshoe north of the Moscow River around the Kremlin and Kitay-gorod) and in Zamoskvoreche, a largely residential district south of the river. Notable examples are the old university and the former meeting place of the assembly of nobles with its Hall of Columns (now the House of Trade Unions), both built by Matvei Kazakov in the 1780s; the elegant Pashkov House (1785–86), now part of the Russian State Library but still commonly referred to as the V.I. Lenin Library; the Lunin House (1818–23), now the Museum of Oriental Art; the Manezh (Riding School; 1817), which is now used as an exhibition hall; and the magnificent Bolshoi Theatre (1821–24), rebuilt in 1856 after a fire. Toward the end of the 19th century and continuing into the early 20th, buildings in the revivalist Old Russian style were built, including the Tretyakov Gallery (1906) and—just outside the Garden Ring—the Yaroslavl railway station (1902–04).

      Side by side with the old appeared new buildings in the modern, functional style of the 1920s, in the ponderous, often overly ornate style of the later period of Joseph Stalin (Stalin, Joseph)'s rule (1945–53), and in the high-rise concrete and glass predominant since the 1960s. Among more imaginative examples of later architecture are the Taganka Theatre (1983) and the Gazprom and Lukoil office buildings (1990s).

      In the Soviet period much more open space was created, especially by constructing large squares such as Manezhnaya. Many streets were widened—in particular, Tverskaya Prospekt (called Gorky Prospekt, for Russian novelist Maksim Gorky (Gorky, Maksim), from 1932 to 1992), one of Moscow's principal radial roads, which is lined with large shops, hotels, and offices. The Garden Ring itself has been widened to form a broad highway with multiple lanes in each direction and with overpasses where it is intersected by the main radial routes. In the 1960s a new radial street, Kalinina, was built through an area of older housing westward from the Kremlin to the Moscow River; it is lined by high-rise office and apartment buildings, linked at street and second-floor levels by a shopping mall. At its outer end rises a lofty three-winged building overlooking the river, which for many years housed offices of Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance; disbanded in 1991) and now serves as the headquarters for the Moscow city government. Yet just next to this bustling thoroughfare is Arbat Prospekt (also called Old Arbat), one of the most picturesque streets of Moscow and now closed to vehicular traffic.

      Most of the historic buildings of central Moscow have been preserved—since the 1960s, much careful restoration and repair work has been undertaken—but some architectural monuments disappeared in the early Soviet period. In 1931 Stalin demolished the 19th-century Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, and, beginning in 1958, a vast open-air swimming pool occupied its foundation, in accordance with Khrushchev's orders. The cathedral, however, was restored to its original design and reopened in 1997. Its massive gilded cupola overlooking the Kremlin is one of the major focal points of the downtown skyline.

The middle zone

      Beyond the Garden Ring and approximately as far as the Moscow Little Ring Railway lies a zone mostly of late 18th- and 19th-century development. Within it are many factories and the principal railway stations and freight yards. The Likhachyov Automobile Works and its associated housing occupy some of the southeastern sector. Enveloped within this zone are further examples of the best of Classical Moscow, such as the 18th-century palace that houses the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Sciences, Academy of) on Leninsky Prospekt. Also to the southwest, on the banks of the Moscow River, are the most important of the fortified monasteries, the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, with its beautiful Smolensk Cathedral, whose tall bell tower (1690) dominates the churches and buildings within the crenellated walls and towers of the convent. The cathedral now houses the Novodevichy Convent Museum, and the complex includes a cemetery where Khrushchev and other prominent figures from Soviet history are buried. Just south of Novodevichy, within the large loop of the river and facing the Vorobyëvy Hills, is the sports complex known as Luzhniki Park, dominated by the huge football (soccer) stadium formerly known as Central Lenin Stadium (built 1955–56).

      The middle zone underwent the most urban renewal in Soviet times. Among the features of the present Moscow skyline are the ornate vysotkas (“sky houses”), imposing buildings of about 20 to 30 stories along the Garden Ring that were built in the late 1940s and early 1950s under Stalin. In the same Stalin-period style are the Ukraina Hotel across the river and the gigantic building in the Moscow State University complex on the Vorobyëvy Hills. Most of the renewal that has taken place since 1960 consists of extensive neighbourhoods of wide streets lined with rows of apartment buildings. A number of areas still have narrow streets of 19th-century housing and smaller factories.

      Major post-Soviet developments in the middle zone included the erection of a large Catholic church on Bolshaya Gruzinskaya, a third highway circling the periphery of the middle zone, and large-scale upgrading of housing stock; indeed, the term yevroremont (“European-style repair”) was coined in the 1990s to describe this Muscovite refurbishment, generally referring to the updating of utilities and amenities to Western standards.

Outer Moscow

 Beyond Moscow's third ring are an industrial zone and extensive housing construction sites. Closer to the centre are microrayony, or clusters of large apartment blocks, typically five- to nine-story apartment buildings constructed predominantly of yellowish brick. The early five-story versions of these structures were referred to as khrushchovkas, named for Khrushchev, who initiated their construction in the 1950s. Farther out, the neighbourhoods are characterized by high-rise buildings made of standardized, prefabricated concrete sections. Commonly, the street levels of the buildings are occupied by shops. Streets are broad and tree-lined. Between the densely populated microrayony are wedge-shaped areas of open land, notably the extensive Izmaylovsky Park to the east, Sokolniki Park and large forest tracts to the northeast, and the grounds of the permanent Exhibition of National Economic Achievements to the north. Nearby, in Dzerzhinsky Park at Ostankino, is the 1,758-foot (536-metre) television tower, which sustained a fire in 2000.

      Monuments of the past, such as the 17th-century Church of the Intercession in the Medvedkovo district of Moscow, survive in the sea of new buildings. Moscow's growth has engulfed a number of former country estates, the mansions of which date mostly from the period of Classical architecture. On the east side of the city is Kuskovo, once the estate of the Sheremetyev family, one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Russia; its palace, built in the 1770s, houses a church, hermitage, and Baroque grotto. To the south is the Uzkoe mansion, formerly belonging to the Trubetskoy Family; to the north are the Petrovsky Palace (built by Kazakov in 1775–82) and, best known of all, the Ostankino Palace (1790–98). In the southeastern suburbs is the former village of Kolomenskoye, once a summer residence of the princes of Moscow. Its most remarkable architectural ensemble of buildings is dominated by the tower of the Church of the Ascension (1532). The Kazan Church and the gatehouse both date from the later 17th century. The surrounding park has a collection of early Russian wooden architecture, brought from various parts of the country. In the nearby village of Dyakovo is the ornate Church of St. John the Baptist, built in 1557.

Outlying areas

      Remaining areas of open land and forest lie within the Ring Road, together with the satellite industrial towns and prigorods (suburbs) that were incorporated into the city in 1960. The principal satellite towns are Krasnogorsk and Odintsovo to the west, Khimki and Zelenograd to the northwest, Mytishchi and Koroliov to the north, Balashikha and Dzierzhynsk to the east, Liubertsy to the southeast, and Solntsevo to the south.

      Newer outer suburbs include extensive open areas, and parts of the periphery are designated as greenbelt. Alongside the city's satellite towns, large-scale commercial agriculture and “agro-recreational” plots owned by residents of Moscow (e.g., dachas, collective orchards, and vegetable gardens) extend 12 to 50 miles (20 to 80 km) from the city centre. The dachas and their adjacent or surrounding plots are usually owned by the elite and tend to be the most luxurious of the residences; they are mainly summer villas but in many instances are upgraded to year-round homes. The collective orchards are smaller than the dachas but many also serve as seasonal or year-round residences. Vegetable gardens are smaller still and are normally devoid of a housing unit. There are also Muscovites who own rural village homes that are remote from Moscow, some located in adjacent oblasti (provinces).

      Numerous mansions owned by the Muscovite elite emerged around Moscow in the 1990s, becoming a signature of Russian-style suburbia. The earliest mansions, built in 1992–95, have the appearance of stylized castles; those built later resemble North American single-family homes. Some are freestanding structures within a traditional dacha, but many are fenced in. Many owners of these mansions retain their Moscow apartments as well, though the number of year-round suburbanites among them is growing. There has also been a surge in the construction of multistory residences just outside Moscow beginning in the late 1990s. The Moscow suburban real estate market has generally been laissez-faire, and land is sold, bought, and exchanged with ease. The most prestigious plots lie to the west of Moscow.

      Agricultural land available for commercial use began to decrease in the immediate suburbs in the 1990s; by the early 21st century most of it had been claimed by developers. Just outside the Ring Road, many international companies opened offices in business parks, some of which include hotels, conference and entertainment venues, and even residential housing. Foreign-owned automotive assembly plants and giant retail facilities also began to multiply on the outskirts of the city.

People

      The inhabitants of Moscow are overwhelmingly of Russian ethnicity; the largest minority groups are Ukrainians, Belarusians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Tatars. In addition, it is estimated that there were about a few hundred thousand undocumented immigrants from Vietnam, Afghanistan, and China residing in the Moscow area at the beginning of the 21st century.

      Many residents of Moscow were not born in the city but migrated there during its rapid growth. Beginning in 1932, the Soviets restricted migration to Moscow, instituting a system of compulsory residence registration widely known as propiska. The system's barriers were on many occasions sidestepped through marriage or through apartment exchanges (whereby a Muscovite would trade his communal apartment for one in another Russian city). Another option for those desiring to move to Moscow was to become a limitchik (an unrestricted migrant worker who usually performed the menial jobs scorned by native Muscovites). In the 1970s about two-fifths of new migrants were limitchiks, but that proportion declined in the 1980s. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a time period when limitchiks could qualify for housing registration, which usually meant they received a room in a communal apartment; however, many limitchiks left the city as the removal of state price controls made basic living expenses unaffordable. The workers who remained usually lived in substandard conditions. The allowances made for limitchiks were discontinued altogether in the 1990s; after 1994 the limitchik disappeared as a phenomenon.

      This cessation of migrant labour in the city, along with the nationwide price liberalization, caused an economic downturn in Moscow, as in other large Russian cities. At that time some Muscovites believed that it would be easier to eke out a living outside the city. By 1995, however, this downward trend stopped, and growth of the city's population resumed. Throughout the 1990s Moscow's population swelled by about 2 million, to 10 million inhabitants. At the beginning of the 21st century, migration to Moscow remained strong, but former administrative restrictions on migration had been overshadowed by economic ones; Moscow had become one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in. The privatization of real estate and the decline in public housing construction made the acquisition of new dwellings extremely difficult.

      Practices for monitoring temporary employees also changed. While under the Soviet regime limitchiks were accounted for more or less accurately, in post-Soviet Moscow the guest workers who replaced them were not. Workers' permits were limited to citizens of the Commonwealth of Independent States until 2007, when a new law allowed migrants from both the Commonwealth and other countries (migrants from the former being about seven times as numerous as the latter) to receive official employment authorization. Since 2000 the number of guest labourers (working mainly in the construction industry) has exceeded the city's annual quota for temporary visas. As a result, efforts have been made to control illegal entrance into Moscow, including requiring all non-Russians to carry identification cards in order to register for work.

      Moscow has an aging population. In the early 21st century the death rate was almost double the birth rate, a larger proportional discrepancy than that of any other Russian city. Like most of Russia, Moscow has a low rate of fertility. Many older Muscovites have chosen to remain in the city, while many young people are deterred from moving there because of its high cost of living and housing. Life expectancy is higher there than in other cities in the country. As a result, about one-fourth of Moscow's population is over 55 years old.

Economy

      Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the free-market reforms of the early 1990s, Moscow's economy has undergone a dramatic transformation. Most notably, although a disproportionate share of national wealth was concentrated there under the Soviets, the degree of concentration has significantly increased since 1990. The city accounted for about one-tenth of Russia's wealth in the 1990s; by 2001 Moscow's share had grown to one-fourth (not including undocumented and unreported transactions). While the reported average salary in Moscow is significantly higher than the national average, salaries account for less than one-fourth of Muscovites' aggregate personal earnings, compared with about three-fifths for Russians as a whole. The remainder of Muscovites' earnings usually comes from entrepreneurial activities and from renting out personal property (apartments or dachas).

      The city's financial and research-and-development sectors (as well as what remains of its engineering and manufacturing sectors) are among the country's most advanced. Women make up more than half the workforce. They constitute the vast majority of workers in the textile and food-processing industries, and they predominate in the teaching and medical professions.

Manufacturing

      The manufacturing and engineering sectors that dominated the Soviet capital's economy shrank dramatically in the 1990s and were largely replaced by service activities. As a result, the structure of the labour force had to adapt. Central planning was meant to slow down this shift, but the number of those actively employed in manufacturing in Moscow decreased by half from the late 1980s into the '90s. Rapid privatization left many factories in the hands of owners who chose to invest their earnings either abroad or in the retail, banking, telecommunications, and research and development sectors of the city, rather than in modernizing their plants. Yet, Moscow's highly skilled labour force by and large quickly adjusted to the changes in the city's economy. Moreover, a dividend of this precipitous change was the end of the service shortages that once characterized the city.

      Despite the decline of manufacturing in the post-Soviet period, Moscow remains the largest industrial centre in Russia. It dominates an industrial region that extends east and northeast to the Volga between Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod (formerly Gorky). Moscow's industries generally rely more on the city's skilled labour force than on raw materials. Many of Moscow's factories are small, long-established plants that make highly specialized items.

      Some of Moscow's most important industries remain engineering and metalworking, which together employ a significant share of the industrial workforce. Ball bearings are manufactured both for the increasingly important auto-making industry and for other purposes. Another major branch of engineering is the manufacture of machine tools, particularly grinding lathes, precision cutting tools, and machinery for the textile industry. Precision engineering is highly developed and is noted for measuring and other instruments, as well as for watches. Aerospace design and manufacture is one of the most important engineering sectors in some of Moscow's satellite towns, especially in Korolyov.

      Moscow's large chemical industry was originally geared to produce dyestuffs for the important textile industry (many types of natural-fibre and synthetic cloth are manufactured in the city). The chemical industry's product line has been expanded, however, to include synthetic industrial rubber and rubber tires, paints, plastics, pharmaceutical goods, and perfumes. Many of its chemical products are derived from Moscow's oil refinery, which processes petroleum piped from the Volga-Urals oil field.

      Food processing is one of the few manufacturing-related industries that expanded and modernized following privatization. The industry, which consists of both giant combines and smaller concerns, accounts for about one-fourth of Moscow's industrial labour force. Moscow has become Russia's leader in terms of foreign investment in food processing. Several U.S.-based food-processing giants have opened plants in Moscow. Among the city's most successful firms is the Kristall Distillery, which produces the renowned Stolichnaya and other brands of vodka.

      Furniture making is part of a varied timber-processing industry, which also makes pulp and paper. Some timber is used in the vast construction industry, which includes not only the large numbers of workers actually employed in building but also those engaged in making building materials, such as reinforced concrete sections, glass, and bricks. Moscow's printing and publishing industry is the country's largest supplier of books, journals, and newspapers.

Finance and other services

      As the capital and largest city of Russia, Moscow, not surprisingly, is the country's chief commercial and financial centre. The privatization of the Russian economy spurred the development of a substantial financial sector, including dozens of banks and several securities exchanges. Most foreign investment in the Russian economy passes through Moscow's financial institutions. As the hub of Russia's transportation network, Moscow also enjoys unchallenged supremacy as the country's centre for domestic and foreign commerce.

      The city's retailing facilities are frequented not only by the inhabitants of Moscow itself and its satellite towns but also by people from throughout the country. Moscow's consumer goods sector suffered in the early 1990s when the market was opened to inexpensive, higher-quality imports; however, at the start of the 21st century, about one-third of all goods produced in Russia were sold in Moscow. The Muscovites have heightened purchasing power, and dozens of traders buy foreign-made (usually Chinese, Turkish, and Polish) clothing and footwear in Moscow and resell the merchandise in outlying Russian provinces. This activity is supported by the city's numerous melkooptovye (intermediary markets). Moscow's shops offer a wide range of goods and are crowded with customers. Many of the stores are fairly large, particularly the department stores. Some of the popular department stores are Children's World, the Central Department Store, and the Moscow Department Store. The best-known and most heavily patronized of them is GUM, the direct descendant of the medieval trading rows. In the 1990s a spacious underground shopping mall was built under Manezhnaya Square. An important part of Moscow's retail trade is carried out at markets where farmers and small-scale traders sell fruit, vegetables, meat, liquor, and other goods. Many of these markets are run by individuals who are not ethnically Russian, primarily people from Transcaucasia.

      All homes in Moscow are supplied with heat and electricity. Electrical generating stations are fired by natural gas, which is piped via a grid system from fields in Siberia and elsewhere. Large gas-storage facilities have been constructed near Moscow, and a pipeline surrounds the city. An older heating plant lies close to the Kremlin, and a newer one is located north of Moscow Ring Road. Electrical power also comes from nuclear plants and hydroelectric stations on the Volga River. Other power sources include the large thermal stations at Konakovo to the northwest and Kashira to the south.

      As a world-renowned capital, Moscow has become a popular tourist destination. Free-market reforms have encouraged the construction of new hotels and the modernization of existing hotels in the city. The government also opened new tourist offices and refurbished many cultural centres, places of worship, and shopping districts.

      Moscow has thousands of eating places, many of them inexpensive cafeterias serving the city's workers. Other dining venues include cafés and pubs, along with more-exclusive restaurants specializing in ethnic cuisine (Chinese, Indian, American, Italian, Irish, Georgian, Tatar, Jewish, among others) that opened during the 1990s.

Transportation

Rail

      Moscow is the hub of the Russian rail network. Russian freight transport is heavily dependent on the railways, which are also vital to passengers, especially to the tens of thousands who commute daily on the train lines between Moscow and its suburbs. Trunk lines radiate out from the city in all directions. The first in operation was the St. Petersburg line, opened in 1851. Others include the Savyolovo line, running north to the Volga and on as a secondary route to St. Petersburg; the Yaroslav line, which is connected by way of the Trans-Siberian (Trans-Siberian Railroad) route to Vladivostok; the Nizhny Novgorod line, linked to Kirov; the Kazan line, the most direct route to the Urals (Ural Mountains) and Siberia; the Ryazan line, leading to Central Asia and the Caucasus region; the Pavelets line, a secondary route to the European south and the Caucasus; the Kursk line, the main route south to the Crimea and the Caucasus; the Kiev line to Ukraine, Hungary, and Slovakia; the Smolensk line to Minsk, Warsaw, and Berlin; and the Riga line to the Baltic. All these lines are now electrified—notably the Trans-Siberian and those to St. Petersburg, Kiev, and the Donets Basin (Donbass)—as are all suburban-zone lines, which carry the heavy commuter traffic. To link the radial lines, the Moscow Little Ring Railway was built in 1908 within the city; this has been supplemented by the Greater Moscow Ring Railway at a distance of some 25 to 40 miles (40 to 65 km) from the city.

Waterways

      Moscow is a major river port. The canalized Moscow River is able to accommodate only smaller craft, but the Moscow Canal, built by forced labour in 1932–37, is navigable for ships of seagoing size. The canal runs from the river, upstream of the city, northward to the Khimki and Ucha reservoirs and, continuing northward, through the Klin-Dmitrov Ridge to the Volga at Ivankovo. The Volga's various canal links open up Moscow to all the seas bordering European Russia. The capital has three large river ports mainly for freight and a terminal for passengers.

Air

      Moscow is similarly the hub of the Russian airline network, and the number of passengers rises steadily each year. Sheremetyevo-2 to the north is the main airport for international flights, with direct links to many world capitals and other foreign cities. Domodedovo, 28 miles (45 km) to the south, the largest of Moscow's airports, also handles international traffic. Sheremetyevo-1 handles mostly domestic flights, as does Vnukovo, 15 miles (24 km) to the southwest, and the much smaller Bykovo, 20 miles (32 km) to the southeast.

Intercity transport

 Compared with other large cities in most developed countries, Moscow historically had few privately owned cars; however, since the 1990s, private ownership of vehicles has increased dramatically, leading to significant traffic congestion. The situation is further complicated by the lack of parking facilities. As a result, mass transit has played and continues to play a crucial role in the lives of many Muscovites. The most important element in Moscow's transportation system is the Metropolitan (Metro) subway. Begun in 1935, it is renowned for the elaborate architecture of its stations, especially the older ones, which are highly decorated with marble, stained glass, statuary, and chandeliers. Trains usually arrive at three-minute intervals, although the wait is even shorter during rush hours. The network copies the city street pattern, with a series of radial lines linked by a single ring subway. Although the lines extend to most parts of the city, the stations are spaced far apart, so that it is usually necessary to use them in conjunction with bus, trolley, and streetcar lines.

      The inflexibility of fixed-line forms of transport has posed other problems. Although Moscow has, for the most part, a dense network of surface transport, new routes sometimes tend to lag behind housing construction, so that certain new suburbs are rather poorly served for some time after their completion. One solution has been to replace streetcar lines with bus routes. In the mid-2000s the city government responded to growing automobile traffic problems by approving a project to convert sections of inner city railway back to passenger service (the railway had stopped carrying passengers in the 1930s to solely transport freight) and to renovate the city's tram lines. Fares on all forms of transport are similar to those in other major cities but are more expensive than they were under Soviet rule.

Administration and society

Government

      Moscow and St. Petersburg are the only cities in Russia whose administrations are detached from those of their respective oblasti (provinces). Therefore, Moscow's city government is not hierarchically inferior to that of Moscow province. Under Soviet rule, the interests of the city took precedence, but since the 1990s the provincial government has become more involved. For example, in the early 2000s, more housing was commissioned in Moscow province than in the city for the first time.

      In the period after the 1917 Revolution, Moscow was divided into 11 rayony (sectors). With the expansion of the municipal limits in 1960, the number of sectors increased to 17. The subsequent massive building program and redistribution of population from central areas to the suburbs necessitated the creation of new divisions in 1968 and again in 1976, when the number of sectors reached 30. As the city population increased, the number of sectors continued to grow. In the 1990s the municipal division changed yet again; this time Moscow was divided into 10 okruga (districts).

 Although the centre of national government is the Kremlin, buildings of various ministries and government departments are scattered fairly widely across the inner city. The Duma, the state assembly, has its legislative chambers in the former Gosplan building at Okhotny Ryad. Several important ministries and federal agencies also have their headquarters in the White House, now the headquarters of the Russian government. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in a vysotka of the Stalin period on the Garden Ring. Several ministries are housed in tower buildings on Novyi Arbat Prospekt, and a number of foreign embassies have been transferred to the southwestern suburbs near the Vorobyëvy Hills, though many are still located in the city centre. Moscow also serves as headquarters of most national bodies and organizations.

Municipal services

      The city suffers from a housing shortage, and regulations on construction and housing became stricter as the real estate market started reaching its peak in the late 1990s. Since the '90s Moscow's sanitation system has become more efficient, and the government has employed thousands of street cleaners and garbage collectors (mostly immigrants). Most waste is disposed of in the dozens of large landfills in outlying areas, but space in these landfills has been diminishing. In response, the city has passed legislation to limit the amount of waste produced by businesses. The amount of overall recycled waste in Moscow is low. Well-kept parks, manicured lawns, and flower beds dot the city.

      The city's police force is administered under the Russian Ministry of the Interior (Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh Del; MVD) and is responsible for maintaining public order. The MVD's militia is used for neighbourhood law enforcement and crowd and traffic control. City officials and police have been known to accept bribes, especially in the enforcement of traffic regulations.

Health

      Moscow is fully equipped with the health services of a modern city. Although the quality of health care had deteriorated in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union, it had improved by the end of the decade as state budgets and salaries increased and new equipment was purchased. However, much of Moscow's elite prefers private health care facilities or travels abroad for medical treatment. Hundreds of clinics in Moscow, both public and private, offer medical, dental, and maternity services. Medical care is also provided by specialty hospitals and medical research institutions. Perhaps the most prominent of the city's hospitals is the Botkinskaya, founded in 1911. As in the rest of Russia, public health care facilities in Moscow are free.

Education

      Moscow has an exceptionally large concentration of educational establishments, and the number of universities increased in the 1990s. At the pre-university level, schools serving the city's own population include those for handicapped children, special foreign language schools, and boarding schools. For children below school age (age 6 in Russia) there are nurseries and day care centers; some of them are attached to individual places of employment, which permits parents more freedom to work. Moscow's higher educational institutions draw students from throughout the country.

      Out of the dozens of universities in the city, Moscow State University (1755) and Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (1960; formerly the Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University) are the largest and best-known. Moscow State University's student services were originally housed in the old buildings facing Manezhnaya Square, near the Kremlin; now its academic departments and administrative offices are located in the Vorobyëvy Hills in a complex of buildings dominated by a 34-story edifice in the Stalin-period style. This building houses the central administration, the Museum of Earth Science, and accommodations for thousands of students. In 1970–78 two other humanities buildings were constructed. Peoples' Friendship University, with its main building southwest of the city centre, has a large international student population, as well as students from most ethnic groups of the former Soviet Union. A large percentage of its students are registered for correspondence courses.

      Among the specialized higher educational institutions are the Moscow K.A. Timiryazev Agricultural Academy in northern Moscow and the Moscow P.I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where some of the world's finest musicians have received their training. Also important are the Moscow D. Mendeleev Institute of Chemical Technology, the Moscow N.E. Bauman State Technical University, and the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts. Other notable institutions of higher learning include Moscow State Open University and Moscow University for the Humanities.

      Moscow is home to a formidable array of highly specialized scientific research institutions. The Experimental Research Institute of Metal-Cutting Machine Tools is concerned with industrial research. The Moscow Institute of Aviation Technology, the Moscow Institute for Railway Engineers, and the Central Research Institute of Automobile Engineering produce specialists for those particular industries and are closely associated with Moscow's local industry. Linked to the research bodies are many design bureaus, including an institute that designs hydroelectric power projects and an institute for the planning of metallurgical plants. One of the more prestigious institutions had been the Russian Academy of Sciences (Sciences, Academy of), the Presidium of which is located in a building on Leninsky Prospekt south of Gorky Park. Attempts are underway to restore its erstwhile reputation, which has suffered from lack of funds. In general, state funding for research has declined since the 1990s. As a result, a significant number of Moscow research personnel migrated to western Europe and North America. Many, however, continue to be officially affiliated with their home institutions.

      Foremost among Moscow's libraries is the Russian State Library (formerly the V.I. Lenin Library), one of the world's largest. There are also a number of specialty libraries.

Cultural life

      Moscow has dozens of theatres. One of the most renowned is the Bolshoi Theatre, which was founded in 1825, though its present splendid building facing Theatre (formerly Sverdlov) Square dates from 1856. Also on Theatre Square is the Maly (Little) Theatre for drama. Another prestigious theatre, the Moscow Academic Art Theatre (Moscow Art Theatre), founded as the Moscow Academic Theatre in 1898 by the actor, director, and producer Konstantin Stanislavsky (Stanislavsky, Konstantin Sergeyevich) and the playwright-producer Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko (Nemirovich-Danchenko, Vladimir Ivanovich), was especially noted in its early days for its performances of the plays of Anton Chekhov (Chekhov, Anton). In the late 1980s the Moscow Academic Art Theatre split into two companies, one of which is named after Chekhov and the other after Maksim Gorky. Also of worldwide fame are the Obraztsov Puppet Theatre (formerly the State Central Puppet Theatre), and the Great Moscow State Circus, which in 1971 acquired new quarters on the Vorobyëvy Hills. The repertory companies of the theatrical groups tour frequently both in Russia and abroad. There are several concert halls, notably the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and the two halls of the conservatory. Moscow's orchestras have won international repute, as have a number of Moscow-based folk dance and choral ensembles.

      Motion pictures are a popular form of entertainment in Moscow, and the city's many cinemas are augmented by facilities for showing films in numerous clubs and cultural institutions. Several studios in the city produce motion pictures, notable among which is Mosfilm. Public interest in cinemas drastically diminished in the early 1990s, partly because of the increase of VCRs and partly because of the decline in domestic motion picture production. By the beginning of the 21st century, attendance at Moscow cinemas was again on the upswing, but it was still far less than it had been during the Soviet era. The majority of films shown are American movies. The television and radio broadcasting networks have headquarters in Moscow; programs produced there are usually received throughout the country.

 The museums and art galleries in the capital include several of international rank. Foremost among these are the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Pushkin Fine Arts Museum), with a fine international collection, and the Tretyakov Gallery. The latter, which began in 1856 as the private collection of a connoisseur, Pavel Tretyakov, is noteworthy for its superb collection of icons, including several by Andrey Rublyov (Rublyov, Saint Andrey). Other notable museums are the Armoury Museum in the Kremlin and the State Historical Museum on Red Square. The Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War (World War II) is part of the sprawling memorial site at Poklonnaya Hill that opened in 1995.

      Under the Soviets, many places of worship were closed, converted into museums, or destroyed. Moscow retained a number of functioning Russian Orthodox churches in addition to a few other Christian churches and Jewish and Muslim places of worship. Beginning in the late 1980s with the Soviet policy of glasnost and continuing with the Russian successor government in the early 1990s, religious repression gave way to policies endorsing religious freedom, and houses of worship in Moscow underwent massive and pervasive renovation and returned to use. The Russian Orthodox patriarch has a residence in Moscow. New churches have been built, as well as new mosques and synagogues.

      The Luzhniki Park complex is the leading Moscow facility for sports and was one of the main arenas for the 1980 Olympic Games. The Luzhniki Stadium is flanked by a smaller arena, a natatorium, and the indoor Sports Palace. There are many stadiums and swimming pools in the area, including some heated open-air pools that are in use year round. In addition, there are a large number of football (soccer) fields, gymnasiums, and volleyball and basketball courts; most of these are attached to individual places of work or to sports clubs. Moscow has several first-division football teams that now have corporate sponsors but whose origins date from the 1920s, when they were affiliated with powerful institutions of communist society: Dynamo (tied to the KGB), CSKA (the army's team), Lokomotiv (representing railway workers), and the defiantly independent Spartak (once only loosely linked to a food producers cooperative but now controlled by Lukoil, a Russian oil giant).

      Outside the Garden Ring, Moscow is well endowed with parks and open spaces. Gorky Central Park of Culture along the right bank of the Moscow River is the closest to the centre and, with its amusement park, is very popular. A large green area, covering nearly 3,000 acres (1,200 hectares), is Izmaylovsky Park on the east side. To the northeast is the more formal Sokolniki Park, which leads to an extensive tract of forest called Losinyi Ostrov (“Moose Island”). North of the city centre are the Botanical Gardens of the Academy of Sciences, one of several such gardens in the city, and the grounds of the Moscow K.A. Timiryazev Agricultural Academy. Bittsevsky Park, also of considerable size, has been established adjacent to the Ring Road south of the city centre. The Moscow Zoo, one of the world's leading zoos, is a popular attraction west of the city centre. The Khimki Reservoir, just northwest of Moscow, is used for boating and aquatic sports, but even more popular are the other reservoirs to the north, just outside Greater Moscow. The surrounding forest-park zone provides extensive space for recreation.

History

The early period

Foundation and medieval growth

      The first documentary reference to Moscow is found in the early monastic chronicles under the year 1147, when on April 4 Yury Vladimirovich Dolgoruky (see Dolgoruky family) (Dolgoruky family), prince of Suzdal, was host at a “great banquet” for his ally the prince of Novgorod-Seversky “in Moscow.” This is the traditional date of Moscow's founding, although archaeological evidence shows that a settlement had existed on the site since Neolithic times. Archaeological work has also revealed the remains of corduroy roads and evidence of iron and leather working dating from the 11th century. Defense was essential to protect the growing settlement, and in 1156 Prince Dolgoruky built the first fortifications: earthen ramparts topped by a wooden wall with blockhouses. This was the kremlin. The origin of the word kremlin is disputed; some authorities suggest Greek words for “citadel” or “steepness,” others the early Russian word krem, meaning a conifer providing timber suitable for building. The Kremlin was sited on the relatively high spit of land between the Moscow River (Moskva River) and a small tributary, the Neglinnaya. The triangular piece of land between the rivers was protected on the eastern side by a moat joining them. The Neglinnaya now flows through an underground conduit, but part of its course is traced by a street of the same name.

      Moscow soon developed as one of the more important towns of the principality of Vladimir-Suzdal. A trading settlement, or posad, grew up to the east of the Kremlin, along the Moscow River in the area known as Zaryadye. Like most other Russian towns, Moscow was captured and burned by the Tatars (Tatar) (Mongols) in their great invasion of 1236–40, and its princes had to accept Mongol suzerainty. It soon recovered, though the Tatars sacked it once again in 1293. Three years later the Kremlin was strengthened with a new earthen wall and oak palisade. Thereafter Moscow grew in importance, in trading and artisan activity, and in size, overtaking the older and previously more important centres of Suzdal and Vladimir. The town was fairly centrally placed in the system of rivers and portages that formed the trade routes across European Russia. The area east of Moscow between the Oka (Oka River) and Volga (Volga River) rivers had better soils than most of northern Russia and comprised a region of prosperous towns. Moscow's authority was greatly enhanced when in 1326 the metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox church transferred his seat from Vladimir to Moscow. Thereafter the town was to remain the centre of Russian Orthodoxy, and after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks (1453) it claimed the title of the Third Rome. Under Ivan I the principality of Vladimir was incorporated into that of Moscow. Gradually the princes of Moscow extended their rule over the other surrounding Russian princedoms, and the town became the leader in the long struggle against Mongol hegemony.

      The struggle at first fluctuated. In 1378 a Muscovite army repulsed a Mongol attack on the Vozha River south of the town, and in 1380 Prince Dmitry (Dmitry (II) Donskoy) of Moscow inflicted a crushing defeat on the Mongols under the great khan Mamai in the Battle of Kulikovo (Kulikovo, Battle of) on the Don River, for which he was thereafter known as Dmitry Donskoy (“of the Don”). The Kremlin had been enlarged and given walls and towers of white limestone in 1367, but the new fortifications were unable to withstand the renewed Mongol attack in 1382: despite a heroic defense, Khan Tokhtamysh captured and plundered Moscow. However, another attack, in 1408 under Khan Yedigei, was beaten off. Moscow grew steadily in size and importance as it continued to absorb the surrounding princedoms. Within the Kremlin the first stone cathedral, of the Assumption, was built in 1326. Palaces for the prince and leading boyars (boyar), monasteries, and churches were erected. Outside the Kremlin walls, the trading and artisan quarter to the east grew in size and became known as the Kitay-gorod; this name, which originated in the 16th century, probably derives from the word kita (a binding of poles used in the fortifications before stone walls were built) and does not mean “Chinese town,” as it is sometimes translated.

The rise of Moscow as capital

      By the second half of the 15th century, especially after the annexation of Novgorod in 1478, Moscow had become the undisputed centre of a unified Russian state. During the reign of the grand prince of Moscow Ivan III (the Great), the Kremlin was again enlarged and given brick walls more than a mile in length and in some places up to 60 feet (18 metres) high. From this period also date the rebuilt Cathedral of the Assumption and the equally beautiful Annunciation and (also rebuilt) Archangel cathedrals, the Palace of Facets, and the bell tower of Ivan III. In 1534–38 the Kitay-gorod, previously protected only by earth banks and palisades, was also surrounded by a brick wall, with 12 towers. The town continued to grow and spread outside the walls to form what became known as the Bely Gorod (“White City”) in a semicircle around the Kremlin and Kitay-gorod.

      Despite its new fortifications, Moscow remained subject to disaster and attack. In 1547 two fires destroyed much of the town. In the mid-16th century Ivan IV (the Terrible) conquered the Mongol khanates of Kazan (1552) and Astrakhan (1556), but in 1571 the Crimean Tatars captured Moscow, burning everything but the Kremlin. The annals record that only 30,000 of 200,000 inhabitants survived. A further attack was launched by the Crimean Tatars in 1591, but they failed to overcome Moscow's stubborn resistance. The defense was helped by the new walls, some 5 miles (8 km) long, built of stone between 1584 and 1591 to protect the Bely Gorod. The walls' lines are marked today by the strip of parkland and tree-lined streets of the Boulevard Ring. In 1592 an outer earth rampart with 50 towers was erected around the city, including an area on the right bank of the Moscow River. This encompassed a further extension of Moscow that had grown up beyond the Bely Gorod; known at first as Skorodom, this outer sector came to be called the Zemlyanoy Gorod, or “Earthen City.” The Garden Ring traces the line of its fortifications. As an outermost line of defense, a chain of strongly fortified monasteries was established beyond the ramparts to the south and east, principally the Novodevichy Convent and Donskoy (Don), Danilovsky, Simonov, Novospassky, and Andronikov monasteries, most of which now house museums.

      With much-improved security, the products of artisans flourished. Distinct quarters were occupied by particular trades—for example, the suburbs of Bronnaya by armour makers, Kuznetskaya by blacksmiths, and Kotelniki by kettle makers. Across the Moscow River was the weavers' suburb. These artisan sectors are commonly commemorated today by street or quarter names. State workshops cast cannon and made weapons and gunpowder. The tsar's court and its attendant nobility provided patronage for luxury crafts. Increasingly the boyars took over the Kitay-gorod, with artisans and traders moving to the outer parts; the Kremlin became solely the seat of temporal and ecclesiastical authority. The centre of commercial activity was the market in Red Square between the Kremlin and the Kitay-gorod, where there were rows of stalls, each handling a specific variety of goods. The Russian word for “red” (krasnaya), which also meant “beautiful” in Old Russian—the common East Slavic language used until the late 13th century—was the original name for the square. Trade with western Europe (especially England and Holland), as well as with Central Asia, Transcaucasia, Persia, and the Black Sea coast, was brisk, furs forming a major staple in this international commerce. Foreign merchants lived in the Nemetskaya Sloboda (a German quarter), and a flourishing cultural life was marked by the growth of the book trade and the founding in 1553 of the first printing house.

      At the turn of the 17th century, Moscow, like the rest of Russia, suffered severely during the Time of Troubles (Troubles, Time of). In the reign of Boris Godunov (Godunov, Boris) there were severe famines from 1601 to 1603. After Boris's death in 1605, the first False Dmitry (Dmitry, False) seized Moscow with Polish help, and, though he was killed in 1606 and the Poles were driven out, they reoccupied Moscow with a second False Dmitry in 1608–10. In May 1611 the Muscovites attacked the Poles, and the invaders retreated into the Kremlin. Under the energetic leadership of a boyar, Prince Dmitry Mikhaylovich Pozharsky, and a merchant, Kuzma Minin, the Russians forced the Poles to surrender in October 1612.

      With the establishment in 1613 of the Romanov Dynasty under Michael, relative peace returned to Moscow and with it further economic advance. Nevertheless, the conditions of the poor of the town often led to riots and uprisings; similar events had also occurred in 1382, 1445, and 1547. In 1648, as a result of an increase in the salt tax, and again in 1662 (the year of the so-called Copper Riots) there were disturbances by artisans, labourers, and tradesmen. The great revolt of Stenka Razin (Razin, Stenka) in southern Russia (1667–71) was echoed by unrest in the capital, and in 1671 Razin was executed in Moscow as a warning to the city's inhabitants. The revolts were put down by the streltsy (hereditary militia), who in 1698, early in the reign of Peter I (the Great), themselves revolted and were suppressed only by great slaughter. Despite the frequent upheavals, however, culture flourished. Russia's first higher educational institution, the Slavonic-Greek-Latin Academy attached to the Zaikonospassky Monastery in the Kitay-gorod, dates from 1687. In 1701 Peter founded a School of Mathematics and Navigation. The first newspaper in Russia began publication in Moscow in 1703.

Evolution of the modern city

The 18th and 19th centuries

      In 1703 Peter I began constructing St. Petersburg (Saint Petersburg) on the Gulf of Finland (Finland, Gulf of), and in 1712 he transferred the capital to his new, “Westernized,” and outward-looking city. Members of the nobility were compelled to move to St. Petersburg; many merchants and artisans also moved. Both population growth and new building in Moscow languished for a time, but even during Peter's reign the city began to recover from the loss of capital status. Peter himself stimulated economic growth by establishing new industries, and private entrepreneurs followed suit. By 1725 there were some 32 new factories employing 5,500 workers; more than 20 of the factories were textile mills, including a crown enterprise making sailcloth. At the same period there were about 8,500 craft workers.

      During the 18th century Moscow retained its major role in the cultural life of Russia. In 1755, on the initiative of the great man of letters and science Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (Lomonosov, Mikhail Vasilyevich), Moscow University (now formally M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow State University)) was founded, the first university in Russia; a medical and surgical college was opened in 1786. Although serious fires did much damage in 1737, 1748, and 1752, many splendid new buildings appeared, designed by such architects as Giacomo Quarenghi, Vasily Bazhenov, Matvei Kazakov, and Vasily Stasov. In 1741 Moscow was surrounded by a barricade 25 miles (40 km) long, the Kamer-Kollezhsky barrier, at whose 16 gates customs tolls were collected; its line is traced today by a number of streets called val (“rampart”) and by place-names such as Kaluga Zastava (Customs Gate). Industry flourished, and by the end of the 18th century there were about 300 factories in Moscow, more than half of them textile mills. The population had grown to 275,000 by 1811.

      In 1812 Napoleon I invaded Russia; after a bitter 15-hour battle on August 26 (September 7, New Style) at Borodino (Borodino, Battle of) on the approaches to Moscow, the Russian commander in chief, Gen. M.I. Kutuzov (Kutuzov, Mikhail Illarionovich, Prince), evacuated troops and civilians from the city, which was occupied by the French a week later. A fire broke out and spread rapidly, eventually destroying more than two-thirds of all the buildings. Looting was rife. The lack of supplies and shelter and the continual harassment by Russian skirmishing forces made it impossible for Napoleon to winter in Moscow, however, and on October 7 (October 19, New Style) the French troops began their catastrophic retreat.

      In 1813 a Commission for the Construction of the City of Moscow was established. It launched a great program of rebuilding, which included a partial replanning of the city centre. Among many buildings constructed or reconstructed at this time were the Great Kremlin and Armoury palaces, the university, the Manezh (Riding School), and the Bolshoi Theatre. Industry also recovered rapidly and continued to develop through the 19th century. In 1837 the Moscow stock exchange was established. The emancipation of the serfs in 1861 and the beginning of the railway era with the opening of the line to St. Petersburg in 1851 greatly increased labour mobility, and large numbers of peasants from the villages began moving into Moscow. The population, which had reached 336,000 in 1835, had almost doubled, to 602,000, in 1871 and by 1897 had reached 978,000. Moscow became the hub of Russia's railways, with trunk lines to all parts of European Russia. A ring of main line termini was built, mostly on or near the Kamer-Kollezhsky barrier at the limits of the built-up area. Outside the barrier many new factories, particularly those concerned with textiles, began operation. In the 1890s heavy engineering and metalworking industries also developed. Between 1897 and 1915 Moscow yet again doubled in size, to a population of 1,983,700.

      The later 19th century was a period of ostentatious building by public bodies and wealthy private persons, in various imitative “Old Russian” styles and the so-called modern style. From this period date the Town Hall (meeting place of the Gorodskaya Duma, former site of the Central Lenin Museum), the State Historical Museum, and the Upper Trading Rows (now GUM).

      The growth of an industrial proletariat in Moscow, together with the generally low living standards of the workers, brought unrest and strikes. Various revolutionary groups were active. In the Revolution of 1905 (Russian Revolution of 1905) a small-scale insurrection took place in Moscow, and an attempt was made to seize the Nikolayev (now St. Petersburg) station; the revolt was ruthlessly crushed. In 1917, although a Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies was set up in Moscow, the city remained relatively quiet until after the Bolshevik seizure of power in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) on October 25 (November 7, New Style), which was immediately followed by fighting in Moscow. Military cadets held out for a time in the Kremlin, but by November 3 (November 16, New Style) they were overcome and Bolshevik power was firmly established.

Moscow in the Soviet period

      In March 1918 Vladimir Ilich Lenin (Lenin, Vladimir Ilich) and the Soviet government moved to Moscow, which thereby resumed its former status as capital. This status was formally ratified on Dec. 30, 1922, when the first All-Union Congress of Soviets met in the Bolshoi Theatre and passed the legislation setting up the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.). In the civil war (Russian Civil War) period (1918–20) Moscow, like other Soviet cities, suffered greatly, with grave food shortages, loss of population (falling to 1,027,300 in 1920), and reduction of industry. In the years following the final establishment of Soviet power and peace, recovery was swift, and the beginning of the series of five-year plans in 1928 brought great industrial progress. The city's existing plant and labour force formed one of the main springboards for industrialization elsewhere in the U.S.S.R. Between the censuses of 1926 and 1939, Moscow once more doubled its population, from 2,029,425 to 4,182,916. Priority in investment went to industry, and housing construction was very limited; as a consequence, exceptional overcrowding of existing housing developed, with extremely high population densities.

      During World War II, the Germans in late 1941 reached the outskirts of Moscow, less than 25 miles (40 km) from the Kremlin. Many factories were evacuated, together with much of the government and most residents. From October 20 the city was declared to be in a state of siege. Its remaining inhabitants built and manned antitank defenses while the city was bombarded from the air. A desperate counterattack on December 6 threw the German forces back from the outskirts and saved Moscow. Recovery was quick after the war, with further growth of the city's economy. Two major events have marked the city's progress: in 1947, two years after the war's end, Moscow celebrated its 800th anniversary, and in 1980 it hosted the Summer Olympic Games.

      In the postwar period, migration to Moscow caused a housing shortage that reached grave proportions in the 1950s; the population density within the Garden Ring surpassed 132,000 persons per square mile (51,000 per square km) by 1959. Under Nikita Khrushchev (Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeyevich) a major construction program was initiated. Much of the old housing, often single-storied and made of wood, was cleared, and extensive new tracts of large apartment buildings sprang up around the historic core of the city. Considerable urban renewal took place in the central areas, and high-rise buildings now dominate the skyline.

      In 1935 a far-reaching development plan for Moscow was formulated; but the plan devised in 1960, in which adjacent satellite towns were incorporated into the city, was even more ambitious than the earlier plan. Under this plan urban growth was to be contained within the Moscow Ring Road, and residential and industrial zones and greenbelts were carefully designated. Implementation of this plan was instrumental in alleviating housing shortages, reducing traffic congestion, and improving air quality in the city centre. By the late 1970s, however, urban growth had outstripped original predictions, and in the 1980s urban expansion was initiated beyond the Ring Road.

      In August 1991 Moscow was the scene of a coup attempt by hard-line communists against a reform-minded president, Mikhail Gorbachev (Gorbachev, Mikhail). The coup failed but was followed within months by the dissolution of the U.S.S.R.

Post-Soviet Moscow

 As the capital of post-Soviet Russia, Moscow was at the centre of the country's historic transformation. In the decade following the Soviet collapse, many historical buildings, especially churches, underwent a sweeping renovation on a scale without precedent in the city's history. Foreign investment contributed to the proliferation of Western-style supermarkets, car dealerships, restaurants, and casinos. As in other parts of Russia, industrial output dropped sharply, but unemployment in Moscow never exceeded 3 percent. A financial crisis in 1998 caused bank failures in Moscow, as well as a devaluation of the Russian currency, yet Moscow's economy rebounded in one year's time. In fact, living standards improved, wages rose, and inflation was reduced to the single digits. On the other hand, criminal activity, including organized crime, increased significantly.

      In October 1993 violence broke out in the city when members of the Russian parliament launched an armed revolt against the government of Pres. Boris Yeltsin (Yeltsin, Boris). Many lives were lost when the rebels attempted to occupy the television tower and studios at Ostankino. The Russian military bombarded the parliament building and eventually put down the revolt. In 1999, bombings in Moscow and other Russian cities killed dozens of people. The government attributed the bombings to Chechen separatists. Moreover, a three-day crisis ensued when a group of armed Chechen rebels held hundreds hostage in a Moscow theatre in October 2002. The building was stormed by Russian troops, and most hostages were released, but 129 of them died as a result of a gas released into the building to end the siege.

      Moscow entered the 21st century giving the impression of success in the midst of the controversy that has seemingly been endemic to Russia's postcommunist transition. The city's major problems include traffic congestion, a shortage of housing, an increase in gang violence, ethnic tensions, and a shrinking working-age population. The burgeoning real estate market has made the cost of living in Moscow substantially higher than in other Russian regions, and many suburbs are dominated by upscale single-family homes. In the early 21st century the earning power of wealthy Muscovites grew significantly, widening the gap between the city's rich and poor.

      Yet, despite these problems, the city's splendour continues to bedazzle. The Russian Orthodox Church reopened its network of museums for the first time since the early 1900s, and pedestrian routes created around Moscow's greatest sites are intended to increase tourism. Overall, Moscow remains the most appealing city for Russians, offering high-quality services, educational institutes, and abundant salaries.

Richard Antony French Kathleen Berton Murrell Grigory Ioffe

Additional Reading

General works

General guidebooks include Christopher Rice and Melanie Rice, Moscow, new ed. (2007); Christine Knight and Mary Beth Bohman (eds.), Fodor's Moscow & St. Petersburg, 7th ed. (2006); and Dan Richardson, The Rough Guide to Moscow, 4th ed. (2005). Leo Gruliow, Moscow (1977); Henri Cartier-Bresson, The People of Moscow (1955); Jan Lucas, Moscow: A Book of Photographs (1964); and Karel Neubert, Portrait of Moscow (1964), are interesting pictorial works.Studies of the city's geography and economy include Leslie Symons et al., The Soviet Union: A Systematic Geography (1983), a work with useful bibliographies; Yuri Saushkin, Moscow (1966; originally published in Russian, 1964), a geographical-historical survey of the city; Vladimir Promyslov, Moscow in Construction: Industrialized Methods of Building (1967; originally published in Russian, 1967). Grigory Ioffe and Tatyana Nefedova, The Environs of Russian Cities (2000), includes a comprehensive consideration of Moscow's suburbs. Anne Nivat, The View from the Vysotka: A Portrait of Russia Today Through One of Moscow's Most Famous Addresses (2004; originally published in French, 2002), documents life in the Stalin-era vysotkas through the eyes of a French journalist. Blair A. Ruble, Second Metropolis: Pragmatic Pluralism in Gilded Age Chicago, Silver Age Moscow, and Maeji Osaka (2001), is a comparative study of three cities and includes a case study on adult education and housing policies in Moscow at the end of the 19th century. Grigory Ioffe and Tatyana Nefedova, “Transformation of the Russian Food System at Close Range: A Case Study of Two Oblasts,” Post-Soviet Geography and Economics, 42(5):329–361 (August 2001), uses the food industry as an example of economic change.Moscow's architecture is treated in Dmitri Sidorov, “National Monumentalization and the Politics of Scale: The Resurrection of the Cathedral of Jesus Christ the Savior in Moscow,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 90(3):548–572 (September 2000); Kathleen Berton, Moscow: An Architectural History (1977), an illustrated survey; M.A. Il'in, Moscow: Monuments of Architecture of the 14th–17th Centuries (1973), and Moscow: Monuments of Architecture 18th–the First Third of the 19th Century, 2 vol. (1975); and E. Kirichenko, Moscow: Architectural Monuments of the 1830–1910s (1977), containing photographs with explanatory texts in both English and Russian. Albert J. Schmidt, The Architecture and Planning of Classical Moscow: A Cultural History (1989), treats the period before and after the major fire of 1812 in the context of the classicism of other Russian and European cities. O.A. Shvidkovsky (ed.), Building in the USSR, 1917–1932 (1971), focuses on constructionist design.Cultural treasures in the museums of the Moscow area are described in Vladimir Chernov and Marcel Girard, Splendours of Moscow and Its Surroundings, trans. from French (1967); N.N. Voronin (ed.), Palaces and Churches of the Kremlin (1966); Arthur Voyce, The Moscow Kremlin: Its History, Architecture, and Art Treasures (1954, reprinted 1971); Boris A. Rybakov, Treasures in the Kremlin (1962); and David Douglas Duncan, Great Treasures of the Kremlin, rev. ed. (1968, reissued 1979). Caroline Brooke, Moscow: A Cultural History (2006), focuses on the cultural evolution of the city.

History

A historical study of Moscow's culture may be found in Arthur Voyce, Moscow and the Roots of Russian Culture (1964, reissued 1972). Also informative is S.S. Khromov et al. (eds.), History of Moscow: An Outline, trans. from Russian (1981).The following are special studies: Robert Eugene Johnson, Peasant and Proletariat: The Working Class of Moscow in the Late Nineteenth Century (1979); Laura Engelstein, Moscow, 1905: Working-Class Organization and Political Conflict (1982); Diane Koenker, Moscow Workers and the 1917 Revolution (1981); and Catherine Merridale, Moscow Politics and the Rise of Stalin: The Communist Party in the Capital, 1925–32 (1990), a political history of the city during an important period. A comprehensive source mainly covering the Soviet period is Timothy J. Colton, Moscow: Governing the Socialist Metropolis (1995). Rodric Braithwaite, Moscow 1941: A City and Its People at War (2006), examines the events of the year—from Stalin's occupation to the German invasion—through the interviews, letters, and memoirs of a range of Muscovites.Grigory Ioffe

▪ oblast, Russia

Russian  Moskva 

      oblast (region), western Russia. The oblast surrounds and includes the city of Moscow, the capital of Russia. Moscow oblast was formed in 1929. The main feature of its relief is the Klin-Dmitrov Ridge, which stretches roughly east-west across the oblast, north of Moscow city. The ridge, a line of terminal moraines, reaches a height of 1,000 feet (300 metres) with a steep northern slope to the boulder clay plain of the upper Volga River. South of the ridge is the broad, level plain of the Oka River and its major tributary, the Moscow River (Moskva River), on which the capital stands. In the southeast the plain gradually drops to the Meshchera Lowland, an area of extensive swamps. South of the Oka the land rises toward the northern edge of the Central Russian Upland.

      The climate is continental: winters are prolonged and cold, with January average temperatures of about 14 °F (−10 °C); summers are mild, with a July average of 64 °F (18 °C). Average annual precipitation ranges from 18 inches (450 mm) in the southeast to 26 inches (660 mm) on the Klin-Dmitrov Ridge, with the maximum precipitation falling in the summer. The natural vegetation of mixed forest, dominated by spruce, pine, oak, and birch, now survives over only 40 percent of the surface, but almost all remaining forest has been put under protective regulation for preservation. Grass marsh and peat bog occur, especially in the Meshchera Lowland. There are broad floodplain meadows along the rivers.

      The oblast continues to be heavily industrialized despite the decline of industry throughout Russia in the 1990s. The area retains its historic importance, dating back to the late 17th century, as Russia's chief producer of textiles, especially of cotton and woolen cloth. Artificial textiles, silk, linen, clothing, and knitwear are also made. The second major branch of industry, engineering, produces a wide range of heavy machinery, machine tools, locomotives, and buses. The chemical industry produces artificial fibres, plastics, and fertilizers. Old established glass and chinaware industries still flourish, especially in the north. Other manufactures include cement, furniture and other timber products, footwear, and foodstuffs. Lignite (brown coal) and phosphorite are mined in the south, and peat is extensively dug to supply peat-burning power stations, especially in the east around Shatura. Local fuel resources have been supplanted by natural-gas pipelines from the northern Caucasus, western Ukraine, and from Saratov to the south; a high-tension grid transmits power from the giant Volga hydroelectric stations.

      This industrial development means that the oblast is highly urbanized; of its total population, nine-tenths live in more than 140 urban places. The city of Moscow and the satellite towns within its surrounding “forest-park” greenbelt dominate the urban scene; many workers commute into the city from adjacent areas. Although it is the oblast's administrative centre, Moscow is administered independently.

      Agriculture plays a relatively minor role in the economy; only 25 percent of the area is cultivated. Throughout the oblast, but especially around Moscow, dairying and market gardening are well developed to serve the city. In the east the emphasis is on dairy and beef cattle, and pig keeping and poultry farming are widespread. Grain, chiefly rye and oats, is of minor importance; fodder crops occupy more than half the arable land. In the west and north considerable areas are under flax. Reclamation work occurs in swampy areas.

      Communications throughout the oblast are excellent. Trunk railways from all parts of Russia focus on Moscow, and there is a network of electrified suburban lines. The oblast has the highest proportion of asphalt-surfaced roads in Russia. It is also served by waterways, including the Moscow Canal from the capital north to the Volga and the Oka—all giving access to the Volga River system. Area (including Moscow city) 18,200 square miles (47,000 square km). Pop. (2006 est.) oblast only, 6,628,107.

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