Majestic Moscow

Moscow is a city of 14 million people spread out from its central focus, the Kremlin and Red Square. You can't really "know" a city that size after two days of walking and looking out the windows of a bus. However, I can offer first impressions.

Moscow is a big, vibrant, high energy city on the move. There is a certain energy that exudes from the restored cathedrals, new buildings and the demonstrated ability to speak freely about life and politics in this former capital of the USSR.

As our guide says, "it is a city with an ever changing past." Its history is written by whoever is in power now.

Our Sunday began with a trip to Sparrow Hills, a high point from which we could view the city. (There are few high points in this relatively flat city.) There, looming out of the fog was the Moscow State University building.The guidebook describes it like this....

"Since 1953, most of the faculties have been situated on Sparrow Hills, in Moscow's southwest. The main building was designed by architect Lev Vladimirovich Rudnev. In the post-war era, Joseph Stalin ordered seven huge tiered neoclassic towers to be built around the city. Of these, the MSU Main building is by far the largest. It was the tallest building in the world outside of New York City at the time of its construction, and remained the tallest building in Europe until 1990. The central tower is 240 m tall, 36 stories high, and flanked by four huge wings of student and faculty accommodations. It is said to contain a total of 33 kilometers of corridors and 5,000 rooms."

We have seen several of these "tiered neoclassic towers" as we drive around the city and, sitting on a flat landscape they are impressive, despite their age. (Our guide maintains they were constructed with concentration camp labor.)

We also passed by an area of new, contemporary skyscrapers called "New Moscow" that reminded me of the Canary Wharf area of London. They say, "business is welcome." It is unclear what "rule of law" will be applied to businesses in this country under a Putin administration but business is apparently thriving none-the-less.

After looking at the future Moscow we visited the past at the New Market Cemetery. Resting within its walls are the remains of a "who's, who" of Russian history from authors to politicians. Famous sculptures have been commissioned to create the headstones for the residents. The tour provided a foundation for discussing how different people have risen and fallen from grace over time as the political winds have passed across Russia.

Sunday evening found us at the famed Moscow Circus, well worth the visit both for its history and entertainment value.

I could go on describing the places we passed and impressions we were left with but I will leave that to the guidebooks. Suffice to say many preconceived notions of Moscow have been put to rest with the visit and this child of the cold war era I will leave Moscow with a new understanding of the place; surely superficial but new.