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How often, dumb with separation,
In my nomadic exile, then,
Moscow, I dreamed of you again!
Moscow….what depths of
fascination
Live in that name, what echoes start,
And sound in
every Russian heart!
A.S. Pushkin
Moscow is the capital of the Russian Federation, a
city of federal importance, the administrative center of the Central
Federal District and the center of the Moscow region, which is not
included in the region itself. It is the largest city by population
in Russia with a total of 12,506,468 people. (2018), it is the most
populated of the cities fully located in Europe, is among the top
ten cities in the world in terms of population, the largest
Russian-speaking city in the world.
Moscow is historical
capital of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Russian kingdom, the
Russian Empire (in the years 1728-1730), Soviet Russia and the USSR.
Moscow is home to several federal government bodies of the Russian
Federation (with the exception of the Constitutional Court),
embassies of foreign states, and the headquarters of most of the
largest Russian commercial organizations and public associations.
Moscow was found on the Moscow River in the center of the East
European Plain, in the interfluve of the Oka and Volga. As a subject
of the federation, Moscow borders with the Moscow and Kaluga
regions.
Moscow is a popular tourist center of Russia. The
Moscow Kremlin, Red Square, the Novodevichy Convent and the Church
of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye are on the UNESCO World Heritage
List. It is the most important transportation hub. The city is
served by 6 airports, 9 railway stations, 3 river ports (there is a
river connection with the seas of the Atlantic and Arctic Ocean
basins). Since 1935 Moscow has been working underground. Moscow is
the country's sports center. In 1980, the XXII Summer Olympics were
held in Moscow, and in 2018 the city became one of the hosts of the
2018 World Cup.
The climate of Moscow is moderately continental
with cold long winters and warm (sometimes hot) summers. In winter,
the humidity is high, in summer - moderate.
Winter (the
period with temperatures below 0 ° C) begins in mid-November and
ends in late March - early April; The average temperature during
this period is −5 ° C. The average temperature of the coldest month,
February, is −7 ° C (average minimum −10 ° C, average maximum −4 °
C), thaws in December – January (up to +5 ° C) and severe frosts in
January – beginning are quite frequent February (to −25 ° C). Snow
falls in early November and melts completely by mid-April. March is
usually a winter month with an average temperature of around -2 ° C.
Spring begins in April, when the average temperature exceeds 0
degrees. By mid-May, summer sunny weather is established with an
average temperature above +15 ° C. Summer (the period with
temperatures above +15 ° C) lasts on average from mid-May to late
August; average temperature: +18 ° C. But often temperatures from
+15 ° C to +20 ° C can be in May and in September. The average
temperature of the hottest month - July is +19 ° C (average minimum
+14 ° C, average maximum +24 ° C). Recently in the summer in the
capital region (mostly in July) the temperature often exceeds +30 °
C, such heat can sometimes last 1-2 weeks. In early-mid-September,
autumn begins, the weather becomes gloomy and cloudy. October is a
purely autumn month with an average temperature of + 6 ° C. In early
to mid-November, steady snow cover is established, the temperature
in November rarely exceeds +6 ° C and falls below −10 ° C, averaging
a month -2 ° C. December is different: temperatures are possible
around 0 ° C (and sometimes even higher), but there are frosts
around −20 ° C.
Moscow acquired a number of epithets, most of
which refer to its size and outstanding status within the nation:
the Third Rome, White Stone, First Throne, Forty Forty. “Forty”
today translates as forty, but historically it is the old name of
the district or parish, and “forty” in the old Russian means “a
lot”. In the old Russian language, the word "Forty" also meant the
church administrative district, in which there were about forty
churches. Moscow is one of the twelve hero cities, a status ot
acquired for heroic defense against German Nazi forces and their
allies.
Click on the part of the map that interests you.
Moscow is a huge city, and at first somewhat confusing with its
size and the activity of life. Nevertheless, some simple
observations will help to begin to navigate at least a little.
Moscow is a city with a traditional radial-ring structure, which,
until recently, has been built up with almost religious loyalty.
However, recently there have been plans to build chord roads, which
can slightly change the direction of movement. The central rings
appeared in Moscow historically - as the city’s fortifications as
they grew. Starting from the center, they go in the following order:
The ring of central squares - in place of the walls, limiting
the oldest part of the city, Kitay Town. The remainder of the
fortress walls is preserved in the area of Kitay-Gorod metro
station. Like the next ring, it is rather a semiring that rests on
the Moscow River, however, the Moscow River embankment can be
represented by the closure of this ring. The names of the squares
are clockwise: Borovitskaya (Borovitsky Gate of the Kremlin, the
entrance to the Armory), Manezhnaya, where it is easiest to get to
Red Square, Teatralnaya (Bolshoi Theater), Lubyanka, Novaya,
Staraya.
Boulevard ring - a half ring, around Moscow River.
It takes place at the site of the borders of the so-called White
City, and is so named because all the streets have boulevards. Among
them we can mention Chistoprudny Boulevard, as a favorite vacation
spot of Muscovites, but all the other boulevards are not at all
inferior to him in this.
Garden Ring - named for the dachas
(resort homes), which were broken outside the Garden Ring during its
formation. The garden ring roughly limits the city to what it was at
the beginning of the 20th century, and most of the historical
monuments are located within its borders, while beyond its borders,
the vast majority of the territory are residential areas, industrial
areas and parks. Now the Garden Ring is a transport highway, with a
large number of interchanges, which, however, do not save it from
traffic jams. As a controversial tourist route, we can recommend to
drive the entire Garden Ring in a circle on trolleybus B, while it
should be noted that it is clockwise, the terminus is located on
Zubovskaya Square (between Metro 5 Park Kultury and Metro
Smolenskaya), and opposite Kursk railway station, so you need to
either wait some time (up to 10 minutes), or change to another
trolley bus. Alternatively, you can take a trolley bus 10, which
goes around the ring approximately from the bridge over Yauza along
the northern part of the ring to Leninsky Prospect. Taking into
account traffic jams, a full circle may take 2-3 hours, in the
evening less.
The metro ring line is the only line of the
Moscow Metro that moves in a circular direction, roughly the same as
the Garden Ring, but makes several departures from it (to the
outside) in order to reach most of the Moscow railway stations. It
should be noted that the workload of the central train cars on this
line is extremely high at almost any time of the day.
The
Third Transport Ring is a transport highway built at the turn of the
20th and 21st centuries to unload the center. As practice has shown,
for the Moscow movement this was not enough, and traffic jams also
exist on the third ring. As a rule, the third ring passes at a
distance of one metro station from the Koltsevaya metro line, and
also past the Riga and Savyolovsky railway stations. In Lefortovo
passes through the Lefortovo tunnel.
Moscow Central Ring
(ISC) (formerly the “Small Moscow Railway Ring”) - since September
2016, passenger traffic has been open.
The Moscow Ring Road
(MKAD) is the boundary of the city until about the 1980s, after
which they began to attach territories to the city behind the ring.
In the 90s of the 20th century, it was completely rebuilt, so it
became in fact the best highway in Russia. When traveling long
distances in Moscow, as a rule, movement through the Moscow Ring
Road, despite the increasing distance, is the fastest and most
comfortable.
Moscow can be divided into several main districts, which generally coincide with the corresponding administrative districts and districts of the city:
The Kremlin and Kitay-Gorod,
Arbat,
Basmanny District, Zamoskvorechye,
Maryina Roshcha,
Presnya, Taganka,
Tverskaya, Khamovniki,
Chistye Prudy
and Pokrovka
North
Northwest
Sokol
West
Poklonnaya Gora and Dorogomilovo
Southwest
Vorobyovy gory
South
Kolomenskoye, Tsaritsyno
Southeast
Kuzminki-Lyublino, Lefortovo
East
Kuskovo, Sokolniki
Northeast
Ostankino
The Moscow region of suburbs or Podmoskovye, as a rule, is rather gloomy, but they hide an amazing amount of attractions, all accessible from the metro. To the south of the center is a series of fortified monasteries built to protect the city from the Mongols and the Poles. The most spectacular of these is the Novodevichy Convent, an 16th-century Orthodox shrine with a magnificent cathedral, but the Donskoy Monastery is also worth a visit. Danilov Monastery, with its beautiful cathedral, is the oldest in the city. Visitors to Moscow are often surprised at the beauty and diversity of Moscow’s green areas. Gorky, Izmailovo and Pobedy Parks are ideal places to relax, while Sparrow Hills offer fantastic views. Nevertheless, the best secrets of Moscow are the luxurious mansions in the former countryside. The Sheremetev family built two elegant neoclassical dachas: Kuskovo and Ostankino. Both have beautifully preserved gardens and palaces with beautiful paintings and period furniture.
The name of the city comes from the name of the river. The etymology
of the hydronym Moscow has not been precisely established. Recently,
hypotheses about the Baltic, Slavic origin of the name of the river
have become widespread among specialists. In the Slavic and Baltic
versions, the original meaning of the word was "liquid, boggy, damp,
slushy."
In the version about the Finno-Ugric origin, an
explanation is derived from different languages: from the Komi moska
- “cow, heifer”, from the Meryan mask - “bear”, from the
Baltic-Finnish must - “black, dark”. At the moment, this version has
very few supporters. Linguist M. Vasmer called unsuccessful attempts
at etymology from Finno-Ugric, V.P. Neroznak recognizes them as
unfounded. The objections are based on the following facts:
The most ancient form of the oikonym recorded in the sources is not
taken into account: "Moskov";
The inconsistency of the
explanation of the hydronym "Moscow" from the Komi language: the
Komi never lived in the territory close to the course of this river;
The Mari "mask" is borrowed from the Russian word "mechka" - "female
bear" in the XIV-XV centuries;
The inconsistency of the etymology
from the Baltic-Finnish is that each part of the name is explained
from different languages, remote from each other: "musta" - from
Finnish, "-va" from Komi.
The exact age of Moscow is not known. The first
settlements arose on the territory of Moscow in the Neolithic era, about
8 thousand years BC. e. A settlement of the Middle Bronze Age of the
Fatyanovo culture was discovered in Tsaritsyno Park, and settlements of
the Bronze Age are also known in the vicinity of Borovitsky Hill. From
the end of the 1st millennium A.D. e. Slavs settled in the area of
\u200b\u200bmodern Moscow: Vyatichi and Krivichi. Vyatichi formed the
bulk of the original population of Moscow. Archaeological excavations
carried out in the Kremlin area testify that in the 11th century there
already existed a settlement there, protected by a rampart and a moat
and surrounded by a suburb. The wooden pavement to the north of the
modern Assumption Cathedral is dated by the dendrochronological method
to 1080-1090.
The first chronicle mention is the indication of
the Ipatiev Chronicle, known from the lists of the 15th and 16th
centuries, on Friday, April 4, 1147, when the Rostov-Suzdal prince Yuri
Dolgoruky received his friends and allies in a town called Moskov,
headed by the Novgorod-Seversky prince Svyatoslav Olgovich. In 1156,
according to the Tver Chronicle, known from the lists of the 17th
century, at the confluence of the Moscow and Neglinnaya rivers, above
the Yauza River, on the southwestern tip of Borovitsky Hill, Yuri
Dolgoruky built the first wooden and earthen fortress. The total
fortified territory increased by 3-4 times. The perimeter of the walls
of the fortress was about 510 m. The construction of the fortification,
in which a row of log cabins was used in the lower part, and a structure
made according to the hack (hook) technology in the upper part, has
analogies with the "cross-brace" structures in the upper part of the
Serpentine shafts in the Kiev region. Radiocarbon and archaeological
dating of the wooden elements of the hook structure of the rampart
indicates the first half of the 12th century.
Moscow at first
bore the second name Kuchkovo (after the possessions of the Suzdal boyar
Kuchka). In the Novgorod birch-bark charter of the second half of the
12th century, Moscow is mentioned as Kuchkov. During the events of the
internecine war of 1174-1176, in the fall of 1176, Moscow and the
surrounding villages were burned during the attack of the Ryazan prince
Gleb Rostislavich, but the city was soon restored.
The oldest
Cyrillic inscription on the territory of Moscow was found on a stone
mold for casting metal weights, found under the 14th building of the
Kremlin in the cultural layer of the late 12th - first third of the 13th
century.
In 1237-1238, during the Mongol-Tatar invasion of Rus',
Moscow was looted and burned, but it was soon restored.
The Moscow principality was separated from the
Grand Duchy of Vladimir in 1263 according to the will of the Grand
Duke of Vladimir Alexander Nevsky to his youngest son Daniil
Alexandrovich. Initially, the Moscow principality, after its
formation in 1263, included only lands in the middle reaches of the
Moscow River. Its capital Moscow was the only city in the
principality.
The location of the city at the crossroads of
trade routes contributed to its growth and elevation. At the
beginning of the XIV century, the possessions of Moscow expanded,
the Kolomna and Mozhaisk principalities were annexed to them.
In the 14th century, Moscow continued to rise as a new
all-Russian center. Starting with Yuri Danilovich, the Moscow
princes bore the title of Grand Duke of Vladimir, who was considered
supreme within North-Eastern Rus' and Novgorod.
Under Prince
Ivan I Danilovich Kalita, large-scale construction began in Moscow,
the first stone buildings appeared (until that time the city was
completely wooden). In the XIV - early XV centuries, Moscow was a
major trading and craft city; it included the territories of the
Kremlin, Kitay-gorod, and settlements in Zamoskvorechye,
Zaneglimenye and Zayauzye.
In 1325, Peter Ratensky, Metropolitan of Kiev, transferred the metropolitan see from Vladimir (where the see had been since 1299) to Moscow. After his death, Metropolitan Peter was glorified as a saint and miracle worker. At the grave of the saint, Moscow primates were named and elected, and the saint himself, as a particularly revered patron of Moscow, was called to witness in the preparation of state treaties. Moscow, having become the spiritual capital of Rus', contributed to the unification of the lands around the spiritual center, and subsequently the transfer of the actual capital of the state from Vladimir to Moscow. In 1448 the Russian Church became de facto autocephalous, and in 1589 the Moscow Patriarchate was established.
The capital of the unified Russian state
At the end
of the 15th century, under Prince Ivan III Vasilyevich, Moscow became
the capital of the Russian state. The new status contributed to the
growth of the city and the formation of the economic and cultural center
of the country. Industry and crafts developed: the production of
weapons, fabrics, leather, pottery, jewelry, and construction. Cannon
and Print Yards appeared. Moscow architecture reached great heights. The
boundaries of Moscow expanded significantly - by the end of the 16th
century, it included the territories of the White City and the Earthen
City. A system of defensive structures was created. In the XIV-XVIII
centuries, major uprisings and fires took place in Moscow several times.
In 1565, after the division of the Russian state by Tsar Ivan the
Terrible into oprichnina and zemshchina, the city became the center of
the latter.
In 1571, the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey made a
campaign against Moscow, as a result of which the city was burned down,
but later restored.
In 1605, the troops of the self-proclaimed Tsar False
Dmitry I entered Moscow. The power of the impostor in the city fell in
1606, during a popular uprising, he was killed by the inhabitants of
Moscow. From 1606 to 1610, during the reign of the newly elected Tsar
Vasily Shuisky, Moscow was under siege by the troops of the second
impostor False Dmitry II, who settled in a camp in Tushino. During this
period, communication between Moscow and the rest of the state was
difficult. The siege was lifted by the approach to Moscow from Novgorod,
in March 1610, by the troops of Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky with Swedish
mercenaries.
In 1610, after the defeat of the troops of Vasily
Shuisky, in the Battle of Klushinsky, Moscow was occupied by the Polish
troops of Stanislav Zolkiewski. Attempts in 1611 to liberate the city
from the Poles by the First Zemstvo Militia, under the leadership of
Prokopy Lyapunov, Ivan Zarutsky and Prince Dmitry Trubetskoy, were
unsuccessful. In 1612, the troops of the Second Zemstvo militia, led by
the Zemstvo headman Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, left Nizhny
Novgorod and on October 22 (November 4), in the battle on the Maiden's
Field, defeated the Polish troops. They liberated Moscow from the Poles,
forcing, at the end of 1612, their garrison to capitulate in the Kremlin
and leave Moscow.
In the first century of the Romanov dynasty
In Moscow in 1613, Mikhail Fedorovich was anointed king, marking the
beginning of more than 300 years of the Romanov dynasty.
In the
17th century, Earthen City finally entered the boundaries of Moscow, the
Moscow Kremlin was completed and acquired a modern look. Yamskaya,
Meshchanskaya and Nemetskaya Sloboda appeared. The royal residence
Kolomenskoye is gaining great importance.
In 1654, under the
Pharmaceutical Order, the training of "students of medicine" was
organized.
The middle and second half of the 17th century was
marked in Moscow by a number of social and political riots: salt,
copper, streltsy in 1682 and 1698.
In 1712, the status of the capital of Russia was
transferred to St. Petersburg. In 1728, under Peter II, the imperial
court was transferred to Moscow, which was located here until 1732, when
Anna Ioannovna returned it back to St. Petersburg. Moscow retained the
status of the "first-throne" capital and was the site of the coronation
of emperors. This title is used to emphasize the historical seniority of
Moscow as the city in which the throne of the Russian Tsar first
appeared. In the dictionary of F. A. Brockhaus and I. A. Efron, Moscow
is called “the capital of Russia”. The explanatory dictionary of S.I.
Ozhegov and N.Yu. Shvedova interprets the word "first throne" as the
designation of the oldest capital. The term is widely used in all
spheres of public life as a synonym and unofficial name for Moscow.
In 1755, Mikhail Lomonosov and Ivan Shuvalov, by order of Empress
Elizabeth, founded Moscow University.
During the Patriotic War of
1812, Moscow was captured by Napoleon's troops and was badly damaged by
fire. According to various estimates, up to 80% of the buildings burned
down as a result of the Moscow fire. The process of restoration of
Moscow lasted more than thirty years, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior
was built. By the end of the 19th century, a tram appeared in Moscow.
In 1851, a railway connection between Moscow and St. Petersburg was
opened.
In 1896, during the events timed to coincide with the
coronation of Emperor Nicholas II, a major crush with a significant
number of victims took place on the Khodynka Field, which was called the
Khodynskaya tragedy.
In December 1905, revolutionary unrest and
street barricade battles took place in Moscow.
In mid-August 1917, the All-Russian State Conference,
convened by the Provisional Government, was held in Moscow.
On
October 25 (November 7), 1917, simultaneously with the beginning of the
Storming of the Winter Palace in Petrograd, the Moscow armed uprising of
the Bolsheviks began, which, unlike the uprising in Petrograd, was
stubbornly resisted in Moscow. The opponents of the uprising, among whom
the cadets of Moscow military schools predominated, united in a
committee of public security and occupied the Kremlin in order to
counteract the attackers. The confrontation ended in bloody battles
between the cadets and the Red Guards, which continued in the city from
October 25 to November 2 (15), 1917 and led to damage to the historical
center of Moscow and the Kremlin by artillery fire.
In 1918, the
Bolshevik government moved to Moscow from Petrograd and Moscow became
the capital of the RSFSR.
At the beginning of the second half of
1919, the anti-Bolshevik organizations in Moscow, led by the National
Center, made attempts to organize an uprising in the city with the aim
of overthrowing the Soviet regime, which failed. Many members of the
underground anti-Soviet organizations in Moscow were shot by the Cheka
during the Red Terror. In October 1919, as part of their campaign
against Moscow, the All-Russian Union of Youth Union approached Moscow
at 280 km (Mtsensk). The Bolsheviks were preparing to go underground and
began evacuating to Vologda, but their shock group managed to deliver a
successful counterattack to the Whites near Orel.
With the victory of the Bolsheviks in 1920 in the
Civil War, a new, Soviet era began in the development of the city. In
Soviet times, Moscow again became the center of the state, and the
international political significance of the city increased. Moscow was
built up at a rapid pace, former suburbs joined the city. At the same
time, historic downtown development was subject to selective
destruction; A number of churches and monasteries were destroyed,
including the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the Holy Monastery. In
1922 Moscow became the capital of the USSR. The city began the rapid
development of transport infrastructure. So, in 1924, bus traffic was
opened in Moscow, in 1933 the first trolleybus route was launched, and
in 1935 the first metro line was opened for passengers. After the
commissioning of the Moscow Canal and raising the water level in the
Moscow River, part of the urban area near the Moscow River was flooded.
In particular, sections of the former Dorogomilovsky and the Jewish
cemeteries adjoining it went under water.
By the Decree of the
Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee “On the
formation on the territory of the RSFSR of administrative-territorial
associations of regional and regional significance” dated January 14,
1929, from October 1, 1929, the Central Industrial Region was formed
with the center in the city of Moscow.
In 1931, two large cities
of the RSFSR - Moscow (June 16) and Leningrad (December 3) - were
separated into separate administrative units - cities of republican
subordination of the RSFSR.
During the years of
industrialization, a network of higher and secondary technical
educational institutions was rapidly developing in Moscow.
In the
1930s, a whole network of research and design institutes of a technical
profile was created in Moscow. The vast majority of them were part of
the USSR Academy of Sciences. At this time, mass media also developed in
the city, many newspapers were published, regular television
broadcasting was organized since 1939.
At this time, the General
Plan for the Reconstruction of Moscow was being implemented, which
envisaged a radical restructuring of the entire city and its urban
economy. On the site of the destroyed Cathedral of Christ the Savior,
the largest building in the world, the Palace of Soviets, began to be
built, but because of the war, plans for its construction were not
destined to come true.
The population is growing at a rapid pace:
if in 1917 it was 1,854,400 people, then in 1939 it was 4,215,532
people.
During the Great Patriotic War, the State Defense
Committee and the General Staff of the Red Army were located in the
city, a people's militia was formed (over 160 thousand people).
In the winter of 1941/42, the famous Battle of Moscow took place, in
which Soviet troops scored the first major victory over the Wehrmacht
since the outbreak of World War II. In October 1941, German troops came
close to Moscow; many industrial enterprises were evacuated, the
evacuation of government offices to Kuibyshev began. On October 20,
1941, a state of siege was introduced in Moscow. But, despite this, on
November 7, a military parade took place on Red Square, the troops from
which went straight to the front. In December 1941, the advance of the
German Army Group Center near Moscow was halted; as a result of the
successful counter-offensive of the Soviet troops near Moscow, the
German troops were driven back from the capital. On June 24, 1945, the
Victory Parade took place on Red Square.
In 1952-1957, the
construction of high-rise buildings was carried out, which later
received the name "Stalin skyscrapers" and became one of the symbols of
Moscow in the Soviet era.
In 1960, a new border of Moscow along
the Moscow Ring Road was formed, beyond which the city began to go only
in 1984.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the city center again
underwent a major restructuring. For the sake of expanding existing
streets, building new highways and typical multi-storey panel houses,
some architectural monuments of Moscow were demolished.
In 1957
and 1985, the VI and XII World Festivals of Youth and Students were held
in Moscow, respectively. In 1980, Moscow hosted the XXII Summer Olympic
Games.
On August 19-22, 1991, the August putsch took place in
the city, organized by the State Emergency Committee. By 1993, the
constitutional state crisis, which arose as a result of the
confrontation between the president and parliament, reached its climax.
On October 3-4, 1993, there was an attempt to seize the Ostankino
television center and the shooting of the building of the Supreme
Council (the White House). Then significant changes took place in the
city. In 1995, new official symbols of the capital were approved - the
emblem, flag and anthem of the city. The restoration of churches began,
the construction of a full-scale copy of the Cathedral of Christ the
Savior blown up by the Bolsheviks.
In 1977, the city faced the
threat of terrorism for the first time. Until 2011, there were 18
terrorist attacks in Moscow.
The early 2000s were marked by a
major architectural transformation. The city is being seriously rebuilt
- multi-storey office buildings, modern transport infrastructure, luxury
housing are being built, a new business center has appeared - the Moscow
City district. At the same time, it is noted that this "construction
boom" leads to the destruction of the historical appearance of the city,
the destruction of architectural monuments and the existing urban
environment. A serious problem is the underdeveloped transport
infrastructure, leading to traffic jams and congestion of public
transport. According to Moscow Mayor S.S. 12% in 2016, compared to 5
years ago.
Until 2010, Moscow had the status of a historical
settlement, but by order of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian
Federation dated July 29, 2010 No. 418/339, the city was deprived of
this status.
Since the 1990s, the project for the unification of
Moscow and the Moscow Region has been actively discussed, in the summer
of 2011 a more specific project for expanding the territory of Moscow
and its decentralization through the annexation of southwestern
territories appeared, this project (the so-called "New Moscow" or
"Greater Moscow") was implemented in the summer of 2012.
In 2018,
Moscow, among other 11 cities, hosted the FIFA World Cup. Several
important sports and infrastructure facilities were built in the city
for this event.
In February 2022, according to preliminary data
from the City Prosperity Index, Moscow ranked first in terms of
infrastructure development and quality of life.
The best
metropolis in the world in terms of quality of life and infrastructure
development according to UN experts in 2022
By plane
Moscow has four passenger
airports. All of them are taken far beyond the Moscow Ring Road:
Sheremetyevo (SVO) - trains from
Belorussky railway station, minibuses and buses from the metro
station 2 Rechnoy Vokzal or 7 Planernaya
Domodedovo (DME) - trains from
Paveletsky railway station, minibus and buses from 2 Domodedovo
Vnukovo (VKO) - trains from Kievsky
Station, minibuses and buses from 1 Yugo-Zapadnaya (South-West)
Zhukovsky (ZIA) - buses from 7
Kotelniki, by bus to the railway platform Otdyx and to Kazan station
The airport Bykovo is closed, the passenger terminal is demolished.
Electric trains (Aeroexpress) are the most convenient, although
far from the cheapest way to get to the three main Moscow airports.
Trains run at intervals of 30-60 minutes from 5 am to 1 am; delays,
if any, are small. They go slowly, almost like ordinary electric
trains, but practically without stops. The trains are new, equipped
with air conditioning and poorly working Wi-Fi.
A ticket
(2021 prices) can be purchased through a mobile application, as well
as at live ticket offices and ticket machines: for one trip (400
rubles), round-trip (750 rubles, return trip within 30 days on any
route) and business -class (800 rubles: a ticket with a seat in a
separate luxury carriage). Do not buy season tickets for 10-15
trips. They are designed for only one person and are valid for 30
days, and therefore do not make any sense, unless, of course, you go
to the airport twice a week.
Taxis are an eternal problem at
Moscow airports. At the exit, you will be attacked by private
traders offering and even imposing their services. You need to
bargain hard and unceremoniously with private traders: in this case,
you will leave for 1500-2000 rubles, depending on the area. The
drivers themselves will name arbitrary, usually exorbitant amounts,
which are often bought by gullible foreigners. Be sure to agree on a
price before the trip, or better - right in the terminal.
Cheaper to order a taxi from the city. All companies offer fixed
rates of 700-1500 rubles, depending on the area and airport. A fee
of 200-300 rubles will be added to this amount if you want the
driver to wait for you at the airport itself. Usually, drivers
prefer to call the customer and drive up to the terminal after you
go outside. This is somewhat inconvenient and delays the process.
There is no centralized taxi service at airports. Stands "official
taxi" will save you from outright swindle, but the prices there are
still above average. In any case, Moscow airports are far from the
city, so you always need to pay at a fixed rate: time or per
kilometer payment simply does not make sense. Moscow taxi drivers
know a thousand and one ways to avoid traffic jams, but they still
get into them, so during peak hours it is better to use the metro
and Aeroexpress.
Transit between Moscow airports is below
average pleasure. All three airports are approximately equidistant
from each other, the distances between them are 80-90 km, so even at
night a taxi will take more than an hour and cost at least 1,500
rubles (2020) when ordering from the city. At the airport, they
usually ask from 2500 rubles. Taking into account Moscow traffic
jams, it is better to use the longer and more tiring, but reliable
Aeroexpress-metro-Aeroexpress route, which will take a little less
than two hours and cost you about 1000 rubles.
Sheremetyevo
For details see Moscow/Sheremetyevo Airport
Sheremetyevo Airport (IATA:SVO). Sheremetyevo is the largest and
most difficult to understand Moscow airport, the hub of the Aeroflot
airline. It is located 20 km northwest of the Moscow Ring Road and
consists of several terminals combined into two clusters - northern
and southern, they are also Sheremetyevo-1 and Sheremetyevo-2. Only
terminal B operates in the northern cluster, terminal C is under
reconstruction until at least 2019, and the vast majority of regular
flights are operated from the southern cluster, which includes
terminals D, E and F. Aeroexpress goes to the southern cluster, the
southern and northern clusters are connected by an underground
tunnel.
The terminals of the southern cluster are interconnected
by pedestrian galleries. The distances are quite large, from end to
end to go about 10 minutes. Terminal D serves domestic and
international flights, terminals E and F - only international. There
are many food outlets of different levels and price categories at
the airport. Relatively inexpensive food - in the Aeroexpress
terminal and in Terminal E next to the check-in counters. The
24-hour canteen for airport employees is located on the 4th floor of
Terminal F.
Domodedovo
2 Domodedovo
Airport (IATA:DME). Domodedovo is a Moscow airport with a second
passenger flow. At the same time, it consists of a single, eternally
overloaded terminal. It is located 23 km southeast of the Moscow
Ring Road, named after the city of the same name in the Moscow
Region, but located relatively far from it.
How to get there:
Aeroexpress from Paveletsky railway station every half an hour, 45
minutes on the way; makes an intermediate stop for transfer to the
station - Verkhnie Kotly. The cost is 500 rubles.
A commuter
train runs from Paveletsky railway station at intervals of 2-3
hours, travels approximately 1 hour 10 minutes and costs 138 rubles
(92 rubles to the Nizhnie Kotly station - Nagatinskaya), which is
four times cheaper than Aeroexpress, but departs and arrives at
those same platforms. Unlike Aeroexpress, there are benefits for
schoolchildren, students and a number of social categories of
citizens. Please note that the Varshavskaya metro station
(Kolomenskaya station) is closed for renovation, so it makes no
sense to get off there to transfer to the metro.
Buses and
minibuses No. 308 from Domodedovskaya, on the way 25-30 minutes,
accurate to traffic jams in the Moscow Ring Road. Buses run from 6
am to midnight; minibuses also operate at night with an interval of
40 minutes, theoretically at night the route of the night bus H3
passes through the Domodedovskaya metro station with an interval of
30 minutes and stops on demand. The fare is 79 rubles (social bus
with all stops), 100 rubles (express), 120 rubles (minibus). The
airport is not served by Mosgortrans flights, Moscow travel cards
are not valid. On social flights, the Strelka card, regional
benefits and travel cards are valid.
Bus number 30 from the
railway station. Domodedovo in the city of the same name - only if
you know why you need to go there
It is more convenient to go to
Domodedovo by car than to other Moscow airports, since a special
highway has been laid from the MKAD itself (a continuation of the
Kashirskoye Highway), more or less free from traffic jams.
The terminal has two floors. On the first floor, in the center of
the check-in desk, on the left (when viewed from the forecourt) is
the arrival of international lines, on the right is the arrival of
domestic lines and the Aeroexpress station. Minibuses and buses
drive up to the terminal itself, its central part. With the
exception of the rather spacious international arrivals area, the
first floor is always crowded and contains nothing useful other than
a couple of tiny cafes, mobile phone stands and paid outlets. There
is nowhere to sit.
The second floor is occupied by numerous
cafes and waiting rooms, where, compared to the first floor, it is
rather free. The best food option is the Mu-Mu canteen, hidden in
the far right corner (next to the exit to sector D). Prices are
almost the same as in the city, you can have a full meal for 500-600
rubles (2015). The Yolki-Palki tavern operates in a similar format,
located approximately in the center of the terminal. Its advantage
is the presence of sockets next to the tables along the wall. The
rest of the cafes are much more expensive, although in some places
they are more comfortable, and the chances of finding an outlet in
them are higher. Next to the "Mu-Mu" children's corner (450 rubles /
h). In the center of the hall there is a Megafon stand with Internet
access (250 rubles per hour), the ability to print and sell SIM
cards. Free Wi-Fi is available throughout the terminal. If you are
completely bored, look for a DVD Cinema bar - these are sofas in
front of TVs that show films (600 rubles / person).
Luggage
storage is located in the basement under the arrivals halls. There
are also showers, 350 rubles per hour.
The departure area is
divided into four sectors, but in reality A and B are two
compartments connected by an escalator in the left wing of the
terminal (departure of international flights), and C and D are the
same two floors in the right wing (departure of domestic flights).
Both there and there it is crowded, there is always nowhere to sit,
and the cafes are expensive and overcrowded. Wi-Fi works, although
sometimes intermittently.
Vnukovo
3
Vnukovo Airport (IATA: VKO). ☎ Information: +7 (495) 937-55-55. The
smallest of the three Moscow airports, Vnukovo is located 15 km
southwest of the Moscow Ring Road and is more focused on domestic
flights. UTAir, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, Yakutia, Pobeda fly
from here.
How to get there:
Aeroexpress from the Kievsky
railway station, 35 minutes on the way; traffic interval - one hour,
that is, less often than to other Moscow airports
Minibuses No.
45 m from Yugo-Zapadnaya go according to filling (every 10-15
minutes during the day, every half an hour in the evening) from 7 to
23. The journey takes 15-20 minutes if there are no traffic jams.
Fare: 150 rubles (2016). Minibuses stop at the entrance to terminal
A. Be careful: minibuses without a number with a sign "Vnukovo" do
not go to the airport, but to the village of the same name.
Buses
number 611 at the city rate from Yugo-Zapadnaya. Because of the
likelihood of getting stuck in a traffic jam, it is best to land at
Troparevo. The interval is approximately 4 flights per hour. Opening
hours - 5:30 - 1:24. The airport is not the final one, it goes
further to the Vnukovo plant. Bus 572 runs from Tyoply Stan, but its
interval is 1 hour, it takes a very long time. The best choice is
buses from Salaryevo: No. 911 (around the clock every 10-15
minutes) to the final one or No. 272 to the Hotel stop (corner of
Central and 1st Reisovaya streets, 300 m to the terminal). There is
also bus number 32, on the way to Vnukovo airport, making a stop at
Rasskazovka. At night, route No. H11 operates from Vnukovo Airport
to the center, to the final stop Kitay-Gorod. There is a
Mosgortrans ticket office at the airport, which is often closed.
Minibuses to Tyoply Stan or along Leninsky Prospekt to Oktyabrskaya
are relatively rare.
By car along Leninsky Prospekt, the route is
usually free, with the exception of the interchange with the Moscow
Ring Road.
Compared to other Moscow airports, Vnukovo taxi
drivers are unobtrusive and will not catch you by the hand with an
offer to take you somewhere “cheaply”. However, there is no official
taxi stand at the airport either.
The advantage of Vnukovo in
comparison with other Moscow airports is that it is located in the
middle of residential development. Within walking distance there are
decent establishments with cheap food (prices are lower than the
average for Moscow and are not comparable with intra-airport ones):
a cafe at the Vnukovo Hotel (Tsentralnaya St., 2/1A) and Canteen No.
1 (St. 1st Reisovaya , 4A). Next to the dining room there is a
24-hour supermarket and a 24-hour shawarma stall.
Vnukovo
consists of a single terminal A, not counting business aviation and
services for VIPs of various levels up to the President of Russia.
This is a relatively new, spacious and in places frighteningly
deserted building, which is connected by an underpass to the
Aeroexpress station. In the basement there is a 24-hour storage room
(300 rubles / day, 2014), arrivals on the first floor, departures on
the second. Except for ATMs and the same type of cafe-bars with
heated hot food, then everything useful is located here on the
second floor on the right side of the hall: the Just grill bar,
which offers quite restaurant food for 400-500 rubles for hot dishes
and a more modest Air Buffet - a good canteen with distribution (hot
dishes: 300-400 rubles, soups and sandwiches: about 200 rubles).
Better, however, to go to the deserted third floor, where the "Baby
Potato" and the Moo-Moo cafe are located, with prices higher than in
the city, but still lower than anywhere else in the airport -
besides, the food here is much more diverse. On the third floor,
there are several rows of ever-occupied seats, and if you don’t get
a seat, head to the individual Cinema Territory cinema: several 2x2
meter booths with a sofa and a DVD player in each. There is no
service for arriving tourists in the terminal. The tourist
information desk sells guidebooks, and not at all tickets for public
transport, as one might think.
On the second floor next to
the cafe (on the right side of the hall) there is a communication
salon that provides Internet access from desktop computers: 150
rubles for 30 minutes or 200 rubles / hour with traffic limitation
and an additional payment of 1 rub / MB (2013). Things are not going
well with wireless Internet access in Vnukovo: in the common area,
Wi-Fi is not caught at all, after special control, the Air_wifi_free
network appears, but only for 15 minutes - then they ask you to pay
50 rubles. per hour or 150 rubles. for 6 hours. However, you can
look for free networks of business lounges.
The international
departure hall is huge to the point of inconvenience: for most of it
you can see only hundreds of rows of empty seats and closed windows
of non-working duty-free shops. In addition, in the hall there are
Chocolate Girl, Burger King, Mu-mu, Potato Crumb, Heineken lounge
bar, which turns out to be a canteen with distribution and a very
expensive bar (beer from 300 rubles per mug), and also chain cafe
with Le Crobag sandwiches. The prices here are as high as elsewhere
in the airport, but the look and contents of these sandwiches, not
to mention pastries, compare favorably with the dull assortment of
Vnukovo.
The domestic departures hall is not so big and there
are more passengers in it, and therefore not so intimidating,
although there are still a lot of empty seats. There are two
“Chocolate Girls”, a cafe-bar Grenkipub, Burger King, “Mu-mu”,
“Halal khinkalnaya” in it at once. For lovers of the exotic, there
is a vending machine with “space food”: porridge soups and mashed
potatoes in tubes (300 rubles a serving). At the very end of the
clean zone, hard to see from afar, is the Crumb Potato counter.
There are practically no sockets, most of them are in the “Chocolate
Girl”, which is further from the entrance.
Zhukovsky
4 Zhukovsky Airport (IATA: ZIA). The newest, smallest and most
miserable airport of the Moscow air hub, opened in September 2016.
The terminal building is a primitive piece of glass finished with
the cheapest materials from the construction market, and you can eat
only in the Shokoladnitsa cafe. There is no direct railway
connection: you can get from the Kazansky railway station with a
transfer to a shuttle bus (fare 100 rubles) at the station. Rest, or
by direct bus No. 441e (fare 85 rubles, with the Strelka card - 70
rubles or cheaper, depending on the discount) from the station.
Kotelniki (twice an hour, on weekdays in the daytime more often).
Moscow is the largest railway junction. From here you can go by
train to almost any city in Russia, most of the CIS countries, a
number of European countries, as well as to Mongolia, North Korea
and China. However, international trains (with the exception of
Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and, for lovers of beauty, Central Asia)
have no practical meaning, since the plane will be slightly more
expensive, inexpressibly more comfortable and many times faster. The
same applies to the Far East.
In addition to long-distance
trains, the largest network of electric trains in Russia is
connected to Moscow. Among them there are both ordinary and express
trains to the cities of the Moscow region and neighboring regional
centers. All electric trains, except for express trains, stop at
stations combined with metro stations.
There are 9 railway
stations in Moscow. Seven of them are combined with metro stations
of the Koltsevaya Line and serve the vast majority of long-distance
routes. Weakly loaded Rizhsky and Savelovsky stations are removed
from the Koltsevaya metro line by one station. The names of many
stations immediately give an idea of where they go, but there are a
number of non-obvious points. Moreover, the city does not have a
rigid system that ties the station to a certain direction: trains to
the south can even depart from the Belorussky station if there is no
free space at the others. Be sure to check which station is
indicated on the ticket.
5 Leningradsky railway station. Located on Komsomolskaya Square
(the so-called Three Station Squares), 1 5 Komsomolskaya, trains
coming from the north-west direction (Tver, St. Petersburg,
Petrozavodsk, Murmansk, Pskov, Novgorod and others) arrive at the
station. International trains come from Helsinki (Finland) and
Tallinn (Estonia). Electric trains direction to Tver, Konakovo, Klin
and others.
6 Kazan station. Located on Komsomolskaya Square, 1 5
Komsomolskaya, trains coming from the east and southeast (Nizhny
Novgorod, Kazan, Penza, Ulyanovsk, Ufa, Orenburg, Barnaul,
Chelyabinsk and other cities) arrive at the station. Also, trains
arrive from BAM stations. International trains come from Kyrgyzstan
and Kazakhstan. Trains to Ryazan, Kolomna, Yegoryevsk, Shatura and
other direction stations.
7 Yaroslavsky station. Located on
Komsomolskaya Square, 1 5 Komsomolskaya, trains arriving at the
station follow from the north (Arkhangelsk, Syktyvkar, Vologda,
Vorkuta, Kirov and others) and east from Siberia and the Far East
(Transsib and BAM stations). International trains come from Ulan
Bator (Mongolia), Beijing (China) and Pyongyang (DPRK). Trains to
Mytishchi, Sergiev Posad, Aleksandrov, Rostov and Yaroslavl.
8
Kursky Station, st. Zemlyanoy val, 29 (3 5 Kurskaya, 10
Chkalovskaya). The most difficult of the Moscow stations. From it,
trains depart at once in several directions: Kursk, Gorky,
Leningradsky (passing trains from St. Petersburg), as well as
Smolensk and Riga (through trains through Moscow-Kalanchevskaya).
For this reason, the railway station has through paths and dead
ends, and with independent numbering, i.e. 5 way and 5 dead end -
not the same thing. From the dead ends, to the south of the station
building, train trains of the Gorky direction are sent.
The old
building, built in 1896, during the years of stagnation, was
supplemented with a faceless gray box that looks towards the Garden
Ring, and the old building, respectively, is drawn to the paths.
Inside it is one big and long building, but the difference between
the old and the new is clearly visible. On the ground floor (0
floor) suburban ticket offices and a huge number of inexpensive (by
Moscow standards) eateries with pies, pancakes, potatoes. On the
first floor of the long-distance ticket office, and behind them, in
the old building, are several large waiting rooms. Here, the 24-hour
dining room Dobroe Delo, located in one of the old halls with stucco
work, is, if not the best, then certainly the most interesting place
for a snack, the hottest here is 150-200 rubles (2014). On the
second floor, which is a "balcony", there are several beautiful and
expensive places like the restaurant Il Patio and even a wine bar.
Manual lockers are located on the ground floor (170 rubles / day),
there are also modern automatic cells in one of the waiting rooms
(110 rubles / h, 250 rubles / day). In addition to everything
already listed at the Kursk railway station, there are such
uncharacteristic objects for Russian railway stations as a laundry
and a shoe store. In general, the situation is more pleasant and
well-groomed than at most other Moscow railway stations. Free wifi.
From the second floor, the gallery leads to the Atrium shopping
center, located in front of the station, which is a typical Moscow
shopping center with expensive shops. On the lower floor there is a
supermarket "Crossroads", on the 3rd floor there is a food court
with all the options of fast food you can think of. There are
several restaurants there.
9 Kievsky Station. Located near the
metro station 3 4 5 Kievskaya. Serves trains of the south-west
direction from the direction of Bryansk. On international trains you
can get from the territory of Ukraine (Kiev, Odessa, Lviv and
others), Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia. Electric
trains go to Naro-Fominsk, Maloyaroslavets, Kaluga and other
direction stations. The station is served by aeroexpress to Vnukovo
airport.
10 Savyolovsky station. One of the two stations located
on the side of the Koltsevaya metro line, metro station 9
Savyolovskaya. Recently, the station does not serve long-distance
trains. On trains, including express trains, you can come to Moscow
from the northern direction from Dubna, Dmitrov, Savyolovo.
11 Belorussky Station. Located near the metro station 2 5
Belorusskaya. Serves trains mainly western directions. The most
"international" station of the capital. From the territory of Russia
to Belorussky railway station you can come from Smolensk and
Kaliningrad. After the transfer of trains from Savyolovsky station,
passenger trains leave from here to Uglich and Rybinsk. The station
is the final destination for trips from Berlin, Warsaw, Paris, Nice,
Prague, Minsk, Brest and other European cities, often trains are
formed from trailer cars from different directions. From the
station, trains also depart in the direction of Odintsovo, Kubinka,
Zvenigorod, Mozhaisk, Gagarin and Vyazma. The station is served by
Aeroexpress to Sheremetyevo-2.
12 Paveletsky railway station.
Located on the square of the same name on the Garden Ring, near the
metro station 2 5 Paveletskaya. Long-distance trains go to the
southeast to the Volga region (Saratov, Volgograd, Astrakhan), to
the Caucasus (Stavropol, Baku, Makhachkala). By train you can get to
Kashira, Necklaces, Uzunovo. Aeroexpress follows to Domodedovo
Airport (journey time: 40-45 minutes).
13 Riga station. One of
the two stations located on the side of the Koltsevaya metro line,
metro station 6 Rizhskaya. Recently, the station has a small number
of serviced long-distance trains. It is the final destination for
trains from Velikie Luki, Posini and Riga (Latvia). From the Rizhsky
railway station, electric trains head westward toward Volokolamsk,
Shakhovskaya and other stations.
Sometimes it is convenient to
get on electric trains not at train stations, but at distant metro
stations: Dmitrovskaya and Tushinskaya for the Riga direction,
Timiryazevskaya for Savelovsky, Elektrozavodskaya, Aviamotornaya and
Vykhino for Kazan and Ryazan, Nagatinskaya and Warsawavskaya for
Paveletsky, Textile workers and Tsaritsyno for Kursky, Begovaya and
Kazan Fili for Belarusian. Long-distance trains, as a rule, depart
from the stations, while for nearby directions, there are through
trains from the Kursk direction to Riga and Belarus, as well as from
Belarus to Savyolovsky.
The main point of departure of buses in Moscow is the Central Bus
Station (3 Schelkovskaya), in addition, buses leave from most
railway stations (the directions roughly coincide with the most
popular railway routes, for example, Lipetsk, Voronezh, Volgograd
from Paveletsky Station, Rostov-on-Don, Stavropol from the Kazan
station, etc.).
International bus routes cover the nearest
countries: Ukraine (Kiev, Odessa), Poland, the Baltic States,
Belarus, etc.
Part of the suburban routes goes from the metro
stations, among which should be noted station 6 VDNH (Yaroslavl
direction), 1 South-West and some others.
Bus stations in
Moscow:
14 Mezhdunarodny Avtovokzal - International Bus Station
(South Gate), MKAD, 19th km (2 Krasnogvardeyskaya, 2 Alma-Atinskaya,
2 Domodedovskaya, 2 Tsaritsyno, 10 Bratislavskaya, 10 Marino, 7
Kotelniki (travel by free route taxis)). ☎ +7 (499) 940-08-43, 8
(800) 200-08-41. The new project of the metropolitan government,
aimed at optimizing passenger traffic. As of 2015, the development
of the bus station is at an early stage.
15 Central Bus Station
(Schelkovsky), Schelkovskoe Highway 75 (3 Schelkovskaya). ☎ +7 (495)
468-04-00. The main bus station in Moscow and the largest in Russia.
16 Krasnogvardeyskaya Bus Station, 46 Orekhovy Boulevard (2
Krasnogvardeyskaya 10 Zyablikovo). ☎ +7 (495) 395-54-87, +7 (495)
395-89-35, +7 (495) 395-88-35.
17 Teply Stan Bus Station,
Novoyasenevsky Avenue, 4 (6 Teply Stan). ☎ +7 (495) 753-55-55.
18
Bus station at Paveletsky railway station, Dubininskaya street, 7 (2
Paveletskaya).
19 Bus station "VDNH", Mira Avenue, VDNH (VVC),
Northern entrance (6 VDNH). ☎ +7 (495) 760-27-44.
20 Bus station
Kotelniki, Novoryazanskoye Highway 1 (7 Kotelniki). ☎ +7 (495)
371-98-60.
21 Domodedovskaya Bus Station, Orekhovy Boulevard, 14g
(2 Domodedovskaya). ☎ +7 (495) 397-06-00, +7 (495) 399-90-27. Buses
and route taxis depart from the bus station to Domodedovo Airport.
22 Partizanskaya Bus Station, Izmailovskoye Highway 71 (3
Partizanskaya). ☎ +7 (495) 166-11-79.
23 Kuzminki Bus Station,
Zhigulevskaya Street, 7 (7 Kuzminki). ☎ +7 (495) 657-74-70.
24
River Station Bus Station, Festivalnaya Street 2a (2 Rechnoy
vokzal). ☎ +7 (495) 457-11-11. Buses and route taxis depart from the
bus station to Sheremetyevo Airport
25 Bus station "Tushinskaya",
travel Stratonautov, 9 (7 Tushinskaya). ☎ +7 (495) 490-24-24.
26
Glider Bus Station, 7 Planernaya (7 Planernaya). Buses and route
taxis depart from the bus station to Sheremetyevo Airport
27 Bus
Station Yugo-Zapadnaya, Vernadsky Avenue, 86 (1 Yugo-Zapadnaya). ☎
+7 (495) 434-82-27. Buses and route taxis depart from the bus
station to Vnukovo Airport.
International flights are operated
from Schelkovskogo bus station, Teply Stan and some others.
Moscow is the beginning of more than a dozen international,
federal and regional routes. However, driving into the capital, you
can probably get stuck in traffic, so you should avoid the most
likely time of their occurrence near the Moscow Ring Road (rush
hours): on weekdays (in the morning to the city, in the evening from
the city), on Saturday morning from the city, Sunday evening to the
city. In order to have time to leave before the formation of the
morning traffic jam, you need to have time to drive until 7 am, in
order to wait out the evening one - you need to go after 10-11 pm.
You can try to drive to the evening traffic (about 17 hours on
weekdays, 15 hours on Friday and Sunday), but the traffic during the
day is not much weakened, so you should count on delays from an hour
to three to reach the Moscow Ring Road from the immediate vicinity.
In addition, a number of tracks, in particular, Yaroslavl highway
has narrowings on the first 10-20 km from the Moscow Ring Road,
which additionally holds back traffic.
The main directions of
the routes:
M1 (Minskoe highway) - from Europe, Brest, Minsk,
Smolensk
M2 (Simferopol highway) - from the Crimea, Kharkov,
Belgorod, Kursk, Orel, Tula
M3 (Kiev highway) - from southern
Europe, western and central Ukraine, Bryansk, Kaluga
M4
(Kashirskoye Highway) - from the Caucasus, from Rostov-on-Don,
Voronezh, east of the Tula region
Starokashirskoye Highway - from
Domodedovo Airport
M5 and M7 - depending on the direction - from
Siberia and the Far East
M5 (Novoryazanskoye Highway) - also from
Kazakhstan and Central Asia, Chelyabinsk, Ufa, Samara, Saratov,
Penza, Ryazan
Ryazan highway - from Lyuberets - old highway M5
M7 (Entuziastov Highway, then Gorky Highway) - from Ekaterinburg,
Izhevsk, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Vladimir
M6 (merges with M4 in
Kashira) - from Astrakhan, Volgograd, Tambov, the south of the
Ryazan region
M8 (Yaroslavl highway) - from the north-west of
Russia, from Vologda, Yaroslavl and Kostroma
M9 (Novorizhskoe
highway) - from Lithuania, Latvia, Great Bow, Rzhev
M10
(Leningradskoye Highway) - from Finland, St. Petersburg, Veliky
Novgorod, Tver
A101 (Kaluzhskoe highway) - from Roslavl, Obninsk,
Troitsk
A103 (Schelkovskoe highway) - from Schelkov,
Chernogolovka, Fryanova
A104 (Dmitrovskoye Highway) - from the
eastern regions of the Tver region, Kimr, Dubna, Dmitrov
If there
is no strict need to travel around Moscow by car, it is easier and
safer to leave it on the outskirts of the city, at the end metro
stations and then use public transport.
Moscow is called the “port of the five seas”, which means that
through the canal systems the Moscow River is connected with the
White, Baltic, Caspian, Azov and Black seas. The city has two ports
- the main North, and the rarely used South.
Passenger
shipments from abroad are not carried out. On cruise ships you can
get to Moscow mainly from St. Petersburg.
There are several independent, but partially integrated transport
systems in Moscow:
Metro, monorail, light metro, Moscow
Central Circle and Moscow Central Diameters
Urban street
transport (diesel buses and electric buses, as well as trams)
commuter trains
There is no official route planner in Moscow.
Of the unofficial ones, the Yandex-maps service works somewhat
better than others.
With the exception of early mornings,
late evenings and weekends, Moscow transport is overloaded. If
ground transport is in traffic jams, then in the subway traffic jams
arise from passengers, so it is impossible to predict the travel
time with certainty, no matter which route you choose. If you need
to get there on time, and you are not very familiar with Moscow
transport, be sure to leave early.
For a long time, surface
transport was inferior to the metro in all respects, and even one
station was more convenient to travel underground than by bus or
tram. The city authorities are trying to remedy this situation by
launching main routes following dedicated lanes, and on major
highways, surface transport has begun to run relatively quickly,
although it still has no visible advantages over the metro.
Opening hours: Moscow transport operates from 5:30 am to 1:00 am. In
the metro at 1:00, the transitions between the lines are closed, and
the last train leaves the last station, so you can leave the metro
even after one in the morning. At night, you can move around Moscow
only by taxi or special night buses.
In Moscow, there are single tickets for all types of transport,
except for suburban electric trains on directions that are not
included in the MCD network. Tickets for 1-2 trips are very
disadvantageous. If you use transport only once, pay for the fare
with a contactless card, and for all those who use Moscow transport
at least occasionally, it is better to immediately purchase a Troika
card.
The main types of tickets (prices 2022):
The Troika
card works on the principle of an electronic wallet. By putting
money on the card, you can pay for trips at a price of 46 ₽. If you
are traveling with a transfer, then pay 46 + 23 = 69 ₽ - this is the
“90 minutes” tariff, which includes an unlimited number of trips by
land transport and no more than one trip by metro within 90 minutes
from the moment of the first passage through the turnstile. The
deposit value of the card: 50 ₽. Troika is the most convenient
option for those who come to Moscow for a few days and do not use
transport very often. You can also charge travel cards on the Troika
card, but it’s easier to buy them as a separate card (without a
deposit value) so as not to get confused.
A daily pass costs 265
₽, it is valid for 24 hours from the moment of the first pass;
ticket for three days - 500 ₽.
Payment by contactless bank card:
51 ₽ per trip
Tickets for 1-2 trips cost 61 and 122 ₽,
respectively.
Land transport drivers sell only tickets for 1
trip for 61 ₽.
Metro ticket offices are open all the time,
from opening to closing. Kiosks selling tickets for land transport
are less and less common in the city, they have an unpredictable
mode of operation, most often only during the day. There are ticket
machines at all metro and city train stations, and they are
gradually appearing at major ground transport stops. The vending
machines accept cash (notes no larger than 500 rubles) and credit
cards, allow you to charge a Troika card or buy a ticket for 1-2
trips.
You can top up your Troika balance at Aeroexpress
ticket offices, ticket offices and vending machines at suburban
train stations (including those in the Moscow region), some ATMs and
payment terminals. You can also replenish the balance of Troika and
write any tickets to it from Android phones with NFC support: there
are already several applications for this, of which Troika.
Verification and replenishment. For everyone else, online payment is
also possible, but it requires the procedure of “data recording” at
special terminals in metro lobbies, which is of no practical use.
The Lenin Moscow Metro is not only transport, but
also an architectural landmark that is not obvious to tourists, and
you need to take at least a couple of hours to see it. Almost all
central stations are architectural monuments.
As of October
2021, there are 16 lines in the metro, distinguished by numbers
(from 1 to 15 plus line 8A) or by colors on the diagrams: the first
option is actively used for navigation, and the second - in oral
speech. Most of the lines are radial, but there are also circular
ones: the 5th - ring (ordinary underground metro), 11/11A - forklift
line, called the Big Circle Line (BKL), which potentially by 2023
will become the largest circular metro line in the world; 14 - also
ring, but ground (Moscow Central Ring, it is also a "city train").
There are also exotic: the 13th line is a monorail in the north of
the city, the 12th line is a ground ("light") metro in the southern
regions.
Traffic intervals: during peak hours from 95 to 150
seconds, during peak times - 2.5-3 minutes, late in the evening -
5-6 minutes. Approximate estimate of travel time between stations:
2.5-3 minutes per stage, 3-4 minutes per transition. Morning rush
hour in the Moscow metro is from 7:00 to 9:30, evening - from 17:00
to 19:30. If you ride the subway at rush hour not on weekends, think
over your route in advance, otherwise you will simply be blown away
by the flow of people, and you run the risk of leaving not at all
where you were going.
Entrance and exit to the metro is
carried out through turnstiles. Tickets must be applied only at the
entrance. Exit turnstiles are designed to prevent entry into the
subway through them. Metal detectors are installed at most stations,
and on rare occasions, police officers briefly check the contents of
backpacks and large bags.
When using escalators, stand on the
right and walk on the left. During rush hours on the escalators
going up, it is recommended to occupy both sides - i.e. stand on the
escalator both to the right and to the left, this increases the
overall capacity of the escalators. The attendant at the escalator
at this time regularly gives the appropriate instruction.
Most metro trains follow a route from one terminus to another, making
it easy to navigate. The exception is the Filyovskaya line - trains from
the center after the Kyiv station diverge into different branches, so
before boarding the train, you should make sure that it is traveling in
the right direction. A feature of the Filyovskaya line is also the fact
that the turnover at the end stations of both of its branches takes
place directly at the stations without stopping at the turnaround dead
ends, therefore, along it, as well as along the circle line, you can
continuously ride and stay in the car until the train leaves at the
depot.
All metro trains have free Wi-Fi with authorization by
mobile phone number. 3G and 4G networks are available only at the
stations and in the tunnels of the Circle Line.
One of the
significant disadvantages of the subway compared to other modes of
transport is the ban on the transport of bicycles, with the exception of
folding or disassembled (for example, with the wheel removed). As a
rule, the guards in the booths at the turnstiles and the police behind
the turnstile line strictly monitor and do not allow the passage of
cyclists. Bicycles can be transported on the MCC. Scooters can be
transported without restrictions.
In the metro, photography is
allowed without a flash and a tripod, which does not interfere with the
movement and flow of people. Video filming formally requires permission,
but in practice it does not cause claims if it is carried out with
ordinary cameras or small cameras.
The Moscow Central Ring (MCC)
is part of the metro structure, but is completely ground-based and is
served by Lastochka electric trains. Most transfers are overland: you
need to exit the metro, and then go through the turnstiles again - in
this case, the ticket remains valid for 90 minutes, a new ticket is not
needed. Not all transfers indicated on the map are equally convenient.
In some cases, the MCC station and the metro lobby are really close to
each other, but sometimes you need to walk 5-10 minutes, which makes the
“transfer” rather conditional.
Trains run at intervals of 4-5
minutes during rush hours, 6-10 minutes outside rush hour. A full circle
around the ring takes about 90 minutes. Although the MCC route passes
through not the most touristy places in Moscow, a trip around the ring
provides an interesting opportunity to see the city from an unusual
angle: along the way there will be many beautiful views of Moscow
skyscrapers, the Moscow City complex and other attractions. Also pay
attention to the old station buildings of the beginning of the 20th
century: now they are not used for passenger traffic, but remained from
the Moscow District Railway opened in 1908, along the route of which the
MCC passed.
Moscow Central Diameters (MCD) are electric train
lines connecting the suburbs through the center of Moscow. At the end of
2019, the first two diameters were launched, indicated on the diagrams
and signs in Latin letters D-1 (Lobnya-Odintsovo) and D-2
(Nakhabino-Podolsk). Their operating mode coincides with the MCC and the
metro, comfortable Ivolga trains run at a frequency of 6 to 15 minutes
without day breaks, transfer to the metro and the MCC is free for 90
minutes.
The Moscow monorail was opened in 2004 as an
experimental project and has not yet recovered from this state. The only
line with six stations is suitable only for looking at the Ostankino
Tower and VDNKh from a height. Trains run from 8:00 to 20:00 with an
interval of half an hour.
In Moscow,
street passenger transport is widespread: diesel buses, electric buses
and trams. It operates under the Moscow Transport brand: routes are
operated by different carrier companies, and the rules of travel and
payment are the same. Most of the buses and all trams in Moscow are
operated by Mosgortrans.
Entrance to all doors. The ticket must
be affixed to the NFC sign (not the display) on the validator (trip
cancellation information can be checked by controllers via a portable
validator). Validators are located at the doors.
There are two
tariff zones A and B in the service area of Moscow Transport: zone A
covers Moscow itself within the Moscow Ring Road and some adjacent areas
of Moscow and the region; zone B - administratively related to Moscow,
the southwestern part of the Moscow region (Troitsky district) and the
city of Zelenograd. Tickets for each zone are not valid in the other,
but there are universal tickets for both. In the city of Zelenograd,
belonging to zone B, tickets and zones A are valid.
From time to
time, controllers may visit the bus or tram. Controllers are of two
types - controllers-cashiers of Mosgortrans and state
controllers-auditors of the GKU "Organizer of Transportation".
Controllers of the first type sell tickets to stowaways and, in case of
refusal to purchase, are asked to get off the bus. Controllers of the
second type do not sell tickets and have the authority to impose fines
for ticketless travel in the amount of 1,000 rubles; when using someone
else's preferential card, it is confiscated and a fine of 2,500 rubles
is carried out.
The bus is the most common type of public transport in Moscow.
In Moscow and the Moscow region, there are two networks of bus routes
that differ in the payment system. All Moscow buses operate under the
Moscow Transport brand - in most cases they are dark blue in color.
Regional buses always connect Moscow with the cities of the Moscow
region and are operated by Mostransavto or other carriers. Tickets for
each network are different: for Moscow Transport - Troika and United,
for Mostransavto - Strelka or single roll tickets.
Some highways
have dedicated lanes for buses, which allows them to travel faster, but
often these lanes are occupied by cars during peak hours, and taxis are
allowed to use the dedicated lanes at any time of the day. In the late
2010s, bus traffic jams decreased, now they are only noticeable during
peak hours, and not the whole working day.
There are several
accelerated radial routes that pass along the largest roads and connect
the central part with the outskirts of the city. These buses pass by a
significant number of stops, their numbers begin with the letter "e" (a
Cyrillic letter, but it means express).
At night, about twenty
bus and electric bus routes run in Moscow. The numbers of these routes,
as a rule, begin with the letter "n", and have intervals usually every
half an hour. It is convenient to use such buses as an alternative to
the closed metro, since there are no traffic jams at the moment.
There are no turnstiles and inspectors on Mostransauto buses, the
Strelka card with the possibility of replenishment for a certain number
of trips or for a month is purchased at bus stations, single tickets are
purchased from the traveling inspector-cashier or, in his absence, from
the driver at the entrance. Also, you can often pay for the fare with a
regular bank card.
At some stops (marked “on demand”), buses stop
only if there are people on them or when a passenger who is about to get
off gives a signal to the driver (exit signal buttons are located on the
handrails and above the doors). At the same time, some accelerated bus
routes always pass by some stops, and on demand, the bus will not stop
at them anyway.
In addition to Mosgortrans and Mostransavto
buses, there are also special buses and fixed-route taxis connecting
metro stations with various shopping centers. These buses usually carry
advertising of this shopping center, travel in them in most cases is
free. Also, in the event of the closure of metro stations for repairs,
there are temporary free bus routes (usually “KM” or “M”) that run
between the closed and the nearest open station.
Tram
routes have historical roots. Some lines with the development of Moscow
cease to exist, others are reborn again. The tram forms two isolated
networks: the main network and the Strogino network in the northwest,
served by the Krasnopresnensky tram depot. The advantage of the tram is
its independence from traffic jams, if the tracks are laid separately
from the roadway, but it should be remembered that trams can also stand
en masse in case of problems or accidents on the line.
Some tram
lines run in the middle of highways and do not have a right of way for
pedestrians between the tram tracks and the highway, while the tram
traffic area is often used as a carriageway for vehicles, and tram stops
on such lines are on the sidewalk. In this case, there is a threat of
being hit by vehicles, so you should not cross the road to board the
tram before it arrives, making sure that there are no moving vehicles,
and before leaving the tram at such a stop, you should look out of it
and also make sure that the cars are not moving.
It is advisable
to bypass trams when crossing double-track lines with multidirectional
traffic from the front, so that the driver would see you, and at the
turning end stations, where several unidirectional tracks pass in
parallel, from behind. In any case, before crossing multi-track lines
near the car, you should carefully look at the other track and make sure
that there is no moving tram or other transport.
Electric trains departing from Moscow railway stations to the region can also be used as an efficient means of transportation around Moscow. For the most part, electric trains run in radial directions from dead-end stations, but there are also transit trains between Kursk and Riga and Belorussky-Savyolovsky directions. Within the city there are about 8-10 stations in each direction.
The Troika card is not valid on suburban trains, you need to buy
single tickets. The fare within the city is 32 rubles (2016). The price
of tickets from the Moscow tariff zone to a station outside the region
is determined by the number of tariff zones crossed, and in some cases,
if you are traveling from a station within Moscow near its border, it is
more profitable to buy a longer ticket to the region (for example, a
ticket from Novaya to Lyubertsy will be 20.5 rubles against 32 to the
nearest Frazer platform). There are both ordinary electric trains and
twice as expensive "satellites" and express trains.
The entrance
and exit to many suburban platforms, especially those located near metro
stations, is equipped with turnstiles. High-speed trains have their own
turnstile pavilions, which, as a rule, do not allow passengers on
regular tickets to pass. Some suburban stations do not have a free
transition between platforms, so in order to avoid buying extra tickets
or crossing the tracks, it is better to check the correct platform
before entering the station. There are also stations without turnstiles
and without working ticket offices. If you do not have a ticket, you can
buy it from the controllers, but with an additional surcharge (50 rubles
on regular and 100 on fast trains), which is not charged only if you did
not sit at the station without a working ticket office. If you arrive at
a station with turnstiles without a ticket, to enter the city through
the turnstiles, you can buy an exit ticket at a special exit ticket
office, however, its price at some of these ticket offices (especially
station ones) is speculative and can significantly exceed the price of
travel within the city .
A one-time ticket for an electric train
is a thin piece of paper with a barcode or barcode for passing through
the turnstiles (the barcode is pushed up under a red light), similar to
a store receipt. As a result, it often gets lost. However, it should be
kept until the end of the trip, because without a ticket, you will not
pass through the exit turnstile (if any). At the entrance ticket office,
you can also buy a mourner's card for a 100 ruble deposit, which allows
you to pass through the turnstiles for free with the ability to exit the
same station within 30 minutes. To return the deposit, you must return
the card to the cash desk of the station no later than 1 hour later.
There is a frequent MCD service on some lines, and some stations
accept some Moscow Transport tickets, but the fare system is still
unclear, for reliability, buy a single ticket as for a regular train.
Travelers are unlikely to need to travel around Moscow by
car, since all areas of interest (as well as areas of no interest) are
accessible by public transport. On weekdays, the city is entirely in
traffic jams, starting as early as 7 am and ending closer to midnight.
On Saturdays the situation is better, but there are also enough traffic
jams. Sunday is the most favorable day for car trips, but this does not
mean that the roads are free.
There are three large ring highways
in Moscow - the Garden Ring, the Third Transport Ring (TTK) and the
Moscow Ring Road (MKAD). The last two do not have a single traffic
light, which, however, does not save you from traffic jams. All radial
highways contain at least 3-4 lanes, sometimes they are urban freeways
with tunnels and overpasses, in other cases they are ordinary wide
avenues with traffic lights. Traffic congestion can be unpredictable
even for local residents. If you need to go somewhere, use the
Yandex.Traffic service, which is quite accurate. On the main highways,
screens are placed showing traffic congestion (for the same
Yandex.Traffic) and suggesting alternative routes. An ordinary navigator
will also be useful, since there are many complex interchanges in the
city - the Third Ring is especially rich in them.
The speed limit
on most Moscow roads is 60 km/h, on the TTK it is mainly 80 km/h, and on
some radial highways there are also sections with a limit of 80 km/h. On
the Moscow Ring Road, the speed limit is 100 km / h, but the actual
speed can be ten times lower. There are a lot of cameras in the city
that record speeding and driving into dedicated lanes intended for
public transport. These lanes - most often the extreme right ones - are
closed to all private cars on weekdays around the clock (at the same
time, you can change lanes for a right turn, but only in places marked
with markings), but are open on weekends. Fine - 3000 rubles. Some
highways - especially Kutuzovsky and Leninsky Prospekts - often block
the passage of the first persons of the state and those who travel in it
as guests: this introduces additional difficulties into the already
difficult traffic situation.
Parking is another difficulty that awaits every Moscow driver. Within the Third Ring Road, and more recently outside it, parking is paid. This is indicated by large signs with the parking number and information on how to pay: at the parking machine or from a mobile phone. Even when paying with a mobile phone, an advance payment is required, i.е. you need to specify the duration of the parking in advance. If the money is not spent to the end, the system remembers how much money you have left on your account, but they will not be returned to your mobile phone account. Parking in the wrong place or on the grass is fraught with evacuation or a fine at the request of a passerby, and the road services have mastered this procedure better than anyone else - be careful! There are few paid parking garages in Moscow, they are only in the city center, but there are many open parking lots and garages at shopping centers where you can leave your car for a few hours for free.
Yandex.Taxi, Gett, Uber. Uber has comfortable cars, but they don’t drive far from the Moscow Ring Road, and are slightly more expensive than Yandex and Gett. Usually cars are served within 5 minutes and in most applications you can pay by card. The price is different, but generally cheaper than the "bombs", especially if you go from the airport or railway station. And in the case of the application, drivers care about the rating that you put after the trip, so there will definitely not be open rudeness or neglect.
The navigable Moskva River crosses the city from northwest to southeast.
In the north, through a network of reservoirs and the Moscow Canal, it
connects with the Volga in the Dubna region, in the south it flows into
the Oka. Transport communication by water during the navigation period
within the city is of a walking and entertaining nature and is
concentrated around three water areas:
from Kievsky bridge (near
the railway station of the same name) to Novospassky bridge or
Pechatniki
from Kolomenskoye to Maryin
from Strogino to
Trinity-Lykov
Transport functions on the routes are carried out by
river buses (small motor ships).
Eating out in Moscow is not a problem: there are a large number of
cafes, restaurants, fast foods, street-style catering establishments, it
is somewhat more difficult with the format of cheap canteens. Near
almost any metro station outside the Garden Ring there is a large
shopping center (often more than one), where there is a large food
court. Most likely, there will be several fast food chains, a coffee
shop and, if you're lucky, a regular cafe. Such shopping centers work
from early morning until late evening and close at night. There are not
very many bars and pubs in Moscow. There are quite a few establishments
bearing this name, but often they are ordinary restaurants with a
full-fledged cuisine that have come up with an unusual name for
themselves. Bars in the Western sense of the word are only in the city
center.
There are premium gastronomy chains such as Globus
Gourmet (Seasons) and Azbuka Vkusa.
Some problem is the purchase
of alcoholic beverages after 23:00 - their nightly sale is prohibited
everywhere in Moscow. Some small shops, however, still violate the ban.
If you can't find a pliable seller, buy takeaway alcohol in bars or use
semi-legal delivery through online stores (both are quite expensive),
although it's better not to abuse it.
Cheap
Street trade:
stalls offering pancakes, pies, ice cream, drinks, hot dogs, shawarma,
fast food chains "Baby Potato" and "Stardogs". In general, it is quite
easy to distinguish a decent place by external signs. Goods in factory
packaging, as a rule, are of high quality and not expired.
Fast
foods: dumplings and pancakes, BURGER KING fast food chain, KFC fast
food chain, Pronto pizzeria chain
Coffee houses: Costa Coffee,
Traveler's Coffee
Cafe: "Mayak", "MuMu"
Beer bars: Kruzhka chain,
Kolbasoff chain
Drinking houses: "Second wind" (Pyatnitsky per., 10)
- one of the most atmospheric places that keeps the taste of a bygone
era: only standing places, cheap vodka with a simple snack and an
indispensable addition in the form of visitors lying right under their
feet
Average cost
Fast foods: Mu-mu network, Rake network,
Brothers Karavaev network
Coffee houses: Shokoladnitsa chain, Coffee
House chain, Starbucks chain, Coffee Bean chain, Coffeeshop Company
chain, Kapuchinoff
Beer bars: "5 turnovers" network, "Starina Muller"
network, "Durdin" network
Sushi bars: Tanuki chain, Yakitoriya chain
National cuisines: Ukrainian cuisine - the network "Taras Bulba",
oriental cuisine - the network "Shesh Besh", "Chaihona No. 1"
Expensive
Coffee houses: "Coffeemania"
Beer bars: John Bull Pub
restaurant chain, Molly Gwins chain, Temple Bar chain, Pilsner chain,
Schwarzwald chain, Bavarius chain, Lisya Nora chain
Restaurants:
Bosco chains (Red Square and Arbat)
National cuisine: "Pushkin"
A large number of entertainment establishments are open around the clock or close around 5-6 in the morning. Traffic jams in the center of Moscow, for example, on Tverskaya, on weekend nights resolve only by 3.00 am.
Moscow is experiencing a large shortage of hotel rooms, especially economy class. A hotel room, even a 4-5-star level, is very expensive by world standards and requires an order well in advance. At the same time, hotels with hourly rates have recently become popular, but it is worth considering certain specifics of the clientele. For young travelers, hostels can be a way out, where you can stay inexpensively in the very center of Moscow in rooms for 4-16 people. Due to the fact that Russian conservative tourists are not accustomed to settling in such places, a significant part of the hostel residents are young foreigners.
In Moscow, you can easily use all modern communication technologies.
mobile connection
Cellular networks of the "big four" GSM
operators operate in Moscow: MTS, Beeline, Megafon and Tele2. All of
them provide communication in 3G and 4G (LTE) standards. The networks of
operators within Moscow have full coverage, telephones work at almost
all metro stations and in some hauls. It is believed that MTS has the
highest quality connection with the best coverage area, but this
operator is considered quite expensive. To buy a new mobile number, you
need a passport.
Internet
The city is shrouded in wireless
Wi-Fi connections (hot spots in certain places or a distributed network
of Beeline Wi-Fi). Post offices have several terminals for accessing the
Internet. Free Wi-Fi can be found in almost any restaurant, including
fast food: McDonald's, KFC, Coffee House. If you need Wi-Fi near the
"subway" restaurant, but it will be password protected, you can try the
"SubwayMoscow" password.
Wireless internet access is also
available on all metro lines. When connecting for the first time, in
accordance with the legislation of Russia, it is necessary to pass
identification by SMS.
Moscow has a very fast rhythm of life, and Muscovites, in general,
are busy people who are always in a hurry. A gaping or confused visitor
may not be greeted very cordially: if you try to ask for directions on
the street, you will probably be ignored, and in the worst case, you may
be given the wrong direction.
At stations and in the subway, you
need to be collected and attentive. It is recommended to move around the
stations in a fast and decisive style in order to give the impression of
a collected, knowledgeable person. As a rule, it is the visitors who
suffer from thefts and fraud, whom both the police and criminal elements
identify by their relaxed and absent-minded manner of movement.
In Moscow (as, indeed, in other regions of Russia), it is necessary to
register at the place of stay no later than 90 days from the date of
arrival (in relation to Moscow, this rule applies to residents of all
Russian regions with the exception of the Moscow region). When moving
around the city, it is advisable to have a passport with you. In the
case of checking documents by police officers, it is useful to have
travel tickets with you indicating the date of arrival in Moscow, in the
absence of such, you can insist on the version that “I arrived in Moscow
today as a passenger in a friend’s car. I'll stay in a hotel for a
while, then I'll leave. I will buy a ticket before leaving. Politely
asking a police officer to recommend a good cheap hotel nearby can turn
a conversation about check-in into a friendly conversation about hotel
prices.
Moscow is located in the center of the East European Plain, between
the Oka and Volga rivers, at the junction of the Smolensk-Moscow Upland
(in the west), the Moskvoretsko-Okskaya Plain (in the east) and the
Meshchera Lowland (in the southeast), not far from the border of the
forest and forest-steppe a natural zone that approaches the city from
the southeast along the valley of the Moskva River. The city is located
on the Russian plate, which is part of the East European platform; north
and northeast of Moscow is the Moscow syneclise, the largest depression
in the central part of the East European Platform. The territory of the
city as of January 1, 2014 is 2561.5 km², about a third of this area
(878.7 km²) is located inside the ring highway (MKAD).
Moscow is
in the MSK time zone (Moscow time). The offset of the applicable time
from UTC is +3:00. In accordance with the applied time and geographic
longitude, the average solar noon in Moscow occurs at 12:30.
The
highest point is located on the Teplostanskaya Upland and is 255 m, the
lowest point is near the Besedinsky Bridges, where the Moscow River
leaves the city (the height of this point above sea level is 114.2 m).
The city is located on both banks of the Moscow River, in its middle
reaches. In addition to this river, several dozen other rivers
(tributaries of Moscow) flow through the city, the largest of which are
Skhodnya, Khimka, Presnya, Neglinnaya, Yauza and Nishchenko (left
tributaries), as well as Setun, Kotlovka and Gorodnya (right
tributaries). There are many other reservoirs in Moscow: within the
Moscow Ring Road there are about 150 small rivers and streams, many of
which flow in collectors, as well as about 240 open reservoirs (ponds
and lakes).
The climate of Moscow is temperate continental, with a pronounced
seasonality. Winter (the period with an average daily temperature below
0 ° C) lasts on average about 4 months, from the second decade of
November (November 12) to the second decade of March (March 19). Daytime
temperatures steadily return to positive values on March 3rd. During the
calendar winter, short (3-5 days) periods of severe frosts can be
observed (with night temperatures down to -20 ° C, rarely up to -25 ..
-30 ° C). At the same time, thaws are frequent in December and early
January, when the temperature rises from −5..−10 °C to 0 °C and higher,
sometimes reaching values of +5..+9 °C. According to the weather station
VDNH (for the period 1991-2020), the coldest month of the year is
January (its average temperature is −6.2 °C). Spring seasons vary in
duration from year to year and can range from 1 to 3 months. Sometimes
almost summer temperatures are recorded in early April, while at the
same time, in late May - early June, cold returns occur. Summer (the
period with daytime temperatures above +20 ° C and average daily
temperatures above +15 ° C) lasts about 3.5 months, from the third
decade of May (May 23) to the end of August (August 31), daytime
temperatures often reach the 30-degree mark (an average of 6-8 days per
season, in 2010 - continuously 1.5 months). The 35-degree mark has been
reached 18 times over the past 30 years, 16 of them in 2010. The warmest
month is July (its average temperature for the period 1981-2010 is +19.2
°C). Autumn in Moscow is protracted, it begins in early September, ends
in mid-November - early December, when the average daily temperature
becomes steadily below 0 ° C. Often the temperature after the beginning
of meteorological winter returns to positive values, the snow cover
completely disappears.
According to observations from 1991-2020,
the average annual temperature in the city is +6.3 °C. The warmest year
in the history of meteorological observations in the capital was 2020 -
the average annual temperature was +8.0 °C, the average daily maximum:
+11.5 °C (at the same time, for the first time in the history of
meteorological observations, the average monthly positive temperature
was recorded in January). Previously, 2019 was the warmest year, when
the average temperature was +7.8 °C, and at the same time, average
positive temperatures by months were recorded, including in March,
November and December. The coldest year in the capital is 1888 (+1.7
°C). According to observations from 1961-1990, the average annual
temperature was +5.0 °C. The average annual wind speed is 2.3 m/s. The
average annual air humidity is 77%, in December it reaches 85%, in May
it drops to 64%.
The highest air temperature over the 130-year
observation period was recorded on July 29, 2010 and amounted to +38.2
°C at the VDNH meteorological station, +39.0 °C at the Balchug
meteorological station in the city center and at Domodedovo airport
during the period of abnormal heat . The lowest temperature was recorded
on January 17, 1940 and amounted to -42.2 ° C (TSHA weather station), at
the reference weather station in Moscow - VDNKh - the absolute minimum
was -38.1 ° C (January 1956).
During the year, 600-800 mm of
atmospheric precipitation falls in Moscow and the territory adjacent to
it, most of which falls in the summer. The level of precipitation varies
in a fairly wide range, and both a large amount of precipitation (for
example, in July 2008 - 180 mm of precipitation) and a small amount (for
example: in July 2010 only 13 mm of precipitation fell) are possible.
Daylight hours range from 07:00 on 21 December to 17:34 on 21 June. The
maximum height of the sun above the horizon is from 11° on December 21
to 58° on June 21.
The average annual number of hours of sunshine
is 1731 hours (the average for the period 2001-2010 was more than 1900
hours).
Fog and thunderstorms are not uncommon in Moscow. From
time to time, such abnormal weather phenomena as hurricanes, heavy rains
and even tornadoes occur in Moscow. On the night of June 20-21, 1998,
one of the most destructive hurricanes in the history of the city hit
the capital.
In terms of green space, Moscow is comparable to the greenest cities
in the world — Sydney and Singapore. There are 436 park and green areas
in Moscow. Green spaces occupy 54.5% of the city area.
Moscow has
such forest and park areas as Izmailovsky Park, Timiryazevsky Park,
Filevsky Park (forest park), Moskvoretsky Park, Lublinsky Park, Butovsky
Forest Park, Botanical Garden, Neskuchny Garden, Bitsevsky Forest Park,
Tsaritsyno and Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserves, Kuzminsky Forest Park,
forest park Kuskovo and others.
Also within the city there is a
part of the Losiny Ostrov Natural National Park, many squares and
recreational areas.
The fauna of Moscow is diverse. For example, in the Losiny Ostrov
National Park there are not only squirrels, hedgehogs and hares, but
also larger wild animals such as wild boar and elk, spotted deer. There
are also predators - fox, mink and ermine. Wild ducks and herons nest in
the Upper Yauz part of Losiny Ostrov, rare pheasants and gray partridges
are found. Since the time of Ivan the Terrible, Losiny Ostrov has been
under special protection - first as a place for royal hunting, and since
1983 - as a natural national park.
The Bitsevsky forest is also
home to many wild animals: hedgehogs, shrews and even bats, which are so
rare in the capital; hares - hare and hare, voles, weasels, squirrels.
An elk and a wild boar come from the Moscow region. Duck chicks are
bred, corncrake nests.
Such a rare animal as hazel dormouse lives
in Moscow. In Moscow, her shelters were found in the Bitsevsky forest,
the Losinoostrovsky forest park, and the Izmailovsky forest. The black
polecat is also rare - it lives in river valleys, along the banks of
which forest, meadow and thickets of bushes alternate. Stationary
habitation is established in several places of the city: at the Black
Lake, in the valley of the river. Gangway, as well as in the Krylatskaya
and Brateevskaya floodplains (in the period from 1985 to 2000).
Hares in Moscow can be found in the Izmailovsky Forest, the Kuzminsky
Forest Park, in the Bitsevsky Forest and Serebryany Bor. Lasok - in
forest areas: Losiny Ostrov, Izmailovsky, Kuzminsky, Biryulevsky,
Bitsevsky, Fili-Kuntsevsky forest parks; in the river valleys: Rudnevka,
Chernaya, Alyoshinki, Chechery, Setun, Ramenki, Bratovka, Skhodni,
Klyazma; in floodplains: Maryinskaya, Brateevskaya, Mnevnikovskaya,
Skhodnenskaya bowl; and also on the western bank of the Khimki
reservoir.
There is the Red Book of Moscow - it lists rare and
endangered species of animals in Moscow. It mentions the common
hedgehog, the forest bat, the ermine and the weasel, the white hare and
the hare, the hazel dormouse and the forest mouse, and the common
hamster.
The largest predator in Moscow is the common fox, which
lives in Losiny Ostrov park, Kuzminsky forest park, Bitsevsky forest and
others.
Birds include great and little bittern, gray duck, common
goldeneye, marsh harrier, sparrowhawk, peregrine falcon and kestrel,
hazel grouse and coot, lapwing, snipe and woodcock, gulls - small, lake,
gray, wood pigeon and common dove, long-eared and short-eared owls ,
little owl, dove, sparrow and crows. As well as the common nightjar and
kingfisher, gray and green woodpeckers and even the sand martin.
The ecological situation in Moscow is affected by the predominance of
western and northwestern winds in the city. The quality of urban water
resources is better in the northwest of the city, upstream of the Moskva
River. An important factor in improving the city's ecosystem is the
preservation and development of squares, parks and trees inside
courtyards, which have suffered in recent years from infill development.
Environmental monitoring in Moscow is carried out by 39 automatic
stationary stations that control the content of 22 pollutants in the air
and its general level of pollution.
A high level of atmospheric
air pollution is noted near major highways and industrial zones;
especially in the center, in the eastern and southeastern parts of the
city. The highest level of air pollution in Moscow is observed in the
districts of Kapotnya, Kosino-Ukhtomsky and Maryino - due to the Moscow
Oil Refinery, Lyuberetskaya and Kuryanovskaya aeration stations located
within the city.
Exhaust fumes from vehicles are in the first
place among the sources of pollution in Moscow. The air is also polluted
by thermal power plants, factories and factories, evaporation of hot
asphalt.
According to the Mercer consulting company, Moscow is
recognized as one of the most polluted capitals in Europe (for example,
in the 2007 rating, Moscow ranked 14th in terms of pollution among the
capitals of the world).
The title Hero City was received on May 8, 1965 with the award of the
Gold Star medal and the Order of Lenin - for outstanding services to the
Motherland, mass heroism, courage and stamina shown by the workers of
the capital of the USSR, the city of Moscow, in the fight against the
Nazi invaders, and in commemoration 20th anniversary of the victory of
the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
Order of
Lenin (September 6, 1947) - for the outstanding services of the working
people of Moscow to the Motherland, for the courage and heroism shown in
the fight against the German invaders, for the successes achieved in the
development of industry, culture and the implementation of the master
plan for the reconstruction of the city, in connection with the 800th
anniversary city of Moscow.
Order of the October Revolution (November
4, 1967) - in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Great October
Socialist Revolution.
According to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, Moscow is an
independent subject of the federation, the so-called city of federal
significance.
Executive power in Moscow is exercised by the
Government of Moscow, headed by the Mayor, while legislative power is
exercised by the Moscow City Duma, which consists of 45 deputies. From
2006 to 2012, direct elections of the mayor were not held due to changes
in the Charter of the city of Moscow, the mayor was appointed by order
of the president. The first direct elections since the voting in 2003
were supposed to take place after the expiration of the term of the
current mayor in 2015, however, due to his resignation of his own free
will, they took place already in September 2013.
Local
administration is carried out through eleven prefectures, which unite
the districts of Moscow into administrative districts on a territorial
basis, and 125 district administrations. According to the law "On the
organization of local self-government in the city of Moscow", since the
beginning of 2003, the executive bodies of local self-government are
municipalities, representative bodies are municipal assemblies, whose
members are elected in accordance with the Charter of the intra-city
municipality.
The principles of functioning of Moscow's
legislative and executive authorities, as well as local self-government
bodies in the city, are determined by the Charter of the city of Moscow
and other regulatory acts of the city.
Moscow, as a city endowed with metropolitan functions by the
Constitution of the Russian Federation, houses the legislative,
executive and judicial federal authorities of the country, with the
exception of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, which
has been located in St. Petersburg since 2008.
The highest
executive authority - the Government of the Russian Federation - is
located in the House of the Government of the Russian Federation on
Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment in the center of Moscow. The State Duma
sits on Okhotny Ryad. The Federation Council is located in a building on
Bolshaya Dmitrovka. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is also
located in Moscow.
In addition, the Moscow Kremlin is the
official residence of the President of the Russian Federation. The
working residence of the president in the Kremlin is located in the
building of the Senate Palace.
The population of Moscow is 13,097,539 people (2023). According to
Rosstat, 8.6% of Russia's population lives in Moscow.
According
to the “Painted List” (“Census Book of the City of Moscow of 1638”) in
1638, about 200 thousand people lived in Moscow. By the beginning of the
18th century, the population of Moscow had slightly decreased and,
according to the “revision tales”, was: in 1710, about 160 thousand
people, in 1725 - 140-150 thousand, in 1740 - 138.4 thousand, in 1776 -
161 thousand people . Before the war of 1812, 270 thousand people lived
in Moscow, and after its end - 215 thousand. As a result of the
migration increase in the middle of the 19th century, the population of
Moscow increased: in 1840 - 349.1 thousand people, in 1856 - 368.8
thousand, in 1868 - 416.4 thousand people.
There is a difficulty
in determining the size of the Moscow metropolis, depending on
approaches to determining its boundaries: consider only the nearest
suburbs, a suburban area within a radius of 60–70 km from the Moscow
Ring Road, or the entire Moscow Capital Region (MSR). Depending on the
definition of boundaries, the number of the Moscow metropolis at the
beginning of 2008 was estimated at 13-15 million people, while the
population within the administrative boundaries of Moscow was 10.5
million people (7.4% of the population of Russia). The migration growth
is most active not in Moscow, but in the belt of cities and districts of
the Moscow region closest to Moscow. Experts argue whether this process
is the beginning of suburbanization or, conversely, the extensive
expansion of Moscow into new territories.
Moscow is the largest
city in Russia by the number of inhabitants and the most populated of
the cities located entirely in Europe.
Moscow pronunciation is
the pronunciation norm of the Russian literary language.
In terms
of population reproduction, Moscow is close to European capitals, but in
terms of population size and density, it is close to overpopulated
metropolitan centers in developing countries. In terms of area, Moscow
is close to Berlin, New York, Greater London and Greater Paris. The
population density of Moscow is comparable to Tehran, Kinshasa, Manila
and less than the population density of Mumbai, Bogota, Lima.
The constant growth of the population of Moscow is mainly due to the
influx of population from other regions.
Official data on the
population of the city take into account only permanent residents of the
city. According to the Moscow Federal Migration Service, in 2008 another
1,800,000 visitors (labor migrants and guest workers, students and
others) were officially registered, and, according to experts in 2009,
there are about 1 million more unregistered migrants in the city.
According to the results of the 2002 All-Russian Population Census,
the population of Moscow was 10,382,754 people. According to the
official data of the current statistics, the population of the city as
of September 1, 2012 amounted to 11,911.1 thousand people. According to
the preliminary results of the 2010 census, as of October 2010,
11,643,060 people permanently reside in Moscow and only 30,000 people
temporarily reside in the capital, 1.2 million Muscovites for various
reasons refused to participate in the census. The Department of the
Federal Migration Service for the city of Moscow reported that 9,060,000
people have permanent registration in Moscow, 1,100,000 people have
temporary registration, and 340,000 foreigners are also registered with
migration. From 600,000 to 800,000 Russian citizens, according to FMS
specialists, live in Moscow without being registered with the FMS
Moscow has a special birth rate model due to the following reasons: a special social structure of the population in the form of a large proportion of people with higher education and a higher level of income compared to the rest of Russia, high migration growth mainly in the form of a young population with a high reproductive potential, developed social infrastructure in high quality and accessibility of health and education services. The total number of children of newcomers is higher than that of native Muscovites. Since the 2000s, the birth rate in Moscow has been growing, and at a faster pace compared to the rest of Russia: over the 10 years from 1999 to 2009 in Moscow it increased by 1.73 times, while in Russia as a whole by 1.45 times. In Moscow, not only residents of Moscow give birth, but also non-residents, which overestimates the birth rate in statistics among Muscovites.
At the beginning of the 19th century, on the eve of the war of 1812,
in Moscow 92% were Orthodox, and 8% adherents of other religions. In
1871 and 1882, the religious composition of Moscow was as follows:
Orthodox and fellow believers - 92.84 and 91.71%, Protestants - 2.05 and
2.28%, schismatics - 2.72 and 2.21%, Jews - 0 .88 and 2.00%, Catholics -
1.24 and 1.23%, Mohammedans - 0.17 and 0.26%, Gregorian Armenians - 0.10
and 0.12%, the rest - 0.02%, not marked 0.17%.
According to the
linguistic composition in 1881, the proportion of Muscovites who speak
Russian was 95.6%, and in 1882 - 94.5%; in Polish - 0.60 and 0.60%,
Finnish - 0.02 and 0.05%, Latvian - 0.03 and 0.03%, Lithuanian - 0.06
and 0.03%, Hebrew - 0.94 and 1.61%, Tatar - 0.15 and 0.24%, Armenian -
0.10 and 0.12%, French - 0.34 and 0.29%, German - 1.82 and 2.02%,
English - 0.12 and 0.10%, Italian - 0.03 and 0.02%, Dutch - 0.01 and
0.00%, in other languages - 0.04 and 0.04%, did not respond to this
question is 0.14%. According to the 1897 census, representatives of the
following peoples lived in the city: Russians - 987 thousand (95%),
Germans (about 18 thousand), Poles (9 thousand), Jews (about 5
thousand), Tatars (4.3 thousand). According to the 1926 census, there
were 1,772,000 Russians in Moscow (87.4%), Jews - 131,000 (6.5%), Tatars
- 171,000, and Ukrainians - 161,000. In the period from 1912 to 1926,
the share of Russians decreased by 7.8% (in 1912 - 95.3%), the share of
Germans decreased by 0.9%, Poles - by 0.2%, but the number of Jews
increased (by 6 .1%), Ukrainians (by 0.6%), Tatars, Latvians, Armenians
(by 0.3%). From 1926 to 1939, the share of Russians did not change, the
share of Jews slightly decreased - from 6.5 to 6%, but the proportion of
Ukrainians increased from 0.8 to 2.2%, Tatars - from 0.8 to 1.4%,
Armenians - from 0.2 to 0.3%.
From 1939 to 1959, the proportion
of Russians increased (from 87.4 to 89.5%), the proportion of Jews
decreased (from 6.0 to 4.1%), the proportion of Germans, Poles,
representatives of the Baltic peoples, Mordovians, Azerbaijanis
decreased , Georgians, but the share of Tatars (up to 1.5%), Ukrainians
and Belarusians increased. From 1970 to 1989, the share of Russians
increased (from 89.2 to 89.7%), Ukrainians (from 2.6 to 2.8%), Tatars
(from 1.6 to 1.8%), Belarusians, peoples of the Caucasus , Central Asia,
Mordovians, Chuvashs, etc., but the share of Jews decreased (from 3.6 to
2%), the peoples of the Baltic states. In 1989, the following lived in
Moscow: Russians - 7,963,246; Ukrainians - 252,670; Jews - 174,728;
Tatars - 157,376; Belarusians - 73,005; Armenians - 43,989; 19 608,
Chuvashs - 18 358, Uzbeks - 9183, Kazakhs - 8225, Ossetians - 7270,
Moldavians - 6997, Poles - 6920, Bashkirs - 5417, Germans - 4670,
Latvians - 3896, Koreans - 3693, Greeks - 358 6, Lithuanians - 3243,
Assyrians - 3196, Kyrgyz - 3044, Tajiks - 2893, Bulgarians - 2641,
Udmurts - 2600, Maris - 2490, Lezgins - 2434, Chechens - 2101, Turkmens
- 2093, Estonians - 1801, Avars - 17 06, Buryats - 1496, Tats - 1292,
Abkhazians - 1286, Gypsies - 1284, Kabardians - 1275, Arabs - 1261,
Karelians - 1245, Spaniards - 1219, Komi-Zyryans - 1141, Vietnamese -
1052, Laks - 913, Dargins - 891, Hungarians - 83 8, Mountain Jews - 776,
Yakuts - 771, Kumyks - 727, Ingush - 685, Karachays - 624, Czechs - 605,
Cubans - 597, Adyghes - 490, Finns - 471, Karakalpaks - 402, Balkars -
399, Circassians - 374, Chinese - 372, Gagauz - 352, Khakass - 316,
Komi-Permyaks - 307, Mongols - 301, Karaites - 283, Romanians - 270,
Afghans - 263, Crimean Tatars - 239, Italians - 235, Serbs - 227,
representatives of the peoples of India and Pakistan - 223, Kurds - 209,
Tuvans - 195, Slovaks - 159, Uighurs - 159, Abaza - 145, Turks - 137,
Persians - 126, French - 117, other ethno-dispersed groups (42 in total)
- no more than 100 people.
From 1989 to 1994, the share of
Russians increased from 89.7 to 90.5%, the share of Tatars increased
from 1.8 to 1.9%, Armenians from 0.5 to 0.7%, but the share of
Ukrainians decreased from 2.8 to 2.4%, Belarusians - from 0.8 to 0.7%
and Jews from 2 to 1.5%. After the collapse of the USSR, the size of
illegal migration increased sharply, so it is very difficult to obtain
reliable data on the ethno-confessional composition of Muscovites. For
example, according to experts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in
2002 there were from 0.9 to 3 million illegal migrants in the then 9
million capital. According to experts, the number of some ethnic groups
has changed several times, and in some cases dozens of times. We are
talking about Transcaucasian (Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Georgians),
Central Asian (Tajiks, Tajik Gypsies - Lyuli, Afghans), South Asian
(Chinese, Koreans) ethnic groups, construction workers from Moldova and
Ukraine, as well as residents of the republics of the North Caucasus
(especially Chechens and Dagestanis). Unlike the West, there are no
pronounced areas of ethnic settlement in Moscow, although according to
the metropolitan press, Armenians mainly settle in south-west Moscow,
Azerbaijanis in Izmailovo, Georgians in Maryina Roshcha, and Chinese in
Ochakovo and in the Avtozavodskaya metro area. , in the metro areas
"Savelovskaya", "Domodedovskaya", "Planernaya" - immigrants from
Southeast Asia, in the near Moscow suburbs in summer cottages - Tajiks,
and Tajik gypsies (lyuli) set up camps around the Moscow ring road.
From 1989 to 2002, the ethnic composition of Moscow changed as
follows: the share of Russians decreased from 89.7% in 1989 to 84.8% in
2002, Ukrainians - from 2.8% to 2.4%, Tatars - from 1.8% % to 1.6%, Jews
- from 2.0% to 0.8%, but at the same time the share of Armenians
increased - from 0.5% to 1.2%, Azerbaijanis - from 0.2% to 0.9%,
Georgians - from 0.2% to 0.5%.
The national composition of the
population of Moscow, according to the 2002 census and the 2010 census,
is distributed as follows: Russians - 9,930,410 (91.65%), Ukrainians -
154,104 (1.42%), Tatars - 149,043 (1.42%). 38%), Armenians - 106,466
(0.98%), Azerbaijanis - 57,123 (0.53%), Jews - 53,142 (0.49%),
Belarusians - 39,225 (0.36%), Georgians - 38,934 (0.36%), Uzbeks —
35,595 (0.33%), Tajiks — 27,280 (0.25%), Moldovans — 21,699 (0.20%),
Kyrgyz — 18,736 (0.17%) %), Mordvins - 17,095 (0.16%), Chechens - 14,524
(0.13%), Chuvash - 14,313 (0.13%), Ossetians - 11,311 (0.10%), persons,
non indicated nationality - 668,409 (5.81%).
The percentage of
Russians in Moscow exceeds the average for Russia (80%), and the shares
of Armenians and Jews are higher than the Russian average (0.78% and
0.16%, respectively). The share of Russians has increased since the 1989
census, when they were 89.7%.
Moscow is the largest financial center on a national scale, an
international business center and a control center for a large part of
the country's economy. For example, about half of the banks registered
in Russia are concentrated in Moscow. In addition, most of the largest
companies are registered and have central offices in Moscow, although
their production may be located thousands of kilometers away. As of
November 2019, 104 out of the 200 largest enterprises in the country are
registered in Moscow.
Moscow is a major center (of registered
headquarters, but not of production) of mechanical engineering,
including power engineering, machine tool, shipbuilding, and instrument
making; ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy (production of aluminum
alloys), chemical, light, printing industry. However, recently there has
been a tendency to change the legal addresses (tax registration) of
large manufacturers.
According to 2008 data, in terms of GDP ($
321 billion), Moscow was in 15th place among the largest cities in the
world.
Industrial production in 2007 in Moscow increased by
11.5%.
A significant number of defense industry enterprises
operate on the territory of the city, among them:
State Space
Research and Production Center named after M. V. Khrunichev - the
territory of the plant was given over to development, and the assembly
of Proton rockets was transferred to Omsk;
Manufactured by RAC "MiG"
(a third of the Russian Air Force fighters are designed and manufactured
by RAC "MiG") - headquarters;
Enterprises of Concern VKO
"Almaz-Antey" (the largest - "Almaz", "Avangard") - the headquarters and
some research institutes;
Tushino Machine-Building Plant - bankrupt;
State machine-building design bureau "Vympel" them. I. I. Toropova;
Moscow Machine-Building Enterprise named after V.V. Chernyshev - the
territory of the plant was given over to development, and production was
transferred to the Salyut production site.
Of the civilian
industries, the largest are:
The Moscow Oil Refinery is a major
producer, including for export, of petroleum products;
Avtoframos -
an enterprise for the assembly of Renault cars, about 60 thousand per
year, on the territory of the former AZLK;
The electric plant is
closed, the territory is given over for development;
Moselectroshield
is a manufacturer of electrical switchgears;
Karacharovsky Mechanical
Plant - production of lifting equipment;
Plant "Moskabel";
Moscow
oil and butter plant;
Trekhgornaya manufactory - bankrupt, production
moved to the city of Gavrilov Yam;
Moscow shipbuilding and ship
repair plant;
Moscow Chemical Pharmaceutical Preparations named after
N. A. Semashko;
Krasny Oktyabr (confectionery factory) - closed,
production moved to the territory of the Babaevskaya confectionery
factory.
The city has a strong scientific and technological base
for the production of optical and radio electronic devices, aviation and
space equipment, high-precision mechanical devices.
Moscow is the
largest engineering center in the country, a significant part of Russian
products is designed here (especially aviation, space, nuclear and
weapons), technologies for its manufacture are developed, and materials
are studied.
Retail trade turnover in 2007 amounted to 2,040.3
billion rubles. (growth in relation to 2006 - 5.1%), the wholesale trade
turnover, in turn, amounted to 7843.2 billion rubles. (growth by 2006 -
22.3%), the volume of paid services to the population - 815.85 billion
rubles. (this is 24% of the volume of services throughout Russia).
According to Ernst & Young data for 2011, Moscow ranks 7th among
European cities in terms of investment attractiveness, and its rating is
growing.
There are six mobile operators in the city, three of
which provide services in the GSM, UMTS (3G) and LTE standards (MTS,
MegaFon, Beeline); one in UMTS and LTE standards (“Tele2”); the
remaining two provide wireless Internet in the LTE standard (Yota and
Sky Link), both of these operators are not independent and belong to
MegaFon and Tele2, respectively. Based on the networks of some of the
above operators, virtual operators operate.
According to (2011)
Forbes magazine, Moscow ranks first among the world's cities in terms of
the number of dollar billionaires (79 people). Foreign Policy magazine
ranks Moscow in 2010 as the 25th global city that makes a significant
contribution to the development of world civilization.
Nevertheless, according to the cost of living index calculated by
Rosstat in 2011, Moscow turned out to be not the most expensive city in
Russia, “yielding” to a number of Siberian and northern cities.
In 2012, Moscow took 1st place in the Urban Environment Quality Rating
compiled by the Ministry of Regional Development of the Russian
Federation, the Russian Union of Engineers, the Federal Agency for
Construction and Housing and Communal Services, the Federal Service for
Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare, as well as
Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov.
In 2018, Moscow hosted
12 FIFA World Cup matches, which became an additional driver of the
infrastructure economy. In 2018, small and medium-sized businesses
replenished the Moscow budget by 473 billion rubles. Since 2015, their
total tax revenue has increased by 46%. According to Moscow Mayor Sergei
Sobyanin, the growth of small business is due to the fact that Moscow
has created the infrastructure necessary for it: affordable rental of
premises and inexpensive Internet.
In mid-2021, Moscow ranked
397th in the ranking of the most expensive cities to live in, according
to a study by the Numbeo agency. In 2022, she rose to 287th place.
In 2022, according to the cost of living in the Economist
Intelligence Unit rating, Moscow ranked 37th.
Moscow is the country's largest transport hub. The city is in the heart of a web of railroads and federal highways. The volume of passenger traffic in the Moscow transport hub, according to an estimate for 2013, is 11.5 billion people. Many types of public transport are developed inside the city, the subway has been operating since 1935; 76% of passenger traffic is carried out by public transport.
The railway network in Moscow is represented by ten main directions
with ten stations (from eight stations - Belorussky, Kazansky, Kursky,
Kievsky, Leningradsky, Paveletsky, Rizhsky and Yaroslavsky - both
suburban and long-distance traffic are carried out; Savelovsky Station
serves only suburban transportation, and Vostochny - only long-distance
transportation), the Moscow District Railway, several connecting
branches and a number of branches, mostly single-track, of relatively
short length, most of which are located entirely within the city.
All Moscow railways belong to the Moscow railway, except for the
Leningrad direction, which belongs to the Oktyabrskaya railway, which is
also part of the Moscow railway junction, while having a NNE with some
directions of the Moscow railway. At the same time, the prices and rules
for paying for travel in suburban electric trains are the same in all
directions without exception, in accordance with the rules of the Moscow
Railway.
In the 1990s - 2000s, a number of railway lines serving
industrial enterprises were closed due to the withdrawal of these
enterprises from the city or a serious reduction in production volumes.
The total length of railways within the city is 394.7 km. Suburban
trains connecting Moscow stations with settlements in Moscow and nearby
regions play a significant role in intracity transportation as well. A
major project for the development of passenger railway communication in
Moscow was the organization on the Small Ring of the Moscow Railway of a
passenger railway line partially integrated with the metro, called the
Moscow Central Ring. A new similar project that develops the principle
of integrating rail transportation with the metro is the Moscow Central
Diameters, the first two of which opened in November 2019.
On the territory of Moscow there are international airports Vnukovo
and Ostafyevo. Also, residents and guests of the city use the services
of other international airports located on the territory of the Moscow
region: Domodedovo, Chkalovsky, Sheremetyevo, Zhukovsky. In 1933-2010,
civil aviation aircraft received Bykovo Airport, now used only as a
departmental helicopter port.
You can get to airports not only by
car, but also by using express trains departing from railway stations:
Kievsky - to Vnukovo airport, Belorussky - to Sheremetyevo airport and
Paveletsky - to Domodedovo airport.
There was an air terminal in
the city near the Khodynka field, but since the beginning of the 21st
century, it has, in fact, lost its intended purpose: its premises were
leased to tenants for retail space. In November 2017, the former
terminal building was demolished.
Moscow is the center of a network of federal highways of various directions that connect the capital with the administrative centers of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and cities of neighboring states. In Moscow itself, there is a developed transport infrastructure, containing, in particular, three transport rings: Sadovoe, Third transport and Moscow ring road (MKAD), it is planned to build a Central Ring Road (TsKAD) in the Moscow region to unload the city from the transit traffic flow.
Since the 1990s, Moscow has faced an acute transport problem. In
Moscow, the rapid growth of the car park continues: if in 2000 there
were 2.6 million cars in the city, then in 2012 - already 4.5 million
(over 380 cars per 1,000 inhabitants); the expected average annual
growth rate until 2020 is 4%. The volume of freight traffic by road in
the city has also increased; about 10 billion tons of cargo is
transported through Moscow annually, of which about 4 billion tons are
transit cargo. Significant growth in the fleet has led to a large number
of traffic congestion. Some measures have been taken to reduce the
number of traffic jams, such as banning heavy vehicles from entering the
city, building new interchanges, etc. Traffic jams entail huge losses.
Urban planning errors contributed to the growth of traffic jams. The
city government has made a number of attempts to solve the problem of
traffic jams through road construction. So, the ring road was
reconstructed, the Third Transport Ring was built, in 2008 the
construction of the Fourth Ring began.
In 2016, an adaptive
traffic light system was introduced to increase the speed of traffic on
the roads. Automatic switching of traffic light modes depends on the
congestion of the route. Such systems operate on 4 highways:
Pyatnitskoye Highway, Svobody Street, Sheremetyevskaya Street and
Altufevskoye Highway. By the end of the year, the number of highways
with an automatic traffic light control system increased to 20.
In 2017, there was a narrowing of lanes on Kashirskoye Highway from
Proletarsky Prospekt to Borisovskie Prudy Street, which made it possible
to make 5 lanes instead of 4. According to the Moscow Department of
Transport, in April 2016, during peak hours, the throughput of this
section was 3.7 thousand cars, after expansion increased by 19% (4.4
thousand). The narrowing also occurred at the intersection of Vernadsky
Avenue and Troparyovskaya Street (the traffic intensity increased by 15%
from 3.5 thousand cars to 4.1 thousand). The number of lanes was
increased in the section of Lipetskaya Street of the Moscow Ring Road to
the Lipetsk overpass (passability increased by 33%). The changes also
affected Kashirskoye, Altufevskoye, Vorobyovskoye, Besedinskoye
highways, Volgogradsky and Leningradsky avenues, Bolshaya Tulskaya,
Lipetskaya, Lublinskaya and Shirokaya streets, Dezhnev passage. Created
several new turns and U-turns to reduce overruns.
Since the
beginning of 2018, additional information monitors have been launched on
the roads of the Northern Administrative District and the Moscow Ring
Road, broadcasting messages about traffic congestion, traffic
restrictions, the installation of new cameras for photo and video
recording, the need to comply with traffic rules, the estimated travel
time to the nearest points (to the Moscow Ring Road, the Third Transport
Ring), stolen cars, weather conditions.
The problem of insufficient parking remains unresolved. In September
2010, the head of the Department of Transport and Communications, Vasily
Kichedzhi, said that "there are 250,000 parking spaces in the city,
while 1.2 million cars need places." Previously, there were attempts to
introduce paid parking on city streets, but on September 10, 2008, a
decision was made according to which cars can be parked along roadsides
for free. Paid parking remained at stations, airports and in several
specially designated areas of the city center. A People's Garage program
has been set up to address the problem in residential areas, but
implementation has been delayed.
In 2012, it was decided to
return to the project of organizing paid parking, according to the
authorities, the solution to the transport problem is facilitated by a
significant increase in fines for violation of parking rules introduced
since July 2012, and the introduction of parking fees on the streets of
the central part of the city. The GKU "Administrator of the Moscow
Parking Space" (AMPP) became the institution responsible for paid
municipal parking.
From November 1, 2012 to February 28, 2013,
the first paid parking lots were introduced on Petrovka and Karetny Ryad
streets, as well as on adjacent lanes. The fee for using a parking space
per hour was 50 rubles. Parking in the yards was free. On June 1, 2013,
paid parking lots inside the Boulevard Ring began to appear. The cost of
parking in this area was 50 rubles. From December 5, 2013, the cost of
parking inside the Boulevard Ring has increased to 80 rubles. Since the
end of 2013, the paid parking zone has expanded to the Garden Ring, the
price of a parking space in this zone was 60 rubles per hour.
Since June 1, 2014, paid parking lots have appeared in the area of MIBC
Moscow City. In this zone in Moscow for the first time a progressive
tariff was applied. The cost of the first two hours of parking was 80
rubles, for each subsequent hour - 130 rubles. Since August 2014, the
paid parking zone has expanded to the Third Transport Ring, including
the adjacent territories (yards). The expansion zone included the
streets of the following districts: Presnensky, Arbat, Tverskoy,
Dorogomilovo and Khamovniki.
Since September 2014, 27,539 parking
spaces have been equipped in the center of Moscow. On the territory of
paid zones, free parking was allowed for large families and the
disabled, as well as motorcycles and electric vehicles.
On
December 25, 2014, a new paid parking zone was organized inside the
Third Transport Ring. Paid parking appeared on 405 streets in the
following districts: Khamovniki, Tverskaya, Begovoy, Khoroshevsky,
Airport, Savelovsky, Maryina Roshcha, Meshchansky, Krasnoselsky,
Basmanny, Tagansky, Yuzhnoportovy, Zamoskvorechye, Yakimanka, Donskoy,
Danilovsky, Lefortovo.
On August 10, 2015, a progressive parking
rate was introduced on 75 streets inside the Boulevard Ring. A
subscription can be purchased for 24-hour free parking, and preferential
terms are provided for residents of houses who live in houses in paid
parking areas.
In 2017, the Dutch company TomTom presented Moscow
with an award for organizing parking spaces based on the results of the
annual Traffic Index report on the impact of congestion. After the
introduction of a modern parking management system in the city, the time
to search for a parking space has decreased by 65%. According to the
company's data, in 2013 Moscow ranked first among the cities with the
busiest roads, in 2015 it ranked fifth, and in 2016 the capital ranked
13th.
Moscow has a system of carsharing - short-term car rental with per-minute or hourly billing. Car sharing is an alternative to a private car, with the help of this service it is possible to reduce the traffic density on the roads and parking spaces. According to the Department of Transport, 1 car in the car sharing system can replace 10 personal ones. The cost of renting a car depends on the operator, on average it is 7-11 rubles per minute. The advantage of carsharing is that you do not have to spend money on parking, gasoline, car washing and maintenance. As of 2020, the Moscow car sharing system includes 8 operators: Delimobil, Youdrive, BelkaCar, Rentmee, Lifcar, Karusel, Yandex.Drive, Matreshcar. The first car-sharing service in the capital was offered in 2013 by CityCar under the Anytime brand. Since 2017, the Moscow Department of Transport has been subsidizing car sharing companies.
Moscow has an extensive network of street public transport: bus
routes, electric buses, trams, fixed-route taxis, which carry about 12
million passengers daily. Some routes also operate at night.
At
the beginning of the 20th century, the tram network was actively
developing in Moscow - in the early 1930s it covered both Boulevard and
Garden rings and all the streets connecting them, lines were laid to the
outskirts. After the opening of the first metro lines in 1935, tram
lines were removed, coinciding with them in direction. More radical
changes took place in the 1940s, when some tram routes were replaced by
trolleybus routes and moved away from the Kremlin. By the 1960s and
1970s, the lines in the western part of the city were liquidated and the
"tram rings" were broken. Since the early 1980s, almost no new lines
have been built. The last line was built in 1981-82 in Strogino. Since
the mid-1990s, a new wave of tram line removal and depot closures,
mainly adjacent to the center, began. Since the 2010s, a partial
restoration of some lines has begun.
Until August 2020, a network
of trolleybuses operated in Moscow, for many years the largest in the
world. Trolleybus transport was partially replaced by electric buses,
partially by buses. The formal reason for the closure is the release of
the streets from the overhanging contact network, the physical
deterioration of the trolleybus fleet and the moral obsolescence of the
concept of trolleybus transport. Now there is only one museum route in
the city, stretching from Komsomolskaya Square to Yelokhovskaya.
Public transport is often forced to stand in general traffic jams, but
dedicated lanes are created on major highways. The first dedicated lane
was opened in July 2009 on Volokolamskoye Highway, in 2011 on
Shchelkovskoye Highway, Yaroslavskoye Highway, Andropov Avenue and
Leningradsky Avenue. As of July 2020, 65 dedicated lanes with a total
length of 350.82 km have been put into operation. The rolling stock of
trams and buses is also being updated - they are becoming low-floor in
order to make it more convenient for disabled people and people with
wheelchairs to pass through them. Since 2014, bicycles have been allowed
in ground public transport.
On October 8, 2016, the first phase
of the Magistral route network was officially launched. This is a
program to optimize the route network of public transport in the central
areas of the city. Routes of the Magistral network connect the center,
avenues and outskirts of Moscow. Most routes are modified existing
flights. The project was implemented by the Moscow Department of
Transport. On October 7, 2017, the second (last) stage of Magistral was
launched. Since the beginning of 2017, dedicated lanes have been opened
on Vozdvizhenka and Sretenka, which has accelerated traffic on some
network routes. Transfers have become more convenient: a large
interchange hub has been built on Slavyanskaya Square, long interchange
pavilions have begun to appear with personal pick-up points for each
route, stops are equipped with a charging station for gadgets and free
wi-fi, stop signs have appeared near metro exits, and at the stops
themselves — maps of the "Magistral" network, which are highlighted at
night.
In November 2017, the Moscow Department of Transport began
the process of equipping land transport with validators with contactless
fares. For contactless payments, passengers can use bank cards that
support PayPass and PayWave technologies, as well as smartphones with
Google Pay, Apple Pay or Samsung Pay. With this method of payment, the
fare will be 40 rubles, which is 15 rubles cheaper than buying a
transport card from the driver. The number of routes on which you can
pay for travel with a bank card is constantly growing.
Since May 15, 1935, the metro has been operating in Moscow, which is
the main means of transportation within the capital. On average, the
Moscow metro carries 6.498 million passengers per day (according to 2016
data). It is the sixth metro system in the world in terms of annual
passenger traffic and the first in Europe. The total length of the
Moscow Metro lines is 408.1 km, most of the track and stations are
underground. The length of the lines of the Moscow Metro is the fourth
largest in the world.
In total, as of September 2020, the Moscow
metro has 250 stations and 14 lines (excluding the monorail, MCC and
MCD). Many metro stations are architectural monuments. Beginning in the
2000s, metro lines began to go beyond the Moscow Ring Road.
Since
October 14, 2013, the Mobility Center has been operating in the Moscow
Metro to provide assistance to citizens with limited mobility (disabled
citizens with hearing, vision, musculoskeletal disorders, citizens of
social categories, as well as organized groups of passengers (including
children groups under 11. Accompaniment is carried out along the entire
route (entrance to the station, movement in the elevator, stairs,
escalators and station platforms, in train cars, at the exit from the
station).
In 2018, the Moscow Metro, together with JSC Moscow
Media and the Moscow Department of Transport and Road Infrastructure
Development, launched an online passenger information system using
screens installed in train cars. Information about changes in the
operation of public transport is displayed on the screens; in case of an
emergency, a message appears on a bright yellow background and an
algorithm for the actions of passengers in each specific case. By
September 2018, it is planned to equip 1896 cars with 8720 screens. For
the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the Moscow Metro and the MCC carried out a
large-scale program to upgrade navigation. Special badges marked the
Spartak Stadium and the Luzhniki Grand Sports Arena, the venue for the
Fan Fest and the City Ticket Centre. In May 2018, the Troika card and
key rings with the Troika function appeared in the metro, the design of
which is dedicated to the World Cup: the Russian tricolor and a soccer
ball flying into the goal.
Since 2004, a monorail road has been operating (indicated by serial number 13), the operation of which is carried out by the State Unitary Enterprise Moscow Metro.
On September 10, 2016, passenger traffic was opened along the Moscow Central Ring (MK MZhD), which since 1934 has been used only for freight and transit traffic. The line is a railway ring, consisting of 31 stations, but is positioned as a full-fledged metro line 14. The nature of traffic on the Moscow Central Circle is a city train, partially integrated with the Moscow Metro (transfers and fare system). Also, the Moscow Central Ring is being integrated with suburban train routes, for which some railway stations are transferred directly to the MCC stations.
On February 26, 2018, the opening of the first (north-western) part
of the Big Circle Line, the future second underground ring line of the
Moscow Metro, was completed;
Since 2018, work has been underway
on the construction of transport interchange hubs (TPU) on the Big
Circle Line. A total of 22 transport hubs are planned to be built. As of
April 2018, there is already a transition between the Shelepikha BKL
station and the MCC station of the same name. The TPU will also include
a multifunctional complex with retail premises and offices, parking and
ground public transport stops. The next node, which will unite the BKL
and MCC stations, will be the Ryazanskaya transport hub. Passengers will
also be able to transfer to the Nekrasovskaya branch, the Gorky
direction of the Moscow Railways or ground transport.
Thanks to the system of canals built as part of the Great
Construction Sites of Communism, Moscow has been known since Soviet
times as a "port of five seas" - the Baltic, White, Caspian, Azov and
Black. Although the only way to get to the Black Sea from Moscow is
through the Sea of Azov. Since the Volga flows into the Caspian Sea, and
the Moscow River is a tributary of the Oka (the right tributary of the
Volga), the way to the Caspian Sea is open. The Volga-Don Canal opens
access to the Sea of Azov. Through the Moscow Canal you can get to the
Rybinsk reservoir, and from there through a system of canals either
along the Volga-Baltic waterway to the Baltic Sea, or along the North
Dvina water system to the White Sea. From the Northern and Southern
river stations there are cruise ships connecting Moscow with St.
Petersburg, Astrakhan, Rostov-on-Don and other cities of Russia. During
the navigation period, several river tram routes operate on the Moscow
River.
Cargo berths are available in the Northern, Western and
Southern river ports. Freight river transportation along the Moscow
River mainly provides for the delivery of various bulk cargoes of a
construction nature; There is a large container terminal in the South
Port.
According to statistics, there are more than 3.5 million bicycles in Moscow. However, the first bike path appeared in the capital only in 2011. By 2013, the length of cycle routes reached 100 kilometers, including many kilometers of routes such as from Barclay Street through Fili Park to Krylatskoye Metro Station (8 km) and from Muzeon Park to Victory Park (16 km). In the summer, city bike rental stations sponsored by the Bank of Moscow, as well as private rental services, operate. A unified city bike rental service began operating in Moscow in 2013. Then 79 points were organized on the Boulevard Ring and on the Frunzenskaya Embankment. Every year until 2019, 50 new stations and 500 bikes are added to the network. As of 2018, 430 stations operate in Moscow, where 4.3 thousand bicycles and 260 electric bikes are located. New cycle paths are planned to be laid on the territory near the Black Lake in the Nekrasovka area. The total length of the cycle route around the lake will be about 5 kilometers.
Moscow is the center of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian
Orthodox Old Believer Church, the Russian Old Orthodox Church, the
Russian Union of Evangelical Christian Baptists and other denominations.
All major world religions are represented in Moscow. More than 1,000
religious associations and organizations representing more than 50
different religious denominations are officially registered in the city.
The largest of the religious organizations is the Russian Orthodox
Church (Moscow Patriarchate) - it includes about 500 associations and
organizations, 711 Orthodox churches and chapels, 6 male and 6 female
monasteries that are part of the Moscow city diocese. There are 645
churches and chapels in operation - the largest is the Cathedral of
Christ the Savior - the main cathedral of Russia, and 45 churches and
chapels are under construction. According to Vlast magazine, as of
November 2010, 253 public Orthodox churches had been opened in Moscow.
There are about 10 Old Believer Orthodox associations and
organizations in the city (the largest is the Russian Orthodox Old
Believer Church), services of which are performed in 13 churches and
chapels.
Islam is represented by 25 associations and
organizations, services are held in 4 mosques, the largest of which is
the Moscow Cathedral Mosque.
Judaism is also represented in
Moscow (21 associations and organizations, 5 synagogues); Buddhism - 16
associations and organizations, 4 places of worship, 1 temple is under
construction; Armenian Apostolic Church - 3 associations and
organizations, 2 churches, 2 churches under construction; Catholicism -
12 associations and organizations, 3 temples; Lutheranism - 10
associations and organizations, 3 churches; Protestantism - about 260
associations and organizations, 42 prayer houses; other religious
directions - about 15 places of worship.
In addition, there are
45 religious centers, 10 spiritual educational institutions and the same
number of monasteries in Moscow.
The number of reported murders and attempts in 2006 in Moscow for
every 100,000 residents of the permanent population is 11.4, while the
national average is 20 registered murders per year for every 100,000
residents of the permanent population. There have been cases of slavery.
In 2007, the percentage of detection of grave and especially grave
crimes was 36.8%. This is the worst figure in Russia after St.
Petersburg (25.5%). At the end of 2016, the detection rate for murders
was 84.5%, the detection rate for rape reached 95.3%. In general, the
level of crime in Moscow remains high, although it has decreased by
23.5%. In the period from January to August 2017, more than 90 thousand
crimes were registered in Moscow, which is the highest figure not only
in the Central Federal District, but throughout the country. During the
same period, more than 26 thousand grave and especially grave crimes
were registered, of which no more than 10.5 thousand were solved. For
comparison: during the same period, 2.5 thousand grave and especially
grave crimes were registered in the Republic of Dagestan, of which just
over 2 thousand were solved.
There are 1857 hospitals and outpatient clinics in Moscow. Of these,
over 250 clinical hospitals and emergency hospitals operate in the city.
Also in the city there are 64 dental clinics, 19 maternity hospitals,
about 20 orphanages. There is a network of more than 1,700 outpatient
clinics in Moscow, including 256 for children.
According to
official data, the average life expectancy in 2015 was 76.8 years. In
2016, the figure rose to 77 years, it is expected that in 2018 it will
be 78 years.
With the growth and development of the city, the territory of a number of cemeteries was reduced, and some were destroyed. Within the city there are 63 active cemeteries and three crematoria: Mitinsky on the territory of the Mitinsky cemetery, Nikolo-Arkhangelsky next to the Nikolo-Arkhangelsky cemetery and Khovansky at the Khovansky cemetery.
Moscow is a major cultural and tourist center of Europe and the
world, the Moscow region has one of the richest historical and cultural
potentials in Russia. There are many interesting places in Moscow,
including various historical, cultural and architectural monuments, as
well as modern entertainment infrastructure.
Modern Moscow has
more than 100 theaters. The most famous of them are the Bolshoi Theater,
the Maly Theater, the Moscow Art Theater. Chekhov, Sovremennik, Lenkom,
Taganka Theatre, Pyotr Fomenko Theatre.
There are more than 60
museums in the city. With the participation of Moscow State University,
the Polytechnic, Historical, Zoological Museums, the Museum of
Anthropology, the Museum of Fine Arts named after A. S. Pushkin, the
Botanical and Zoological Gardens (Moscow Zoo) were opened in Moscow.
Among the many museums in the capital, the Tretyakov Gallery, founded by
a Russian patron of art, whose name is forever imprinted in the name of
the museum, should also be noted. There are large exhibition spaces (the
Central House of Artists, the exhibition hall "Manezh", etc.).
In
addition to state museums, Moscow has many private art galleries, many
of which specialize in contemporary art.
There are several large
cinema chains in Moscow (more than 100 cinema halls in total), which
offer Russian and foreign films. Many cinemas are multi-complexes that
allow showing several films on different screens at the same time.
Many large film studios are located in Moscow: Mosfilm, Gorky Film
Studio, Soyuzmultfilm and others. The Moscow International Film Festival
is held annually.
There are more than 400 libraries in the city,
including the national Russian State Library.
There are many
different nightlife establishments in Moscow - clubs, bars, restaurants,
variety shows. So, according to the Afisha website, in 2011 there are at
least 400 clubs in the capital. The main establishments are concentrated
inside the Boulevard Ring, along Tverskaya Street, in the area of
Ostozhenka, Novy Arbat, Kutuzovsky Prospekt and others.
There are
9 establishments in Moscow that have been awarded Michelin Stars, one of
the highest culinary awards in the world.
Adjacent to Tverskaya,
Teatralny proezd in the Kitay-gorod area is the location of a large
number of boutiques.
Until July 1, 2009 (the date when the
legislation on gambling restrictions came into force), a large number of
casinos and gaming clubs operated in Moscow.
There are plenty of
opportunities for children's leisure in Moscow. The most famous places
that Muscovites and guests of the capital visit with their children are
the Moscow Zoo, the Moscow Planetarium, the Experimentanium Museum of
Entertaining Sciences, the K. A. Timiryazev Biological Museum. In 2015,
the Moskvarium Oceanarium was opened on the territory of VDNKh. The
largest in Europe world-class indoor amusement park "Island of Dreams"
has been opened in the Nagatinskaya floodplain.
In Moscow and its suburbs, many major cultural and sporting events,
various exhibitions and festivals are held every year or every few
years. Among the most famous and visited of them: the Moscow Motor Show,
the Moscow International Film Festival, the Kremlin Cup, Arch Moscow and
the International Aviation and Space Salon, held in the near Moscow
region (Zhukovsky).
The Delphic Games were held in Moscow twice -
the First international scale (2000, Moscow) and the All-Russian scale
XI (2012, Moscow).
Moscow is a major world scientific center, represented by research
institutes operating in many industries, such as nuclear energy,
microelectronics, cosmonautics and others.
A third of Russian
scientists work in Moscow. They produce about 40% of scientific
publications. According to the number of scientific publications indexed
in the Web of Science, Moscow ranked 11th among cities in the world and
2nd in Europe, second only to London. According to the number of leading
universities represented in the international rankings QS, THE and ARWU,
Moscow ranks 5th among the cities of the world. For the period 2014-2018
the number of scientific publications of authors from Moscow increased
by 47.6% compared to the period of 2009-2013.
According to the
Global Innovation Index, Moscow has become the only Russian city
included in the top 100 science and technology clusters in the world.
She climbed to 31st place in this ranking in 2022, located between Tel
Aviv-Jerusalem and Tehran.
History
The first scientific
research in Moscow began to be carried out at Moscow University in 1755.
In the 19th century, scientific communities began to emerge at the
university that studied the history of Russia, medicine, physics, the
Russian language and other sciences.
In 1828, the Rumyantsev
Museum was established in St. Petersburg - a large collection of books,
coins, manuscripts, and other ethnographic and historical materials,
which was already transferred to Moscow in 1861, and in 1924 the State
Library of the USSR named after I.I. V. I. Lenin (since 1992 - the
Russian State Library).
In the 20th century, a network of
specialized scientific institutions began to form in Moscow. The
All-Union Institute of Mineral Raw Materials appeared in Moscow (1904),
the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute. Zhukovsky (TsAGI) (1918),
Physico-Chemical Institute. L. Ya. Karpova (1918), Moscow Technical
University of Communications and Informatics (1921), Institute of Atomic
Energy. Kurchatov (1943), Institute of Theoretical and Experimental
Physics (1945) and others.
In Soviet times, an academic network
began to be concentrated in Moscow. The following were created or
transferred to Moscow: the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences
named after Lenin (1929), the Academy of Sciences of the USSR - the
Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (transferred from
Leningrad in 1934), the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (1944),
the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the RSFSR (1943).
Moscow is one of the most important educational centers in Russia.
Since the formation of the country's first higher educational
institution - the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy - a significant number of
educational facilities have been concentrated in the city. In 1755, on
the initiative of Shuvalov and Lomonosov, Moscow University was founded
- the oldest and most famous in Russia.
As of the end of 2009,
there were 264 higher educational institutions in Moscow, of which 109
were state or municipal and 155 non-state. The number of students was
1281.1 thousand people. 11 Moscow universities have the status of
National Research Universities.
There are about four hundred
libraries in Moscow, including the oldest public library in Russia - the
Scientific Library of Moscow State University, and the largest book
depository in the country - the Russian State (Lenin) Library.
As of the end of 2010, there were 1,727 general education schools in Moscow (1,588 public and 139 private). There are 168 secondary specialized educational institutions in the city (154 public and 14 private). There are 2314 preschool educational institutions.
Since 1702, the first printed newspaper in Russia, Vedomosti (Moscow
Vedomosti), has been published in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
At
present, many newspapers and magazines of various types are regularly
published in Moscow - city-wide (information, entertainment,
advertising, etc.), regional - newspapers of districts, districts and
other municipalities.
As of 2011, 57 radio stations were
broadcasting in Moscow: 6 on VHF and 51 on FM (radio channels, for 2017)
in the VHF bands (66-74, 88-108 MHz), MW: 612 and 738 kHz, LW: 153 ,
171, 198 and 261 kHz (stopped working), and HF - "RWM Time Standard":
4996, 9996 and 16996 MHz (medium, long and short waves). Most of them
were transmitted from the Ostankino television tower and from the radio
tower in Balashikha (for comparison, there were 82 radio channels in New
York).
Regular television broadcasting in the city began in 1939.
The city broadcasts 24 television channels - both federal and a number
of regional ones; all federal channels, except for "Petersburg - Channel
Five", broadcast from Moscow. Since 1980, broadcasts from Leningrad
began in Moscow. Transmitters and antennas are used for television
relaying: Shabolovka, Ostankino, Oktyabrskoye Pole, Sofrino.
There are many sports facilities in Moscow. Among them are more than
200 swimming pools, about 40 sports palaces, more than 30 stadiums with
more than 1,500 seats, more than 20 indoor ice arenas, 2,700 gyms, about
150 youth sports schools, a cycle track and the only Olympic cycle track
in the world located within the city. in Krylatsky. There are two arenas
for horse racing in Moscow: the Central Moscow Hippodrome and the
Equestrian Sports Complex Bitsa. Many of the sports facilities were
built or reconstructed for the XXII Summer Olympic Games in Moscow in
1980, such facilities include the Luzhniki and Olimpiysky complexes.
From 1960 to 1994, the largest open-air swimming pool, Moskva, operated
in the city.
In the 1990s, most large stadiums and sports
complexes experienced hard times in their history and, as a rule, almost
no sporting events were held there; instead, clothing markets were
organized on their territory. Some sports facilities have become
commercial fitness centers - such a fate happened, for example, with the
Pravda pools and the Rassvet machine-building plant.
Basketball,
volleyball, handball and mini-football competitions are most often held
at the Basket Hall Moscow arena in Krylatskoye, at the Dynamo sports
palaces on Lavochkin Street and Vasilisa Kozhina Street. Swimming
competitions and tennis tournaments are most often held at the
Olimpiysky complex or Luzhniki. Since the 2010s, hockey games of KHL
clubs have been held at such stadiums as CSKA Arena, VTB Arena, and
Megasport. Also, hockey was played and played in the old palaces - MSA
"Luzhniki", "Sokolniki", LSK CSKA, "Wings of the Soviets".
In
August 2014, the Otkritie Bank Arena (Spartak) football stadium was put
into operation, in August 2016 - the CSKA Arena, in 2017 the
reconstruction of the Luzhniki stadium was completed. In 2019, after
many years of reconstruction of the Dynamo stadium, a newly built
football stadium was opened, combined with a hockey arena. Along with
these stadiums, another football stadium in Moscow, Lokomotiv, hosts
Premier League matches.
In addition to the direct facilities that
provide the opportunity to hold various events, the city has a huge
number of sports organizations, among which such well-known football
clubs as Dynamo, Lokomotiv, Spartak, Torpedo and CSKA stand out; hockey
clubs - Dynamo, Spartak, CSKA; basketball clubs - Dynamo and CSKA; men's
and women's handball clubs CSKA; mini-football clubs - Dynamo, Dina,
CSKA and KPRF.
In the second half of the 20th century and in the
first two decades of the 21st century, Moscow hosted the following major
sports competitions and tournaments:
Since 1967, the annual
international ice hockey tournament “Channel One Cup”, previously known
as the “Izvestia Newspaper Prize Tournament” has been held;
In 1973,
the city hosted the Summer Universiade;
In 1979, 2007 and 2016, the
Ice Hockey World Championship was held (in 2016 - together with St.
Petersburg);
In 1980, the XXII Summer Olympic Games took place;
In
1986, the first Goodwill Games were held in Moscow;
Since 1990, the
Kremlin Cup tennis tournament has been held (did not take place in
2022);
In 1998, the first World Youth Games were held in Moscow;
In 1999, the UEFA Cup final was held at the Luzhniki stadium, and in
2008, the UEFA Champions League final was also held there;
In 2005
and 2011, Moscow hosted the World Figure Skating Championships;
In
2013, the Rugby Sevens World Cup was held;
In 2013, the city hosted
the World Championships in Athletics;
In 2017, Moscow hosted a number
of Confederations Cup games.
In 2018, Moscow hosted 12 out of 64 FIFA
World Cup matches, including the opening match and the final match.
Matches in Moscow were hosted by two stadiums: Luzhniki (7 matches) and
Spartak (5 matches). During the tournament, a fan zone for fans was
placed near the Moscow State University building.
The title of Honorary Citizen of Moscow was introduced in 1866,
abolished after the October Revolution of 1917, restored in 1995. For
the entire period of its existence, it was assigned 24 times. Among
those awarded this title were surgeon N. I. Pirogov, patron P. M.
Tretyakov, Patriarch Alexy II and other prominent Muscovites.
Currently, the title of honorary citizen of Moscow is held by: composer
A. N. Pakhmutova, builder V. E. Kopelev, scientist V. A. Sadovnichiy and
leader of the army and veteran movement I. A. Sluhay.
Many Soviet, foreign and modern Russian composers and singers dedicated their songs to Moscow. Both in Soviet and post-Soviet times, many films were shot, the plot of which unfolded in Moscow, and the viewer could see the city from the cinema or television screen. Filming of many modern TV series takes place in Moscow.
he asteroid (787) Moscow, discovered on April 20, 1914 by Russian
astronomer Grigory Neuimin at the Simeiz Observatory, is named after
Moscow.
On the other side of the Moon is the Sea of Moscow.
Moscow has many sister cities. Most of them appeared in the 1990s.
The first sister cities were Berlin and Buenos Aires in 1990;
partnerships were established with Vienna already in 1956. In addition,
Moscow also has a partner city: Paris.