Moscow, Russia

Moscow

 

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

 

Transportation

 

Description of Moscow

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.

 

Climate in Moscow

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.

 

Orientation

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.

 

Travel Destinations in Moscow

Districts

Moscow can be divided into several main districts, which generally coincide with the corresponding administrative districts and districts of the city:

 

Center

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

 

Around Moscow Suburbs

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.

Moscow's Underground

 

Etymology

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.

 

History of Moscow

Prehistory

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.

 

Moscow is the capital of the principality

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.

 

Spiritual capital of Rus'

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.

 

Russian kingdom

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.

 

During the Time of Troubles

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.

 

Russian empire

After the loss of capital status

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.

 

Events of 1917 and the Civil War

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.

 

Soviet period

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.

 

Modernity

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

 


Transportation

How to get there

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).

 

By train

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.

 

By bus

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.

 

By car

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.

 

On the ship

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.

 

Transport Around Moscow

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.

 

Tickets

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.

 

Moscow's Subway

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.

 

City street transport

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.

 

Bus

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

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.

 

Commuter trains

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.

 

By car

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.

 

Taxi

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.

 

Water transport

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).

 

Where to eat

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"

 

Night life

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.

 

Hotels, motels and inns

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.

 

Connection

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.

 

Precautionary measures

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.

 

Physical and geographical characteristics

Geographical position

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).

 

Climate

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.

 

Vegetation

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.

 

Animal world

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.

 

Ecology

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).

 

Awards

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.

 

Authorities

 Moscow authorities

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.

 

Federal authorities

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.

 

Population

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.

 

Registration of migrants

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

 

Birth rate

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.

 

Ethnic and religious composition

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%.

 

Economy

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.

 

Transport

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.

 

Railway 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.

 

Air Transport

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.

 

Automobile transport

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.

 

Traffic jams

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.

 

Parking

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.

 

Car sharing

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.

 

Ground urban transport

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.

 

Moscow subway

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.

 

Moscow monorail

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.

 

Moscow Central Circle

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.

 

Big circle line

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.

 

River 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.

 

Bicycle transport

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.

 

Society

Religion

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.

 

Crime

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.

 

Healthcare

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.

 

Cemeteries

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.

 

Culture

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.

 

Events held in Moscow

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).

 

The science

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).

 

Education

Higher education

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.

 

Secondary education

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.

 

Mass media

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.

 

Physical education and sports

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.

 

Honorary citizens of the city

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.

 

Moscow in works of art

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.

 

Moscow in astronomy

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.

 

Twin cities

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.