Russia today is a nation of
enormous diversity and tremendous vitality.
It is as if the cultural traditions of a century ago have re-awakened with
a newfound strength - ancient cathedrals are being rebuilt and restored,
colorful markets hum with activity once again and literature and the arts
are quickly regaining the creative renown they enjoyed decades ago. A new
Russia is now in full bloom. The defeat of the Russian Empire in World War
I led to the seizure of power by the communists and the formation of the
USSR. The brutal rule of Josef STALIN
(1924-53) strengthened Russian dominance of theSoviet Union at a cost of
tens of millions of lives. The Soviet economy and society stagnated in the
following decades until General Secretary Mikhail GORBACHEV (1985-91)
introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an
attempt to modernize communism, but his initiatives inadvertently released
forces that by December 1991 splintered the USSR into 15 independent
republics. Since then, Russia has struggled in its efforts to build a
democratic political system and market economy to replace the strict
social, political, and economic controls of the communist period
The most important cities on the european
side are Moscow, St. Petersburg (formerly
Leningrad) and Murmansk. This is the heartland of Imperial
Russia, and these great and ancient cities often become the focus for most
tourists. However there is much more to Russia, a country that spans
eleven time zones and two continents, ending less than 50 miles from North
America. Within this vast expanse lie the largest freshwater lake in the
world, rivers and forests teeming with fish and wildlife, awe inspiring
volcanos, and towering mountains. Russia is the largest country on earth,
with enormous tracts of land that have been opened to travellers only in
the last few years.
Russia has a formidable pool of recreational resources, including natural
landscapes of endless variety and inimitable beauty, monuments of history
and cultural heritage, unique engineering structures, and unmatched
cities, towns and smaller communities.
The most
popular tourist attractions are the old
Russian cities of Vladimir, Suzdal, Sergiev Posad, Pereyaslavl Zalessky,
Rostov, Uglitch, Yaroslavl and Kostroma, the biggest gems of Russia's
Golden Ring. Also high on every tourist's priority list are itineraries by
boat from Moscow to St.Petersburg and the Valaam Island, a central point
of religious piligrimage, or to Kizhi, the wonderland of old Russian
wooden architecture, the Northern Caucasus and the Black Sea coast, to
Mount Elbrus, the Ural mountains, and the Altai country, in different
natural settings, from the Black Sea coast (like Gelenzhik and Anapa), the
Baltic Sea (Sestroretsk, Komarovo, Zelenogorsk, Svetlogorsk, etc.) to the
mountains of the Northern Caucasus (Teberda and Dombai), Ural (Kisegatch
and Uveldy) and Altai (Chemal).
Present-day Moscow is a capital of the Russian Federation.
Moscow is one of the biggest cities in the world. It occupies the area of
1035 square kilometres. Moscow has more than 5.000 streets. The population
is about 9 million people, plus more than three million tourists and
guests coming annually. Climate is moderate. The average temperature in
July and August is +20(25)°C; in December and January -10°C. The humidity
is moderate. The Moscow's winters are, as a rule, cold and snowy. Moscow
is conveniently sited in the centre of Russia's European part where the
rivers Moskva and Yauza cross the Central Russian Plateau.
A settlement of artisans and
traders arose at the site of the present-day Kremlin and Zaryadie long
before the first mention of Moscow in chronicles (the year 1147). Standing
at the crossing of the main trading routes (the Moskva river and the
Yauza), it had its centre on Borovitsky Hill. In the 15th century Moscow
became capital of the Russian state. With the transfer of Russia's capital
to St.Petersburg in 1712, it became the country's second capital. In 1918,
it became the capital of the Russian Federation, and from 1922 to 1991, it
was the capital of the USSR.
Administratively, Moscow is
segmented into 10 administration districts. The names of the districts
comply with their location: Central, West, North-West, etc. The districts
are, then, segmented into city regions, there are 128 of them in Moscow.
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