Moscow city overview
Moscow (Russian spelling Moskva) is the capital of Russian Federation and the administrative center of Central Federal District and of Moskovskaya oblast. Moscow is the largest city in Russia and Europe as well as one of the largest cities in the world.
Moscow refers to global cities having great influence on the world due to high economical level and its population. Moscow is an important transportation juncture as well as political, economic, cultural and scientific center of Russia. The city is surrounded by 6 airports. There are 9 railway stations, 3 river ports in the city. Moscow city has developed metro system with the first stations built in 1935.
Moscow city has the population of 10,527,000 (2009) on the land area of 1,081 sq. km.
Moscow city phone codes are +7 495 and +7 499.
Moscow city facts
Moscow is located in the center of European part of Russia, between rivers Oka and Volga. The climate is moderate continental: heavy frosts and extreme hot are rare, but departures from the norm often happen. Moscow is the smallest federal subject of Russian Federation by land area.
The name of the city like names of a lot of cities in the world is bound with the name of the river Moskva, and it was called this way long before the settlement appeared. It is unknown who named it and what this name means. There are 2 versions: Finnio-Ugric and Slavic ones.
According to the first one the word “Moskva” derives from Finno-Ugric language group and means “river-bear”. The Slavic theory points to the stem “mosk” denoting “marshy” or “moisture, liquid, marshland, dampness”.
Moscow city history
The age of Moscow is not exactly known. There are some myths according to which founding of Moscow refers to ancient times, but the first trustworthy chronicle which mentioned it is the Ipatyev Chronicle, saying that on Saturday, April 4th, 1147 prince Yury Dolgoruky received his friends and allies headed by prince Svyatoslav Olgovich in a small town called Moskov. Moscow at that time was a bordering prince’s estate.
In early 13th century Moscow became a center of principality for the first time. In the first half of 15th century Moscow became more and more significant, this fact was directly bound with Tatar-Mongol yoke. Golden Horde laid Russian principalities under tribute, its systematical raids on Rus destroyed the land, princes were obliged to have permission to rule from Horde.
By 1712 the capital of Russia was transferred to Saint Petersburg, but Moscow remained the city where emperors were crowned. In 1754 by Catherine’s II order Michail Lomonosov founded Moscow University. During the War of 1812 Moscow suffered heavy fires. Afterwards it was restored, the Church of Christ the Savior was built. By the end of 19th century trams appeared in Moscow.
In 1918 Moscow became the capital of Russian Federation. A new Soviet epoch began in the history of the city. In the Soviet Union Moscow became the center of the state and international political importance of the city increased. In winter in 1941-1942 the Moscow Battle took place, Soviet troops won. And it was the first victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
In 1980 Moscow became Olympic city. 22th summer Olympic Games took place in Moscow.
In 1995 new symbols of Moscow were adopted - a coat of arms, a flag and a hymn. A lot of international cultural and sports events took place in Moscow lately like the Final of UEFA Champions League in 2008.
Moscow city economics
Moscow is the largest Russian financial center as well as the center of managing most of the country’s economy. About a half of banks of Russia are located in Moscow. Besides, most of the largest companies are registered and have head offices in Moscow, although their manufactures might be located thousands of km from Moscow.
Moscow in spite of its small part of industry in economics is the largest industrial center of Russia based on considerable qualified labor resources.
The city is a large center of machine-building, including tool-, ship-, energetic machine building, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, chemical, light and polygraphic industries. It’s worth mentioning that recently there’s a process of transferring industries outside Moscow. The city is the most important center of retail sales in Russia. Moscow has 30 per cent of commodity turnover of Russia.
Also Moscow is a big scientific center. Long before the Revolution the science was developed in the city and especially rapidly in Soviet times. There are a lot of scientific research institutes carrying out investigations in many branches, such as nuclear power, microelectronics, space research and other progressive branches.
Moscow city transportation system
Moscow has been the largest transportation juncture in Russia in the course of all its history. The city is located in the very center of railway net and highways. A lot of types of city transportation are developed in Moscow.
There are 9 railway stations in the city:
- Byelorussky station - trains in western and south-western direction, as well as to Byelorussia, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Czechia, Slovakia, Austria and Hungary.
- Kursky station - trains to central and southern part of Russia, south-eastern part of Ukraine, to the Caucasus and Crimea, as well as transit trains to Saint Petersburg and Murmansk; the largest station in Moscow.
- Kievsky station - trains to western and south-western part of Russia, to Ukraine and Moldova, to Bulgaria and Greece. Aero express buses to airport Vnukovo start from here.
- Paveletsky station - trains to central and southern part of Russia, to Kazakhstan, Volga region, Northern Caucasus and Azerbaijan. Aero express buses to airport Domodedovo.
- Rizhsky station - trains to Velikiye Luki and Riga.
- Savelovsky station - the only railway station in Moscow with just local trains to suburbs Lobnya, Dmitrov, Dubna, Savelovo as well as aero express buses to airport Sheremetyevo.
- Yaroslavsky station - trains to northern, north-eastern and eastern parts of Russia, to Urals, Siberia, Far East, China and Mongolia. The largest station in amount of freight.
- Leningradsky station - trains to north-western part of Russia, to Estonia and Finland.
International airport Vnukovo is located in Moscow. Inhabitants and guests of the city use other international airports, located on the territory of Moskovskaya oblast - Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo, Ostafyevo, Chkalovsky (military airport, carrying out charter passenger flights).
Moscow is a center of federal highways of different directions connecting the city with other administrative centers of Russian Federation and bordering states.
Since 1935 underground railway is in action in the city, and it is the main means of transportation within the capital. Every day there are about 8 million passengers in Moscow underground.
The present day Moscow city faces serious transportation problems, bound first of all with breaking increase of traffic.
Moscow city attractions
Moscow is a big cultural and tourist center of Europe and the world. There are a lot of interesting places in Moscow - various historical cultural and architectural sites as well as entertainment sites, a developing chain of hotels among them famous world hotel brands are present as well.
Among lots of places of interest there are some unique sites well known in the world. No doubt these are the Kremlin, Bolshoi Theater, A.S.Pushkin Fine Arts Museum and Tretyakov Gallery.
Such sites as Novodevichy monastery and estate Kolomenskoye are UNESCO’s World Heritage.
Hyperboloid design of Shuhovskaya tower and Ostankino TV tower are unique. The latter has been the highest building in the world for 8 years.
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