Streets of Moscow

There are more than 3,500 streets, lanes and highways in Moscow. But where is the shortest street? Which is the oldest? What is the length of the longest? Let's have a look. 

Fact 21.

Secrets of Moscow lies in its mysterious streets in the center. Kuznetsky Most (Bridge) is one of them. This is the street of chic boutiques, bars, hotels. The best known foreign-language bookshop in Moscow is also here.

Nikolskaya street starts straight from the Red Square. Each building on this street is some famous historical place. It recently became a pedestrian street.

Arbat street in Moscow this year celebrated its 520 anniversary. While walking here you can meet all kinds of people: local artists who can draw your portrait, musicians, actors, street dancers, singers clowns and even poets citing their poems to public. 

Varvarka street, although very short, boasts the most churches of any street in the city

The widest street in Moscow today is Leninsky Prospekt, in some places it reaches 120 metres wide. Once upon a time grandmother of Tsar Ivan III bought the place and since then the street has been the road filled with nobility, factories and hospitals. It was also a wintess of numerous wars. After defeating the Crimeans here was erected Donskoy Monastery, Neskuchnyi garden and the Sparrow Hills. After a fire in 1812 in Moscow, 75% of homes were destroyed. Pyatnitskaya street saved just 5 houses, Leninsky Prospekt was luckier, it preserved 300 houses of that time. 

Profsouznaya street is closely connected to the Soviet past of Moscow. The street has 7 (!) metro stations on it. Most buildings on this street were built in the second half of the twentieth century, and can't be called masterpieces of architecture. Though there are also historical sites, like Church of the Trinity built in the late seventeenth century as a home church. 

Up until the end of the XIX century the buildings on this street had names of homeowners on them instead of numbers. Kamergersky lane is quite small, only two hundred and fifty meters long. But this is one of the oldest places in Moscow. Every house here has a story to tell. This street has seen all famous writers, poets and composers starting from Golden Age of Russian culture.

Explore the most historical and original streets of Moscow on our Going Out in Moscow Tour

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What to do in Moscow

It's even hard to list how many cultural places you can visit in Moscow in the evening. Locals and tourists have a great opportunity of choice.

Fact 20. 

It can be  Halloween party  in one of the numerous  cheerful Moscow night clubs, be it house and techno music in popular club Propaganda,  disco at Hard Rock Café, mash-up in Dandy Café or just a bit of everything in all of them, which is popular among locals.

Right after Halloween at November,3  there will be the "Night of the Arts". This festal night brings together the people's favorite festivals – "Night at the Museum", "Night at the Theater", "Night in the Park", "Night Music" and  "Biblionoch". There will be over 150 special events in public spaces all over the city- streets, railway stations, shopping centers, markets, subways, and even at the airport "Sheremetyevo"

The lovers of classical art will definitely be delighted by the Moscow theatres, ballets and concerts.

The fabulous classic music by Benjamin Britten performed the orchestra "Gnessins Virtuosy" could be heard in the beautiful Italian courtyard of Pushkin Museum.

A classic play "Tartuffe" by Moliere was performed by the Taganka Theater in Moscow since late 1960s and for almost 40 years was one of the strongest positions of its repertoire.  Extremely laughable performance about liar definitely will make you smile.

The pleasant sensation of the season in Bolshoi Theater in #Moscow! American dancer David Hallberg became the soloist and plays the main part with Russian ballerina in classic Zhizel balley, which tells us beautiful and romantic love story.

More local events in Moscow are on our 10 Hours in Moscow Tour 

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Mayors of Moscow throughout its history

Most famous Mayors of Moscow throughout its history

Fact 19. 

Giving tours every day, talking about history of Russia, Russian famous people and heroes, it bumped into me yesterday what can I tell my tourists about leaders of Moscow? Since i'm a tour guide in Moscow, i made a short research into who ruled Moscow in the past, what  these people did with Moscow and how Muscovites felt about it. So here is what I got. The facts turned out to be fun, I hope you enjoy it 

Tikhon Strezhnev, the mayor-pioneer

1709–1711

Tikhon was Peter the Great's uncle, who led him during the coronation and was in charge of purchasing and repairing Peter's toys.

Vasily Dolgorukiy, the mayor-altruist 

1780–1782

Military general, sent troops to the Crimea peninsula and annexed to Russia, and was awarded with diamonds and the title of the Crimea by Catherine the Great, but not the rank of Field Marshal. Offended, he resigned. Muscovites especially loved him for festivities which he organized every Sunday near his homestead on the Sparrow Hills.

Lived in a mansion on the corner of Okhotny Ryad and Bolshaya Dmitrovka, which later became the House of Unions, where Russians parted with Stalin.

Fyodor Rostopchin, the mayor - arsonist

1812-1814

Great schemer at the court of Catherine II, the favorite under Paul I, led the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to legend , the idea of ​​burning Moscow before French would take it over belonged to Rostopchin - although he denied it .

Dmitry Golitsyn, the mayor - urbanist

1820-1844

Knew French and hardly spoke any Russian.

His achievements can be listed for a long time, for example: he arranged the construction of the Resurrection Garden (now Alexander ), laid the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and ordered to build the Bolshoy and Maly theaters

Arseny Zakrevskii, the mayor -tyrant

1848-1859

Did not like go follow a law , and acted as he found "right", sending everybody he found "misbehaving" to Siberia.

Tried to fight bribery, and in this respect historians consider him as an honest man.

Vladimir Dolgorukov, the mayor-favorite

 1865-1891

The supreme marshal at the coronation of Alexander II, his closest ally and one of the longest in the post of the head of Moscow - 26 years. During that time, its population has tripled.

Opened the Conservatory and the Historical Museum.

Nikolai Bulganin, the mayor-Stalinist

1931-1937

Launched the Moscow subway and trolley lines, for a few more years, rebuilt historic center, extended Tverskaya street and the Garden Ring, built many famous buildings today (such as House on the Embankment).

Demolished Christ the Savior Cathedral. Many churches and monasteries were closed.

Vladimir Promyslov, the mayor-modernist

1963-1986

With the active assistance of Promyslov Moscow became the "hostess" to the Olympics-80 and received the title of Hero City.

Gavriil Popov, the mayor-liberal

1990-1992

Greek by nationality

Greatly changed Moscow: many new streets, alleys and squares got back their pre-revolutionary  historic names. 

Contributed to the opening of the first "McDonald's", which concluded a preferential agreement for 49 years - Cafe on Pushkin street is still paying rent at the rate of 1 ruble per square meter.

Yuri Luzhkov, the mayor-beekeeper

1992-2010

Breeder of bees, an amateur inventor and the author of 37 books.

As he became mayor a lot of money came to the city, as well as abundance of shops, new roads and a variety of entertainment, demolition of monuments and corruption.  

  

Sergei Sobyanin
2010-present
In student years was never interested in public affairs and in general was quiet and shy.
His career began in Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant as a mechanic.
Sergey Sobyanin prefers to holiday in Russia, mainly in the "wilderness", enjoying hunting and fishing.
Thanks to his father, S.Sobyanin loves hunting and skiing. 

Learn more about the greatest people of Moscow and Russia on our 10 Hours in Moscow Tour 


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Kostroma National Show

We're big admirers of historical and modern exhibitions and keep track of all worth seeing culural events in Moscow.

Here's a Russian authentic performance with dances - Kostroma Traditional Show.

Fact 18. 

Located in the Golden Ring route, Kostroma was once of the cradle of the Romanov Dynasty and has come to embody a nation that is rich in both custom and tradition.

Kostroma is a spirited spectatcle, awash with color and vivid movement. 600-intricately-decorated costumes are used in the show, which also features 300 props and eight set changes. The troupe of 50 dances only adds to the grandiousity of the performance.

It's a real-life fairy tale: colourful costumes, video-projection, heavy smoke and a starry sky, weapons belonging to Russian heroes, a black horse and of course a huge samovar!

Explore the best local events of Moscow with us on our Going Out in Moscow Tour

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Soviet Diner

Fact 17. 

if you feel like learning something about Russian cuisine and what locals eat every day, go to "Soviet Diner".

"Soviet Diner"  has everything that may require a tourist seeking for something authentic or a local born in USSR:  Egg with green peas and mayonnaise, meatballs and jelly, chicken Salad "The Cuckoo" (220 r.) with a stack of potato chips served with an egg yolk, covered in poppy. Eggs stuffed with chicken liver pate (110 r.), served as two mushrooms with caps. Borsch (180 p.) served with donuts. Cabbage rolls (220 p.) 

Finally, the ice cream in a glass vase will definitely lift your spirits.

Check, please!
Salad with ham 180 r
Borscht with dumplings 180 r
Chicken Kiev 220 r
Jellies, fruit and berry 110 r
Total 690 roubles. The starting price of something light in Ritz Carlton restaurant and similar to it. 

Explore the best authentic places of Moscow with us on our Going Out in Moscow Tour

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Gagarin. Russian hero

12 April, 1961 was Gagin's first flight into space. Here are some funny stories about our hero, who I personally respect and admire

Fact 16. 

Yuri Gagarin, a peasant's son, returning from space, has almost become the equal of earthly gods, kings and queens. At least the Queen allowed herself to break court etiquette and be photographed with him. The explanation she found was that Gagarin - no earthly man, but heavenly now, so can be taken photos with

Moreover, during the official reception the astronaut, sitting at a table in front of a string of cutlery, did not know with what fork or spoon to start dinner and decided to just repeat all of the queen. But she did not move, and apparently waited for him to start. Then Gagarin openly said to her, "Your Majesty, I'm just the pilot, and I was not taught how to use it all." Elizabeth II said: "Mr Gagarin, I grew up in Buckingham Palace, but I do not know where to start either, let's just eat as we want."

Before the Flight

Pre-flight preparations took place in a very tense atmosphere. Every now and then there were technical problems. There was great risk of death of the astronaut. No one knew how he human mind will behave in the space. Some psychologists believed that Gagarin would go mad, all alone in the void. Therefore, flight control was automatic. 

Despite all that, Gagarin was calm and whistling his favorite song.

Gagarin - 

Prince?

One of the rumors discussed in the international press was about the social origins of the first cosmonaut of the Earth. Country boy, a native of the West Russian peasant family, Yuri Gagarin was thought to be somehow connected with his namesakes, the princes, who after the Revolution immigrated to the United States. This question opened the press conference on 15 April 1961. Gagarin answer was: "Among the relatives I know, there are no princes or people of noble birth. Have never heard of them."

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Local stuff. Sandunovsky Baths

Tourists always ask me "Show us something non-touristy", "What is particularly local to eat/do/", "I want something original and authentic:... 

So here is a #1 typically Russian, authentic, original thing

Fact 15. 
Sandunovsky Banya

Sandunovsky baths today is the largest bath complex in Moscow, three male and two female department, preserved historic interiors, license baths, beauty salon, restaurant and laundry service. The main advantages of the complex is the recognized quality of service and range of products - from classic to modern.

Sandunovsky BATH existed in the XVIII century and named for the Force N. Sandunova - actor, who served at the court of Catherine II in the 1790s.

Sanduny Baths. Among Guests of Honor are John Travolta, Naomi Campbell, Jean Claude Van Damme, Adolf Lundgren and many other famous people

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