Москва (english)

MOSCOWMoscowis the capital of Russia, its administrative, economic, political andeducational center. It is one of Russia s major cities with the population ofabout 10 million people. Its total area is about 900 thousand nine hundredthousand square kilometers. The city was founded by prince Jury Dolgorukiy andwas first mentioned in the chronicles in 1147. At that time it was a smallsettlement. By the 15th century

Moscow had grown into a wealthycity. In the 16th century under Ivan the Terrible Moscow became thecapital of the State Moscovy. In the 18th century Peter the Greattransferred the capital to St-Petersburg. During the war of 1812 three quartersof the city were destroyed by fire. But by the middle of the 19thcentury Moscow was completely rebuilt.

Moscow is a major industrial city. Itsleading industries are engineering, chemical and light industries. Moscow isknown for its many historical buildings, museums and art galleries. Museums areconsidered an important part of the National Heritage. There are more than 80museums in Moscow, the largest are the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and theState Tretjakov

Gallery. TheTretjakov Gallery is a major research, artistic, cultural and educationalcenter. The Gallery takes its name from its founder, the merchant PavelTretjakov, who began to collect Russian paintings in 1856. The collection wasdonated as a gift to the city of Moscow in 1882. Later it was supplemented bycollections from other museums and private citizens.

The Tretjakov Gallery hasa rich collection of old Russian Icons from the 11th to the 17thcentury, many fine examples of Russian paintings from 18th to theearly 19th century. The Gallery contains halls devoted to oldRussian paintings, to great master such as Ivanov, Serov, Surikov, Repin andLevitan. Levitan was one of the first painters of the

Russian scenery to revealits beauty. He is a real poet of the Russian countryside. Levitan is a veryspecial sort of painter. There is something in his landscapes that reflects ourmoods. He deeply felt what he wanted to depict. A master of landscape, he neverintroduced figures into it. Though if you look at The autumn inSokolniky you will notice the figure in the center.

Everything seems tounderline the loneliness of this figure the trees loosing their leaves, theremote indifferent sky, the path going off into the distance. But the fact isthat it was not Levitan who painted this figure. It was Chekhov s brotherNikolay who did it. Levitan s influence over lyrical landscape painters can t beover estimated. His paintings have won the love and gratitude of people.

Theoldest part of Moscow is the Kremlin. This is the main tourist attraction inMoscow. The word Kremlin means fortress . And the MoscowKremlin used to be a fortress. In 1156 a small settlement of Moscow wassurrounded by a wooden wall and became a Kremlin. The town and the Kremlin wereburnt in 1237, but they were rebuilt. In 14th century Prince DmitryDonskoy built a white stone wall around the

Kremlin, and in the 15thcentury the Kremlin was surrounded by a new red-brick wall. Twenty towers ofthe Kremlin wall were constructed in the end of the 17th century.The Spasskaja Tower is the symbol of Russia and Moscow. It has a famous clock one can hear the clock on the radio. The Usspensky Cathedral is the largestone. Russian

Tzars were crowned there. Outside the Kremlin wall there is thefamous Red Square.