Moscow, the capital and the largest city of Russia, is a city in which one comes face to face with all that is both the finest and most frustrating in Russia. More than anywhere else in the country, it is in Moscow where the Soviet past collides with the capitalist future.
The most striking aspect of the city today is not Moscow’s much-publicized embrace of Western culture but its self-assured revival of its own traditions. Ancient cathedrals are being restored and opened for religious services, innovative theatres are reclaiming leadership in the arts, and traditional markets are coming back to life. Moscow is once more assuming its position as the capital and mother city of the ancient state of Russia.
