Moscow (city, Russia) - geography.

Moscow (city, Russia) - geography. I INTRODUCTION Moscow (city, Russia) (Russian Moskva), capital and largest city of Russia, capital of Moscow Oblast, and the country's leading political, cultural, economic, and transportation center. Moscow lies on the Moscow River in the west central European part of Russia. The Russian rulers, or tsars, made Moscow their base of command until 1712, when the capital was moved to Saint Petersburg. Moscow was restored as Russia's capital in 1918, and it served as the capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1922 until 1991. Moscow has a continental climate, with long, cold winters and short, mild summers. Average annual precipitation is 690 mm (27 in), much of it falling in the winter as heavy snow. II MOSCOW AND ITS METROPOLITAN AREA Moscow is laid out in a series of concentric rings that center on the original medieval fortress, the Kremlin. The encircling wide thoroughfares--the Boulevard Ring, Garden Ring, and Outer Ring Road--delineate the historic expansion of the city's fortifications. Like spokes of a wheel, 14 main transportation axes radiate from the center. The Moscow River winds its way from northwest to southeast through the city, reaching a width of 244 m (800 ft) in some places. The central and eastern parts of the city lie in the river valley, and in the southwest the Sparrow Hills (formerly the Lenin Hills) rise to more than 200 m (656 ft). The area of Moscow expanded to 885 sq km (342 sq mi) in 1960, when the city limits were extended to coincide with the Outer Ring Road. The city expanded slightly through suburban annexation in the 1980s, reaching 994 sq km (384 sq mi) for the city proper and 1062 sq km (410 sq mi) for the metropolitan area. In many places, development has encroached upon and extended beyond the Green Belt, a ring of protected parks and mostly undeveloped land that encircles the city just outside the Outer Ring Road. Located in the heart of Moscow on the northern bank of the Moscow River, the Kremlin is a triangular-shaped complex surrounded by stone walls reaching 20 m (66 ft) in height and nearly 2.5 km (1.5 mi) in circumference. The Kremlin walls are surmounted by 20 towers, some of which contain gateway entrances into the Kremlin. Inside the walls stand gold-domed Orthodox churches and cathedrals from the 15th and 16th centuries, as well as former palaces of the Russian emperors and the patriarchs, or leaders, of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Great Kremlin Palace, the most imposing structure within the Kremlin, was completed in 1849 as the residence of Russian emperor Nicholas I. Among the Kremlin's many ecclesiastical buildings are the Cathedral of the Assumption (completed in 1479) and the Archangel Cathedral (1508), each with five gilded domes, and the Cathedral of the Annunciation (1489; rebuilt in 1562-1564) with nine gilded domes. The 16th-century Ivan the Great Bell Tower, which rises 98 m (320 ft), is the tallest structure in the Kremlin. A modern addition to the Kremlin is the Palace of Congresses (completed in 1961), a huge concrete-and-glass building with a 6,000-seat auditorium that once held congresses of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU); it is now used primarily for cultural performances. Other Kremlin buildings house the offices and official residence of Russia's president. Just outside the eastern Kremlin wall, facing Red Square, is the V. I. Lenin Mausoleum, which contains the embalmed remains of the first Soviet leader, Vladimir Ilich Lenin. Along the opposite side of Red Square is the department store known as GUM (Russian acronym for State Department Store), which was transferred to private ownership in the early 1990s. At the south end of the square stands the Cathedral of Saint Basil the Blessed, built between 1555 and 1560 to celebrate the military conquests of Russian tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich, known as Ivan the Terrible. Other Red Square landmarks include the State Historical Museum and the reconstructed Kazan' Cathedral, built originally in 1626. Lying to the east of Red Square, the commercial quarter known as Kitay-gorod--an early Kremlin suburb of artisans and traders--contains the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and numerous landmarks. Southwest of the Kremlin, construction of a replica of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior--the largest church in Russia--began in 1995; the original 19th-century cathedral was demolished in 1931 under the order of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Under Soviet-era planning, residential areas were separated from industrial sections of the city. Guidelines were established for the number of shops and other facilities to be provided for given numbers of people, some on the ground floors of apartment buildings. About 90 percent of Moscow's approximately 3 million housing units were built after 1955, most in the form of multistory apartment blocks. These include brick buildings five to nine stories high, built in the late 1950s as part of a government effort to alleviate a housing shortage, and high-rise apartment buildings in planned suburban communities, built after 1970 on the city's outskirts. While some of the apartment buildings built in the 1950s are in need of renovation, all apartments have piped water and sewer service, and nearly all have hot water and a bath. Most buildings have central heating and telephone service. In January 1992 the city government allowed tenants to claim ownership of their apartments by registering and paying a small fee. III POPULATION Moscow proper had a population (2003 estimate) of 10,469,000. The city's annual growth rate slowed significantly between 1970 and 1990--from 1.21 percent to .26 percent--in part because of declining birthrates. The influx of people from other parts of Russia, and to a lesser extent from the adjoining successor states of the former Soviet Union, now accounts for most of the city's growth. Moscow attracts people in search of jobs, better living conditions, and the excitement of the city; it also serves as a stopover point for many of those leaving the country. Russians are the largest ethnic group in Moscow. There are also sizable numbers of Jews (considered both an ethnic and religious group in Russia), Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Tatars, as well as increasing numbers of non-Russian refugees and other immigrants from Afghanistan, Caucasia, the Baltic States, and Central Asia. Orthodox Christianity is the predominant religion in Moscow. The city also has communities of Protestants, Muslims, Jews, and Roman Catholics. Russian is the first language of most Muscovites, or residents of Moscow. IV EDUCATION AND CULTURE Moscow State University (founded in 1755), the largest and most important educational institution in Russia, is one of more than 75 institutions of higher education in Moscow. The Russian Academy of Sciences and its affiliated research institutions have headquarters in the city. The Russian State Library has one of the largest collections in the world. Moscow has several world-renowned cultural institutions. The Bolshoi Theater, built in 1825, is home to one of Russia's oldest ballet companies, the Bolshoi Ballet. Russia's finest art collections outside of the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg are housed in Moscow's Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and State Tretyakov Gallery. As the seat of the patriarchate (jurisdiction of the patriarch) of the Russian Orthodox Church since 1589, Moscow holds great importance for believers. The city contains several monasteries, including the Danilov Monastery (founded in 1282), where the Moscow branch of the Russian Orthodox patriarchate has its offices. V RECREATION About 30 percent of Moscow's territory is occupied by parks and public gardens, which were important elements of Soviet city planning. Gorky Park, which provides activities such as amusement rides and boating, sits on the right bank of the Moscow River; the park's display of a retired Soviet space shuttle dominates the riverside. The Moscow Zoo is located just west of the city center. The Botanical Gardens, administered by the Russian Academy of Sciences, offers a diverse display of plant life. In 1980 Moscow hosted the XXII Summer Olympics, held in part at the city's Luzhniki Park sports complex. VI ECONOMY Moscow is the largest industrial center in Russia. More than half of its highly skilled industrial workforce is employed in engineering and metalworking industries that produce cars, trucks, ball bearings, and machine tools. The centuries-old textile industry is the city's second largest employer. In the early 1990s the largest sectors of employment for Moscow's workforce were industry (24 percent), science and associated services (20 percent), construction (11 percent), and trade (10 percent). Moscow has attracted an enormous amount of foreign investment in its retail, wholesale, and construction sectors since Russia made the transition to a market economy in the early 1990s. State-run stores selling subsidized domestic goods to long lines of consumers have been largely replaced by joint-venture firms selling plentiful imported goods at market prices. New Western-style office buildings and hotels are under construction, and numerous nightclubs have opened. A huge new underground shopping complex complete with parking garage is located under Manezhnaya Square, near the Kremlin. The city is also the center of Russia's banking, insurance, and financial industries. Moscow's location on the Moscow River provides access to five seas--the Baltic, White, Black, and Caspian seas and the Sea of Azov--via tributaries and canals, most notably the Moscow Canal connecting to the Volga River. This accessibility makes Moscow a gateway for goods entering and leaving Russia by ship and the primary port for goods being transferred from land-based to water-based forms of transportation. Railroads provide the most common method of travel between Moscow and other cities. Nine mainline railroad stations, located in Moscow's central metropolitan area, serve as the main connection points for routes to and from other parts of Russia and other countries. Moscow has an international airport called Sheremetyevo II and four additional airports that provide service within Russia and to other former Soviet republics. Forms of transportation in Moscow include the Metro (subway), trolleys, trams, buses, taxis, and automobiles. The first line of Moscow's Metro was completed in 1935. In the following years the subway system was expanded to serve most of the inner city. Since the 1970s construction of new Metro lines to the city's outskirts has often lagged behind residential development. The Metro is known for its ornate stations, often decorated with marble, chandeliers, and statues. VII GOVERNMENT Moscow is a separate subject of the Russian Federation (official name of Russia), and its administration reports directly to the federal government. The city is governed by a mayor, who is popularly elected for a four-year term, and by a 35-member Duma (assembly) that functions as a city legislature. The Duma is elected from 10 prefectures (administrative districts) that were established in 1993. These are divided into 125 smaller neighborhood units, which elect local councils. The mayor retains line-item veto power over Duma actions and can legislate by executive order. As Russia's capital, Moscow is the seat of the national government. The Kremlin palaces house most national offices. The prime minister's offices are in the House of Government of the Russian Federation, also known as the White House, located northwest of the Kremlin. VIII CONTEMPORARY ISSUES Crime in Moscow increased enormously during the early and mid-1990s, due in part to the rise of organized criminal groups. Drug trafficking is a growing concern, as Moscow is used increasingly as a gateway for illegal drugs being smuggled from Central Asia to Europe; in 1996 approximately 5 percent of the city's reported crimes were drug related. In an attempt to address the problem of crime in Moscow, the national government added Interior Ministry troops to the municipal police force to help patrol the city's streets. Traffic congestion has worsened in Moscow as the market economy has allowed many more Muscovites to own automobiles, at a rate that has outpaced driver training, traffic enforcement, and modernization of roads. Moscow's environment has long suffered from industrial pollution; however, about 60 percent of the city's air pollution now comes from automobiles. Radioactive waste sites, unauthorized trash dumps, and deforestation of the Green Belt that surrounds the city are being addressed by federal and local agencies, but results are slow because of limited financial resources. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, economic difficulties left Moscow's infrastructure without needed funds for operation and maintenance. Public transportation and other services had been heavily subsidized during the Soviet period, and when the subsidies were eliminated, city officials found that the taxes and fares being collected from residents were insufficient. In recent years, transit fares in Moscow have increased dramatically. IX HISTORY Human settlement on Moscow's territory dates from the Stone Age, which began about 2.5 million years ago and lasted in this region until about 4000 BC. By AD 1100 Moscow was a small town at the confluence of the Neglinnaia and Moscow rivers. Records from 1147 show the city as a possession of Yuri Dolgoruki, prince of the Vladimir-Suzdal' principality in Kievan Rus, the first significant East Slavic state. Still a relatively minor city, Moscow survived the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, when all of Kievan Rus fell under the rule of the Tatar khanate, or empire, known as the Golden Horde. Moscow prospered under the Moscow princes during Tatar rule, which ended in the late 14th century. In its favored position at the intersection of trade routes, Moscow expanded in size and importance. The capital of its own principality from the 14th century, it became the capital of a unified Russian state in the 15th century. In 1589 it became the ecclesiastical capital of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1712 Russian emperor Peter the Great ordered that Russia's seat of government be moved from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. However, Moscow remained sufficiently important to be a target of conquest by French emperor Napoleon I. In 1812 Napoleon's troops defeated Russian forces at Borodino, near the outskirts of Moscow. As French troops advanced, Muscovites evacuated the city, setting fire to many buildings as they left. Napoleon and his troops occupied the largely deserted city for 39 days, until food shortages forced them out. The fire destroyed more than two-thirds of Moscow's buildings. In 1813 a commission was appointed to rebuild the city, and plans and designs executed over the next 30 years changed the face of Moscow dramatically. Preceding the Russian Revolutions of 1917, Moscow was the site of revolutionary activities against the imperial government, and, once the monarchy was overthrown, of further activities against the Provisional Government set up in its place. During the October (or November, in the Western, or New Style, calendar) phase of the revolution, the Bolsheviks (radical socialists) succeeded in taking the Kremlin after a weeklong struggle. This, along with a similar Bolshevik victory in Petrograd (as Saint Petersburg was then known), toppled the Provisional Government and allowed the Bolsheviks to establish a socialist regime. In 1918 the Bolsheviks moved the seat of government to Moscow. When they founded the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1922, the city officially became the Soviet capital. During World War II (1939-1945) Moscow was the military headquarters of the Soviet government. In October 1941 German Nazi troops approached the city, but they were unsuccessful in capturing it. On December 6 the Soviet army launched a counterattack that was successful in forcing the Nazi troops to retreat from Moscow, renewing the spirit of the Soviet forces. The city increased its production of weapons, enabling it to give more aid to the front, and new military units and hospitals were organized. Industries that the Soviet government had relocated to more protected locations in the country's interior gradually returned, and the economy began to recover. Moscow's postwar years were marked by increased migration into the city and steady urban growth. In 1960 Moscow's boundaries were expanded to the Outer Ring Road, more than doubling the city's area. In the 1980s the Zelenograd district outside this boundary was brought under the administrative control of the city government as well. In 1991 Moscow was the scene of a coup attempt by Communist hard-liners opposed to the democratic reforms of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Citizens took to the streets of Moscow to fight the attempted takeover. Although the coup failed, Gorbachev resigned soon afterward, and the USSR was formally dissolved later that year. Since then, the emergence of a market economy in Russia has produced an explosion of Western-style retailing, services, architecture, and lifestyles in Moscow. Contributed By: John S. Adams Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.