Moscow is a mystery for every foreigner. We traveled Moscow for a few days and explored the great unknown among the world cities.
Proud and stubborn to this day, indomitable even if all the other large western states continue to criticize. Russia is different, as is its capital Moscow. You must have seen that. Read part 1 of the story here, part 2 is here, the 3 part here, part 4 here, part 5 here, six here, the seven here, eight here.
One of the teeths
The man promoting the American cell phone manufacturer Apple in the middle of Moscow has sat down on a bench for a moment. But all around him, life is roaring on the Russian capital's busiest street, the Arbat, a legendary stretch of road that runs for about a kilometer through the historic center. Moscow is still really old here, not far from the Kremlin: The Arbat, actually an entire neighborhood around the street, has existed since the 15th century and is thus one of the oldest streets in the Russian capital that has survived to the present day.
The Arbat
Originally, this wide road was part of an important traffic route between Asia and Western Europe. Therefore, many craftsmen settled here already in the Middle Ages. The first documented reference to the Arbat dates back to July 28, 1493, when a nearby church building, the wooden Church of St. Nicholas on the Sand (Церковь Николы на Песках), suffered a fire that quickly spread throughout Moscow and devastated large parts of the city, which was built primarily of wood at the time.
Advertising everywhere
Name from Arabic
500 years later, Arbat - the name maybe comes from Arabic meaning "suburb" or "outskirts" - developed into the most popular residential district of the middle and minor nobility, artists and academics. The suburb was chic and close to the center of power at the Kremlin, at the same time it was far enough away that life could be a bit more casual.
The moscovites are in love with books
Old heritage that made the invitingly wide piece of Moscow the first pedestrian boulevard of the Eastern bloc even in communist times. From Arbatskaya Square you can walk southwest to Smolenskaya Square (Смоленская площадь) and look down a lot of side streets until you reach the crossroads with the Garden Ring. There it is better to turn around, because the continuation of the Arbat in the western direction is the eight-lane Smolenskaya Street (Смоленская улица).
Another man advertises something
Legendary poets
Today the Arbat is a pedestrian zone of western layout. This is where the poet and singer Bulat Okudshava grew up. His father was Georgian, his mother Armenian; both were arrested, convicted and deported in the course of Stalin's "purges" in 1937. The father perished, the mother survived the inhumane treatment in notorious camps. Only after more than a decade did she see her son again. Alexander Pushkin also lived here for a short time after he got married. The house, which later served as a normal residence for many years, was restored after the end of the Soviet Union as it was during Pushkin's lifetime.
Father Stalin
However, the favorite district of artists and high earners attracts tourists and Russians above all because there is always something going on here. Street musicians, street artists and souvenir sellers swarm around each other, break dancers dance, book tables stand in the middle of the street and costumed advertising figures run around. If you can't make it to the Ismailovsky flea market on the outskirts of town, you're guaranteed to find all the Russia souvenirs you could want here, too. For many tourists, a stroll is therefore a must.
A pennant from communism
The last remains of socialism
However, most people don't know the fact that the last remnants of what was once the world's second-largest economic alliance overshadow the Arbat from afar. To this day, the great joint work of steel, glass and concrete 31 stories high into the Moscow sky that the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA), founded in 1949, had erected in 1967 as a sign of its strength. Seven states of the organization, known in English as COMECON, built the headquarters for the economic alliance of socialist countries, of which maybe no one today knows anymore what it once was.
They sell everything here
At the Arbat one knows. On both sides of the street there are cafés, galleries and stores selling everything from matryoshkas to Putin T-shirts and Soviet Army coats, all of which seem exotic and Soviet to Western and Chinese tourists. Lenin heads, Stalin T-shirts, the flirtation with the communist past is just as cleverly calculated here as with the doubles who have themselves photographed around the Red Square as Stalin, Lenin or Rasputin.
Shops like in the West
But you can also shop normally here, just like everywhere else in the West. And even in the same stores of the big western brands. Between them, however, genuine Russian eateries offer here - between the eastern Arbatskaya metro station, whose red reception building was built in the shape of a five-pointed Soviet star, and the end at the Russian Foreign Ministry, there must be hundreds.
The legendary Arbat
It's a great area to stroll and look, pick up nonsensical souvenirs and try on old Russian military leather coats. Since the spacious pedestrian street is so full of cafes, bars and restaurants, you can also take a proper rest and drink every few meters.
Matroshkas with power
Anything but pretty
In terms of urban planning, it is noticeable while you sitting down: the Arbat is anything but pretty. Next to the old, historic houses, there are not only restored palaces and churches, but also postmodern buildings and skyscrapers, 20 to 30 stories high, in which the aspiring middle class is at home. In Russia, chrome and glass are still seen by many as a reflection of the new prosperity.
Before the place with the poet
But others make fun of them and disparagingly call the square skyscrapers "iron teeth". Glaring neon signs hang from them, outshining the silent splendor of Simeon Stylites Church next door.
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A few more pictures for you:
The man who is an advertising for Apple
Pushkins house
Mashal Shukow, the man who defeated Hitler
Air conditioners regulary outside
Painters have their exhibitions in the middle of the street
Painters have their exhibitions in the middle of the street
Russian bakery
Coffeehouses everywhere
The joined wor of the socialist states
The teeth
Mr Poet himself
Medal from the Red Army
Marx The Capital
Inspired by an american movie