Insight Guides City Guide Moscow

Insight Guides

• Publisher: Insight
• Print ISBN:
  9781780059389
• Edition: 2
• eBook ISBN:
  9781786716699
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Moscow is a fascinating mix of old and new, East meets West, elegance and kitsch and spirituality and dowdiness. Be inspired to visit by the new edition of City Guide Moscow, a comprehensive full-colour guide to the fascinating capital of Russia.
City Guide Moscow:
A fully-overhauled edition by our expert Russia author.
Stunning, specially-commissioned new photography that brings this intriguing city and its people to life.
Highlights of the city's top attractions, including the Red Square, The Kremlin and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. in our Best of Moscow.
Descriptive accounts of each neighbourhood cover the whole city from the Red Square and Tverskaya and Lubyanka. The Day Trips from Moscow chapter includes the ancient cities of the Golden Ring.
Detailed, high-quality maps throughout will help you get around and travel tips give you all the essential information for planning a memorable trip.

About Insight Guides: Insight Guides has over 40 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps as well as picture-packed eBooks to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture together create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

'Insight Guides has spawned many imitators but is still the best of its type.' - Wanderlust Magazine

Understanding the Language

Linguistic History

Russian belongs to the Slavonic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. English, German, French, Spanish and Hindi are its relatives.

It is important when speaking Russian that you reproduce the accent (marked here before each stressed vowel with the sign ’) correctly to be understood well.

Historically Russian can be called a comparatively young language. The evolution of the language to its present form on the basis of the spoken language of Eastern Slavs and the Church-Slavonic written language is thought to have occurred between the 11th and 14th centuries.

Modern Russian has absorbed a considerable number of foreign words. Very few tourists will be puzzled by Russian words such as telefon, televizor, teatr, otel, restoran, kafe, taxi, metro, aeroport.

What intimidates people making their first acquaintance with Russian is the Cyrillic alphabet. In fact the alphabet can be remembered easily after a few repetitions and the difference with the Latin alphabet is only minimal. An understanding of the Russian alphabet permits one to make out the names of the streets and the shop signs.

The Russian (or Cyrillic) alphabet was created by two brothers, philosophers and public figures Constantine (St Cyril) and Methodius, both born in Solun (now Thessaloniki in Greece). Their purpose was to facilitate the spread of Greek liturgical books to Slavonic speaking countries. Today the Cyrillic alphabet with different modifications is used in the Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian and Serbian languages, among others.

Language centres

A relatively inexpensive way to visit Russia is through institutes that run Russian language courses. Among these are the Lomonosov and Lumumba universities, the Pushkin Institute of Russian Language in Moscow, the University of St Petersburg and other universities and linguistic co-operatives. The Shevchenko University in Kiev, Ukraine, is another option. They are all able to arrange visas and inexpensive accommodation during the study period.

To communicate directly with the universities you should contact the cultural attaché of the Russian embassy or consulate.

When selecting courses, care should be taken...

Table of contents

• How To Use This E-Book
• Moscow’s Top 10 Attractions
• Editor’s Choice
• Introduction: A Capital Reborn
• The Muscovites
• Decisive Dates
• City of Tumult
• Insight: The Art of Propaganda
• Land of the Free?
• At the Russian Table: Beyond Borscht and Blini
• Literature and the Imagination
• Fairy Tales and Magic
• Moscow on Stage
• Unravelling the Russian Orthodox Church
• Architecture
• Introduction: Places
• The Kremlin
• Red Square and Kitai-Gorod
• Theatre and Manege Squares
• Insight: Palaces Beneath the Streets
• Classic Art and Old Arbat
• New Arbat and the West
• Tverskaya and the Northwest
• Lubyanka and the North
• Ivanovskaya Hill to Taganka
• Beyond the River
• Parks and Palaces
• Insight: At Home with the Counts Sheremetev
• Day Trips from Moscow
• Transport
• A-Z: A Handy Summary of Practical Information
• Understanding the Language
• Further Reading
• Moscow Street Atlas