The Sites: Moscow

If Saint Petersburg started it, Moscow continued it.

The bustle of the capitol; the pace of life that is simultaneously quick and slow; the seasons that oscillate between extremes: this is a city of contrasts, history, and contradictions.

Neon glow over the Kremlin from the Hotel Rossiya's adjacent parking lot

Then, of course, there are the churches.

St. Basil's Cathedral; Red Square; Moscow, Russia

St. Basil's Cathedral; Red Square; Moscow, Russia

St. Basil's is perhaps Russia's most recognizable icon.  Depending on the lighting, its domes can look like ribbon candy or hellfire.  A friend once described it as his favorite thing to photograph, because "you can never take the same picture twice."  The lighting, the angles of the onion domes: everything is as it was built centuries ago, yet is never the same. 

Modernity and history collide inside the Kremlin and in the city that surrounds it -- concentric circles of growth and development that create a playground for the nouveau riche while at the same time serving as a Russian interpretation of Dante's inferno for the citizens toiling away to eek out a meager existence on their pensions and paychecks.  

Olympic Stadium

The Soviets tried to whitewash the imperial past by destroying its Orthodox architecture while at the same time erecting new monuments to their Communist supremacy.  Yet after the fall of the Soviet Union, the rebuilding began, both literally and figuratively.  

Bulgakov House Museum

In addition to the revolutionaries of the Empire, my other academic weakness is Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master & Margarita."  Set in 1930s Moscow, Bulgakov incorporated the city into his work, arguably making it a character in and of itself.  The Arbat remains a bustling promenade, perhaps more modern, but still choked with the materialism that Woland and his retinue found so rampant in the fictional Muscovites.  The lindens still hang over Patriarch's Ponds; nearby, Bulgakov's apartment has been converted into museum.

Cathedral of Christ the Savior, flanked by luxury autos

Those who have spent time in both cities will often tell you that it is rather simple to discern which was the imperial capitol and which was the Soviet capitol: where Peterburg kept its colors and grandeur, Moscow maintains a gritty layer over itself, as if to wash away the grime would be to wash away the centuries of plight that weighs so heavily on each of its residents - the very nature of "the Russian soul" that embraces suffering as simply something to bear.