The sprawling, mind-boggling metropolis of Russian Moscow has long been one of the theatrical stages on which the great dramas of Europe and Asia have been played out in grand style. Burned by Napoleon in 1812, immortalised by Tolstoy, utilised by the Bolsheviks and championed as a bastion of heroic defiance by the post-war communists, it’s almost hard to believe just how defining the historical events that found their home on Moscow’s streets have been.
Moscow tour guides will easily be able to mark the major must-see landmarks on the map, from the onion-domed orthodox Saint Basil's Cathedral, to the political powerhouse of Red Square just next door, while others will be quick to recommend a ride on Moscow’s famous subterranean metro system, or a visit to the UNESCO-attested Novodevichy Convent on the city’s southern side.
But Moscow is a city also in the throes of a cultural wrangling between the old and the new. Creative energies abound here: Boho bars and pumping super clubs now occupy the iconic mega structures of the old USSR; high-fashion outlets, trendy shopping malls and luxurious residential districts stand as testimony to a city that’s now the undisputed playground of the world’s super-rich, while sprawling modern art museums dominate the cultural offering of the downtown districts north of the Moskva River.