Moscow/Moscou/Moskau/Moscu [antikvár]

Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, is one of the oldest Russian cities and the country's biggest political, economic and cultural centre. It has an area of over 216 thousand acres and a popu-lation of nearly seven millión.Modern Moscow is the biggest industrial centre of the Soviet Union, a city of science, education and culture. It is the seat of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., of a number of special academies with many researdi institutes, and of somé hundred higher educational establishments, including Moscow University, the country's biggest seat of learning (with an enrolment of over 20,000 students and post-graduates), and Patrice Lu-mumba Friendship University, for students from African, Asian and Latin American countries.Moscow has thirty theatres, of whidi the Bolshoi and Maly theatres, the Art Theatre and a number of others, are world famous. Many of Moscow's more than 150 museums and exhibitions are known abroad, such as the Central Lenin Museum, Tretyakov Picture Gallery, a treasure-house of Russian national painting and fine arts, the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum, the Museum of Eastern Cultures, and others. Lenin Library is among the biggest book repositories in the world. It exchanges books continuously with sixty countries of the world. Last but not least, there is the permanent Exhibition of Soviet Economic Achievement.The appearance of the city has changed beyond recognition in Soviet years. Outstanding monuments of traditional Russian architecture, such as the ancient Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral, and others,. stand side by side with fine specimens of modern Soviet architecture.There is no social boundary between the centre of the city and its outskirts, and this is a distinctive feature of new Moscow. What used to be Moscow outskirts have become modern residential areas, with parks, schools, cinemas, shops and sports facilities.Moscow is building flats and service buildings fast. Four hundred thousand flats (which is more than all the housing of pre-revolutionary Moscow). two hundred schools, sixty-five polyclinics and hospitals, and over one thousand shops have been built in just the last four years.Moscow's subway is being continuously extended. Its lines now totál nearly 100 kilometres in length. There are 66 stations.Moscow is an important rail, air and highway junction. It is linked with various parts of the Soviet Union and the capitals and bigger cities of many countries of the world. After the Lenin Volga-Don Navigation Canal was opened in 1952 Moscow became a port of five seas.The Soviet capital is daily visited by numerous delegations of workers and peasants, science and cultural workers, public leaders and trade-unionists. Tourists come to the city from all over the world, and their number is growing from year to year.