The Moscow Kremlin

The Kremlin is the main symbol of Moscow, known, probably, to everyone, who has ever happened to hear at least something about Russia and its capital. When a child we couldn't help feeling the importance and uniqueness of our first visit to Red Square, often together with our parents or sometimes with grandparents to accompany us. And when adults, we again and again come back here, just simply to stay in the magic space, whose beauty and grandeur enable us to distract our mind from fuss and vanity of everyday life, where Her Majesty History meets today's life. And, it goes without saying, we also want our guests, be it friends or business partners, to see and admire the Kremlin. We want them to feel involved in what we are proud of, in what enables us to compare our today's life with all the riches of our historical and cultural heritage. Among the Kremlin museums there are two that deserve special attention, because the Armoury Chamber and Diamond Fund exhibit treasures, in the literal meaning of this word.

The Gold Ring

Travelling around the Gold Ring is a perfect opportunity to make sure that Russia is not confined to the borders of Moscow. They are very different, ancient Russian cities and towns noisy and quiet, provincial and almost metropolitan, tourist-oriented and living a quiet and regular life. Each of them has its own memorable places, its own character, soul. Each of them plays its own role in the centuries-old history of the Russian State, in which they take their own pride. And deservedly. Visiting these small towns takes you back to the past for a while, helps you to distract your mind from the metropolitan vanity and, probably, to get an insight into something very important.

Survey excursion around Moscow

Moscow is a surprising city. Everything seems to remain unchanged and at the same time never stops changing. Every day you witness to something new to say nothing of every new visit to Moscow. Still the Kremlin is the famous Kremlin and the Centre is the same picturesque spot with its skyscrapers impressing you with their scale and scope. And the view site in the Vorobievy Hills is as usual the place you can have a breathtaking view of Moscow from. Its pleasant to say that the city hasn t stopped developing both in depth and in width - the former, probably, means that new roads and districts are appearing, and the latter means that some monuments and architectural pieces deserve special attention. Unfortunately, some of them are lost, most likely, forever. But there is nothing doing. This Moscow is a real Moscow, the way it is today.

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

NO matter which direction you take when walking around the centre of Moscow, now and again against the sky between buildings you can see the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour with its golden domes. The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour is the largest cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church, it accommodates up to 10 thousand believers. Revived within an unheard of short period of time, it has become an adornment of the capital, and today it is to be inscribed on the World Heritage List of UNESCO. Amazing in its magnificence and grandeur, the Cathedral has become a sacred site for both Muscovites and visitors, for representatives of the Orthodox and other religions.

Zvezdny Gorodok (Stellar town)

Everyone at least once in a lifetime has dreamt of becoming a cosmonaut, no matter if he confessed it to himself or not. It was hardly the mystery and incomprehensibility of the Space that attracted us when we were children, but very few people didn t know that a cosmonaut is a hero. Who wouldn t like to be a hero? Nowadays the former heroic spacenews has turned into a newsreel of cosmonauts everyday routine but actually the road to space flights is still a destiny of chosen few. The Stellar Town, Zvezdny Gorodok, Cosmonaut Training Centre, is the place where you can get a better understanding of every stage of this career. You can even test something on yourself.

Old Manors of Moscow

Looking at them makes you wonder at the thought that people used to just live there spent their time in those palaces and houses solving problems, receiving guests, just living there for days, months and years. Luxurious or modest, surrounded with magnificent parks or simply fenced, anonymous or with a haze of stories and legends behind them, they have reached the present time and, no matter whether they are being in a better or worse condition, they deserve to be called historical monuments. Many parks of Moscow are arranged on the basis of the former manor parks, and their surroundings play a substantial part in the narrative of the manor-museums.

To sacred places

In search of eternal, essential, pure and timeless foundations of human s being on the Earth people have always been appealing to the God and religion. Pilgrimage to sacred places is a centuries-old Orthodox tradition. Christians have always been striving to make a trip to pray to the God in an especially esteemed temple. The Russian land abounding in relics used to be trudged all over by pilgrims - from Kiev up to Valaam, from Diveevo up to Solovki, from St. Sergiy s Laura up to the New Аfon, to the Sacred Land - ancient Palestine, the land which hardly received more pilgrims from any other country than from Orthodox Russia. There was a truly great tradition of pilgrimage feat, whose fruits cannot vanish into thin air. The relics of Russia, the things that are united by the concept Sviataia Russ , - monasteries, churches, priesthood, relics of saints bodies, icons, sacred vessels, pious people, sacred events in the history of Russia. Pilgrimage to sacred places is not just a travel in some geographical space. First of all, it is search of a way of spiritual development, a chance to relieve the soul, a chance to concentrate on something really important.

Pages of history

What events took place in the far and recent past, in what way did people live then and what were their hopes and aspirations? It is of great interest to learn what today's reality has resulted from and what one can expect in the future...We turn to History for narrations, examples and lessons, if one is lucky to learn those lessons.
Certainly, those lessons have not always been to our liking, but they are unquestionably important for us to place ourselves historically. Everything, from the history of wars and world clashes up to smaller details of the demotic life of a medieval town, is educational, stirs curiosity and, as it turns out all of a sudden, is of importance for us.

Closer to nature

Hectic life in a megapolis has its pluses and minuses. Among the minuses is the idea that such a way of life narrows your perception and more often than not makes you forget that there is a wonderful world outside it, the world that, fortunately, hasn't been covered by the wave of civilisation. Unique reserves, homes to really wild animals, captivating picture-like views, nature, undisturbed by man - it all still exists surprisingly close to Moscow. Can you expect to see a couple of bizons or zubrs some 80-90 kilometres from Moscow centre? And it's worth saying that apart from those more or less "local" animals far more exotic neighbours can be found in the same vicinity. For instance, ostriches. These "foreigners" feel perfectly at home in the Russian climate. So far they have been kept on a special farm, but who knows...

Military machines

Developing more and more sophisticated weapons is a priority task for every state. This is what the best engineers, scientists and designers are busy with. Not every technical military achievement is to be used in non-war industries, but, undoubtedly, without these strategic innovations the scientific and technical progress would be much slower. Museums of armed forces are an opportunity to get the idea of the then best achievements of technical and engineering genius. Besides it is a chance to see for yourself what you read about in books and newspapers, to look back on the national and world history, or to get surprised how intricate and various may the formidable machines be.

Museums and monuments

Moscow museums are a genuine treasury of material and spiritual culture of Russia and of the whole world. The museums display precious relics of the national history from the most ancient times up to now, outstanding creations of artists, magnificent pieces of work by our talented restorers. Here you may find convincing evidence that the new is not always the best, you can see with your own eyes that there are really unique things, and today's seemingly 'grandiose' creations may easily get lost in the Eternity. It sometimes happens that a thing which is really far from being perfect turns out to be exclusively important, needed, demanded, and in this way it gets the chance to occupy its place in History and in some museum of the future.