Abstract

Impressions of Moscow

Charming, for all its strangeness, when seen at night, or from a distance, Moscow is without charm, in spite of its strangeness, when seen clearly and by day. Built, like Rome, on seven hills, it radiates outwards, circle beyond circle, from the central height of the Kremlin; the old, or "Chinese town," heaped within its white wall, cut off sharply from the "white town" of shops and public buildings and large houses, which dwindles into the first ring of dusty boulevards; and from this the "earthen town" stretches to the outer ring of boulevards; and then the suburbs begin, vague, interminable and seeming, long before they have reached the ramparts which close in the thirty-six miles of the city's circumference, to have passed into the open country.