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   SCAND 2003 #45   Moscow: The Kremlin  

Monday, July 14, 2003

            Moscow (Москва) is the capital city and the most populous federal region of Russia.  The city is a major political, economic, cultural and scientific center.  Moscow has the largest number of billionaires in the world.  It is the northernmost megacity on Earth, the second (after Istanbul) most populous city in Europe, and the 6th largest city proper in the world.  It has a population of 11,503,500 with a land area of 390 mi² (1,000 Km².)  It sits in the center (yellow, below left) of the Moscow Oblast (province or zone) which is dived into many political divisions (below right.)

            The territory of what is now the Moscow Oblast (above) had been inhabited for more than 20,000 years.  Numerous mounds and settlements from the Iron Age have been discovered.  Up to the 9-10th Centuries, the Moskva River basin and adjacent lands were inhabited by Finno-Ugric peoples.  Slavs began to populate the area only in the 10th century.  In the mid-12th Century, the lands became part of the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality.  Several important cities were founded during that time, including Volokolamsk (1135,) Moscow (1147,) Zvenigorod (1152) and Dmitrov (1154.)  In the first half of the 13th Century, the entire Vladimir-Suzdal Principality, including the Moscow area, was conquered by the Mongols and became part of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which subsequently became the center of the unification of Russian lands.  In 1380, from Kolomna the prince Dmitry Donskoy (1350-89) led his troops to defeat the Tatars (Mongols) at the Battle of Kulikovo.  The southern part of the Moscow Oblast later becam part of the Principality of Ryazan; it was attached to Moscow only in 1520

Fragment of the panorama of the Battle of Borodino by Franz Roubaud (1912)

            In 1708, the Moscow Governorate was established by the decree of Tsar Peter the Great; the area included most of the present Moscow Oblast.  During Napoleon's invasion of Russia, the Battle of Borodino (above) decided the outcome in 1812 while the British were burning our White House.  He invaded with the Grand Armee of 685,000 troops and retured to France with 20,000.  It was the biggest lost battle in history.  Here is how he went in (below.)

            And here is how he left, totally defeated (below.)  It is known that Hitler carefully read all the history and tactics of this campaign and it will never be known why he proceeded to repeat it. 

ASIDE:  Considering oblasts, it is interesting to note that Joseph Stalin set up a special territory in the USSR for the Jews which is called the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (JAO) with the intention to move most of the Jews there.  Guess where it is?  Its about as far away from Moscow as you can get and right on the border of China (red on map below.)

            Below left is the JAO and its capitol is Birobidzhan.  On the right is the plaque on the administrative offices of the JAO in Russian and Hebrew.  The Jewish population was at its highest in 1943 but today they are only 2% of the population; smart, they all got out.  However, the Israeli government still funds the Yiddish University there that teaches Yiddish and Jewish culture.  I wonder how many Americans (including Jews) know about this tiny little JAO?

    

        For some reason I woke at 6:30 and then again at 9:30, when I finally got up.  Jackov or Jake is the uncle of Dimitrii�s wife, Tania and he was given the task of giving Marcia, Irene and I a tour of the city.  He was there sitting in the lobby waiting for us when we got there at 10:00.  Now Jake is a warm and friendly person but just a bit eccentric and easily rattled when he gets under a little stress.  Obviously we wanted to see the Kremlin and Lenin�s Tomb but everything was still not open.  Vladimir drove the three of us to Red Square and it turns out they had opened the Kremlin Jewelry for tourists.  We gazed in amazement at the beautifully colored St. Basil�s � the symbol of the Kremlin.  It took awhile to absorb it all � the sheer size of the place and that this was the center of the �Evil Empire.�  We bought tickets and entered the Jewelry to see all the magnificent gems, tiaras, jewelry, clothing and Faberge eggs.  From there we went through the Kremlin Armory but Marcia never enjoys these type of museums.

and Armory Christ th X

3:00 lunch at Sbarro see TUNA

4:00 cap lunch Caf� Loft

Learned word for cinnamon is koritza

5:00 drive to clinic tour do AOL

6:30 Drive to hotel

7:30 run treadmill and hotel

8:15 Vlad drives to suburbs

9:15 dinner Tsarskaya Okhota pectopah with Slava, Alek and Vlad

11:00 dessert at Alek Rosenberg house in country, guards with uzzis

11:5 drive to hotel

To bed 2:30

KJH                                                                                                                  Go To -> NEXT DIARIO #46 

Kenneth J. Hoffer, MD

KHofferMD@AOL.com

Moscow, Russia

Sent //2013

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