Natural geography: Moscow is located in the middle of the Russian plains, on the banks of the Moscow River, across the banks of the Moscow River and its tributary, the Yauza River. Greater Moscow (including the area within the ring road) covers an area of 900 square kilometers, including the peripheral green belt **** for 1725 square kilometers. The terrain is flat, with only the Teplostanskaya plateau (highest point 253 meters) in the southwest. The climate is continental, with an annual precipitation of 582 millimeters, heavy snowfall, an average annual snow period of up to 146 days (early November - mid-April), and long, dark winters. the average temperature in January is -10.2 ° C (minimum -42 ° C), and the average temperature in July is 18.1 ° C (maximum 37 ° C). The city's green area accounts for about 1/3 of the total area, is one of the world's best green city. From the airplane overlooking Moscow, the eye is the blue sky under the green bushes and clear transparent rivers and lakes, the city neat and clean.
Historical overview: Moscow is a city with a long history and honorable traditions, founded in the mid-12th century.
The name of the city derives from the Moskva River, the etymology of which is given in three ways: low wetland (Slavic), cattle crossing (Finno-Ugric), dense forest (Kabardian). The earliest recorded reference to the city as a settlement was in 1147 A.D. In 1156, the founder of Moscow, Grand Duke Yuri Dolgoruky, built the Kremlin Castle, which was constructed of mud and wood. The word "Kremlin" is either derived from the Greek word meaning "castle" or "crag", or from the early Russian word "krem", which refers to a type of building that could be used as a fortress. "which refers to a type of conifer tree that can be used as a building material. A number of commercial, artisanal and agricultural villages were formed in and around Kremlin Castle, which became the capital of the Principality of Moscow at the beginning of the 13th century, and in the 14th century the Russians, with Moscow as the center, rallied their forces around them in their struggle against Mongol aristocratic rule, thus unifying Russia and establishing a centralized feudal state.
The 860th anniversary of the founding of Moscow
Moscow became the capital of the united Russian state in the middle of the 15th century, and remained so until the beginning of the 18th century, when Peter the Great moved the capital to St. Petersburg in 1712; however, Moscow remained Russia's largest economic, political, and cultural center, and continued to play the role of Russia's second capital, and the first Russian university was founded in 1755.
During the October Socialist Revolution of 1917, Moscow followed Petrograd with an armed uprising and the establishment of Soviet power. The Soviet government and the Central Committee of the ****production party moved from Petrograd (later renamed St. Petersburg) to Moscow in March 1918, and in December 1922 Moscow officially became the capital of the USSR, as well as the capital of the world's first socialist state, the Union of Soviet Socialist **** and States.
In 1960, a number of towns in the vicinity of the government were incorporated into the city limits to form the Greater Moscow District, and in 1987, the Moscow Municipality designated the first double day of September as the City Day, on which all kinds of city festivities were held.
On December 21, 1991, the USSR collapsed, and Moscow became the capital of the Russian Federation.
In 1987, the first day of September was designated as the City Day by the Moscow Municipality, when various events were organized.
Administrative divisions and population: In 1968, the city was divided into 30 districts (including the new town of Zelenograd, just outside the ring road), of which 13 inner districts had a smaller population and area than the 17 outer districts. The population was 89.2% Russian, the rest Jewish, Ukrainian and Tatar.
From 1897 to 1926, the population of Moscow increased from 1.039 million to 2.08 million. From 1926 to 1939, Moscow's inhabitants increased 2.2 times to 4.609 million. After the Second World War, the population of Moscow continued to increase, but at a slower pace: 6.133 million in 1959, 7.194 million in 1970, 8.142 million in 1979, 8.875 million in 1995 and 8.972 million in 1989. Since 1989, Moscow's population has been on a downward trend, amounting to 8.717 million in 1993, 8.639 million in 1997, 8.5 million in 1998, and 8.389 million in 2000, while the population census of October 2002 put the resident population at 10 million, and the foreign population at about 12 million. As of January 2006, the population was about 14.15 million.
The average population density is 7,700 people per square kilometer, with the center of the city having a density of 29,000 people per square kilometer. Women make up 55% of the population, outnumbering men by 774,000 (1976), and the natural population growth rate is extremely low, at 2.5 per thousand (1976).
Ecological environment: Moscow's ecological protection is good, strict law enforcement on environmental issues. 1997, the Russian Federation on the ecological damage to the behavior of more than 300 criminal cases, of which 150 cases were filed in Moscow. In general, the budget of large cities accounted for three percent of the cost of ecological protection, but in Moscow it amounted to five percent. Unleaded gasoline has long been in place, but automobile exhaust emissions already account for 88 percent of the total amount of polluted gas, and the city has stepped up automobile exhaust testing, banned cars that pollute beyond the limit, and restricted the importation of second-hand cars and the registration of older cars. Due to historical reasons, the 640,000 inhabitants of the downtown area had only 9 square meters of green space per capita, and the city government decided that the city and district governments would each allocate 2 million rubles per year to transform 6,000 small parks into nature reserves, where construction of any buildings was prohibited. in 1998, Moscow Mayor Luzhkov issued a resolution to create eight new nature reserves in the city, including 1,200 hectares near the city's eastern factory district. Izmailovo Forest Pine Garden, the Krelatskoye Hills, where President Yeltsin and other leaders lived, and Sparrow Hill (formerly Lenin Hill), where Moscow University is located. The newly created nature reserves, together with the four existing ones, make the total area of the city's nature reserves 7,200 hectares, which, together with the city's scattered street gardens and parks, make the area of green space*** 24,000 hectares, or about 40% of the city's area, with more than 30 square meters of green space per capita, making Luzhkov one of the world's best-greened cities. As a result, Luzhkov was honored by the United Nations with the "World's Best Ecologist" award.
Culture and education: Moscow is the center of science and culture in the country, with a large number of educational facilities, including 1,433 general education schools and 84 higher education institutions. The most famous university is the Moscow State Lomonosov University (more than 26,000 students). The Lenin Library is the second largest library in the world, with a collection of 35.7 million books (1995). Every year 40,000 titles are published and nearly 3,600 journals are distributed. There are more than 1,000 scientific research institutions and more than 200,000 scientific workers. In addition to the National Academy of Sciences, there are national institutes of art, medicine, education and agriculture.
There are 121 theaters in the city. The National Theater, the Moscow Art Theater, the State Central Puppet Theater, the Moscow State Circus, and the Russian State Symphony Orchestra enjoy a world reputation. There are 110 cinemas, 31 cabarets and 72 palaces of culture. Television is broadcast on 4 channels. Radio Moscow broadcasts in many domestic languages and more than 60 foreign languages. Thirty-four newspapers are published. There are 65 museums in the city, and among the galleries the State Pushkin Museum of Art, the Tretyakov Gallery, as well as the Hall of Arms (in the Kremlin) and the State Historical Museum are more famous.
Sports facilities include large stadiums (with more than 1,500 seats) 1,970 (1997), 96 stadiums (1997), including the Olympic complex with an area of 11,557 square meters, where the 22nd Olympic Games were held in 1980. There are also 65 swimming pools, 290 soccer fields, 1,200 gyms racing tracks 4 and 1,600 volleyball courts for blue ball.
Medical facilities include 193 hospitals and 1,000 clinics.
Industry and commerce: Before the October Revolution, Moscow was famous for its textile industry and was known as the "City of Fabrics". Later, it became the largest industrial center in the Soviet Union and Russia, with the total industrial output value ranking first in the country and a complete range of industrial categories, with more than 20,000 factories. There are more than 20,000 factories, with machinery manufacturing and metal processing as the most important ones, and other industrial projects such as automobile manufacturing, chemical industry, textile industry, electronics, aviation, food processing, wood processing, papermaking, construction, printing, and so on. The machinery manufacturing, chemical, food processing, and printing industries are well developed, as is suburban agriculture.
The local power station is fueled by natural gas piped in from Central Asia, the North Caucasus and the Volga-Ural region. There is a large gas reservoir and a pipeline around the city. The hydroelectric power stations of Uglich, Rybinsk, Gorky, Samara and Volgograd on the Volga River supply Moscow with electricity via high-voltage transmission lines. There is a thermal power station in the east of the city.
Moscow is also the largest commercial center of the CIS, where the largest commercial and financial offices of Russia are located. There is a national bank, the headquarters of insurance organizations, 66 large department stores, the largest of which are "Children's World", the Central Department Store and the State Department Store.
Transportation: Moscow is a well-developed transportation hub of the country's railroads, highways, rivers and airways, with electrified railroads and highways in all directions.
As the center of the Russian railroad system, Moscow operates about 1/10 of the country's total volume of goods. 9 passenger train stations in the city, about 50 kilometers away from the city on the periphery of the construction of a total length of 550 kilometers of the Great Circle Railway. The railroad goes to St. Petersburg, Kirov, Kiev, Vladivostok, Kharkov, Donbass, Minsk, Warsaw, Berlin and other cities of the country and abroad, as well as to the Urals, the Lower Volga, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Crimea, Siberia, the Baltics and other regions.
The metro is the largest means of passenger transportation in Moscow, there are 8 metro lines in the city***, which operate over 212.5 kilometers (1995).
The Moscow River flows through the city and has three river ports. The opening of the Moscow Canal, which connects the Moscow River with the Volga River, water transportation can reach the sea. Volga - Don Canal navigation, Moscow became the Baltic Sea, the White Sea, the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Caspian Sea, "5 sea port", the local three river ports 29 million tons of cargo per year.
Moscow, as the center of the CIS aviation network, has four airports, with most European capitals and New York, Montreal, Tokyo and other foreign cities have direct routes, with 97 countries, 122 cities have international shipping business. Transportation within the city is relatively well developed, with the metro and public **** cars as the main tools, and private cars steadily increasing.
Municipal planning: the General Plan for the Development of Moscow was adopted in 1971. The city is laid out in a strict, circular and radial shape, from the inside out as a ring of streets, a ring of garden roads, the Great Moscow Ring Railway and the Moscow Ring Road. Each ring has a different role and architectural style, reflecting the different stages of Moscow's development. Kremlin Castle is in the center of the city, the first Russian state in the early days, and later became the symbol of the Soviet state.
The city **** divided into eight districts, Gorky Street is the city's main artery, but also the busiest street. Lenin Street is more than 50 meters wide and Kalinin Street is the most modern street in the city. Gardens, street gardens, cultural rest parks and green garden belts abound in the city.
Main buildings and attractions: Moscow is a historic city, centered on the Kremlin and Red Square, which radiate in all directions. The Kremlin is Russia's successive tsar's palace, majestic, world-famous, the former USSR Supreme Soviet Congress and the former USSR **** production party congress are held in the Kremlin. The Kremlin Castle has fine churches, palaces, bell towers, towers, majestic architecture, world-famous. In the center of the Kremlin's Church Square, there is the majestic Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the Church of the Annunciation with its staid end-dressing, and the Cathedral of the Angels, which houses the graves of Moscow's emperors before Peter the Great. To the east of the Kremlin is Red Square, the center of state ceremonies, with Lenin's tomb and the Pokrovsky Church (1554-1560) at the southern end. Within the Garden Ring is the main governmental and commercial area, where most of the state institutions and major hotels, stores, theaters, museums, galleries, libraries, and the former headquarters of the Economic and Social Council were built. There are many factories, train stations and freight yards between the Garden Route Ring and the Circular Railroad.
Other places of interest are the bell tower of the church of the Novodevichy convent, the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the Lenin Central Gymnasium, the Ukrainian Hotel and the Moscow State University. Beyond the Ring Railway is a factory and residential area developed in the 1960s and 1970s.
Sculpture is a distinctive decoration in Moscow, where statues and monuments in bronze or marble stand in many places. The city has 11 natural forests, nearly 100 parks covering about 2,000 hectares, and more than 800 street gardens in the city.
On the outskirts of Moscow there are the Novosibirsk Monastery, the Orthodox Great Monastery of Troitsa, the Simonov Monastery and others. On the outskirts of the city, the new villages of Silver Pine Grove, Khimki, Ostankino and other places are full of lush forests and pleasantly quiet.
On May 16, 1995, Moscow and Beijing became friendly cities.