MOSCOW. 



393 



Vitebsk and Smolensk, tbis is also one of the main highways of international 

 traffic. As long as the Russians were confined to the Dnieper basin, Kiev was 

 their national metropolis. But as soon as relations had been established between 

 Europe and East Slavonia, some more central point, such as Moscow or -Vladimir, 

 could not fail to become the capital of the state, Moscow is not venerable enough 

 to be regarded, like Kiev, as a "holy city ;" but it is, at least for Great Russia, 

 the " Mother," the " White Walled " [Moskva Matushka). 



The general plan of the city presents some resemblance to that of Paris, 

 consisting of a central nucleus round which the various quarters have grown up 

 in concentric circles. The Moskva also, although flowing in an opposite direction 



Fig. 207.— Moscow. 

 Scale 1 t 150,000. 



__- 2 Miles. 



to the Seine, presents windings in the west of the city almost identical with those 

 of the French river. The Kreml, or Kremlin, surrounded by high walls in the 

 form of an irregular triangle, occupies, with the quarter known as the " City of 

 Refuge" [Kitdi-Gorod), the centre of the capital on the north side of the Moskva, 

 which here describes a curve enclosing an oblong island between its two arras. 

 Round about the City of Refuge has grown up the "White Town" [BeUy- 

 Gorod), which a circular boulevard, with its two extremities resting on the left 

 bank of the river, separates from the "Land Town" {Zcmlanoi-Gorod), where 

 reside the artisans and poorer classes. Since the end of the last century this 

 quarter has been surrounded by a broad thoroughfare lined with plantations and 

 gardens, and with a continuation on the right bank, forming a complete circuit of 

 172 



