For over nine centuries Moscow sits on the Russian soil. Sometime, very long ago, just by chance, people had made a little town and put it on a clean and beautiful bank of the river that we now call the Moscow river

The founder was Great Prince Yuri Volodimirovich. History refers to him as Yuri Dolgoruki. Keeping in mind a great spirit of their ancestors, first moscovites put a lot of love into their own town, and we still see and feel that spirit. We see it in soaring golden domes of churches, in the Kremlin wall and towers of the Kremlin, even though the Kremlin was destroyed several times

The last great disaster to hit Moscow, occured in 1812 during the Napoleon invasion: proud Russians had set the city on fire -- they didn't want to give it to the hands of enemy. The Germans were very close to Moscow in the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Only an enormous number of deaths had saved the heart of Russia. In contrast, there was an even sadder period of history: communists ruling the country. During this era many cultural stars were completely destroyed, for example Temple of Christ the Savior which serves now as a symbol of destruction by those people

We are now trying to restore these masterpieces, although it is very difficult to do right now because of economic problems

The stations of Moscow's subway system have often been called "the people's palaces", for their elegant designs and lavish and profuse use of marble, mosaics, sculptures and chandeliers. Built during Stalin's rule, these metro stations were supposed to display the best of Soviet architecture and design and show how privileged the lifestyle of the Russian people was

Although plans proposing the construction of an underground train system in Moscow were drawn up in 1902 and again in 1912, the outbreak of WWI, and later the revolution, delayed the start of the project for many years. The first line, the Sokolnicheskaya Line, was tunneled and built mainly by forced laborers and was finally and ceremoniously inaugurated on 15th May 1935, boasting just 13 stations

Today the Metro system has grown into an enormous network of 11 lines and over 160 stations, with new stations opening every year