The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

MOSCOW. 393Vitebsk and Smolensk, this is also one of the main highways of internationaltraffic. As long as the Russians were confined to the Dnieper basin, Kiev wastheir national metropolis. But as soon as relations had been established betweenEurope 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 enoughto be regarded, like Kiev, as a " holy city " but ; it is, at least for Great Russia,the " Mother," the "White Walled" (Moskva Matushha).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 upin concentric circles. The Moskva also, although flowing in an opposite directionFig. 207.—Moscow.Scale 1 i 150.0nn.to the Seine, presents windings in the west of the city almost identical with thoseof the French river. The Kreml, or Kremlin, surrounded by high walls in theform of an irregular triangle, occupies, with the quarter known as the " City ofRefuge " (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 arms.Round about the City of Refuge has grown up the " White Town " (Betty-Gorod), which a circular boulevard, with its two extremities resting on the leftbank of the river, separates from the "Land Town" (Zemlano'i-Gorod), wherereside the artisans and poorer classes. Since the end of the last century thisquarter has been surrounded by a broad thoroughfare lined with plantations andgardens, and with a continuation on the right bank, forming a complete circuit of