B) Moscow

First tribes appeared on the territory of the future Moscow in the Neolithic epoch. The oldest settlements, dated as three thousand years before our era, were discovered within the area of the present-day city. In the second half of the first millennium of our era, Slavic tribes occupied the areas near Moscow; these were "vjatichi", who are regarded as a kernel of the future Moscow population.

The reference to Moscow, as to a town, is registered in the old manuscript of 1147. In 1156, Prince Yury Dolgoruky erected timber walls and a moat around Moscow. He is frequently regarded as the founder of Moscow, and his monument is among the most honored in Moscow. Moscow gave its name to the land, which was called Muscovy.

Tatar-Mongolian invasion in 1237-38 resulted in great destruction of Moscow. However, the city recovered rather rapidly and became the capital of the independent Moscow principality in the second half of the 13^th century. During the 14^th and the first half of the 15^th centuries Moscow was a relatively large city with big industrial and trade population.

At the end of the 15^th century, under the principality of Ivan III, Moscow became the capital of Russia. The Kremlin built of stone at the beginning of the 15^th century is a benchmark of that epoch.

Moscow was attacked by the Polish and Lithuanian army in the 17^th century and was conquered by them. After salesman Minin and Prince Pozharsky organizing people's militia to protect the motherland, Moscow was liberated in 1612. Recently we have started celebrating the day of Moscow liberation, November 4, as an official holiday.wtkjv

Starting with the reign of Peter the First (the Great), arts and science in Moscow, and in Russia in whole, progressed strongly. In 1703 the first printed newspaper (“Vedomosti”) appeared and in 1755 Moscow University was established.

Moscow ceased to be Russia's capital in 1703, after founding St. Petersburg by Peter the Great on the Baltic coast.

When Napoleon invaded in 1812, he said: "If I capture Kiev, I'll catch Russia by its feet, if I capture St. Petersburg, I'll catch it by its head, and if I capture Moscow, I'll destroy its heart". But the Muscovites burned the city and evacuated as Napoleon's forces were approaching. Napoleon's army, plagued by hunger, cold, and poor supply lines was forced to retreat soon.

After the reconstruction of that period Moscow got its present-day look, as well as a new way of living. At the turn of the 19^th century Moscow was a feudal town, whereas after the 1812 reconstruction it acquired new features of a bourgeois city. By the end of the 19^th century, it had become the second industrial centre in Russia (after Saint-Petersburg, the then capital).

The XIX century is known to have been a "golden age" for Russian arts and science, and Moscow was a birthplace for many famous artists, writers, composers and scientists, as well as outstanding politicians.

Revolutionary activities in Russia at the beginning of the 20^th century resulted in October Revolution of 1917. The new government headed by V. Lenin, fearing possible foreign invasion, moved the capital back from Petersburg-Petrograd to Moscow on March 5, 1918.

The social structure of Moscow started to change in the 20s of the XX century because peasants began leaving their villages in search of jobs and a “new life”. Hence, Moscow architecture changed: the proportion of apartment blocks inhabited by workers increased drastically, the city sprawled outside, and a lot of churches were destroyed or transformed into “Palaces of Culture” (convention centers), clubs or warehouses.

During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), the Soviet State Committee of Defense and the General Staff of the Red Army were located in Moscow. Many factories were evacuated, together with much of the government, and from October 20, 1941 the city was declared to be under siege. Its remaining inhabitants built and manned antitank defenses, while the city was bombarded from the air. Despite the siege and the bombings, the metro construction continued in Moscow throughout the war, and by the end of the war several new metro lines were opened. In November 1941, the German Army Group “Centre” was stopped at the outskirts of the city and then driven off in the course of the Battle of Moscow.

On May 8, 1965 in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the victory in World War II Moscow was awarded a title of the Hero City.

In 1991, Moscow was the scene of a coup [ku:] attempt by the government members opposed to the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the USSR. When the USSR was dissolved later that year, Moscow continued to be the capital of the Russian Federation. Since then, the emergence of a market economy in Moscow has produced an explosion of Western-style retailing, services, architecture, and lifestyles.