There’s a reason why Russia is the birthplace of both terrorism (Nihilist movement) and transhumanism (Cosmist movement), and why we are perpetually in state of constant revolutions. We have no “tradition” to revert to (we have half-a-dozen of them, which means no true one), no “society” to protect (our “country” is technically younger than most of us, and hasn’t built anything of value yet), and no reason to like the world as it is. – yarowrath.

I lived in Russia from 1988-1994 (mostly Moscow), and again in Moscow from late 2016 to 2022. It is unironically my favorite city in the world, and I hope to (re)repatriate once conditions become conducive to international business and free speech.

Here’s a list of reasons from a Twitter thread on why I like Moscow so much:

• First World amenities & living standards, from range of cuisines to access to advanced/experimental medical treatments. If there’s some product or amenity you need, chances are, Moscow has it. There’s also been a strong SWPL trend in the form of proliferating ethnic food courts and craft breweries to gourmet coffee houses and time-sharing cafes and elite gastronomy establishments.
• Much cheaper goods and services than equivalent European and especially American metropolises (in large part thanks to Central Asian immigrants).
• Network effects: ~20M people – including an absolute majority of Russian Elite Human Capital – means intellectual communities exist for most everything under the Sun. (Sadly if unsurprisingly, many of these have been hollowed out after 2022… for instance, the transhumanist discussion cafe Kocherga shut down).
• Medieval origins make Moscow’s center highly walkable (though not cyclable). Diverse range of architectural styles ranging the gamut through Muscovite Baroque, neoclassicism, experimental constructivism, Stalinist monumentalism, “commieblocks”, and post-2000 steel and glass that reaches its apogee amongst the cyberpunk skyscrapers of the “Moscow-City” Business District.
• Vast numbers of museums and art galleries that aren’t swamped with tourists like Saint-Petersburg.
• Cheap, excellent, and ultra-efficient public transport system (it’s almost a banality to mention the Metro).
• Very safe – low rates of theft and assault, gopniks have long gone extinct.
• Ample green spaces including botanical gardens (beautiful places in winter) and massive “forest parks” on the outskirts.
• Many medieval Russian towns, including the “Golden Ring”, around Moscow, accessible by rail. In the prewar Golden Age, you could get air tickets to Sochi, Saint-Petersburg, or London (!) for $50.
• Bureaucracy, finances, social services have long been highly digitized, though those that haven’t been are a pain in the ass.
• There are few Wokes as in Western metropolises, and few rightoids as in provincial Russia or MAGA country.
• Of relevance to RF citizens: Effectively more civil and political rights than Russia at large. Elections are fair (but not free) ever since the 2011 protests no longer true since 2024, and its residents were de facto passed over for mobilization in the interests of political stability.
• Only “mundane” downside that comes to mind is a relative lack of bicycle lanes, if you’re into that, and congestion around Moscow is severe. English language proficiency is modest (of relevance to foreigners).

There’s cities that replicate aspects of Moscow but there’s none I’ve been to that even come close to all of them. (London has high petty crime and is worse as an architectural ensemble; ergo for Paris. Most US cities aren’t walkable. Vienna and Amsterdam are great, but too small. East Asian cities are even more pristine, but have much fewer interesting communities). Consequently, even with the post-2022 degradation, it’s still easily my favorite city on the planet, and I expect it to become an incredible magnet for Elite Human Capital once it goes liberal and LGBTQ+ maxxed.

The other major city in Russia is Saint-Petersburg. As with Vienna, what I feel when walking its wide, wind-swept boulevards is not a sense of vicarious imperial grandeur but a melancholic feeling of “what could have been” and opportunities lost time and time again during Russia’s traumatic 20th century. Petrograd was destined to be the 25M population beating heart of a 400M+ world-empire, but instead ended up as the 5M population “bandit capital” of a fragmented and demoralized nation of 145M by the 1990s. Though it does host a respectable Elite Human Capital population – it competes with Moscow as Russia’s highest IQ region – there is nonetheless much less of it in Saint-Petersburg (15% of Russia’s?) than in Moscow (~60% IMO) in an absolute sense.

Originating in the medieval era – Moscow had 200,000 people by the mid-17th century – it is also a more “authentic” Russian city in architecture, and is built a more human scale. Central Saint-Petersburg is a place of wide imperial avenues, and the grand pomposity of the buildings and palaces, though initially impressive, gets monotonous after a while (in this respect it is somewhat reminiscent of Washington D.C.). I also much prefer Vladimir-Suzdalia’s summer petrichors and dry winter cold to the sultry heat and cold, windswept showers of Ingria.

Nonetheless, I certainly don’t want to discourage people from exploring Saint-Petersburg. In the late 2010s, it was improving faster than Moscow – though from a lower place – and it does need to be admitted that the stereotype of Petersburgers as a more placid and cultured people than brasher (if richer) Muscovites is not entirely outdated. The main reason I come off as glum on Saint-Petersburg is ultimately just because I like Moscow so much; otherwise, I would still prefer to downshift in Saint-Petersburg over any other city in Eastern Europe. By all means, certainly do check it out, for the history and culture if nothing else – and who knows, perhaps its melancholic introspection will be more to your liking than Moscow’s hustle and bustle.

Russia’s millioniks are perhaps better than foreigners would expect, though there are substantial differences in wealth and function. A rough rating would go as follows: Ekaterinburg; Kazan; Novosibirsk; Krasnodar; Krasnoyarsk; Nizhny Novgorod; Voronezh; Ufa; Perm; Rostov-on-Don; Volgograd; Samara; Omsk; Chelyabinsk. The top three along with Sochi have living standards comparable to Saint-Petersburg and their own autonomous intellectual life, although at a necessarily much smaller scale. Sadly, I haven’t been to any of these cities except Nizhny Novgorod, so I can’t judge in too granular detail.

I would avoid most Russian small towns and rural localities for long-term resident. There has been a trend amongst right-wing Westerners, egged on by Russian propaganda, to hail the supposed “trad” virtues of Russia relative to the West. Well, most of this is nonsense – and a good thing at that, given the creepy MRA/chomo undertones of much of this discourse – but far be it from me to rail against labor mobility and border crossing, regardless of the forms it takes. The one point of advice I will give though is that you will be much more secure and comfortable in Moscow, SPB, or at least a millionik than you would be on some Siberian “homestead” surrounded by unemployed alcoholics too lazy and incompetent to have left decades ago like all the normal people. These places have less visibility, less rule of law, and reminder that Russia is one of the world’s most digitized states, this idea of “going from the grid” is a retarded larp fantasy even so far as locals are concerned let alone weird foreigners. My point is, if you’re going beyond the larp with this, you have to have a good idea of what you’re doing.