I repatriated to my home city of Moscow in late 2016, and will likely stay here for the rest of my life. It is my favorite city in the world by a large margin. Basically, it has First World amenities and living standards, and some of the most interesting communities gathered up from across the entirety of the Eurasian world-civilization, but without the problems of demographic and cultural Third Worldization that afflict the major Western metropolises such as London, Paris, and New York. And, thanks to much cheaper living costs, your money as an expat goes about twice farther.

Now I may be biased as a Muscovite, and your mileage may vary, but I think that the capital is highly competitive relative to other Russian cities. As a medieval city, Moscow has developed more naturally than Saint-Petersburg, which was built as an imperial power center from the very beginning, making it “denser” and more walkable. There are a 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. Although this makes it rather chaotic from an architectural standpoint, I actually find this heterogeneous medley aesthetically superior to the relative neoclassical monotony that characterizes Central Saint-Petersburg. And while the continental climate may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it is still arguably far better than the cold, swampy, maritime climate of the “Venice of the North.”

Furthermore, Moscow’s sheer size – it contains around 10% of the Russian population, or ten times as many people as the largest city after Saint-Petersburg – means that it offers unmatched opportunities and economies of scale, whether you interests are in finance, technology, politics, science, or culture. Although Russia’s hyper-centralization may not be optimal for the country as a whole, it does mean that a disproportionate amount of the most interesting people and institutions are concentrated in Moscow. In short, “things are happening” (жизнь кипит).

In the 2010s under Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, large areas of the city have become gentrified, with an emergent SWPL culture characterized by things such as gyms and yoga classes, gourmet coffeehouses and time sharing “anticafes”, spruced up streets with beautiful decor and renovated modernistic parks, affordable eateries for the lazy NEET, and a wide variety of establishments from the hipsterish ones serving food on wooden boards and craft beer in random jars to high end gastronomy in the numerous restaurants and food markets. The new “bobo” created by this system has completely displaced the gopnik, who has well nigh gone extinct. Crime has also plummeted, with Moscow being rated as the world’s safest megacity for women. Whereas I managed to get my cell phone stolen in London during a lifetime total of three months there, I have not been the victim of any crime in Moscow to date.

However, this “gentrification” has not (yet?) been accompanied by the all-encompassing political correctness and “wokeness” that dominates Western discourse. At least outside a narrow clique of West-worshippers in the liberal media – who are trying very hard to make Russians care about #MeToo and #BLM, thankfully with scant success to date – life in Moscow so far as social issues are concerned is comparable to what I imagine any large American coastal metropolis would have been in, say, the 1980s. One observation to illustrate this: While there are many girls with colored hair, this is not a reliable indicator of “problematic” issues as in the West. It is refreshing to live in a place where American “witch hunts” over something someone said a couple of decades ago seems like some kind of tribal taboo ritual. There is unironically far more de facto freedom of speech in Russia than in the US.

The transport system is cheap and highly efficient. The metro system, which carries more people everyday than London and New York combined, is deservedly considered to be one of the modern wonders of the modern world. Comprehensive medical checkups and stem cell therapy are to be had at costs an order of magnitude lower than in the West. There is a sizable expat community, and English language knowledge is near universal amongst young people. Almost all the accoutrements of Western digital life (Google, Wikipedia, online deliveries, any of the major social media and messaging apps, Tinder, etc.) work without problems in Russia, and those few that are not are easily circumnavigable through VPN. You won’t get in trouble for piracy either.

Moscow is also arguably more of a “technopolis” than many large Western cities. The Metro has had free WiFi for many years now, and Russia was in the mobile banking age while I was still depositing physical checks for my rent an hour’s drive away from Silicon Valley. The “My Documents” multifunctional centers and the “Gosuslugi” state services website make most bureaucratic operations a breeze these days. Legitimate political protests that follow basic rules (i.e. as is standard in the West) are not “repressed” by the evil Putler and his minions, and Moscow residents have the opportunity to influence policy and vote on architectural and infrastructure proposals via the city government’s “Active Citizen” app.

In summary, Moscow all the advantages of life in Russia vs. the USA, but much less of the disadvantages of provincial Russia, such as lower real incomes and more bureaucracy. Its GDP (PPP) per capita is comparable to Canada, so from a material and technological perspective, the Russian capital compares perfectly well with any large American or West European big city. At the same time, unlike the stag party capitals of East-Central Europe, such as Prague, Kraków, and Budapest, Moscow remains largely undiscovered by foreign revellers (though, unfortunately, not Chinese budget tourists). But these are all just cherries on top of the cake. At the end of the day, what we have in Moscow is a Russian city (~85-90% Slavic) in a way that London or Paris (~50% native) are not so much “English” or “French” cities as open air anthropological exhibits¹. There is thus an authenticity to Moscow and other Russian cities that have long been swept away by demographic and cultural globalism in that very ideology’s metropolitan heartlands.

Moscow Map

This section contains a list of some of the best and/or most interesting museums, restaurants, and attractions in Moscow². Places that I consider to be “must-see” during a 1-2 week stay in Moscow are highlighted. I have a strict policy of only giving a ★ rating to places that I have visited personally. What I consider to be my personal favorites – ranging from “world wonders” such as the Kremlin to more obscure curiosities such as the Kocherga rationalist anticafe – are denoted by ⭐ gold stars.

Things to See

Things to Do

Entertainment

Restaurants

Moscow Life

For the basics of living in Russia (bureaucracy, shopping, etc.) I refer you to the Russia Expat Guide. Likewise, more detailed advice on settling in Moscow long-term in the Advanced Muscovology section.

This section only contains specifically things that are of relevance to living in Moscow that are not covered above.

News & Utilities
The Moscow Mayoralty features city news, renovation plans, and a portal of services that is integrated with the national Gosuslugi system (e.g. utilities payments, school signups, clinic appointments/medical data).
Moscow residents can also participate in the Active Citizen platform where you can vote on renovation priorities, designs of new municipal buildings/infrastructure, etc.
Cultural news/announcements from the capital (liberal/urbanist slant) via The Village.

Food & Accomodation
Nothing new here that’s not in the Expat Guide. Apps such as Yandex.Food or Delivery Club for restaurant deliveries, and Airbnb or Hostel World for staying in Moscow on the cheap. (For those with cash, I hear the Metropole is a classical experience).

Money and Finance
Almost all restaurants accept e-payments (cards or cell phone). However, many private contractors (e.g. repairmen) and online shops that deliver physical goods will insist on payments in cash.

Transport
The Moscow Metro, which continues to expand every year, is the world’s longest and most intensively used metro system outside East Asia. I recommend the Yandex.Metro map app for your Moscow stay.
The Troika cards can be topped up on person or online. One can also buy ads-free Wi-Fi access.
Yandex.Taxi (or Uber, though it’s also owned by Yandex.Taxi) is very cheap by international standards. I suggest a standard 10% tip unless the driver underperforms.
Rail journeys can be booked through Tutu or the official Russian Railways website.

Libraries
The Russian National Library is a major cultural institution in its own right. The Moscow mayoralty runs a unified online library access service here, it can be set up at any library.

Restaurants

The old “sovok” culture, in which the entire purpose was going to restaurants was to show off how rich and cool you are, is happily a decade dead as of 2020 (the rest of Russia followed Moscow in the mid-2010s). Although the boomers at Michelin never started rating Russian restaurants, two of the world’s five best – #13 White Rabbit and #19 Twins – are based in Moscow. Establishments like Severyane and Grand Cafe Zhivago are building a Slavic counterpart to New Nordic Cuisine, while others such as Pushkin Cafe and Oblomov are rediscovering the aesthetic and gastronomic spirit of the Silver Age. Lower down on the totem pole, chains such as Teremok have created a nativist fast food equivalent to the American giants. These places are all just the pinnacle of a diverse food scene encompassing the whole gamut of national cuisines, vegetarian joints, paleo eateries, Russified steakhouses, craft beer breweries, and award-winning molecular gastronomy.

Diet & Dining Out

Tipping – 10%
Is not strictly necessary, a 10% tip for good service is recommended at non fast food establishments.

Spiciness
The Russian palate is not used to spices, so Indian restaurants in Moscow keep it tame. So make sure to formulate your order as “extra spicy” or “I have been to India” or “pretend I’m an Indian” if you want heat.

Vegetarianism [vegetarian 🥕]*
Although only something like 2% of Russians are vegetarians vs. 5-10% in the West, Moscow’s status as a SWPL capital has long made finding vegetarian options so trivial that specifically writing about it would be superfluous. There is a chain of cheap Indian eateries called “Jagannath” (haven’t yet been there) as well as the vegetarian, set menu “Moscow-Delhi” restaurant.

Keto [keto recommended 🥩]
Moscow is rather competitive in this regard. Despite its reputation for potatoes, Russian cuisine is actually very keto-friendly, e.g. most of our soups (sorrel, ukha), kholodets (aspic), and meat roasts.
Moreover, Moscow is not just a center of Russian cuisine, but of Central Asian and Caucasian. These are highly keto friendly, ranging from the ubiquitous kebab to Uzbek shurpa (lamb soup). Not to mention more esoteric cuisines from the steppe and the Far North (e.g. Cafe Bayar; Ekspeditsiya).
As “veterans” know, it’s not difficult to convert most any McDonald’s or Burger King sandwich into a low carb version by removing the buns. Many burger joints make a version of the sandwich without buns – “Fitness Burger”@ Burger & Fries (Miratorg); “Hagrid” @ Burger Heroes; “Hipster Burger” @ Starlite Diner. There is also no shortage of American-style steakhouses, as well as more recent Russian adaptations such as Yuzhane.

Gluten Free [gluten free 🌾]
Although gluten awareness is not high in Russia, awareness is spreading and there are many Moscow restaurants which specifically state that they are gluten free.
You can filter them on TripAdvisor here (go to “Dietary Restrictions” → “Gluten Free Options”).
FWIW, my guess is that the more “SWPL” the establishment, the higher the likelihood they understand the issue and will be conscientious about it. I would try: Receptor (cafe chain); KM20 (cafe – they have Bulletproof Coffee, so they’re surely clued up); AnderSon (cafe chain); Mari Vanna (they have a presence abroad); Pushkin Cafe (restaurant); Russian Pub (restaurant); Jagannath (vegetarian eatery chain).

* Please note that these vegetarian/keto/gluten free tags are not meant to be comprehensive.

Night Life
I repatriated to Russia a bit too late in life to have much interest in going out to nightclubs, something I never much enjoyed on account of the loud noise anyway. In any case, Moscow’s real heyday as a party city – as explored in the eXile, and confirmed by all of my expat acquaintances – were the mid-1990s to late 2000s. Since then, it has settled down into a more bourgeois and sober life.

Sports & Fitness

Most Russian housing developments feature playgrounds with calisthenics equipment, such as pull ups bars, benches, etc. No reason not to use them, if you’re not particularly self-conscious about being seen to be using equipment that’s primarily installed for children, but there are no rules against adults using them too. There is a convenient map of outside workout areas in Moscow (and Russia) here.

Gyms: There are no shortages of gyms. I am signed up to the Fitness USSR chain, but I imagine most would be OK. Just check the reviews. Moscow is particularly good for open air swimming pools during winter, e.g. Chaika.

Cryotherapy: Available at Ice Face.

Equestrian: There are a number of stables outside Moscow (doing it within the city is pointless as prices are expensive and space is limited). E.g., I am interested in checking out the Tarpan stables.

Ice Rinks: There’s plenty of them, but there are also noteworthy free, open air ones at iconic locations, such as Chistye Prudy and Patriarch Prudy, and the VDNKh Ice Skating Rink, during winter.

Rock climbing gyms: Limestone, Rockzona, Skala City, and X8 seem to be especially highly rated.

Shooting: So far as guns are concerned, Russia is unfortunately not the United States. Shooting ranges are not that all that frequent, and bullets are expensive. That said:

• In the South-East area where I live, there is an indoors shooting range called Object, which is highly modern and convenient, but you need to take lessons from them and pass an exam before you can use their range.
• There is also the SSKVOO outdoors clay pigeon shooting range. Acquiring guns in Russia (legally) is a complex process that needs a separate article.
• The Labirint complex near Kievskaya hosts paintball, laser tag, archery, ax throwing, and an underground firing range.
• The Anvio VR club is a free form virtual reality club where you can play coop shoot em up games.

Skiing: Frankly, you’re better off booking a $50 flight to Sochi/Adler. That said, I have heard good things about the Sorochany and Volen ski resorts 50 km north of Moscow, near Dimitrov.

Communities of Interest

Moscow officially hosts 12.6 million people as of 2019, but its metro area contains upwards of 20M, making it the largest such conurbation in Europe. It accounts for about 10% of Russia’s population, almost a quarter of its GDP, and more than half of its science output. As a major economic center that serves as a magnet for human capital (highest average IQ in Russia along with SPB and Yaroslavl), it hosts a wide variety of communities that are sure to satisfy any niche, no matter how obscure or esoteric. For obvious reasons, I have neither the time nor the resources to cover all of them. However, there are three in particular that I am somewhat familiar with, and which can serve as not entirely unrepresentative examples.

Expats & Repats – Demographics: Primarily Brits, Germans, French, Americans. Many Chinese, but most of them tend to keep to themselves – I even know more Indians than Chinese.

The main Facebook group appears to be Moscow Expats.

You can also check out the Moscow Expat Forum or /r/moscow, though they’re much lower traffic.

Some places where they tend to congregate: Chicago Grill & Bar and/or the Starlite Diner by Tverskaya; Bobby Dazzler’s; Hudson Bar (the erstwhile Duran magazine had a few events there); Strelka (pretentious place catering to Western hacks).

Nationalists – The main Schelling points cluster around:

• The Listva bookshop only opened its doors in 2020 (its original branch is in Saint-Petersburg, but is fast becoming a focal point for guest speakers (politicians, historians, IQ researchers like yours truly, etc).
• Good Russian People
• The Two-Headed Eagle (a Malofeev organization, along with Tsargrad – ask around)
• Semi-private czar.chat for Egor Prosvirnin’s fans (“boyars”) which occasionally host pretty lavish events.
• The Russian Democrats’ Russian Forwards project hosts ~annual Russian Meetups (managed mainly by Sergey Grigorov & Robert Wright).
• Others: Coordinating Council for Help to Novorossiya; ROD Human Rights Center; International Fund of Slavic Literacy and Culture (also has Kirillitsa bookshop but it closed in 2019).

Only the Two-Headed Eagle is explicitly conservative/Orthodox, otherwise the landscape is ideologically neutral to even liberal leaning. They lean pro-regime, whereas the Russian Democrats and the boyars lean oppositionist.

There are also significant left-wing nationalist factions, e.g. the Zavtra newspaper (Prokhanov), the National Bolsheviks (the late Limonov used to hold public lectures on the 31st of each month by the Heroes of the 1905 Revolution monument), as well as “Putinist”/pro-regime factions that are loaded in a pro-nationalist direction. The latter have less of a dynamic grassroots community, whereas I am simply not very well acquainted with the former. As one may expect, there are significant tie-ins with the historical reconstruction community (e.g. probably the most famous Russian nationalist Igor Strelkov was of course in both).

There is a similarly active community in Saint-Petersburg.

SVORA is a useful info-resource for upcoming nationalist meetups in Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, and online.

Transhumanists – The main focal point of the rationalism/transhumanism sphere is the annual Geek Picnic (2019) festival in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, which is the best place for making contacts with people in the sphere that interest you.

Otherwise, there is also:

• Kocherga anticafe hosts regular lectures, meetups, and workshops running the whole gamut of futurist and rationalist topics.
• Less Wrong meetup group as well as a small SSC readers group.

Russian self-identifying transhumanists in particular are very largely focused on radical life extension, in contrast to the American one where interests are more evenly spread across other domains (e.g. AI risk, cryptocurrency, etc).

• The website of the Russian Transhumanist Movement is probably the closest thing they have to a public listing of key members and projects.
• Relevant Facebook Groups: Научная Среда; Open Longevity; Russian Transhumanist Movement; Transhumanist Party (inactive).
• Mayak Cafe is an occasional IRL focal point for them.
• Many of them are involved to a greater or lesser extent with KrioRus, a cryogenics company that has often been compared to Alcor. It has an office in Moscow and cryopreservation facilities near Sergiev Posad.

Curiously, there is some substantial overlap between them and cliodynamicists, but that is for a separate article.

For those with more philosophical interests, I strongly recommend a visit to the Museum-Library of Nikolay Fyodorov, the founder of Russian cosmism – a late Tsarist/early Soviet-era movements that championed biological immortality and space exploration more than half a century before Silicon Valley nerds came up with transhumanism.

Tourism 101

First things first – most people coming to Moscow, I assume, will be doing so as tourists. I would recommend prioritizing as per the lists above (underlined/capitalized; highlighted; golden starred) while inclining it towards your own interests. Here are some suggestions to get your started – feel free to adjust to your own preferences!

3 Day Program

• Red Square, Kremlin museums & St. Basil’s Cathedral, with lunch at a Teremok, shopping at GUM, and dinner at Cafe Pushkin.
• State Tretyakov Gallery, a walk through Gorky Park, and a performance at the Bolshoi Theater.
• State Historical Museum (or other museum of your choice) and watching the sunset at Ostankino Tower in VDNKh (feel free to also check out the Museum of Soviet Arcade Games) or one of the restaurants (e.g. Aviator) in the Moscow City business district skyscrapers (feel free to drop by the Public Museum of the Metro for an hour).

Additional Days

• Listen to a symphony at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and visit the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.
• Day excursion to the Tsaritsyno park-palace estate.
• Walk through the Novodevichy cemetery, where many of Russia’s most famous literati and creators are buried.
• The VDNKh complex, which features national themed pavilions, the Museum of Cosmonautics, the Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines, an ice rink during winter, and Ostankino Tower.
• If interested in religion: Day trip to the New Jerusalem monastery.
• If interested in military history: Central Museum of the Armed Forces, the Tango-class submarine at the naval museum in Moscow, and the Victory Museum in the Poklonnaya Gora complex; as well as possibly a day to the Kubinka Tank Museum in Patriot Park (the recently constructed “fortress-monastery” is also nearby) and/or the Central Air Force Museum in Monino.
• If interested in Soviet/dissident history: GULAG history museum, State Museum of Contemporary History, and the House of the Russian Diaspora.
• If interested in technology: The Polytechnic Museum and Vadim Zadorozhny’s Technology Museum.
• “Community” interests: E.g., take a look at the event schedule for Kocherga or Listva if you’re interested in Russian transhumanism and Russian nationalism, respectively. (Replace with own interests).

Extra-Moscow Excursions

Although I don’t have a detailed list of attractions for these places, you can access separate reviews of most of these places at the Travel page).

• Sergiev Posad hosts the St. Sergius Lavra and is considered to be Russia’s “Vatican”. Also make sure to also visit the Abramtsevo Estate.
• Kolomna is a perfectly nice, representative, medium-sized Russian city for a day trip. It has the Kolomna Kremlin and specializes in the pastila dessert.
• Obninsk, site of the world’s first civilian nuclear power plant, and Borovsk, which has a Tsiolkovsky Museum, are worth visiting for technologists.
• Volokolamsk is more of a sentimental suggestion than anything else (I lived ~3 years there), but it does have its own Kremlin as well as well as the monastery of St. Joseph of Volokolamsk, one of the key figures in the history of Russian monasticism.
• Further afield,  one may productive spend a couple of days in Nizhny Novgorod (four hour rail ride), fly to Kazan, and/or take a 3 day to one week bus tour through the “Golden Ring” of medieval Russian towns (esp. Yaroslavl, Suzdal, Vladimir, and Kostroma).

One also encounters more lingering gopnik aesthetics, though this doesn’t translate into safety considerations; the gopnik, to the extent it still exists, has become a herbivorous creature, who blasts shitty rap music from his car as opposed to the skinheads going around with knives and baseball bats in the late 1990s to mid 2000s. The most annoyance they are likely to give you these days is asking you if you have a cigarette or a lighter.

Another attractive choice for some, especially young families with children, is to consider “academic communities” such as Dolgoprudny (MPTI). These are outside Moscow proper, but can be competitive since they combine relatively low property prices with high human capital (so high quality classmates and a plethora of extracurricular activities for children) and easier access to nature.

In conclusion, when you are looking for an abode in Moscow, you are basically deciding between:

• Expensive, walkable, high IQ/prestige “SWPL Moscow” with its beautiful architecture and wide range of entertainment options and cultural institutions.
  • My personal favorites in the “high end” category are Tverskaya, Novokuznetskaya, and Mendeleevskaya, in that order; but they are all expensive.
  • My favorite “budget” regions in this category: Ulitsa 1905 goda, Profsoyuznaya, VDNKh, and Taganskaya.
• Cheap, lower IQ/prestige (but safe) “prole Moscow” filled out with commieblocks and without many amenities but only a short Metro commute to Central Moscow.
  • The Vykhino-Zhulebino region, where I broadly live, is a classic example.
• Cheap, higher IQ “akademgorodok”-type settlements outside Moscow, such as Dolgoprudny, with easy access to nature but longer commute to Moscow.

There are some other options which may interest you:

(1) There are also extremely cheap settlements immediately outside Moscow for proles, e.g. you can get an apartment in some of those “anthill” (муравейник) apartment blocks for just $50,000. However, I would strongly recommend against them, because they have the disadvantages of all the regions described above (lower IQ residents, long commutes to Central Moscow) and none of the advantages, such as amenities or (for the most part) easy access to nature.

(2) Living in an outlying town with 100-200 km of Moscow – I would not have recommended this as late as the mid-2010s, but many of them are receiving facelifts, as the SWPL revolution launched in Moscow a decade ago saturates through to the regions. In particular, I am a big fan of Kolomna (our dacha is within its general vicinity), and I was reasonably impressed with Obninsk during my short visit there. The tourist town of Torzhok is getting better (Bloomberg), and I had a positive impression of Yaroslavl even when I visited it during in 2004 (when most of Russia was still in figurative ruins).

(3) One can also consider buying or constructing a dacha or “cottage” in a rural locale outside Moscow, for living there during the summer months (a traditional Russian pastime during the Soviet era – though one that’s going out of the way, as memories of the peasant past fade and are replaced by mass tourism) or even year round. Though advantages/disadvantages should be obvious, one point in favor is that utilities bills are much lower in rural areas.

References

1. The non-Russians are primarily industrious and well-behaved Gastarbeiters from Central Asia, the vast majority of whom repatriate after making their money in Russia – so, not really comparable to the vast, Third World underclasses you find in the Parisian banlieues. Now to be sure, this percentage will be 98% in Polish and Ukrainian cities. The reason for the latter is that the Ukrainians are just poor – not “based.” The Poles, for their part, happen to get Ukrainian Gastarbeiters on account of them being next door. This is likely to change over the next 1-2 decades, as subcon and African immigration to Poland picks up. The other Visegrad nations, especially Hungary and Slovakia, have large and dysfunctional Gipsy minorities.
2. This guide covers a geographic area that I intuit to be a part of the greater Moscow region, e.g. including the air force museum at Monino and the New Jerusalem Monastery at Istra (~50 km), but not extending to the towns of Obninsk, Volokolamsk, or Kolomna (~100km+). Trips to the latter I will typically collate as a list on the Travel section of this website and possibly cover in travel posts on my blog at The Unz Review.