Meet Moscow, the Russian Capital

The capital of Russia is Moscow, or Москва (mah-SKVAH) in Russian.

 

There are quite a few versions of where the name of the Russian capital originates. The widely-accepted one has it that Moscow was named after the Moskva river the city stands on. Its name, in its turn, comes from a Proto-Slavic root denoting something wet or damp.

 

The Russian capital today is a dynamic and vibrant city, a popular tourist destination and a perfect place to learn and practice Russian while seeing and hearing it in the wild on a daily basis.

 

In the Russian language, the word Москва is feminine and some say it is the reason why the city is cheerful and bright against Saint Petersburg—Russia’s second largest city after Moscow. Saint Petersburg is masculine, hence, they say, all its dignity and reserve. The city is sometimes called the second Russian capital, or Russia’s northern capital. One of the reasons is that Saint Petersburg had actually been the Russian capital for two centuries before it was moved to Moscow in 1918.