Moscow. Москва.

For centuries Moscow has been a treasure house of carefully preserved national cultural tradition. All the Russian tsars and emperors were crowned here in Russia's main cathedral, the ancient Dormition Cathedral, and both Peter the Great and Catherine the Great came to Moscow to celebrate their military victories. In 1812 the city was a sacrifice on the altar of war, yet precipitated the inglorious demise of Napoleon's great army. In May 1945 it greeted the victorius Russian troops coming back from Germany.