Pre-Flood or Pre-Fire Moscow

“By complete accident, I came across a magazine article (by accident—because while outside Russia it is extremely difficult, and sometimes almost impossible, to keep up with the overall activities of Russian journals with any regularity). In that article, among other things, it was claimed that ‘Moscow in 1805, compared to Petersburg, was a real backwater; that, abounding in wealthy nobility, it lived broadly and carelessly, was famed for hearty hospitality and gossip; that political interests held little sway there…’”