An 18th-Century Hamlet

“In May 1798, Moscow was preparing to receive Emperor Pavel Petrovich. The previous year, the coronation here had been celebrated solemnly, and now the current ruler expressed his desire to visit the First Throne City again.

Moscow was being cleaned and dressed up on the main streets. Here they repaired pavements, painted houses and fences; on the boulevards they planted trees. In dead-ends, in side streets and alleys, waiting for the emperor’s arrival was expressed mainly in talk and gossip. The same talk and gossip visited the drawing rooms of wealthy houses…”