To tell the story of the Moscow myth is a difficult, almost impossible task. There is perhaps no other city with such a multifaceted and composite image. All the more valuable, then, is the experience embodied in Dmitry Volodikhin’s book. The form of the book — a collection of essays — makes it possible to speak freely about the most diverse aspects of the Moscow phenomenon. Some essays recount episodes from Moscow’s history, and they are presented so engagingly that the reader воспринимает them as part of his own personal history. At times the subject is architectural history or literary scholarship — and in these fields the author manages to say something new and to raise unexpected topics. In some essays the author turns to questions of truly universal scale, considering Moscow’s role in the spiritual world.