Russian Language School In Moscow, Russia

Moscow Skyscrapers sprout up from the ground, the city centre is being ruthlessly renovated and new temples of consumerism open their doors daily. But there is another Moscow, away from Sadovoye Koltso (Garden Ring) and the Kremlin. Cosy cafes, narrow alleys, hidden artists’ studios and idyllic parks are as much a part of the cityscape as the gigantic wedding-cake buildings of Stalin’s era, the expensive fashion stores and McDonalds. Moscow is a monster, but a lovable monster that is always worth visiting.

The Language School Our language school in Moscow is located in the central part of the city, a short walk from the Belorusskaya Railway Station, a terminus for trains from Berlin and Warsaw. Our premises are on the ground floor of a building that belongs to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Most of the office space is used by foreign diplomats and accredited correspondents of the international press. The closest metro station (Belorusskaya) can be reached on foot in less than five minutes. Our language school features 6 classrooms and is equipped with the latest technology (several workstations with wireless Internet for our students, LCD TV and DVD sets in most classrooms). At the language school we offer hot and cold drinks. Moderately priced places for lunch can be found around the corner from the language school.

Moscow, Capital Of Russia As often as Moscow has been threatened, besieged and destroyed, its inhabitants have rebuilt their city. In the 20th century Moscow, which lies on the Moskva River, finally blossomed into the undisputed centre of Russia and one of the world’s largest cities.

The first settlers inhabited the area around the Kremlin in the 11th century. Yuri Dolgoruki, the Prince of Susdal, is said to have founded Moscow in 1147. Ninety years later, the Tartar hordes burnt the wooden fortress on the Moskva to the ground for the first time. The inhabitants rebuilt the city but were forced to pay tolls to the Tartars, until Grand Duke Ivan III came to power and drove out the invaders from the east.

In the mid-16th century, the city blossomed under the rule of Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible). This period also saw the construction of the famous St. Basil’s Cathedral on Red Square, still the city’s most famous landmark. The population grew to about 100,000 inhabitants.

But difficult times followed. In 1571, the Crimean Tartars burnt the city to the ground again on one of their plundering raids. There followed inheritance disputes, famines and occupation by Polish troops, until in 1612 a Russian army reconquered Moscow and Mikhail Romanov was crowned tsar.

When Tsar Peter the Great moved the Russian capital to the newly founded St. Petersburg in 1712, Moscow’s importance declined. But it remained significant enough to be the main goal of Napoleon’s Russian campaign in 1812. On the night the French entered the city a great fire destroyed much of it. The winter brought bitter cold and the when the occupiers withdrew, the city was rebuilt in lightning speed. The population grew from 340,000 in the 1840s to four million in 1914.

After the Revolution, the Bolsheviks moved the capital back to Moscow, which became the centrepoint of a world empire and gained some fittingly grandiose architecture. Stalin’s “Seven Sisters”, the skyscrapers designed to the dictator’s taste, are merely the pinnacle of a Communist craze for huge and spectacular edifices during that time.

In the Second World War, Hitler’s troops advanced to the outskirts of the Soviet capital but were beaten back. The city grew rapidly from the 1950s onward, a huge grey belt of residential buildings developing around the centre.