Anthology of Moscow. Big and Small

The road to tour guides

 

Moskvich sounds proud! In the regions, sometimes it’s shy. It's not difficult to be born in Moscow. The line in the passport itself is not particularly remarkable. There are about 12 million of us lucky ones. Not a frail army, if you think about it. By European standards, it’s generally too much. But that’s not what we’re talking about now—we’ll leave the numbers to the pollsters. It’s much more interesting to study the mood of the capital’s population, to capture symphonies of opinions among the people. In this and subsequent essays we will try to dissect the character of a Muscovite. Of course, there will be no uniformity of perceptions. Without canceling individuality, let us focus, nevertheless, on the similarities. In most biographies of the average city dweller, parallel storylines inevitably emerge. Take my school years, for example. What kind of Moscow does the younger generation live in? Let's figure it out.

Initially, a child from the capital thinks primarily on a regional scale. The area is the territory of what is permitted. The actual boundaries of the area hardly coincide with the administrative ones. The geometry of movement for a young Muscovite is more or less general: kindergarten, school, home, park, cinema, computers, box, art room, music room, swimming pool. Let's add the addresses of friends and relatives to the list. Here is the city for you - Little Moscow is “its own” for everyone. For a native of Bogorodskoye, for example, the topographic boundaries extended from Semenovskaya “Motherland” in the East, Sokolniki in the South, VDNKh in the West, “Podbelka” in the North. Your friends live here, familiar faces live here. Every nook and cranny with a tent is familiar. There is no other city yet.

The center is moved to the periphery. From time to time there are organized trips to museums. Caring parents provide their children with an educational program with visits to theaters, a zoo, and a planetarium. There are a ton of hospitals with specialized clinics that are inevitably visited periodically. Living in Moscow means you can’t escape the Kremlin! There is only one BUT: the Kremlin with museums, theaters and parks, hospitals and clinics for Moscow, after all, are not considered children. It’s a different city – not one’s home for a schoolchild. The range has not yet expanded. Greatness will be understood later. Closer to the graduating classes, the trailer will start moving; in the first years, the speed will increase. It is then that the vastness of the territorial space will take your breath away.

“Go on foot - with young steps! - everything free Semikholmie” - Tsvetaeva’s testament has not become outdated one iota in a century! If you go once, twice, three times, they won’t drag you by the ears. The only important thing is “on foot” and nothing else! There is a simple law of nature: kiss the ground with your feet and fall in love. With physical contact, in a strange way, a certain special chemistry is generated. The longer you wander, the more interest you develop in further discoveries. Each courtyard will eventually attract the passerby with intrigue. You will definitely want to understand all the intricacies of the alleys. Then the day will come when you will want to share your acquired knowledge and increased love. Such are the metamorphoses in the consciousness of the newly minted tour guide. First you fall in love with the city yourself, so that you can then share the love with your loved ones.

Only with all the incessant romances with the center of children's affections, it is impossible to erase the beloved sleeping bag from the heart. Falling in love with the Big City begins with the Small City!