What to see
Despite its size, Moscow's concentric layout is easier to grasp than you'd imagine, and the city's famous metro ensures that almost everywhere of interest is within fifteen minutes' walk of a station. Red Square and the Kremlin (Chapter 1) are the historic nucleus of the city, a magnificent stage for political drama, signifying a great sweep of history that includes Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Stalin and Gorbachev. Here you'll find Lenin's Mausoleum and St Basil's Cathedral, the famous GUM department store, and the Kremlin itself, whose splendid cathedrals and Armoury Museum head the list of attractions. Immediately east of Red Square lies the Kitay-gorod (Chapter 2), traditionally the commercial district, and originally fortified like the Kremlin. Stretches of the ramparts remain behind the Metropol and Rossiya hotels, and the medieval churches of Zaryade and the shops along Nikolskaya ulitsa may tempt you further into the quarter, where you'll find the former headquarters of the Communist Party.

The Kremlin and Kitay-gorod are surrounded by two quarters defined by ring boulevards built over the original ramparts of medieval times, when Moscow's residential areas were divided into the "White Town" or Beliy Gorod (Chapter 3), and the humbler "Earth Town" or Zemlyanoy Gorod (Chapter 4). Situated within the leafy Boulevard Ring that encloses the Beliy Gorod are such landmarks as the Bolshoy Theatre and the Lubyanka headquarters of the secret police – with its "KGB Museum" – while the Zemlyanoy Gorod that extends to the eight-lane Garden Ring is enlivened by the trendy old and new Arbat streets, with three Stalin skyscrapers dominating the Ring itself.

Beyond this historic core Moscow is too sprawling to explore on foot, which is why our division of the city is based mostly on transport connections and ease of access. Krasnaya Presnya, Fili and the southwest (Chapter 5) describes a swathe which includes the former Russian Parliament building (known as the White House); Tolstoy's house and the Novodevichiy Convent and Cemetery; Victory Park, with its war memorials and Jewish museum; and Moscow State University in the Sparrow Hills – the largest of the Stalin skyscrapers.

Across the river from the Kremlin, Zamoskvareche and the south (Chapter 6) are the site of the old and new Tretyakov Gallery's superlative collection of Russian art. Here too you'll find Gorky Park, the Donskoy and Danilov monasteries that once stood guard against the Tatars, and the romantic ex-royal estates of Tsaritsyno and Kolomenskoe – the latter known for staging folklore festivals and historical pageants. Taganka and Zayauze (Chapter 7), east of the centre, likewise harbour fortified monasteries – the Andronikov, Novospasskiy, and Simonov – and the erstwhile noble estates of Kuskovo and Kuzminki, but the main lure for tourists is the Izmaylovo art market. Moscow's Northern Suburbs (Chapter 8) cover a vast area with a sprinkling of sights. Foremost is the VVTs, a huge Stalinist exhibition park with amazing statues and pavilions, in the vicinity of the Ostankino Palace, Moscow's Botanical Gardens and TV Tower.

Outside Moscow there's scope for day-excursions to the Trinity Monastery of St Sergei, the Abramtsevo artists' colony, Tchaikovsky's house in Klin, Lenin's estate at Gorki Leninskie, and the battlefield of Borodino (Chapter 9), where the battle is re-enacted every September. Further afield, the historic towns of Vladimir and Suzdal (Chapter 10) are graced by splendid cathedrals and monasteries attesting that they were the seat of a principality when Moscow was merely an encampment. Suzdal is one of the loveliest towns in Russia, and definitely merits an overnight stay. It's also possible to visit the Aviation Museum at Monino air base, en route to Vladimir, if you take the trouble to get permission ahead of time.

The city's famous metro ensures that almost everywhere of interest is within fifteen minutes' walk of a station.

Moscow's skyscrapers
Among Moscow's most distinctive landmarks are the "Seven Sisters" – Stalin skyscrapers bristling with statuary, spires and illuminated red stars, which form an arc around the city centre. These totemic symbols of Soviet power were intended to surround the never-built Palace of Soviets that was envisaged as the tallest building in the USSR, topped by a statue of Lenin that would raise its height to surpass the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building put together. Although this colossal edifice never materialized – and the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour that was demolished to clear the site has now been rebuilt to affirm the victory of Christianity over Communism – the Stalin skyscrapers still dominate Moscow's Garden Ring. Today, they have inspired a new generation of skyscrapers, from the neo-Stalinist Triumph Palace in the northern suburbs to the futuristic twin tours of Gorod Stolitsa in the Krasnaya Presnya district, or the Gazprom Building in the southern suburbs.

Red Square (Krasnaya ploshchad)
The name Krasnaya ploshchad – Red Square – has nothing to do with Communism, but derives from krasniy, the old Russian word for "beautiful", which probably came to mean "red" due to people's thirst for bright colour during the long, drab winter months. When the square came into being towards the end of the fifteenth century – after Ivan III ordered the clearance of the wooden houses and traders' stalls that huddled below the eastern wall of the Kremlin – it was called Trinity Square, after the Trinity Cathedral that stood on the future site of St Basil's; later known as the Square of Fires, its current name was only bestowed in the late seventeenth century.

For much of its history, the square was a muddy expanse thronged with pedlars, idlers and drunks – a potential mob that Vasily III (1505–33) sought to distance from the Kremlin by digging a moat alongside its wall, spanned by bridges leading to the citadel's gates. The moat also acted as a firebreak against the conflagrations that frequently engulfed Moscow. Like the Forum in ancient Rome, the square was also used for public announcements and executions, particularly during the reigns of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, and the anarchic Time of Troubles in the early seventeenth century. The square lost much of its political significance after the capital moved to St Petersburg in 1712, but remained an integral part of Moscow life as the site of religious processions and the Palm Sunday Fair, where vendors sold everything from icons and carpets to "penny whistles, trumpets and chenille monkeys".

It was the Bolsheviks who returned Red Square to the centre of events, as the Kremlin became the seat of power once again, and the square the setting for great demonstrations and parades on May 1 and November 7 (the anniversary of the Revolution). The most dramatic was the November 7 parade in 1941, when tanks rumbled directly from Red Square to the front line, only miles away; on June 24, 1945 they returned for a victory parade where captured Nazi regimental standards were flung down in front of the Lenin Mausoleum, to be trampled by Soviet Marshals riding white horses. In the Brezhnev years these parades degenerated into an empty ritual, where pre-recorded hurrahs boomed from loudspeakers, and the civilian marchers attended under duress. As if to puncture their pomposity, a young West German, Mathias Rust, landed a light aircraft on Red Square in May 1987, having evaded the much vaunted Soviet air defences.

Today, the square is as likely to host pop concerts or the New Year festival of ice sculptures, but old-style parades and pageantry still occur on May Day, Victory Day (May 9), Russian Independence Day (June 12) and the Day of Reconciliation and Accord (November 9) – the latter intended to deny Red Square to the Communists, whose own march is obliged to terminate elsewhere.

Red Square's appearance has also changed, since Mayor Luzhkov ordered the re-creation of the Kazan Cathedral and the Resurrection Gate that were demolished in the 1930s, and affixed gilded Tsarist eagles atop the Historical Museum. His wish to restore Red Square to its pre-revolutionary state would have been much harder to achieve had several "visionary" projects been realized in Soviet times, when the architect Leonidov wanted to erect a fifty-storey building in the shape of a giant factory chimney, the Futurist Tatlin dreamt of raising a 1300-foot-high Monument to the Third International, and Stalin contemplated the demolition of St Basil's. Putin, too, has envisaged leaving his own mark, in the form of a $300 million dollar "Kremlin Centre" just behind St Basil's, incorporating a luxury hotel, a diamond and precious metals auction centre, and deluxe boutiques – but thankfully nothing seems to have come of it since the idea was floated a few years ago.

The Resurrection Gate and the Kazan Cathedral
Most people approach Red Square from the north, via one of the cobbled streets that slope uphill beside the Historical Museum, for a thrilling first glimpse of Lenin's Mausoleum alongside the Kremlin wall, and St Basil's Cathedral looming at the far end of the square. The view of St Basil's is framed by the Resurrection Gate (Voskresenskie vorota), a 1990s replica of a sixteenth-century gateway that was pulled down in 1931 as part of Stalin's campaign to rid Moscow of its holy relics and churches, and make Red Square more accessible for tanks and marchers. While its twin towers with their green spires topped by Tsarist eagles could be described as something from a fairytale, the external chapel, with its portal flanked by gilded reliefs of SS Peter and Paul, is simply kitsch. The chapel of the original gateway held a revered icon, the Iberian Virgin, to which every visitor to Moscow paid their respects before entering Red Square. Today, Russian tourists have their photo taken standing on a brass relief set into the ground in front of the gate, marking Kilometre Zero, whence all distances from Moscow are measured.

Passing through the gate, the entrance to the Historical Museum is on your right, while the sky-blue building on your left once contained a prison known as "the Pit", where the eighteenth-century writer Alexander Radishchev awaited exile for his critique of Catherine the Great's autocracy. Though a decrepit red-brick Mint founded by Peter the Great can still be seen by venturing into its courtyard, your eyes will inevitably be drawn instead to the diminutive Kazan Cathedral, on the corner of Nikolskaya ulitsa.

The original Kazan Cathedral (Kazanskiy sobor) was built in 1636 to commemorate Tsar Mikhail Romanov's victory over the Poles, and dedicated to the Virgin of Kazan, whose icon was carried into battle by Prince Pozharsky during the Time of Troubles. Demolished on Stalin's orders and replaced by a public toilet, its belated reconstruction owed much to the architect Pyotr Baranovsky, who secretly made plans of the building even as it was being pulled down, and later risked his life to save St Basil's from a similar fate. The modern-day Kazan Cathedral sports a strawberry-and-cream coloured exterior replete with the ornate window frames (nalichniki) and ogee-shaped gables (kokoshniki) characteristic of early Muscovite church architecture, crowned by a cluster of green and gold domes. Inaugurated in 1993 on the feast day of the Icon of Kazan (November 4), the cathedral is open daily from 8am–7pm. As at all Orthodox places of worship, you are not allowed in wearing shorts.

The Historical Museum
Though you'll probably want to wander around Red Square first, the Historical Museum (Istoricheskiy muzey; 10am–6pm; closed Tues & the first Mon of each month; $5) is definitely worth a visit at some point. Established by order of Alexander III, and opened in 1894, the museum occupies a liver-red building cluttered with pinnacles, chevrons and saw-toothed cornices, whose interior is lavishly decorated with murals and carvings harking back to medieval Russia.

The ticket office, on the right inside the entrance, stocks a free brochure in English and rents audioguides ($1.75) that cover the highlights of the permanent exhibition, which is captioned in Russian only, like temporary exhibitions. It's possible to book a guided tour in English ($15 group rate, plus tickets; tel:292 68 17) but it must be done a week to ten days in advance. Concerts of historical music are held at the museum as advertised.

To reach the exhibition rooms on the second floor, you ascend the stairs of a grand hall that used to be the ceremonial entrance from Red Square. Its ceiling features a pictorial family tree of Russian monarchs from Vladimir and Olga of Kiev (shown watering the roots of the tree) to Alexander III, which was whitewashed over in the 1930s.

The first two rooms are notable for a pair of mammoth tusks, a replica of a grave containing the remains of a boy and girl, and scenes of Paleolithic life by Viktor Vasnetsov. Room 3 boasts a 5000-year-old oak longboat that was unearthed beside the River Volga, while Room 4 opens with a haunting wooden idol from the Gorbunkovsky peat bogs, and concludes with nephrite axe heads and gold-inlaid silver spearheads, used for ritual purposes. Also notice the Bronze Age stele with a sun face, from the Altay Mountains of southern Siberia.

Room 5, covering the Iron Age, has many wonderful exhibits, such as the Kazbeksky Hoard of deer and bird figurines. The first millennium BC was the heyday of the Scythians, warlike nomads whose veneration for horses was expressed in gold bridle ornaments shaped like horses' heads or dragons – a style that influenced other nomadic cultures. From the Altay come funerary masks of diverse ethnic groups, a leather coat decorated with painted fur and wooden studs, and two stelae carved with deer, such as are erected on the Mongolian steppes to this day.

The hybrid nature of steppe culture is further emphasized by the Turmansky Sarcophagus, shaped like a Greek temple with Chinese-style decorations on its "roof"; and glassware that once circulated between the Scythians and Sarmatians and the Hellenized and Roman trading cities on the Black Sea coast (Room 6). Whereas the Finno-Ugrians, Mordovians and Khazars left tumuli containing bronze and amber jewellery during the Age of Migrations, the earliest Slavs left nothing more sophisticated than hand-moulded pots, attesting to their isolation from other cultural influences (Room 7).

In the ninth century AD these disparate peoples gave rise to the Kievan Rus, or Old Russian state, ruled by Scandinavian warriors known as the Varangians, who used the Volga and Dniepr as trade routes from northern Europe to Byzantium. Room 8 displays artefacts from this period and the conversion of the Kievan Rus to Christianity by Prince Vladimir in 988. On the walls hang two huge canvases depicting The Night of Sacrifice of infants to the pagan gods, and the Funeral of the Great Rus, a Varangian ruler surrounded by human and animal sacrifices.

Behind the museum, facing Manezhnaya ploshchad, a stiffly poised equestrian statue of Marshal Zhukov tramples a Nazi battle-standard under his horse's hooves, as occurred at the Victory Parade on Red Square in 1945. Zhukov was the most successful Soviet commander of World War II, who fell from grace under Khrushchev, but never lost his place in the pantheon of Soviet heroes. Erected in 1996, the monument is by Vyacheslav Klykov, the creator of a controversial statue of Nicholas II that he hoped would stand outside the Kremlin, but which ended up in a village outside Moscow, where it was blown up by neo-Bolsheviks the same year.

Lenin's Mausoleum
For nearly seventy years, the Soviet state venerated its founder by acts of homage at the Lenin Mausoleum (Mavzoley V.I. Lenina) – an image associated with Soviet Communism the world over. Yet when Lenin died on January 21, 1924, his widow Krupskaya pleaded: "Do not let your sorrow for Ilyich find expression in outward veneration of his personality. Do not raise monuments to him, or palaces to his name, do not organize pompous ceremonies in his memory." Nonetheless, a crude wooden mausoleum was hastily erected on Red Square for mourners to pay their respects, and the Party leadership decided to preserve his body for posterity. In the Orthodox tradition, an un-decayed corpse is proof of sainthood; and Stalin – a former seminarian – made Lenin's cult a secular religion. (Another practice was having a "Lenin corner" with a votive lamp, where icons would have hung in olden days.)

The embalming was carried out by biochemist Boris Zbarsky and anatomist Vladimir Vorybov, who overcame the problem that Lenin's veins (the usual conduit for embalming fluid) had been removed at the autopsy, by bathing the corpse in a vat of preservatives and making cuts in the body to help the chemicals penetrate (details kept a secret until Zbarsky's son revealed them in a book in 1998). By August 1924 the body was fit to be viewed in a newly built wooden mausoleum, which was replaced by a permanent stone one in 1930, once it became clear that the embalming process had been successful.

Designed by Alexei Shchusev, the mausoleum is a step-pyramid of cubes, a form revered by Russian avant-gardists that was also fashionable for its association with ancient Egyptian architecture, following the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb. Faced with red granite and black labradorite, it bears the simple inscription Lenin above its bronze doors, which were traditionally flanked by a guard of honour (changed every hour, as the Saviour Tower clock chimed). After Stalin's death in 1953 he too was displayed in what became the Lenin-Stalin Mausoleum, but in 1961 it reverted to its old title after Stalin's body was spirited away one night and reburied by the Kremlin wall. For decades, the Politburo reviewed anniversary parades from its podium (with a supply of machine guns stashed behind them in case of trouble), and diplomats noted who stood nearest the General Secretary as an indication of their influence. The septuagenarian Chernenko contracted fatal pneumonia from standing there on a chilly day* *The deaths of three successive leaders between 1982 and 1985 gave rise to the joke about a loyal citizen hurrying to Red Square to watch Chernenko's funeral. When asked if he had a pass, he replied, ‘‘No, I have a season ticket.'', and the swan song of such events occurred when Gorbachev was booed during the October Revolution parade in 1989, and on May Day the following year.

Radical democrats called for Lenin's body to be removed from Red Square and reburied with his mother and sisters in St Petersburg – as he (or Krupskaya) is said to have wished (no proof has been found). The fall of Communism raised expectations and a Russian impresario proposed sending Lenin on a "farewell world tour". But it wasn't until Yeltsin had crushed parliament in 1993 that he felt bold enough to strip the mausoleum of its guard of honour and pledge the removal of Lenin's body "within months" – an idea that was quietly dropped after the elections returned a majority of Communist and ultra-nationalist Deputies. When Yeltsin raised it again four years later the Communist leader Zyuganov threatened to bring tens of thousands of loyalists to stand vigil, and a neo-Bolshevik group vowed to blow up the monument to Peter the Great in retaliation.

Today, Lenin's position seems as assured as it was in Soviet times. A nationwide survey in 2000 rated him the "Russian man of the century" on the basis of fourteen percent of votes cast (Stalin came second), and millions still venerate him. "To take Lenin out and bury him would say to them that they have worshipped false values, that their lives were lived in vain," said Putin (whose own grandfather had been a cook for Lenin and Stalin); "I cherish stability and consensus in society, and I will try not to do anything to upset civil calm" – sentiments echoed by the Orthodox Patriarch and even some who once campaigned for Lenin's reburial.

Maintaining Lenin costs taxpayers $1 million a year. The body is dabbed with embalming fluid twice a week and receives a lengthy soaking every eighteen months at a special laboratory in the bowels of the Kremlin. Besides Lenin, the Kremlin Centre for Biological Structures has embalmed such foreign Communists as Enver Hoxha, Ho Chi Minh and Kim Il Sung, and it's alleged that dozens of mafiosi have been restored "by the Lenin method" after being shot or blown up. Fees reputedly start at $300,000 – sarcophagus not included.

Visiting the Mausoleum
Official opening hours (Wed, Thurs, Sat & Sun 10am–1pm; free) may be suspended at short notice, and the mausoleum closes for six weeks every eighteen months while Lenin gets the full treatment (to try to find out when, call tel:923 55 27). Would-be visitors must stash their bags and cameras in the cloakroom beneath the Kutayfa Tower in the Alexander Gardens, before joining the queue at the northwest corner of Red Square. Visitors are expected to line up in pairs, remove their hats, take their hands out of their pockets, and refrain from talking except in whispers – a regime enforced by humourless guards. Descending into the bowels of the mausoleum, past motionless sentries and doors that emit the crackle of walkie-talkies, one enters the funerary chamber, faced in grey and black labradorite inset with carmine zigzags. Softly spotlit in a crystal casket, wearing a polka-dot tie and a dark suit-cum-shroud, Lenin looks shrunken and waxy, his beard wispy and his fingers discoloured. (Sceptics think that Lenin is partly, or entirely, a waxwork.) The chamber's layout ensures that it's impossible to linger, so that visitors emerge blinking into the daylight less than a minute later.

The Kremlin wall and its towers
The Kremlin wall behind the mausoleum constitutes a kind of Soviet pantheon, containing the remains of up to 400 bodies. Visitors exiting the mausoleum pass a mass grave of Bolsheviks who perished during the battle for Moscow in 1917, to reach an array of luminaries whose ashes are interred in the Kremlin wall. These include the American journalist John Reed; Lenin's wife Krupskaya, and his lover Inessa Armand; the writer Maxim Gorky; the founder of the secret police, Felix Dzerzhinsky; various foreign Communist leaders; and the world's first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin. Beyond lies a select group of Soviet leaders, distinguished by idealized busts on plinths. The first to be encountered is Chernenko's (looking smarter than he ever did in real life), followed by an avuncular Andropov, a pompous Brezhnev and a benign-looking Stalin (whose tomb is marked by lilies, as well as red roses). Conspicuously absent from this roll call of leaders is Khrushchev, who died out of office in relative obscurity and was buried in the Novodevichiy Cemetery.

The Kremlin wall averages 19m high and 6.5m wide, topped with swallow-tailed crenellations and defended by eight towers mostly built by Italian architects in the 1490s. The distinctive jade-green spires were added in the seventeenth century, and the ruby-red stars (which revolve in the wind) in 1937. At the northern end is the round Corner Arsenal Tower, which takes its name from the adjacent Kremlin Arsenal. Further along is the triple-tiered St Nicholas Tower, built by Pietro Antonio Solari. The tower's massive red star (3.75m wide and 1.5 tons in weight) gives it a total height of 70.4m.

Beyond the Senate Tower, named after the green-domed building visible behind Lenin's Mausoleum, looms the Gothic-spired Saviour Tower. In Tsarist times, an icon of the Saviour was installed above its gate and everyone who entered doffed their hats; when Napoleon rode in without doing so his horse shied and his hat fell off, confirming the Russians' belief in its miraculous powers. On Lenin's orders, the chimes of the tower's clock were adjusted to play the Internationale; in 1944, they were changed to play the stirring Soviet anthem, which Yeltsin replaced by a melody by Glinka, before Putin restored the former anthem. It was from the Saviour Gate that soldiers formerly goose-stepped to the mausoleum to change the guard at what was known as Sentry Post No.1, while in the post-Communist era, a procession of clerics and nuns bearing icons and banners emerges on the Day of Slavic Culture (May 24), bound for the statue of SS Cyril and Methodius on Slavyanskaya ploshchad.

The small Tsar's Tower, erected in 1680, gets its name from an earlier wooden tower whence the young Ivan the Terrible used to hurl dogs to their deaths and watch executions on Red Square. Also opposite St Basil's is the Alarm Tower, whose bell warned of fires; Catherine the Great had the bell's tongue removed as a "punishment" after it was rung to summon a dangerous mob during the Plague Riot of 1771. In medieval times, the chunky SS Constantine-Helena Tower served as the Kremlin's torture chamber; the screams of victims were audible on Red Square. The circular Moskva River Tower, built by Marco Ruffo in 1487, protects the southeastern corner of the Kremlin wall, which was usually the first part of the fortress to be attacked by the Tatars.

To withstand sieges, artesian wells were dug beneath the Vodovzvodnaya (Water-Drawing) and Corner Arsenal towers, and a concealed passage from the Tanitskaya (Secret) Tower to the riverside, for covert egress or sudden sallies. The defenders could move from one tower to another by passages within the walls. In Soviet times, a secret Kremlin metro line was created as an escape route for the Politburo, linked to the regular metro system at Biblioteka Imeni Lenina, Borovitskaya and other stations, by unobtrusive "maintenance" doors.

The Lobnoe mesto
Crossing Red Square towards St Basil's, you'll see a circular stone platform known as the Lobnoe mesto, whose name (derived from lob, meaning "forehead") is usually translated as the "place of executions" or the "place of proclamations", since it served for both. Early in his reign, it was here that Ivan the Terrible begged for the people's forgiveness after Moscow was razed by a fire that the Patriarch pronounced to be God's punishment for his misdeeds. In 1570, however, Ivan staged a festival of torture on the square, where two hundred victims perished in a man-sized frying pan or on ropes stretched taut enough to saw bodies in half; on another occasion, he amused himself by letting loose wild bears into the crowd. In 1605, the False Dmitri proclaimed his accession here; after his downfall, his mutilated corpse was burned to ashes and fired from a cannon in the direction of Poland, from the same spot. Most famously, in 1698 Peter the Great carried out the mass execution of the mutinous Streltsy regiments on scaffolds erected nearby – personally wielding the axe on a score of necks (see box "The Streltsy").

The Streltsy
In medieval times, Red Square and the suburbs across the river teemed with thousands of Streltsy, the shaggy pikemen and musketeers who guarded the Kremlin and were Russia's first professional soldiers. Garbed in caftans, fur-trimmed hats and yellow boots, their banners emblazoned with images of God smiting their foes, they made a fearsome host whenever they assembled at the tsar's bidding – or in revolt. In 1682, when Peter was ten years old, they butchered several of his relatives on the Red Staircase in the Kremlin – an experience that crystallized his hatred for Old Muscovy and its raggle-taggle army. It was to beat them that Peter later formed his own "toy" regiments drilled in European tactics by foreign officers, which routed the Streltsy when they revolted again in 1698. A famous painting by Surikov (in the Tretyakov Gallery) depicts the tsar gazing pitilessly over the wives and children of the condemned, in the shadow of St Basil's.

St Basil's Cathedral
No description can do justice to the inimitable St Basil's Cathedral (sobor Vasiliya Blazhennovo; 11am–6pm, in winter till 4pm; closed Tues & the first Mon of each month; $3.30). Foreigners have always seen it as a cryptic clue to the mysterious Russian soul. The French diplomat, the Marquis de Custine, thought its colours combined "the scales of a golden fish, the enamelled skin of a serpent, the changeful hues of the lizard, the glossy rose and azure of the pigeon's neck", and questioned whether "the men who go to worship God in this box of confectionery work" could be Christians.

St Basil's was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible to celebrate his capture of the Tatar stronghold of Kazan in 1552, on the feast day of the Intercession of the Virgin. Officially named the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin by the Moat (after the moat that then ran beside the Kremlin), its popular title commemorates a "holy fool", St Basil the Blessed (1468–1552), who came to Ivan's notice in 1547 when he foretold the fire that swept Moscow that year, and was later buried in the Trinity Cathedral which then stood on this site. St Basil's was built in 1555–60, most likely by Postnik Yakovlev (nicknamed "Barma" – the Mumbler) who, legend has it, was afterwards blinded on the Tsar's orders so that he could never create anything to rival the cathedral (in fact he went on to build another cathedral in Vladimir).

In modern times this unique masterpiece was almost destroyed by Stalin, who resented that it prevented his soldiers from leaving Red Square en masse. Its survival is due to the architect Baranovsky, whose threat to cut his own throat on the cathedral's steps in protest changed Stalin's mind, though he was punished by five years in prison. More recently St Basil's was threatened by subsidence, and it wasn't until the millennium that funds were allocated to underpin the cathedral's foundations and restore its flaking domes and interior.

Despite its apparent disorder, there is an underlying symmetry to the cathedral, which has eight domed chapels (four large and octagonal, the others smaller and squarish) symbolizing the eight assaults on Kazan, clustered around a central, lofty tent-roofed spire, whose cupola was compared by the poet Lermontov to "the cut-glass stopper of an antique carafe". In 1588 Tsar Fyodor added a ninth chapel on the northeastern side, to accommodate the remains of St Basil; its small yellow-and-green cupola is studded with orange pyramids. Rather than using the main arcaded staircase, visitors enter through an inconspicuous door near the ticket kiosk (which closes for thirty minutes at lunchtime, and an hour before the cathedral does).

The interior is a psychedelic maze of galleries painted with floral or geometric patterns, that wends from one chapel to another and from level to level via narrow stairways whose low arches were designed to make even the most exalted worshipper stoop in humility. St Basil occupies a silver casket in a chapel on the lower floor, whose gaudy magnificence is echoed by the red, blue and gold iconostasis in the Chapel of the Intercession, upstairs. Other chapels such as the one dedicated to the Velikoretskiy icon of St Nicholas are more restrained, or even quite austere in their decor.

In the garden out in front stands an impressive bronze statue of Minin and Pozharsky, who rallied Russia during the Time of Troubles. They made a curious team: Dmitri Pozharsky was a prince, while Kuzma Minin was a butcher from Nizhniy Novgorod, whose citizens funded the volunteer army that drove out the invading Poles in 1612, after he took their womenfolk hostage. Erected in 1818 by public subscription, the statue was Moscow's first monumental sculpture, and originally stood in front of what is now GUM.

The Alexander Gardens
To visit the Kremlin, leave Red Square to the northwest and turn left around the corner into the Alexander Gardens (Aleksandrovskiy sad; daily 24hr) that were laid out in 1819–22, after the Neglina River that ran beside the Kremlin's western wall was channelled into an underground pipe. Just inside the gates is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, whose eternal flame was kindled from the Field of Mars in Leningrad when the memorial was unveiled in 1967. Beneath a granite plinth topped by a giant helmet and furled banner lie the remains of a nameless soldier disinterred from the mass grave of those who died halting the Nazi advance at Kilometre 41 on the Leningrad highway; the inscription reads: "Your name is unknown, your feat immortal". Nearby is a line of porphyry blocks containing earth from the "Hero Cities" of Leningrad, Kiev, Stalingrad, Sevastapol, Minsk, Smolensk, Odessa, Novorossisk, Tula, Murmansk, Kerch and the Brest Fortress. Newlyweds and VIPs come here to lay flowers at the monument, which is carpeted with bouquets on Victory Day (May 9). The changing of the guard is a popular spectacle, introduced since the ritual at Lenin's Mausoleum was scrapped (every hour on the hour; half hourly during winter).

On the far side of the gardens, statues based on Russian fairytales such as the Prince and the Frog and the Fox and the Stork, spotlit amid mosaic-encrusted basins and balustraded walkways linked to a mall beneath Manezhnaya ploshchad , evince Mayor Luzhkov's desire to transform Moscow's image from that of a drab metropolis into a prosperous fun city.

Previously, the only note of levity was a whimsical arched Grotto near the Middle Arsenal Tower; it was more typical of the Soviet Union that an obelisk erected to mark the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty should be converted on Lenin's orders into a Monument to Revolutionary Thinkers, inscribed with the names of Bakunin, Marx, Engels, Hume and other personages. In Bulgakov's famous novel, The Master and Margarita, it was on one of the nearby benches that the grieving heroine Margarita met the Devil's sidekick, Azazello, and accepted an invitation to Satan's Ball, which led to the release of her beloved from a mental asylum.

Midway along the ramparts, a brick ramp with swallow-tailed crenellations descends to the white Kutafya Tower, the last survivor of several outlying bastions that once protected the bridges leading to the Kremlin, whose decorative parapet was added in the seventeenth century. The bridge leads up to the eighty-metre-high Trinity Tower, the tallest of the Kremlin towers, whose gateway admits visitors to the citadel. Further south, the Commandant's Tower and the Armoury Tower abut the Kremlin's Armoury Palace, while another rampway leads up to the multi-tiered Borovitskiy Tower, whose name derives from the pine-grove (bor) covered hillock on which the citadel was founded. In winter, when the steep hillside is covered with snow, kids zoom down on sledges and shoot across the path of unsuspecting tour groups heading for the Borovitskiy Gate.

Pop, dance, rock and world music
Russian pop music is something of a joke to foreigners. The only act to get worldwide fame in recent years was the "lesbian" duo TaTu, while before them, the only performer that anyone outside Russia could identify was Alla Pugachova, who resembles a contestant in a drag ball. MTV-Russia is dominated by bland boy bands and Britney wannabes like Zemfira and Glucosa; the only indie bands to get any exposure are Mumiy Troll from Vladivostok (led by the androgynous, intellectual Ilya Lagushenko), and the multi-instrumental Chiz (whose fusion of Celtic, Russian and Soviet roots music fits the prevailing mood of retro-patriotism). However, a far wider range of bands plays in Moscow's clubs, particularly during festivals. The main events are SKIF – a gathering of DJs, indie bands and performance artists from Russia and abroad, in mid-April; the ethnic music festival in the Hermitage Garden in early July; and the international rock and folk festivals at Luzhniki Sports Complex and the Central House of Artists (mid- or late Oct). A DJ lounge music festival may also become an annual event (late March to mid-April), and there are sporadic mini-festivals of Celtic/Slavic pop, rock or folk (signposted on the Russian-language site www.celtic.ru).

Russian bands to look out for include hard rockers Leningrad (banned by Mayor Luzhkov, but defiantly playing surprise gigs); Dva Samolota and Tequilajazz (reggae/fusion); Markschneider Kunst (techno-trance); Ariya (whose audio-visual onslaught is like Pink Floyd); Iva Nova (Slavic folk punk) and Jah Division (reggae). Recent foreign acts have included Bjork, Nick Cave, the Cardigans, Robbie Williams and Paul McCartney (who got to play on Red Square). Otherwise, dance music rules and the big names at clubs are DJs Ivan Rudyk, Sapunov, Shushkin, Sanchez – often joined by foreign DJs such as Leeroy Thornhill (ex-Prodigy), Natarcia (the Netherlands), Tony Key (New York) or Lele Sacchi (Italy).

Bar Code
1-ya Tverskaya-Yamskaya ul. 27 tel:973 80 00; 10–15min walk from Mayakovskaya or Belorusskaya metro.

A "democratic" offshoot of the elitist Zeppelin club, whose DJs mix the lounge music that plays here all the time against a backdrop of Fashion TV – and appear in person at parties (Fri & Sat from 7pm). Like any Moscow club that wants to be taken seriously, it has a sushi bar. Daily 24hr; free.

B2
Bolshaya Sadovaya ul. 8 tel:209 99 09; 5min walk from Mayakovskaya metro.

Following the success of Bunker they went and opened this modish five-floor labyrinth with three eateries (including sushi) under one roof. Access to the top level where DJs or bands perform may involve a separate cover charge, depending on who's playing. Daily noon–6am; $3–15.

Bunker
Tverskaya ul 12 tel:209 44 70, www.bunker.ru (in Russian only); near Tverskaya/Pushkinskaya metro.

If you're looking to boogie downtown, this large rock club features live sets (winter: Mon– Thurs & Sun 11pm; summer: Mon– Thurs & Sun 9pm, Fri & Sat 11.30pm) followed by a disco. You can enjoy their stone-garden Japanese eatery, beer restaurant or coffeehouse without spending too much, and for those with kids there's a children's disco (Sat 1–5pm). Daily 24hr; $2–7.

Cabana
Raushskaya nab. 4 tel:238 50 06, www.cabana.ru; 15min walk from Novokuznetskaya metro.

Famed for its black stripper, Dillon, who once outraged some Duma deputies with his "livened up" dance to the national anthem. He performs on Tues & Fri, when women are plied with free champagne and vodka to fuel a near-orgy. If you don't like the scene, Vermel is just nearby. Daily 6pm–6am; $5–9.

Che
Nikolskaya ul. 10/2 tel:924 74 77 1960s; 5min walk from Lubyanka or Ploshchad Revolyutsii metro.

Ay, Commandante! A dance club in the Kitay-Gorod with 1960s guerilla decor, Cuban/Latin music that sizzles, the best mojito cocktails in town (2-4-1 at weekends), and a sweat-lodge dance floor. Face control. Daily 24hr; free.

Club na Brestskoy
(Club on Brestskaya) 2-ya Brestskaya liniya 6 (entrance from 1-ya Brestskaya) tel:200 09 36; 10min walk from Mayakovskaya metro.

This unpretentious basement den often books great alternative bands such as the Romanian folk-punk group Spitalul de Urgenta. Daily noon until the last customer leaves; free.

Doug and Marty's Boar House
ul. Zemlyanoy val 26 tel:917 01 50, www.boarhouse.ru; near Kurskaya metro.

A certified pick-up spot for expatriates and hookers, with a disco or rockabilly bands, theme parties, pool tables and sports TV. Wed is ladies' night, with free cocktails; concerts Fri & Sat at 11pm. Fifty percent discount on club sandwiches, salads, pizzas and wings from noon–8pm, and daily happy hour (6–9pm). Mon– Fri noon–6am, Sat & Sun noon–9am; $3–5 after midnight.

Fabrique
Sadovnicheskaya ul. 33 (entrance on Kosmodamianskaya nab.) tel:953 65 76; 15–20min walk from Novokuznetskaya metro.

A huge split-level basement club in the University of Design and Technology, throwing parties hosted by Norman Jay, Funkstar De Luxe, Roger Sanchez and other visiting DJs. No face control. Daily 11pm–7am.

Garazh
(Garage) Tverskaya ul. 16, str. 2 tel:209 18 48; near Pushkinskaya/Tverskaya/Chekhovskaya metro.

Hip-hop and R&B night (Wed) attracts African expats and Russian students, but at other times you're likelier to find off-duty girls from Night Flight and their flathead boyfriends. Capricious face control. Daily 24hr; free.

Gippopotam
(Hippopotamus) ul. Mantulinskaya 5/1, str. 6 (behind the Sante Fe restaurant) tel:256 23 46; 15min walk from Ulitsa 1905 Goda metro.

Popular with Africans, Arabs and Caucasians, this basement disco doesn't get lively till after midnight. The door charge varies wildly for no apparent reason. Amex, DC, EC, JCB, Maestro, MC, Visa. Wed– Sun 10pm–6am; $1–8.

Karma-Bar
Pushechnaya ul. 3 tel:924 56 33, www.karma-bar.ru; 5min walk from Kuznetskiy Most or Lubyanka metro.

Originally called the Buddha bar, but renamed after local Buddhists threatened to curse it; they've kept the statue of Buddha on the dance floor and added a pair of bronze tits. DJ YeYo's Latin parties (Thurs), Latina dance classes (Fri & Sat from 9.30), and soul and R&B Sundays are the most popular nights. Liberal face control. All major cards. Wed 7pm–6am, Thurs– Sun 9pm–6am; $6.

Kitayskiy Lyotchik Dzhao Da
(Chinese Pilot Dzhao Da) Lubyanskiy proezd 25, str. 1 tel:924 56 11, www.jao-da.ru; near Kitay-Gorod metro.

Set up by Irina Papernaya, the doyenne of the Boho club scene, this basement club/restaurant themed on a mythical airman hosts gigs by the likes of Leningrad, Markschneider Kunst or Prepinaki – plus a disco most nights. Cheap drinks; tasty Russian food. Daily 24hr; $2–3 on gig nights.

Kult
(Cult) Yauzskaya ul. 5 tel:917 57 06; 15–20min walk from Kitay-Gorod or Taganskaya metro.

A hangout for designers, artists and trendsetters, with an African restaurant ($15–20 for a meal), cushion-lounge, art gallery, and Euro movies on the monitors. Plays jazz, mood or ethnic music in the week, and funk and disco at weekends. Dress code and face control. Mon– Wed & Sun noon– midnight, Thurs– Sat noon–6am; free, or cover charge, depending on events.

Metelitsa
(Snowfall) ul. Noviy Arbat 21 tel:291 11 70, www.metelitsa.ru; 10min walk from Arbatskaya metro.

The club that epitomized the nouveaux-riche 1990s, with its swanky casino and whores primed to relieve bigshots and flatheads of their surplus cash. Worth trying once, if you've got the money. Live entertainment; Western-style kitchen. Smart dress; strict face control. DC, MC, Visa. Daily 9pm–5am; $25.

Ministerstvo
(Ministry) Malaya Nikitskaya ul. 24 tel:222 01 58; 10min walk from Barrikadnaya metro.

Housed in a wing of the Ministry of Broadcasting, this elite club's decor is Stalinist Empire, with gilded statues, lofty ceilings and doors. Technic, Spyder and guest DJs play techno and house to a coked-out crowd with money to burn. Fascist face control. Fri & Sat 10pm–6am; free.

Night Flight
Tverskaya ul. 17 tel:229 41 65, www.nightflight.ru; 5min walk from Tverskaya metro.

Visiting execs are assured of finding a deluxe hooker ($300) on the tiny dance floor of this split-level bar restaurant, serving top- notch Euro cuisine under tolerant Swedish management. Disco from 11pm. Amex, DC, EC, MC, Visa. Daily restaurant noon–4am; club 9pm–5am; $22.

Ogorod
(Greenhouse) pr. Mira 28 (entrance down an alley) tel:280 89 47; 5min walk from Prospekt Mira metro.

This converted conservatory overlooking the Moscow University Botanical Garden has giant rubber plants, occasional weird performances (a puppet show of the Battle of Stalingrad) and sexy party nights, but is generally just a dining club for fortysomething socialites. Face control; table reservation advised. Mon– Fri from noon & Sat from 1.30pm, till the last customer leaves; free.

Okno
(Window) ul. Ostozhenka 32 tel:203 54 60; 10min walk from Park Kultury or Kropotkinskaya metro.

So-called because it hasn't got many of them, this basement club shares a courtyard with the Tiflis restaurant. House and trance in the lounge, regular guest DJs, Cheburashka parties (named after a Soviet TV animated film character), and a gay-friendly Sunday party. Mon– Tues noon– midnight, Wed– Thurs noon–1am, Fri noon–6am, Sat noon–9am, Sun 8pm–2am; free.

Papa John's
Myasnitskaya ul. 22 (below Johnny's) tel:755 95 54; 5min from walk Chistye Prudy/Turgenevskaya metro.

Alcoholism and lechery rule at this successor to the infamous Hungry Duck. Wet T-shirt contests, audience strips, cockfights, turtle races and brawls. Cuban bartenders in nappies serve a wide range of pricey drinks (happy hour 6–8pm). Daily 6pm–5am; Fri & Sat women $2, men $5.

Parizhskaya Zhizn
(Parisian Life) ul. Karetniy ryad 3, str. 1 (in the Hermitage Gardens) tel:209 45 24; 10min walk from Tsvetnoy bulvar metro.

Flatheads and Sex and the City babes fight and smooch around the dance floor and pool tables, if not diverted by a band playing upstairs. Face control. EC, MC, Visa. Daily: bar/restaurant 11am–7am; disco summer 9pm–7am, winter 7pm–7am; Mon– Wed free, Thurs $3, Sat & Sun $6.

Piramida
(Pyramid) Tverskaya ul. 18a tel:200 36 03, www.piramida-cafebar.com (in Russian only); near Tverskaya/Pushkinskaya metro.

An ultra-hip, glass-walled club across the road from McDonald's, featuring a seated Pharaonic colossus, space-suited waiters, and DJs Ostap, Malik and Bobroff playing trip hop, fusion or broken beat, with a party the last Thurs each month. Great for people-watching, even if you don't want to dance. Daily 24hr; free.

Proekt OGI
(Project OGI) Potapovskiy per. 8/12, str. 2 tel:927 56 09, 10min walk from Chistye Prudy metro; Nikolskaya ul. 19/21 tel:921 58 27, 5min walk from Lubyanka or Ploshchad Revolyutsii metro www.ogi.ru/proekt/.

An evolving project by a publishing company, these two basement book cafés offer trance and lounge music, poetry readings, kids' events and gigs by indie bands. The first OGI is hidden in a courtyard (turn right at the end and look for a black door); the second, by the fashion mall on Tretyakovskiy proezd. Both serve good food at bargain prices. No cards. Daily till 11pm or 24hr, respectively.

Propaganda
Bolshoy Zlatoustinskiy per. 7 tel:924 57 32, www.propaganda.ru; near Kitay-Gorod or Lubyanka metro.

Relaxed bar-club with a mix of students, gays and expats, grooving to mood music (Tues), garage, house and jungle spun by Sanchez (Thurs) or guest DJs, or at the China-Town gay party (Sun). Tasty food served until 10–11pm, when tables are cleared for dancing. Democratic face control. Mon– Wed noon–3am, Thurs– Sun 3pm–7am; $3 after 11pm Sat.

Shestnadsat Tonn
(Sixteen Tons) ul. Presnenskiy val 6 tel:253 53 00, www.16tons.ru; near Ulitsa 1905 Goda metro.

An English-style pub with a microbrewery and a disco that often features rockabilly bands upstairs. Lots of singles action, but it's not obligatory. All major cards. Daily: bar 11am–6am, club 6pm–6am; Thurs– Sat $3–6.

Tabula Rasa
Berezhkovskaya nab. 28 tel:240 92 89, www.tabula.ru; four stops by trolleybus #17 or #34 from Kievskaya metro.

Acoustic or alternative gigs are usually better than the DJs' sets, so check what's on before coming. Food is quite pricey and the service sucks. Daily 8pm–6am; Fri– Sun 7pm–6am; $2–8.

Territoriya
(Territory) Tverskaya ul. 5 (entrance around the back at Nikitskiy per. 6) tel:292 45 44; 5min walk from Okhotniy Ryad metro.

Packed with students at weekends, this downtown club has a small dance floor resembling a swimming pool, and low-priced food and drink. Democratic face control. Mon– Thurs noon–2am, Fri noon–6am, Sat 6pm–6am, Sun 6pm– midnight; Fri– Sat $3.

Tinkoff
Protochniy per. 11 tel:777 33 00, www.tinkoff.ru; 15min walk from Smolenskaya metro.

A snazzy microbrewery-restaurant with live acid jazz or funk in the lounge (Thurs– Sat after 9pm); its range of unfiltered beers costs $5–8, but the sushi is reasonably priced. All major cards. Daily noon–2am.

Tochka
(Dot) Zvenigorodskoe shosse 4 tel:495 89 21; 5min walk from Ulitsa 1905 Goda metro.

Although tochka is slang for a flat used by prostitutes, this isn't that kind of place at all. A stark factory conversion, with two bars, pool tables, a restaurant, a decent-sized dance floor and concerts at weekends, its Celtic affiliations extend to hosting a St Patrick's Day party (late Feb) and mock-battles by Sword 'n' Sorcery troupes. Face control. DC, MC, Visa. Daily noon–6am; Mon– Thurs $2–3, Fri & Sat $6–18.

Trety Put
(Third Way) ul. Pyatnitskaya 4 tel:951 87 34; 5min walk from Novokuznetskaya metro.

Far from being a coven of Blairites, this is a genuinely bohemian club with chess tables, cheap beer, penurious regulars and occasional gigs. Bohemian face control. Fri & Sat 10pm–5am; $3 till 2am, afterwards free.

Utka
(aka Duck) ul. Pushechnaya 9 tel:923 61 58; beside the pedestrian tunnel from Kuznetskiy Most metro.

Once denounced in the Duma for debauching Russian youth, the former Hungry Duck is tamer nowadays, with no free drinks on ladies' nights (Tues, Fri & Sun) – but still the kind of dive where groping somebody counts as an introduction. Daily 7pm–6am; women $1–2; men $3–7.

Vermel
(Vermicelli) Raushkaya nab. 4/5 tel:959 33 03, www.vermel.ru; 15min walk from Novokuznetskaya metro.

From the same stable as Kitayskiy Lyotchik, with a young student crowd dancing to diverse sounds. Film screenings Mon; folk music Tues; Ethno Wed; Russian pop Thurs; dance music Fri & Sat; rockabilly Sun. Affordable drinks. Beware of the low doorways. Mon– Thurs noon–5am, Fri– Sun noon–6am; $2–7.

Voodoo Lounge
Sredniy Tishinskiy per. 5/7 tel:253 23 23; 10min walk from Belorusskaya metro.

One of Moscow's punchier pick-up spots, with a summer patio, Latin music and a Mexican restaurant. Try the Macchiato cocktail with mint leaves, rum and sugar. Daily 6pm–6am; Sat & Sun men $5, women $2.

Zapasnik
(Art Garbage) Starosadskiy per. 5/6 tel:928 87 45, www.art-garbage.ru; 10min walk from Kitay-Gorod metro.

More of a restaurant-hangout than a club, its dance hall comes to life on Friday nights, or whenever bands play, but otherwise there's just people chilling out or dining on the patio. Good-value drinks and meals. Daily 6pm–6am; Thurs– Sun $3–7.

Zeppelin
pr. Mira 7, str. 3 (entrance on ul. Gilyarovskovo) tel:207 23 92; 5min walk from Sukharevskaya metro.

Unless you're a celebrity in a stretch limo or know a member who'll sign you in, forget about this absurdly elite club, whose parties are breathlessly reported in Afisha. You can hear their house sound for free at Bar Code. Sun– Wed noon– midnight, Thurs noon–3am, Fri & Sat noon–6am; free.

Zhiguli
ul. Noviy Arbat 11, str. 1 tel:291 41 44; 5min walk from Arbatskaya metro.

Brezhnev-era Retro rules at this refitted Soviet beer hall with its own microbrewery. The beer dispensers resemble mineral water automats and the beer mugs are authentically lumpy. Former beer-hall waiters now in their fifties sometimes drop in to recall the old days, and there are Soviet singsongs in the evenings. A beer costs only $3. Daily noon–2am; free.

Occasional live venues
The following places are sometimes used for concerts by major Russian pop stars or foreign bands, as advertised in the Moscow Times, Pulse, the eXile and Russia Journal, and by posters around the city. Tickets can be obtained through booking agencies (see "The Arts").

Central House of Artists
(TsDKh) ul. Krymskiy val 10 tel:238 96 34, www.cha.ru; 10min walk from Park Kultury metro.

Hosts an international folk festival in the second half of October.

D/K Gorbunova
ul. Novozavodskaya 27 tel:145 80 98; 15min from Bagrationovskaya metro.

This ex-Soviet House of Culture near the Gorbunov CD mall was once Moscow's main "alternative" venue for rock and punk bands (Nick Cave and the Smashing Pumpkins played here), but don't bother coming if nothing is advertised. Box office daily 11am–7pm; $5–10.

Luzhniki Stadium
Luzhnetskaya nab. 24 tel:201 11 64; 10min walk from Sportivnaya metro, or trolleybus #28 from Park Kultury metro.

Moscow's largest stadium has hosted concerts by Michael Jackson, Whitesnake and Motorhead.

Luzhniki Sports Palace
Luzhnetskaya nab. 24 tel:209 12 81; directions as above.

A smaller indoor venue near the stadium, where Robbie Williams and Metallica have played.

Moscow International House of Music
(MMDM) Kosmodamianskaya nab. 52, str. 8 tel:730 43 50; 10min walk from Paveletskaya metro.

A prestigious high-tech venue with Moscow's best audio-visual facilities, more often used for concerts by the likes of avant-garde composer Philip Glass or the opera soprano Jessye Norman.

Olympic Sports Complex
pr. Mira 16 tel:288 56 63; 10min walk from Prospekt Mira metro.

Another indoor sporting venue that has staged concerts by Deep Purple and Russian pop stars like Zemfira. Ticket office daily 10am–2pm & 3–7pm.

Rossiya Concert Hall
Moskvaretskaya nab. 1 tel:298 43 50, www.rossia-hall.ru; 10min from Kitay-Gorod metro, on the embankment side of the Rossiya Hotel.

Used for gala concerts by Alla Pugachova and other Russian stars, with rare visitations by Placido Domingo, Prodigy, Elton John and Cliff Richard.

State Kremlin Palace
in the Kremlin tel:929 79 10, www.kremlin-gdk.ru; near Biblioteka Imeni Lenina and Aleksandrovskiy Sad metros.

Cesaria Evora, Bowie, Sting, Tina Turner and Diana Ross are among those who have played in this hall where Communist Party congresses were once held. The booking office is beside one of the exits from Aleksandrovskiy Sad metro.

Gay and lesbian nightlife
Although homosexuality is no longer illegal in Russia, society remains extremely homophobic. Most local gays are still in the closet, and while Moscow's club scene is more tolerant than society at large, only gay clubs are reliable havens. In recent years several well-known clubs have gone straight or folded after trouble – one had the misfortune to be right behind the Dubrovka Theatre in the 2002 siege; commandos blew a hole in the wall to burst into the theatre. For changes in the future, check the websitewww.gay.ru, which is full of advice and listings. Currently, Sunday's the night for gay-friendly parties at two popular straight clubs: After Seven Tea Time with cocktails at Okno will set you up for China-Town at Propaganda.

Baza
(Base) Milyutinskiy per. 6; 10min walk from Turgenevskaya or Lubyanka metro.

To find this basement drag bar, look for the "Business Klass-Audit" sign, go through the gate to the back and turn left. Its staff and regulars are as picturesque as the show (from 1am), and drinks are cheap. Thurs– Sun 8pm–6am; free.

Dary Morya
(Gifts of the Sea) Maliy Gnezdnikovskiy per. 7; 10min walk from Tverskaya/Pushkinskaya metro.

A seedy rough-trade bar with rent boys, reached by an anonymous dark brown door on the left-hand side of the first right turning off the pereulok, if approached from Tverskaya ulitsa. Daily 2pm– midnight: $0.30.

Samovolka
(AWOL) Novaya Basmannaya ul. 9, str. 2 tel:261 78 44; 10min walk from Komsomolskaya or Krasnye Vorota metro.

To Russian conscripts samovolka signifies freedom, booze and sex. The club's decor is military themed and its staff wear fatigues. High prices have driven away the former crowd, so it may be empty on weekdays. Mon– Sat 8pm–6am; free.

Trei Obezanki
(Three Monkeys) Sadovicheskaya ul. 71, str. 2 tel:951 15 63, www.gau.ru/3monkeys (in Russian only); 15min walk from Paveletskaya metro.

This long-established club on the island between Taganka and Zamoskvareche is the only place with lesbian nights (Sat 6–11pm). It has pool tables, a tiny dance floor and unisex toilets. Amex, EC, MC, Visa. Daily 6pm–9am; free.

Jazz and blues
Moscow has an indigenous jazz tradition going back to the 1930s, and its clubs lure talent from across Russia and the Baltic States, plus elsewhere during festivals. The most prestigious is Boheme Jazz – sponsored by Russia's only jazz label – at the Moscow International House of Music in late May (tel:973 71 01, golovina@boheme.ru or their Russian-only website http://festival.boheme.ru for details). Close behind come Jazz at the Hermitage Garden in late August, an outdoor feast of ethno-jazz and rock fusion (tel:141 26 38, mgreen@home.relline.ru), and the acclaimed vocalists' festival Jazz Voices (Dzhazovye Golosa) in December, at the Central House of Artists and the Jazz Art Club. Besides the clubs listed here there's a 24-hour jazz cruise on the Moscow Canal in late July, sailing from the Northern River Terminal. Bring a swimming costume and wine to enjoy chilling out at the Pirogovskoe Reservoir. For information, call Alexander Eidelman (tel:191 83 20) or Rafael Avakov (tel:376 15 73); tickets cost $10 on the spot. Blues, Cuban, flamenco and fado music also have their admirers. Two useful websites with audio links are "Jazz in Russia" (www.jazz.ru) – whose text in English includes a section on festivals – and "Blues" (www.blues.ru), in Russian only.

B.B. King
ul. Sadovaya Samotyochnaya 4/2 tel:299 82 06; 10min from Tsvetnoy Bulvar metro.

Venerable blues/jazz hang-out known for its after-gig jam sessions by Michael Nyman, Marc Almond, Sting, and B.B. King himself. Small portions of tasty Cajun food, a big choice of beers, and live music from 9.30pm: Thurs, jazz; Fri, club parties; Sat, blues and rock. Mon– Thurs & Sun noon–2am, Fri & Sat noon until the last person leaves; Sat $3.

Jazz Art Club
Vernisazh Theatre, Begovaya ul. 5 tel:191 83 20; near Begovaya metro.

Only open two nights a week and closed throughout June, this joint, decorated with abstract paintings and models of flying birds hanging from the ceiling, is a venue for the Jazz Voices festival in December. Live music till 11pm. Cheap drinks and snacks. Fri & Sat 7.30pm– midnight; $3.

JVL Art Club
Novoslobodskaya ul. 14/19, str. 7 tel:978 91 15, www.jvlartclub.jazz.ru; near Novoslobodskaya metro.

Has an eclectic programme, with jazz, classical or folk music every night, mini-shows by actors, 1920s retro dances, and maybe film screenings. Mon– Sat 1pm– midnight.

Le Club
Verkhnaya Radishchevskaya ul. 21 tel:915 10 42; 10min walk from Taganskaya metro.

Popular jazz club run by saxophonist Igor Butman. Russian musicians nightly from 9.30pm; guest artists have included Gary Burton, Joe Lock and Kenny Garret. Mon– Thurs & Sun noon– midnight, Fri & Sat noon till the last customer leaves; $4–6.

Sinaya Pititsa
(Blue Bird) ul. Malaya Dmitrovka. 23/15 tel:209 30 27; 10min walk from Mayakovskaya or Chekhovskaya metro.

This forty-years'-old jazz restaurant (dining from $25 per head) has live music 7.30–11.30pm: Sun, Mon & Wed jazz trio; Tues & Sat music of the 1920s and '30s, and jazz improvisations; Fri, Sergei Manukyan's jazz ensemble. Also karaoke, pool tables, bar and videos. Amex, EC, MC, Union, Visa. Daily 24hr; free.

Bard music
Russian Bard music is associated with the shestdesyatniki or "Sixties people" who came of age under Khrushchev and Brezhnev, when Bulat Okhudzhava, Alexander Gallich and the gravel-voiced Vladimir Vysotsky moved millions with their bittersweet, satirical or savage ballads, skirting or straying well over the edges of what was officially permissible. Four decades on, Vysotsky remains almost as popular as ever and new generations of Bards have attracted a devoted following, even if it's not on the scale of their predecessors' appeal. If you're interested in hearing how the genre has developed, visit the website http://Bard-Cafe.komkon.org/, or reserve a table at Gnezdo Glukhanya or Perekrestok. It's customary to dine as well as drink at both venues.

Gnezdo Glukhanya
(The Widgeon's Nest) Bolshaya Nikitskaya ul. 22 tel:291 93 88; www.mtu.net/gnezdo_gluharya; 10–15min walk from Arbatskaya, Pushkinskaya or Okhotniy Ryad metro.

Down a lane across the road from the Helikon Opera, this is Moscow's most accessible Bards venue, but table reservations are essential. The Russian food is only average, but inexpensive. Daily noon–11pm; $7–10.

Perekrestok
(Crossroad) Volokolamskoe shosse 13 tel:158 17 00; 15min walk from Sokol metro.

Difficult to find among the confusingly numbered blocks, this is a club for locals or visitors staying in the area. Tues– Sun 7.30–11.30pm; $2–3.

21 things not to miss
It's not possible to see everything that Moscow has to offer on a short trip – and we don't suggest you try. What follows is a subjective selection of the city's highlights, shown in no particular order, ranging from the medieval splendour of the Kremlin to the Stalinist kitsch of the VVTs, all arranged in colour-coded categories to help you find the very best things to see, do and experience. All entries have a page reference to take you straight into the guide, where you can find out more.

01 . Moskva River cruise
• In summertime, river cruises afford superb views of the Kremlin, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the monument to Peter the Great, some of the Stalin skyscrapers, and fortified monasteries.

02 . The Kremlin palaces and Armoury
• The seat of Russian power features seventeenth-century and Neoclassical interiors, and treasures ranging from Fabergé eggs to the sable-trimmed Crown of Monomakh.

03 . Georgian cuisine
• The healthiest and tastiest of Russia's diverse culinary traditions, due to its emphasis on fresh herbs, vegetables, pulses, nuts and garnishes such as pomegranate seeds – but with plenty to satisfy carnivores too. Best washed down with a robust red wine or a bottle of Borzhomi mineral water.

04 . Izmaylovo Market
• A cornucopia of Soviet memorabilia, icons, paintings, wood carvings, vintage cameras and samovars, the outdoor Vernissazh (as locals call it) is Moscow's best source of souvenirs. Performing bears appear at weekends.

05 . Clubbing
• Whether it's jazz-fusion, trance, grunge, S&M or gender bending, there are clubs for any taste in Moscow – the more way-out or extravagant, the better.

06 . Peter the Great monument
• A 95-metre-high, monstrously kitsch waterfront homage to the founder of the Russian navy, by Mayor Luzhkov's favourite artist, Tsereteli.

07 . Ice Hockey
• Watch Spartak, Dinamo or TsKA in action at one of the city's Ice Palaces. Matches are fast and furious – compelling viewing.

08 . Red Square
• The heart of Mother Russia, where St Basil's Cathedral, Lenin's Mausoleum, the Kremlin walls and GUM department store stand magnificently juxtaposed.

09 . Kolomenskoe
• The eerie Church of the Ascension (featured in Eisenstein's film Ivan the Terrible) and hulking wooden watchtowers and cabins make this former royal estate beside the Moskva River a fabulous spot, which looks quite unearthly in the winter. Folkloric and historical pageants are staged here throughout the year.

10 . The Arbat
• Once the heart of Bohemian Moscow, this cobbled street buzzes with souvenir sellers, buskers and photographers (who'll snap you beside a life-size Putin, Schwarzenegger or Mickey Mouse).

11 . Banya
• A quintessential Russian experience, the banya (bathhouse) is a sauna with a masochistic twist that leaves you gasping for more and feeling wonderfully relaxed afterwards.

12 . The VVTs
• The healthiest and tastiest Stalinist theme park that once extolled the achievements of the Soviet economy, with mosaic-encrusted fountains and pavilions, and two iconic monuments.

13 . The Metro
• Moscow's showcase metro stations are the most decorous in the world. Styles range from High Stalinist to ballroom glitz.

14 . Orthodox choral music
• This music is otherworldly and perfectly in keeping with the rituals of the faith. Visitors can attend evening service at any church; saint's day festivals, Christmas or Easter at Moscow's cathedrals and monasteries are far grander events.

15 . Ballet, opera and classical music
• While the Bolshoy is Moscow's most famous venue (whose historic theatre is due to close in 2005 for major repairs), there are a wealth of companies, theatres and orchestras providing world-class entertainment.

16 . Suzdal
• A beautiful small town of fortified monasteries and wooden houses, used as a location for filming historical epics such as Andrei Rublev, and currently a popular place to spend Christmas and New Year.

17 . Ryabushinsky Mansion
• The interior is a sublime example of Style Moderne (Russian Art Nouveau), preserved as a museum to its last occupant, the writer Maxim Gorky.

18 . Tretyakov Gallery
• Its two buildings showcase nearly a thousand years of Russian art, from icons to Futurism and Socialist Realist art.

19. Novodevichiy Convent and Cemetery
• A high-walled, golden-domed convent that unwanted wives or sisters of the tsars were once obliged to enter as nuns. In the adjacent cemetery, Gogol, Shostakovich, Eisenstein, Khrushchev and a host of other luminaries are buried beneath elaborate funerary sculptures.

20 . Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts
• This wonderful museum boasts Schliemann's discoveries from "Troy", several Rembrandts, some of Gauguin's best-loved Tahitian paintings, and works by Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso and Cézanne.

21 . GUM
• GUM's elegant Victorian-era arcades are now full of designer-label stores rather than the shoddy products and queues for which it was known in Soviet times. A fine place for window-shopping in its colonnades, or sipping coffee by its fountains.