Moscow Guide
The Zemlyanoy Gorod
The Arbat
Celebrated in song and verse, the Arbat once stood for bohemian Moscow in the way that Carnaby Street represented swinging London. Narrow and cobbled, with a tramline down the middle, it was the heart of a quarter where writers, actors and scientists frequented the same shops and cafés. This cosy world of the Soviet intelligentsia drew strength from the neighbourhood's identity a century earlier, when the Staraya Konyushennaya or Old Equerries' quarter between the Arbat and Prechistenka was the home of the ancien nobility, who still measured their wealth by the number of "souls" (male serfs) that they owned (women didn't count), training them to cook French pastries or play chamber music so as to be able to boast that their estate provided every refinement of life.
Divided into communal flats after the Revolution, each household felt Stalin's Terror, as recalled in Anatoly Rybakov's novel Children of the Arbat, which wasn't published until glasnost. By then, the Arbat was established as the hippest place in Moscow, having been pedestrianized in the early 1980s (for the worse, many thought). Perestroika made it a magnet for young Muscovites and tourists in search of something happening, while the Yeltsin years saw its real-estate value soar as businesses moved in and residents left. At street level, however, it's anything but staid, with lots of cafés and beer tents, souvenir stalls catering to both Russians and foreigners, and people of all ages strolling or hanging out, watching the street performers and singsongs over a few bottles of beer until midnight or later.