Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now!


Gilyarovsky's self-described "chronicle" is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 


First published in 1926, this work has been translated into English for the first time and it positively teems with rich descriptions and vivid anecdotes:


...from the depths of Moscow’s sewers to the murky back 

rooms of its gambling dens...


...from the steam-filled halls of banyas to the dining rooms of posh restaurants and workers’ taverns...


...from the lives of students and waiters to the struggles

of market traders and heroic firemen...


Gilyarovsky’s book documents pre-Soviet life in the Russian capital like no work before or since. This first-ever English translation includes dozens of historical photos, poems in the original Russian, an index, and maps.