The northernmost and coldest megacity in the world, Moscow is governed as a federal city,[17] where it serves as the political, economic, cultural, and scientific center of Russia and Eastern Europe.

[22] The city contains several UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is known for its display of Russian architecture, particularly in areas such as the Red Square and buildings such as the Saint Basil's Cathedral and the Moscow Kremlin, the latter of which is the seat of power of the Government of Russia.

[24] Its cognates include Russian: музга, muzga "pool, puddle", Lithuanian: mazgoti and Latvian: mazgāt "to wash", Sanskrit: májjati "to drown", Latin: mergō "to dip, immerse".

[citation needed] Daniel came of age in the 1270s and became involved in the power struggles of the principality with lasting success, siding with his brother Dmitry in his bid for the rule of Novgorod.

In 1480, Ivan III had finally broken the Russians free from Tatar control, and Moscow became the capital of an empire that would eventually encompass all of Russia and Siberia, and parts of many other lands.

Three square gates existed on the east side of the Kremlin wall, which in the 17th century, were known as Konstantino-Eleninsky, Spassky, Nikolsky (after the icons of Constantine and Helen, the Saviour and St. Nicholas that hung over them).

In 1612, Nizhny Novgorod and other Russian cities led by prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin rose against the Polish occupants, besieged the Kremlin, and expelled them.

When Catherine II came to power in 1762, the city's filth and the smell of sewage were depicted by observers as a symptom of disorderly lifestyles of lower-class Russians recently arrived from the farms.

However, in the wake of Russia's failures in the Crimean War in 1855–56, confidence in the ability of the state to maintain order in the slums eroded, and demands for improved public health put it back on the agenda.

Moscow is situated on the banks of the Moskva River, which flows for just over 500 km (311 mi) through the East European Plain in central Russia, not far from the natural border of the forest and forest-steppe zone.

[64] Moscow has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb) with long, cold (although average by Russian standards) winters usually lasting from mid-November to the end of March, and warm summers.

[66] The highest temperature ever recorded was 38.2 °C (100.8 °F)[67] at the VVC weather station and 39.0 °C (102.2 °F) in the center of Moscow and Domodedovo airport on 29 July 2010, during the unusual 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves.

Fossils of the bivalve mollusk Inoceramus kleinii and tubular passages of burrowing animals, described in 2017 as a new ichnospecies Skolithos gorodnensis, were discovered in the Coniacian deposits near the stream bed of the Bolshaya Glinka River.

A defining feature of Moscow's skyline, their imposing form was allegedly inspired by the Manhattan Municipal Building in New York City, and their style—with intricate exteriors and a large central spire—has been described as Stalinist Gothic architecture.

Ostankino Palace, Kuskovo, Uzkoye and other large estates just outside Moscow originally belong to nobles from the Tsarist era, and some convents, and monasteries, both inside and outside the city, are open to Muscovites and tourists.

[120] Some critics also wonder if the money used for the reconstruction of razed buildings could not be used for the renovation of decaying structures, which include many works by architect Konstantin Melnikov[121] and Mayakovskaya metro station.

It borders the Neskuchny Garden (408,000 square metres or 101 acres), the oldest park in Moscow and a former imperial residence, created as a result of the integration of three estates in the 18th century.

Even though during the 1990s it was, and for some part still is, misused as a gigantic shopping center (most of the pavilions are rented out for small businesses), it still retains the bulk of its architectural landmarks, including two monumental fountains (Stone Flower and Friendship of Nations) and a 360 degrees panoramic cinema.

[133] Near the new Tretyakov Gallery there is a sculpture garden, Museon, often called "the graveyard of fallen monuments" that displays statues of the former Soviet Union that were removed from their place after its dissolution.

The new gallery includes a small reconstruction of Vladimir Tatlin's famous Monument to the Third International and a mixture of other avant-garde works by artists like Kazimir Malevich and Wassily Kandinsky.

Because sports organisations in the Soviet Union were once highly centralized, two of the best Union-level teams represented defence and law-enforcing agencies: the Armed Forces (CSKA) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Dinamo).

The adjoining Tretyakovsky Proyezd, also south of Tverskaya Street, in Kitai-gorod, is host to upmarket boutique stores such as Bulgari, Tiffany & Co., Armani, Prada and Bentley.

The central part of Moscow grew by consolidating with suburbs in line with medieval principles of urban development when strong fortress walls would gradually spread along the circle streets of adjacent new settlements.

Moscow hosts headquarters of the many of telecommunications and technology companies, including 1C, ABBYY, Beeline, Kaspersky Lab, Mail.Ru Group, MegaFon, MTS, Rambler&Co, Rostelecom, Yandex, and Yota.

Student exchange programs with numerous countries, specially with the rest of Europe, have also become widespread in Moscow's universities, while schools within the Russian capital also offer seminars, lectures, and courses for corporate employees and businessmen.

[203] The paranoia of Stalin and the NKVD was evident when the secret police arrested numerous British engineers for espionage—that is for gaining an in-depth knowledge of the city's physical layout.

The Metro is one of the deepest subway systems in the world; for instance, the Park Pobedy station, completed in 2003, at 84 metres (276 ft) underground, has the longest escalators in Europe.

In 2018 the vehicle companies Kamaz and GAZ have won the Mosgortrans tender for delivering 200 electric buses and 62 ultra-fast charging stations to the city transport system.

The Moskovskaya Okruzhnaya Zheleznaya Doroga formed a ring around the now-downtown Moscow since 1903, but only served as a non-electrified, fueled locomotive-only railway prior to reconstruction into MCC in 2010's.

It is planned to include a water park and other recreational facilities; business, office, entertainment, and residential buildings, a transport network and a new site for the Moscow government.