I'm a child of the Cold War -- the old one with the Soviet Union, that is, not the new frost toward Iran. So, a few months back, after I checked into Moscow's Hotel Baltschug Kempinski, a view from my room's window set my heart -- and nerves -- racing. Straight ahead were the brightly colored onion domes of St. Basil's Cathedral, as well as the forbidding fortifications surrounding the Kremlin.
It was a photo opportunity not to be missed. Angling my camera to get both sights into one frame, I climbed on top of a radiator cover. A moment later, it collapsed off the wall, and I came crashing down, bruising my arms, which smarted for the next several days. Moscow!
This mishap proved portentous, as this is a city of sharp (and bruised) elbows. It has something of the feel of a gold-rush town -- Moscow is crackling with con artists and nouveau riche poseurs.
Forbes magazine estimates there are 53 billionaires in Russia, worth a total of $283 billion, and a "second tier" of 103,000 Russian millionaires, worth $670 billion. Hardly a surprise, then, that the country's capital is muscling its way onto the world stage as a cultural center and playground.
Costly building projects, including the lavish renovation of the Bolshoi Ballet Theater and the recently-opened Ritz-Carlton Hotel, are visible everywhere. During my visit, Donatella Versace, Tom Ford and other fashion heavyweights were in town, participating in the Millionaire Fair, a trade show of luxury brands for newly rich Russians. Latest craze? Over-the-top weekend houses, or dachas, for the wealthiest Muscovites.
So rife is ruble-mania in Moscow that I was subjected twice in two days to the same con by a pair of crooks. One rushes past and drops a thick wad of money, while his partner engages a bystander (me) in eye-rolling incredulity at such carelessness, before enlisting assistance in returning this cash to its "loser." During the hearty gratitude that follows, the good Samaritan gets his pocket picked.
"Russians are a little like children. As soon as they discover something new - and right now, it's money - they get really, really excited about it," said Roxanne Chatounovsky, a marketing executive I met one evening while dining at Nedalny-Vostok, a popular chic restaurant in Moscow.
"Luxury brands only became available here about 15 years ago," she added, "but already there are now a lot of Russians who have made their money so easily, they don't even know what work is."
Chatounovsky said the Millionaire Fair was offering a chance to shop for helicopters, private planes, race horses, Mediterranean villas and custom-built yachts to new oligarchs such as Roman Abramovich. He's the Russian oil and gas billionaire who bankrolled the most expensive sale ever for a living artist, when he paid $120 million for four paintings by Lucian Freud at a Sotheby's auction last month in New York.
The overindulged children of such families, she said, are referred to in Moscow as "bratskis."
From Bolsheviks to bratskis! History, alas, does repeat itself. Such were my thoughts as I waited in line the next morning in Red Square, inching forward toward a squat, granite bunker otherwise known as Lenin's tomb.
Red Square, of course, is at Moscow's center, both literally and metaphorically. Its colorful name, I learned, is not shorthand for communism; rather, in Russian, Krasnaya ploshchad (red square) derives from krasniy, which means "beautiful." And the square is exactly that - beautiful - and because of a slight sloping away from its center in all directions, when standing in it, you feel like you are cresting the world's curve.
If like me, you've wanted to see Lenin's corpse for decades, rest assured his tomb lives up to expectations - it's both spooky and exquisitely high camp.
You descend a ziggurat of dark marble stairs with a scowling guard at every landing, only to come to the crypt, where Lenin's embalmed body lies inside a glass coffin, bathed in such profusion of flattering pink light that he looks prettier than Doris Day did in her softly focused last movies.
Afterward, I wandered through the Kremlin, which is not just a governmental edifice as I'd imagined, but a city within a city that contains cathedrals, monasteries, museums, palaces, bells and cannons. If you are in a hurry, head straight to the Armory Palace, which was fully restored in 2006 to celebrate its 200th anniversary.
Here, there are rooms full of ceremonial costumes, crowns, thrones and carriages used by Russia's rulers from Medieval times to the present. There are also remarkable examples of the Russian Orthodox Church's wealth and power, including holy icons so encrusted with gold, pearls and precious stones that some weigh upward of 50 pounds. Gazing at these, as well as the Faberge eggs so beloved of Czar Nicholas II, puts the excesses of the Millionaire's Fair in historical context.
Could there be another Russian revolution? I pondered this the next day when I toured the Mayakovsky Museum, a shrine to Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930), who was an early supporter of the Bolsheviks, as well as a poet, artist and filmmaker. Mayakovsky, who liked to wear earrings and use radishes for buttons, also published a manifesto titled A Slap in the Face for Public Taste. Harrassed by government censors, he eventually committed suicide, allowing him to be seen today as a martyr of free thought. The museum is a chaotic affair that displays Mayakovsky's cartoons, agitprop posters and volumes of poetry spread wide. Social protest, it seems, is never tidy.
Neither is it all champagne and caviar over in Winzavod, a contemporary arts center that is the newest addition to Moscow's modern art scene. The exhibit space opened in 2007 in a converted wine factory in an industrial neighborhood on the city's outskirts.
After nosing around several galleries here, I stopped into M&J Guelman, which was exhibiting watercolors by Marilyn Manson, the theatrically ghoulish rock star. Inspired by "serial killers and their innocent victims," the accompanying catalog dryly explained, Manson's paintings dripped with blood reds and bruised purples. A crowd of young Muscovites observed them closely and with apparent admiration; most were already sold.
Feeling glum, I was happy to get back on the subway. One of the Soviet era's proudest accomplishments (Moscow's underground transportation system was launched in 1935), it seemed proof of the glories of communism. A ride costs less than 50 cents, even though the well-maintained stations are marvelously elaborate, with carved wooden doors, bronze statuary, chandeliers and marble floors.
Quite swell, too, was my next destination - a gilded, rococo bathhouse called the Sandunovsky, which was built in the 19th century. Sexes are segregated here, I discovered, with the men sitting in wet saunas and slapping themselves all over with white birch tree branches. Then, they gather in a baronial locker room to talk, smoke, eat heaping plates of boiled shrimp and gulp alcohol. One especially jolly guy tried to befriend me by sharing his bottle. It was only midafternoon, a bit early for cocktails, I thought, but it was priceless to see the man's look of incomprehension when I kept politely refusing.
Obviously, this hadn't happened to him before.
Later that evening, I dined at Cafe Pushkin, another vogue restaurant, where the dessert list featured tastings of 60 different types of Russian honey - Motherwart, Schizandra and Split-lip Hampnette being a few that caught my eye.
That's what I found most interesting about being in Moscow right now. For every billionaire buying Swarovski crystal hubcaps for his Bentley, there's someone taking the time to curate something as earthy and organic as a honey menu.
Sure, even former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev may pose for an advertisement for Louis Vuitton luggage, but there are also plenty of Muscovites who are rediscovering the less luxe joys of, say, the Kuklachyov Cat Theater, where felines walk on tightropes and perform other amusing acrobatics.
Or, they're dining at Simple Things, which serves gourmet takes on some staples of the Russian peasantry as borscht and kvass, a beverage made from rye bread that - at least to my palette - tastes like super-yeasty root beer. Or, they are rediscovering the romantic canvases of a 19th-century Russian painter Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin.
I encountered Shishkin on my last day in Moscow, when I walked to the Tretyakov Gallery, an airport hangar-sized museum with a numbingly vast collection of 20th-century Russian art. Most of the galleries were strangely empty, a fact explained when I arrived at the jam-packed retrospective of Shishkin's heroically large landscapes of woodland and nature scenes.
I'm guessing he operates on the Russian psyche in a way similar to how Norman Rockwell affects us in America. Shishkin's paintings make Moscow nostalgic for a time before shimmering fields of wheat were replaced with shopping malls and "gated community" housing developments for the newly rich.
There's even a newly coined Russian word for these lavish homes that are sprouting; they're called McDachas.
IF YOU GO
GETTING THERE
There are several ways to get from Baltimore to Moscow. Delta, American and British Airways offer connecting flights - with a change of planes - from BWI Marshall Airport. Aeroflot, the Russian carrier, flies nonstop to Moscow from Dulles International. Restricted round-trip fares start at about $700 plus taxes and fees.
LODGING
Hotel Baltschug Kempinski
Ulitsa Baltschug 1. 011-7-495-230-6500; www.kempinski-moscow.com. A five-star luxury hotel overlooking the Moscow River, with a business center, health club, two restaurants and great views of the city. Rooms start at $265.
Ritz-Carlton
Tverskaya Street 3. 011-7-495-225-8888; ritzcarlton.com. At the edge of the Red Square, this 334-room hotel has some of the largest guest rooms and suites in Moscow, as well as its popular rooftop 02 Lounge. Rooms start at $450.
DINING
Nedalny-Vostock
Tverskoi Bulvar 15, Building 2. 011-095-694-0641. A large, modern room with an open kitchen in the center, styled by Super Potato, a trendy Tokyo design firm. Asian-Fusion cuisine. Entrees start at $19.
Cafe Pushkin
Tverskoi Bulvar 26-a. 011-7-095-229-5590. Resembles a 19th-century nobleman's house. Classic Russian food with modern twists. Entrees start at $24.
Simple Things (Prostye Veshi)
Ulitsa Koniushkovskaya 32. 011-7-495-255-6362. It's a small cafe bistro with down-home specialties like onion bread, pumpkin soup, chicken livers and fennel-encrusted trout. Entrees start at $14.
ACTIVITIES
Kuklachyov Cat Theater
Kutuzovsky Prospekt 25. 011-7-095-249-2907. Silly stunts by a cast of cats and a few dogs. A cultural institution unique to Moscow. Tickets start at $13.
Sandunvosky Baths
Ulitsa Neglinnaya 14. 011-7-095-4631. Saunas, steam rooms, hot and cold plunges and white birch tree branches (for sale), all in a setting of 19th-century grandeur. Admission is $30.
Mayakovsky Museum
Lybyansky Proyezd 3/6. 011-7-095-921-9560. A bewildering introduction to the life and works of Russia's most famous poet of protest, Vladimir Mayakovsky. Admission is $2.
Tretyakov Gallery
Krymsky Val 10. 011-7-095-238-9843. Art of the 20th century, with an emphasis on avant-garde work of the early 1900s and social-realism paintings. Admission is $7.50.
Lenin's tomb
Red Square, 011-7-085-923-5527. Russians still venerate the Soviet state's founder by making a trip to his tomb. Not to be missed. Admission is free.
Kremlin
The easiest and best way to tour all its sites is with Capital Tours, Gostiny Dvor, Ilyinka Street 4. 011-7-495-232-2442. capitaltours.ru. Half-day tours are $25.
Winzavod Contemporary Arts Center
Syromyatnicheskiy Lane 1. 011-7-495-917-4646. Artist's studios, art galleries, a funky clothing store and stylish cafe. Admission is free. [Stephen G. Henderson]
