“Moscow: Third Rome, Model Communist City, Eurasian Antagonist - and Power as No-Power?” in Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos (ed) Law and the City (London: Routledge Cavendish, 2007), pp.39-54 MOSCOW: THIRD ROME, MODEL COMMUNIST CITY, EURASIAN ANTAGONIST – AND POWER AS NO-POWER? BILL BOWRING Introduction Moscow looms large in the political, religious and legal imagination as capital and symbol of the former USSR, and now as the centre of power of the largest state in the world by territory, if sadly diminished in population. 1 It is by far the largest city in Europe, and contains 15% of Russia’s total population. Its inhabitants number 11,200,000, 2 compared with London’s 7,360,000 3 - and London is much larger than Rome, Paris or Berlin. A further 6,618,538 people live in Moscow Oblast (District), the ring of dormitory and industrial towns surrounding Moscow. At least two million people a day travel into Moscow, for work or shopping. 4 The area of the city itself is 1080.83 sq. km, as against London’s 1500.00 sq. km, meaning that its territory is much more densely settled than London’s. Moscow’s Metro, its pride and joy, has 170 stations, as against London’s 275, 5 but it carries 3,200,600,000 passengers a year, as against London’s 1,000,000,000. The energy of Moscow is such that every day spent in the city is extraordinarily tiring. Every person of any ambition in Russia has found her way to Moscow, and is armed with sharp elbows and a quick temper. This behaviour is described in Russian as “khamstvo” – “boorishness” in the dictionaries. For the first time visitor to Moscow, the greatest shock, however, is its sheer size and scale. Eight to ten lane radial highways intersect with the newly built eight-lane Circular Road and the multi-lane Garden Ring, as well as a new, third, circular motorway. The Moscow air has become unbearably toxic with traffic fumes from the gridlocked 1 Russia’s population is now around 146 million, from about 150 million in 1995 2 Official statistics 2003-4, at www.mos.ru/cgi- bin/pbl_web?vid=2&osn_id=0&id_rub=1716&news_unom=31003, and 2002 census 3 Official statistics at http://www.go-london.gov.uk/london_statistics/key_stats_2004.pdf 4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Oblast 5 See http://tube.tfl.gov.uk/content/faq/facts.asp