Some Time Alone with a Beloved City
On this day, Moscow Day, we must remember as never before that it lies in our power alone to preserve Moscow from vulgarity and the spirit of the age, from being grabbed by the greasy hands of capitalists, from ignorant petty officials, from the loss of her own face and a final parting with her own history.
I love Paris and Rome, Saint Petersburg and Almaty, Rostov Veliky and Milan, Harbin and Constantinople, but I would not want Moscow to become like any other city, even the most beautiful in the world. My dream is that for centuries she will remain Moscow, and that Moscow. With her golden-domed churches that are never empty, with the Easter bells and the evening glow of the crosses against a crimson sunset, with shady boulevards, a spacious sky not disfigured by the grin of skyscrapers, with parks and nature reserves that will not be built over for the amusement of the rich, with flocks of pigeons and yard cats, Elk Island and Silver Forest, with lanes that defy modern rhythms, with rich museums, surviving palaces, the most glorious metro and, above all, with educated, capable, energetic, responsible and thoughtful people.
Moscow, like any big city, offers many opportunities, but how splendid it would be if people, even at the very top, remembered the city which, with all the distinctiveness of its mores, ways and resources, helped them to achieve something, and gave it attention and care in return. By taking part in elections and keenly following the legislation that affects the city's future, by being ready to lend a hand and give their word to the city when it is in need: when an old house is about to be pulled down or a grove cut, when a glass residential complex appears on the development plan where a kindergarten should have been, when everyone else keeps silent, you who have received more from Moscow than others, at least you must not be silent. To love one's city means not only to call it the finest city on earth and to praise its conveniences, but, above all, to be ready to stand up for at least this, and perhaps for more: for the flowers by the entrance, for the cost of the fare, for clean air, the district library and, strange as it may seem, the budget chemist's.
