Мы дети твои, Москва

The Mayor of Moscow talks about Moscow: its history, culture, modern metropolitan life. He pays special attention to the establishment of the institution of mayorship in the city. The book is of excellent printing quality and is equipped with photographs of old and new Moscow. The afterword talks about reconstruction and restoration work in the capital. "... I experienced an ambivalent feeling when I first saw Moscow from a helicopter. It was about ten years ago, when I had just entered the leadership of the city executive power. "How beautiful! - I told myself. “And how terrible!” The city from above gave the impression of being seriously ill. The roofs are rusty, unrepaired, littered and disgusting. Even more terrible are the broken church domes. But the most terrible thing is the traces of ruthless Bolshevik self-will scattered everywhere, either tearing out churches and buildings from the living space, or inserting alien ones in the spirit of the box, or even simply leaving empty spaces where it was once cozy and good. Beautiful and terrible - this is the formula into which the first impression can be put. Great historical processes were imprinted here in all their contradictions and madness. New beauty was combined with barbaric destruction. Moscow from above gave the impression of a sprawling, softened body with ulcers and holes. In any case, on that first inspection flight I saw a seriously ill city. Not dead, but very ruined. A city that needs a long, difficult treatment. It needs to be treated the whole world. This is a big and difficult job. I wrote a book to talk about it." Yu. Luzhkov