TEXT 9. A Tale of Two Rivals

By Maria Antonova, Moscow News

It is traditionally believed that inhabitants of Moscow and St. Petersburg despise one another. The people of St. Petersburg regard Muscovites as unsophisticated nouveau-riches, while Muscovites are appalled at the snobbery and coldness of the northern capital. The rivalry of Russia's two largest cities has a long history that continues to this day.

This rivalry stems from the literary tradition of comparing the two cities. If in its early days St. Petersburg was mostly populated by serfs, soldiers, and government servants, by the nineteenth century it was full of aristocratic intelligentsia who liked to ruminate on abstract issues. The two visions of Russia, symbolized by the two very different cities, made juicy material for literary polemics.

Pushkin, Gogol, Hertzen, Belinsky, and other famous writers tried to contrast life in the two cities starting back in the 1830s. Gogol, for example, wrote: "One still wears a Russian beard, another has already turned into a dapper German Moscow is an old homebody, she makes blini and listens to the news without getting up to look out of the window."

The northern capital, carefully and single-handedly built by the visionary Peter the Great, was nothing like Moscow, a medieval sloppy sprawl. Ideologically, St. Petersburg became an enclave for westernizers while Moscow was still conservative, Russian, and religious. A handful of Russian proverbs commemorate this symbolic difference: "Petersburg is the head, Moscow is the heart"; "Moscow is created by centuries, Petersburg by millions," and so on.

After the government was moved to Moscow by Lenin, eventually the "millions" went with it. Since Russia has always been politically very centralized, St. Petersburg did not have much real power, although it remained the unquestioned "second capital." So the roles were reversed for the second time, and the old blini-making Moscow was suddenly in charge once again.

That is where that wounded pride comes from: Saint Petersburg is still full of majestic gloomy architecture, and considers itself the cultural capital of Russia. It attracts more foreign tourists than Moscow, which is the business capital - bright, rich, and chaotic. The cities have their distinct characteristics, as do their residents.

On the other hand, there are people who live in one of the cities but dream of moving to the other. Eugene, a young St. Petersburg journalist, calls his town "a swamp that stains all of its occupants". He wants to move to Moscow, where life is more energetic and people are cheerful. "Here everyone is lazy; no one wants anything from life." Likewise, many Muscovites are fed up with the rhythm, brutality, and paranoia of Moscow.

Anna, who works in Moscow, says: "I think there is a definite rivalry: people in St. Pete don't like us, and Muscovites consider St. Petersburg a provincial town. But all of my friends love to go there, and when I visit St. Pete myself, I don't feel that I am despised. I think the rivalry is subconscious, not out in the open." For young people, St. Pete is hip and arguably more European (in its architecture, for example).

Moscow's young clubbers even came up with a special clubbing train that ran between the two cities this October. The party started at 3 a.m. on Friday when the train left Moscow full of DJs and dancers. With one dance-floor car, one chill-out car and numerous bars; organized by one of Moscow's most prestigious clubs "Leto", this was the place to be for anybody who was somebody. The party commute ended when the guests crashed in their designated St. Petersburg hotels, only to be awakened in the evening to go to a local club and take a similar trip back. It was like the ultimate joyride between the two historical competitors.

If anything, the rivalry that remains today is based on economic well-being: Moscow remains by far the richest and most powerful city of Russia, with the best career prospects, and continues to attract ambitious professionals from across the country. Most young people who live in St. Petersburg wouldn't want to pay $300 for the ticket to a nightclub train to Moscow.

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