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The Beliy Gorod or "White Town" is the historic name of the residential district that encircled the Kremlin. Multi-domed churches cluster along ulitsa Varvarka, and around Kitay-gorod east of the Kremlin: this was the very heart of the city during the sixteenth century, and even today it has a strongly medieval feel. Its main seventeenth-century thoroughfare, Tverskaya ulitsa, owes its present form to a massive reconstruction programme during the mid-1930s, and yet, despite the scale of some of its gargantuan buildings, the variety of older, often charming sidestreets gives the avenue a distinctive character. There are countless museums and sights situated in the Beliy Gorod. For those interested in Russia's Communist past and turbulent politics, the Museum of Contemporary Russian History , at Tverskaya 21 (Muzey sovremennoy istorii Rossii; Mon-Thurs, Sat & Sun 10am-6pm; $3), formerly the Museum of the Revolution, organizes bold displays of propaganda posters, photographs and state gifts to Lenin and Stalin - fascinating even if you cannot read the Russian labelling. South of Tverskaya, Moscow's Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts , at Volkhonka ul. 12 (Muzey izobrazitelnykh iskusstv imeni A.S. Pushkina; Tues-Sun 10am-7pm; $7), has a rich collection of European painting, from Italian High Renaissance works to Rembrandt and Poussin, and an outstanding display of Impressionists. It also has charming Egyptian portraits, and of course the magnificent gold of the lost city of Troy, removed from Germany at the end of World War II and still the subject of conflict between the two countries. Also fascinating are the hundreds of proudly displayed plaster casts of famous statues (Michelangelo's David, whole Gothic portals) made in the nineteenth century. More manageable in size than St Petersburg's Hermitage Museum, the Pushkin is still too big to do justice to in a single day. Next door, the Museum of Private Collections (muzey Lichnykh Kollektsiy; Wed-Sun noon-7pm; $5) has a quirky display reflecting the individual tastes and limited resources of a score of collectors, most of whom gathered these works in the face of great difficulties during the Soviet period. The permanent exhibition begins on the third floor , with nineteenth-century Russian works by Wanderers such as Ilya Repin, while the fourth floor offers a feast of twentieth-century art, including two rooms devoted to Alexander Rodchenko and his wife Varvara Stepanova. In 1994, Moscow's Mayor Luzhkov took the populist step of announcing the rebuilding of the Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer (khram Khrista Spasitelya) opposite the museums on Volkhonka. The vast original structure, built 1839-83, had been blown up by the Soviet government in 1934 and a swimming pool built on the site. Financed largely by donations and perceived as a symbol of Moscow's (and Russia's) revival, the rebuilding of the cathedral is now complete, monument to one man's overweening pride and ambition. Luzhkov appears smiling broadly in numerous photographs in the museum recording the history of the building, housed in the crypt (daily 10am-6pm; free).
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