 No matter how much of an independent traveller you are, any trip to Moscow has to begin with a visit to the Kremlin, Red Square and onion-domed St Basil’s cathedral. You’ll have seen them a thousand times on television, posters and in films, but that doesn’t reduce the impact they have.
Many visitors assume the name "Red Square" has something to do with communism, but in fact the name comes from the Russian word "krasniy" meaning "beautiful", which also became the word to describe the colour red. In any case, with the red towers and walls of the Kremlin running along one side of the square, the scarlet-bricked museum at one end and St. Basil’s (which also features a lot of red) at the other, the name is completely appropriate. A visit to Lenin’s mausoleum, from which members of the politburo stood to watch military parades, used to be compulsory, but these days is only worthwhile for history enthusiasts. Shuffling past the revolutionary’s embalmed body, it’s hard to believe it’s not a waxwork – which is precisely what a lot of people claim it is.  Heart of Russia
To get into the Kremlin you’ll need to follow the walls right round to the Kutafya Tower on the western wall. Queues can be long, so get there early if you can and be aware that you may have to leave bags at the gate. Admission prices are reasonable and to get the most from a visit, it’s worthwhile to join a guided tour or hire your own personal guide. Check that they have an official badge to show that they are qualified. The Kremlin is a city within a city. Founded in the late 12th century, over the years it has grown to incorporate numerous of cathedrals, palaces, an arsenal, treasury, and state offices. Around a third of the Kremlin’s total area is open to tourists, but it’s still easy to spend an entire day there. On your way around you cannot fail to notice the bell and cannon mentioned by Chaadaev, which are still favoured photo opportunities, but it’s the cathedrals that really impress. Each has a completely different character and house priceless Orthodox icons of remarkable beauty. Once you leave the Kremlin, if you’re in the mood for a less spiritual form of indulgence, you’ll be pleased to see the huge GUM shopping centre of the far side of Red Square. It’s fashionable to rave about Russia’s premier shopping mall, but though the glass roof and elevated walkways are architecturally impressive, most of the shops inside are the same multinational franchises you could find in most capital cities. Only this being Moscow, the things they sell are even more expensive.  Underground Indulgence
Getting around Moscow is simple thanks to the superb Metro system. Envisaged as a proletarian workers’ cathedral, each station has a distinctive décor, ranging from art deco to socialist realism, Stalinist brutalism and folk designs (including Latvian motifs at the Rizhskaya station). The scale and opulence of some stations such as Mayakovskaya, Kievskaya and Kropotkinskaya make them worth a visit in their own right, but be aware that photography is no longer permitted. At the sight of your camera, an angry, uniformed babushka will bear down on you. They say you’re never alone with a book, and that counts double in the Russian capital, where it seems there is a statue or plaque to some great novelist, poet or dramatist on every street. Literary buffs should head a couple of kilometres to the west of the Kremlin between the Arbat district and the Patriarch’s Ponds, which boasts the heaviest concentration of literary sites. Patriarch’s Ponds is famous as the starting point of Mikhail Bulgakov’s masterpiece "The Master and Margarita", which many regard as the definitive Muscovite novel. It was in this pleasant park that the devil arrived, turning the entire city upside down in just a few days with the help of his bizarre assistants, including a particularly talented black cat. Bulgakov’s flat is nearby and has been turned into a museum. Many other places depicted in the novel can also be visited including the pleasant Café Margarita on the corner of Patriarch’s Ponds. Other literary figures in the area include a moving Anna Tsvetayeva museum and a house that briefly was home to Maxim Gorky. It is worth a visit even if you’ve never read a word of Gorky as it also happens to be the city’s best "Style Moderne" (Russian art deco) mansion. Of particular interest is what may be the world’s most beautiful staircase. Just outside, a statue of poet Alexander Blok looks decidedly uncomfortable standing outside a "block" of another sort – a block of ugly apartments. Words and Pictures Lermontov also gets a small museum. He much preferred Moscow’s "love and lechery" to St. Petersburg where he said "life is empty, silent, stern and grey". He’d surely approve of the fact that his museum is today located next to one of Russia’s top modelling agencies, which would have given him plenty of scope for love and lechery.  One of the area’s curios also has a bookish connection. At either end of Arbatskaya Ploschad are statues of the novelist Gogol, which locals call "Happy Gogol" and "Sad Gogol". Sad Gogol came first but was deemed too depressing by the Soviet authorities who moved it to a more secluded location and replaced it with an upbeat alternative. Needless to say, the original is far superior. Hunched over and shivering beneath a threadbare cloak, Gogol looks desperately at the house where he burned the second half of his masterpiece, "Dead Souls" and died shortly afterwards.
If by now you need to refuel, the perfect place is the Stary Phaeton restauarant on Nikitskaya street. Just over the road from a mansion that featured in Tolstoy’s "War And Peace", you descend into a huge, brightly lit basement where the walls are covered with portraits of novelists, photographs of earnest young Soviet writers’ groups and pages torn from manuscripts. There are even huge old tomes sunk beneath glass panels in the floor, all of which will give you something to read while you enjoy a cold Armenian beer, with spicy "harcho" soup and sizzling "shashliki"! | 
