No comments about Travellers Moscow & St. Petersburg, 3rd: Guides to destinations worldwide (Travellers - Thomas Cook).

No comments about The Russian Road to China: With Illustrations from Photographs.

1 comments about Moscow Diary.

1. Benjamin's diary entries form a beautiful, lucid account of his trip to Moscow. They attach a personality and a humanness to the amazing scholar. There are a number of reasons someone may want to read this fascinating text.
   
   First, the diary illustrates Benjamin's interactions with Moscow, a major metropolis, and his relationship to urbanism as such. This is particularly interesting if the reader encountered Benjamin's account of the Flaneur in The Arcades Project with some hesitation. In that text, Benjamin evaluates critically the role of the Flaneur, but he leaves some questions as to his method of evaluation and as to his way of experiencing urbanism/Paris. A reader will likely find answers to these sorts of questions in this text.
   
   Second, the diary describes the reception of the Soviet Union by a very prominent Marxist critic. They describe the status of the arts, culture and humanities research meanwhile describing the social climate of Moscow. While they don't contain the unabashed political critique one may wish for, all of the circumstantial evidence can be found here for the basis of his later critiques. The diary itself is an important text within the social history of the Soviet Union. Think of it as a two-month version of Gertrude Stein's Autobiography of Alice B.Toklas, for Moscow.
   
   Third, the diary contains an account of Benjamin's affair with Asja, whose mental condition has her hospitalized at the time of Benjamin's visit. This fills in a great deal as to Benjamin's personality and provides a fun intellectual distraction. I often found myself skimming the discussions of Soviet arts/scholarship and Moscow-the-metropolis in search of details about his romance.

No comments about Moscow City Map 1:36,500.

No comments about Russia: Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Golden Ring.

1 comments about Exploring Moscow & St. Petersburg, 2nd Edition (Fodor's Exploring Moscow and St Petersburg).

1. I had three travel books with me for my three week trip to Russia. At the beginning of the trip I would bring along all three. Within four days I was leaving this book back at my hotel. It doesn't have nearly enough maps, the directions are incredibly hazy and I obtained a lot more historical information about the sights I was visiting from other books. It is entirely worth buying two books on the two cities, rather than trying to economize by just purchasing this one, because the attempt fails.

No comments about Moscow gatecrash;: A peer behind the curtain.

No comments about Moscow Berlitz Pocket Guide.

2 comments about Time Out Moscow 1 (Time Out Moscow & St Petersburg).

1. On a recent trip to Moscow I used this book, and found it very helpful. It is both intelligently writen and layed out. Although, it's section on St. Petersburg is very short compaired to that of the section covering Moscow, it is to the point, and helpful. There are so many differint beautiful places in Moscow this book really helps when deciding where to go. The metro maps really come in handy since they are in english. The information is not influenced by advertisers, so you know you can count on the opinions of the authors. You can't always count on the prices listed though, since they change regulary and are are higher if you are not Russian. (Though you get a genral idea) Overall this is a great book and I recomend it to any one considering visting Moscow or St. Petersburg.



2. Time Out guides are the best! Their reviews and write-ups are funny, entertaining but very true. I used to live in Moscow and the places they mentioned are top and are the places to BE. The sightseeing, essential info, restaurants and bars were all very well reviewd and described.

No comments about Moscow Photo Album.