Question by The Hokey Pokey: Can I get some descriptions of Moscow neighborhoods divided by their residents’ socioeconomic class?
I’d like a brief set of pointers on urban segregation in Moscow so I have some things to get started on in Google, rather than having nothing to work off of.
Basically:
-Which parts of the city richer/more well-off people live in
-Which neighborhoods house middle-class or close to that (higher or lower)
-The poor parts/slums.
Answers and Views:
Answer by John
I’ll try to give you a few tips. Download an English language map of Metro (subway) at .Basically, people divide the city into Center, North, NW, South, etc. .. as you see it on the map.
You can read about the “worst areas” (note: “worst” areas in the Center are so because of things like noise, but they are still very expensive and upscale) at
Overall, I doubt you can find any “slums” in Moscow and ghettos. During the USSR, everyone who was healthy enough was obliged to work. We didn’t have a situation where a bunch of well-shaped “ghetto people” would ask for welfare and SSI while refusing to work, smoking crack, etc. They’d be prosecuted under Communism for being parasites. SO, in Moscow, you have basically, a working class areas with less fancy housing and lower incomes, and some upper ones, where housing is more expensive and richer people live.
On the Metro map, you’ll see that there is one metro line that goes in CIRCLE – and it basically surrounds the center. The center, where Kremlin, most theaters, nightlife, etc. are has the most expensive housing. People can complain that it is noisy, etc but it is still prestigious. Russians have a different mentality, so it is possible that while many richer New Yorkers want to live in smog-filled Midtown among skyscrappers, some richer Russians will rather move out of the city altogether and get a nice suburban house or an apartment in a quiet area out of the center. That’s how you have areas like Kurkino that is faaaar from Center, on the total outskirts, but still has some elite housing enclaves.
So you can assume that richer people who don’t mind noise and conjestion live in Center, within the Circular metro line and close by outside of it. There are also some middle class and not so rich people who got their apartments during the USSR era as part of some housing distribution program. There are also some kommunalkas (communal apartment, Communism-style, where several unrelated families/people share the same apartment on a legal basis.). So, it’s kind of like Manhattan in NY, if you remove some Upper sides like Washington Hights and Inwood).
As you move closer to the Center, pricing might increase.
North and North-West (I used to live there) is more of a middle class area with some very good neighborhoods. Tushinskaya stop, Skhodnenskaya, etc. were working class with many middle class people.
On the outskirts like Mitino and Strogino, there are many skyscrapers built for middle and lower class who either bought apartments there or those whose old shabby houses were demolished by the government.
Same goes with KAPOTNYA (Google it) (the ecologically worst neighborhood, perhaps, as it is next to the Oil factory, so there are fumes, etc). Kapotnya is in the South-East, so you can assume that when looking for apartment, people ***would not find the South-East the most attractive.*** Kapotnya, and if you look at satellite maps some of adjacent areas, can be attributed as working class areas due to cheaper housing costs and pollution. However, if you look at stops like Cheremushki which seems to be in the South, this area is considered to be much better.
Purple line in the NW (Oktyabrskoe Pole and closer to the Center) is an attractive line when you consider buying an apartment, although it can still be middle class and some working class.)
Sokolniki stop is where a huge park is located with attractions, etc., so this area can be described as a nicer, middle class neighborhood.
Read all the answers in the comments.
What do you think?
Slava T says
Excellent answer from John. Moscow is much less visibly segregated into lower or middle class neighborhoods than most of European or American cities so far. Probably because we still don't have a middle class in its classical definition. 🙂 To tell the truth the process is under way due to different housing, renting and letting prices at various Moscow areas. Above all, it reflects practice of proclaimed "equality" under the communists. Nevertheless even at that time Moscow, although not so obviously, had more prestigious and less prestigious areas. Moscow metro passengers on different metro lines looked socially different. For example the "green line" that goes through the areas where "ZIL", Moscow car factory is situated, was used by people who worked at that car factory when the "red line", the goes through the Moscow centre to the Moscow University, and MGIMO, had a different kind of passengers.