The semester program in Moscow includes a comprehensive series of excursions:

Typical Fall excursions: 

• Museum of decorative, applied and folk Art. This museum is the only one in Russia, which has a big and diverse collection of works of Russian applied and folk art. The collection contains more than 65.000 exhibits dating from the XIV century till the present time. Russian folk art is represented by items made from wood, birch bark, metal, ceramics and clay.

•  Tsaritsyno.  In the southern part of Moscow, twenty minutes away from downtown by car, lay the lands of the State Museum-Reserve Tsaritsyno. Its nucleus is the largest palatial ensemble in Russia – the residence of Catherine the Great constructed between 1775 and 1796 by the famous Russian architects Vasiliy Bazhenov and Matvey Kazakov in the romantic “gothic taste”. A beginning of the XIXth  century landscape park is located nearby. Over the two hundred years the palatial ensemble had turned into majestic ruins. One of the favorite places for Muscovites to spend time outdoors, a fashionable countryside area, later a city-type settlement, and finally a district of Moscow, Tsaritsyno patiently awaited its rebirth. Currently it is named The State Historical, Architectural, Art, and Landscape Museum-Reserve Tsaritsyno. The majority of the architectural monuments have already undergone restoration.

•  Honey fair. Every September a honey fair takes a place in Moscow. The Honey Fair is a very good place for tasting and choosing different kinds of honey from many regions and republics of Russia. There is a huge crowd of people  buying honey, it seems for the whole year. Some of people come to buy honey and, then, sit down on  benches in the park and look around, eating the honey. There are many different kinds of honey and it's a chance to taste all of them.

•  Boat tour along the Moscow River. Sightseeing tour along the Moscow river. You will have an opportunity to enjoy the view of modern and historical architecture of the Russian capital. You will be able to see the Kremlin, its cathedrals and towers, the Sparrow Hills and the Moscow State University, Gorky Park, “Red October” Chocolate factory, The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Statue of Peter the Great and many other places of interest.

• The Moscow Kremlin and Assumption Cathedral. The Moscow Kremlin (Kreml, Московский Кремль) is the heart of the city and country, the place to which most Russian roads lead and from which most Russian power emanates.  The Kremlin was once the center of Russia’s Church as well as our state. The Kremlin occupies a roughly triangular plot of land covering little Borovitsky Hill on the north bank of the Moscow River. A Kremlin is a town’s fortified stronghold, and the first short, wooden wall around Moscow’s was built in the 1150s.

  The Assumption Cathedral  is the focal church of pre-Revolutionary Russia and the burial place of most of the heads of the Russian Orthodox Church from the 1320s to 1700. The Assumption Cathedral was built between 1475 and 1479 after the Bolognese architect Aristotle Fioravanti. The iconostasis dates from 1652 but its lowest level contains some older icons.

   

• Kolomenskoye State Historical, Architectural, Nature and Landscape Preserve. Kolomenskoye  is a picturesque place in the south of Moscow on a bank of the Moskva River. In the 15^th to the 17^th century Kolomenskoye  was first Grand Duke's and later the Tsar's residence. Peter the Great spent his childhood there. The architectural ensemble of Kolomenskoye includes the Church of the Ascension, the church-cumbelfry of St.George the Warrior, the Church of Our Lady of Kazan, the Water Tower and several auxiliary buildings. Among its green plantations of special value is its lime-tree lane planted in the 19^th century and a relic oak-tree grove where some trees are from 600 to 800years old.

• The Tretyakov  Gallery. The Tretyakov Gallery was reopened in 1995 after a nine-year renovation. The Tretyakov houses contain the world’s best collection of Russian icons and an outstanding collection of other pre-Revolutionary Russian art, particularly the 19^th-century Peredvizhniki. On the display there may be more masterpieces per square meter than anywhere else.

• The Historical museum. The collections of the Museum were gathered due to the efforts of scientists of all Russia and collectors. There are archaeological monuments of all ancient times, collections of coins, manuscripts, old books, pictures, Russian and West-European fighting and hunting weapons, forged wares, bronze and copper casting, scientific devices, glass and ceramic products, textiles, national clothes of all regions of Russia and other peoples, Russian estate furniture here. There is a permanent exposition “Russian State Reliquiae”

• The Lenin’s Mausoleum. The Mausoleum was built in January 1924 to preserve Lenin's body. Lenin's coffin was brought from the village of Gorki, where he died, on 23 January and placed in the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions for people to pay their last respects. The same night the architect A.Shchusev was instructed by the government to design and build a temporary mausoleum near the Kremlin walls in which the body would remain until the funeral, which was fixed for 27 January. Shchusev wandered around Red Square for a long time, and by sunset the design for a wooden mausoleum was prepared. It was in the form of a cube (the symbol of eternity) with a height of three meters. The contemporary Mausoleum was erected in the Red Square in 1930 replacing the wooden mausoleum. Lenin's body, with its face uncovered, was placed in a glass sarcophagus, and thousands of people filed past each day.

• Trip to Saint Petersburg. If Moscow is Europe’s most Asian capital, St.Petersburg is Russia’s most European city. Created by Peter the Great as his ‘window to the West’. It was build with 18^th and 19^th-century European pomp and orderliness by mainly European architects. You are going to be provided with accommodation. The excursion program in the city will include orientation tour around the downtown, visiting the Hermitage, seeing some beautiful suburban architectural ensembles.

• Tolstoy’s country-house museum "Hamovniki." After moving from Yasnaya Poliana to Moscow in 1881 Tolstoy bought a country estate in Hamovniki. The main house of the estate was built in 1805 – it is surrounded by an outhouse, household buildings and also a big garden with a pavilion and a well. As a museum the estate was open in 1921. The Museum keeps the entire memorial furnishings and the visitors are brought to the atmosphere of Tolstoy's house. The exposition dates back to the time when the writer lived here in the years of 1893-1895.

• Museum of Russian Vodka. The guests of the Vodka Museum have a unique opportunity to see that the process of wine distillation (the original name for vodka production) was very up-to-date for that time period, the  vodka bottles of different sizes, from shkalik (or kosushka) to shtof and quarter. The museum guides can explain to visitors what chekushka is, how big the traditional Russian cup (charka, cheporuha) is, how drinking houses, or kabaks, are different from tractirs that appeared in Russia in the 1880's, and what kinds of vodka were the most popular among members of different social groups. The larger part of the Museum's collection is devoted to the 20th century with all its upheavals and sharp turns of historic fate. Following the story of vodka from the early centuries, the Museum halls bring visitors to contemporary Russia, at the beginning of the 21st century, and tell them about the current state of production and consumption of this traditional Russian strong drink.

• The Novodevitchiy convent. Novodevitchiy Convent in Moscow is one of the most beautiful architectural ensembles. It was founded by Vasiliy III in 1524 after Russians had managed to win back the city of Smolensk. The convent is situated in the south-west of Moscow on the bank of Moscow-river. Due to its geographical location the convent used to serve as a fortress and was very often in the center of most important political and historical events.

• The Andrei Rublev Central Museum of Old Russian Culture and Art. The architectural ensemble of the Spaso-Andronnikov Monastery was founded in the 1360s . The museum itself was established in 1947 and granted a status of a memorial historical and architectural preserve named after Andrei Rublev. The architectural complex of the monastery, the oldest in Moscow, is of exceptional historical and artistic value. The museum has an invaluable collection of icons from the Rostov, Vladimir, Novgorod, Ryazan and other regions of Russia (some 5000 icons all in all ). Also displayed are interesting collections of  applied art, church articles, needlework ornamented with gems, gold and pearls.

• The Chambers in the Zaryadye. Historical and architectural memorial of XV-XVII centuries. "The house of boyars Romanovs." The Chambers, residence of the Romanovs, is the only building that remainded up to now. According to the legend, Michail Romanov, the fist Tzar of the Romanov Dynasty was born here. And the interior of the Chambers is very much alike typical wealthy boyar house. This is the only Museum in which pre-Petrine period of home mode of life is originally represented. In 1998 The Museum took part in European International Forum and was named one of the best thirty museums of the World.

•  The New Tretyakov Picture Gallery and the Sculpture Park. The Gallery at Krymskiy Val was specially built for expositions of Russian art of the XXth century.

Typical Spring excursions: 

• The Kuskovo Estate

   The Kuskovo Estate is one of the most beautiful palace and park ensemble in Moscow. The Estate and lands around it belonged to Count Sheremetev at the beginning of the 17^th century. The  palace and park were designed by the architect Karl Blank.

   

•  Downtown Moscow

  Our Orientation tour includes the most famous historical places in the centre of Moscow, such as the Red Square, the Kremlin, Saint Basil’s Cathedral, the Historical Museum, the Minin and Pozharskiy monument, Lenin’s Mausoleum, Lubyanka Square, the Bolshoi Theater, Christ the Savior Cathedral. This tour is one of the best ways to start your acquaintance with the capital of Russia and an excellent way to see a lot of historical places, monuments, famous buildings and streets where you can also return later to continue your exploration of the city.

   

• The 'Matrioshka Museum'

  Each individual matrioshka dolls (nestling dolls) set is actually an artwork. Consider the effort that goes into the process of making them. Each matrioshka in set of dolls is made from same piece of wood to make sure that wood reacts in same way to changing climate conditions and temperature. This creates severe restrictions on the artists, just consider what happens when 1 doll in set of 7 gets damaged – the whole set has to be discarded and the work is lost. Each doll is crafted by hand and requires artistic intuition and great skills. Hand painting itself takes weeks and sometime months of work and only than nestling dolls are covered with lacquer to give it the polished and brilliant look we see in gift shops. Many dolls get as many as 7 layers of lacquer to be considered a ready product.

   

• The Oruzheinaya Palata (Armory Palace) is the oldest museum in Russia. In 1485 Grand-Prince Vasily III, son of Ivan the Great constructed a special stone building on the edge of the Kremlin grounds to house the growing collection of the royal family’s valuables. It also contained the tsar’s workshops where armor and weapons were produced and stored. In the late 1600s Peter the Great converted the whole place into a museum to house the art treasures of the Kremlin. The present building, designed in 1851 by Konstantin Thon, has nine exhibit halls that trace the history of the Kremlin and the Russian state.

   

• The Museum of Modern History  is considered to be one of the biggest museums of modern history in the World. The way of life in Russia during the last 150 years is exhibited here: days of peace and war, the greatest revolutionary events of the XX century. Many collections of the fund have no analogues - personal belongings of statesmen and political figures of the country, pieces of painting, sculpture, numismatics and a scientific library.

   

• Pushkin’s house in Old Arbat street. The Old Arbat is a picturesque pedestrian street within the Garden Ring of Moscow. Nowadays, it is one of Moscow's most touristy streets, with lots of entertainment and souvenirs sold.

  The museum itself is located inside an old mansion, where Pushkin and his wife Natalia lived for a while, you will be able to see a statue of him and Natalia in front of this house. The exposition in the house is dedicated to the life of Pushkin in Moscow and his relationship with Moscow, you will see the rooms, where the family lived, portraits of the poet and of his contemporaries, life editions, pieces of interior, paintings to Pushkin`s theme, a collection of books with authors` autographs.

   

• The Tretyakov Gallery was reopened in 1995 after a nine-year renovation. The Tretyakov houses  the world’s best collection of Russian icons and an outstanding collection of other pre-Revolutionary Russian art, particularly the 19^th-century Peredvizhniki.

   

• Celebration of Maslenitsa in Kolomenskoye. Kolomenskoye  is a picturesque place in the south of Moscow on a bank of the Moskva River. From the 15^th to the 17^th century Kolomenskoye  was first the Grand Duke's and later the Tsar's residence. Peter the Great spent his childhood there. The architectural ensemble of Kolomenskoye includes the Church of the Ascension, the church-cumbelfry of St.George the Warrior, the Church of Our Lady of Kazan, the Water Tower and several auxiliary buildings. Among its green plantations of special value is its lime-tree lane planted in the 19^th century and a relic oak-tree grove where some trees are from 600 to 800years old.

  Celebrate spring's arrival at the Maslenitsa Festival, Moscow's annual week-long carnival. Originating in pagan times, this event showcases the Blini, a pancake symbolizing the golden warmth of the sun. It can be served with in the traditional style with caviar and sour cream, or with honey and jam for the less adventurous. In addition to the Blini, stalls offer everything from barankas and spice cakes to tea and vodka.

   

• The Cristall Factory. The most famous Russian distillery the Moscow Cristall Distillery celebrated its 100-th anniversary a few years ago. Founded in 1901 as a state enterprise producing distilled products, the Moscow Cristall Distillery has been the industry leader in the course of the century. The Moscow Cristall Distillery is equipped with state of the art technology for the production of high quality vodka, bitter and sweet nastoykas, nalivkas and liqueurs. Balsam and gin are also produced on eleven automated lines at the Moscow Cristall Distillery. The Cristall Factory is the home of world famous ‘Stolichnaya’ Vodka.

   

• The Museum at the Rocket and Space Corporation “Energia” (‘Energy’). The demonstration hall (1300 m2) of the Museum shows the history of developing the national rocket and space technology: from the pioneer home-made long-range ballistic missiles to the Energia launch vehicle and the Sea Launch Rocket and Space Complex, from the pioneer artificial earth satellites to all modifications of manned and transport space vehicles. Also you will see the Memorial room devoted to Sergey Korolev, leading Soviet rocket engineer.

   

• Bulgakov’s House. The museum was opened in May 2004 and is designed as an apartment, where the famous characters of Bulgakov’s novel “Master and Margarita” used to live. The museum contains a unique electronic exposition dedicated to Bulgakov’s life and art work; there are over 500 photographs, documents, film episodes based on Bulgakov’s works, manuscripts, letters. This is the biggest collection of the existing documents and valuables associated with Bulgakov.

   

• Chambers in the Zaryadye. Historical and architectural memorial of XV-XVII centuries. "The house of boyars Romanovs." The Chambers, residence of the Romanovs, is the only building that remains today. According to the legend, Michail Romanov, the fist Tsar of the Romanov Dynasty was born here. And the interior of the Chambers is very much alike typical wealthy boyar house. This is the only Museum in which pre-Petrine period of home mode of life is originally represented. In 1998 The Museum took part in European International Forum and was named one of the best thirty museums of the World.

   

• Trip to Kiev, Capital of Ukraine.  

  Kiev is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper  river. As of April, 2007 Kiev had about 2.7 million inhabitants by official estimates while some much higher unofficial estimates are often published.

  The history of Kiev cannot be  separated from that of Russia. According to Nestor's legend it was founded in 864 by three brothers, Kiy, Shchek and Khoriv, and after their deaths the principality was seized by Askold and Dir, followers of Rurik, also in 864. Rurik's successor Oleg conquered Kiev in 882 and made it the chief town of his principality. Kiev became the capital of the first Russian state – Kievan Russ. It was in the waters of the Dnieper opposite the town that Prince Vladimir, the first saint of the Russian church, caused his people to be baptized (988), and Kiev became the seat of the first Christian church, of the first Christian school, and of the first library in Russia. For three hundred and seventy-six years it was an independent Russian city; for eighty years (1240-1320) it was subject to the Mongols; for two hundred and forty-nine years (1320-1569) it belonged to the Lithuanian principality; and for eighty-five years to Poland (1569-1654). It was finally united to the Russian empire in 1686.

   

• Victory Park and the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War (1941-45). Victory Park was only completed in the mid-nineties, and is something of a last gasp for the Soviet tradition of monumental triumphal art. Located on and around the Poklonnaya Gora - the hill where Napoleon waited in vain to be given the keys to the city when his troops were surrounding Moscow in 1812 - the park is set in an area steeped in Russian military history.

  The Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War, opened on May 9 1995, is located in the base of the Memorial Victory Complex on Poklonnaya Hill and covers more than 48.000 square meters. The Museum consists of the Entry Hall, the Halls of Glory and Memory, the Picture Gallery and six dioramas devoted to the most dramatic battles of the Great Patriotic War, two movie theatres, a hall for veterans' meetings and an exhibition hall.

   

• VDNKh. The exhibition was established in 1939 as the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition In 1954 many buildings of the VDNKh were renovated and the exhibition was expanded to include other domestic industries and fields of science, technology and culture. After five years of restructuring, the exhibition was reopened in 1959 as the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy. By 1989 the exhibition had 82 pavilions with the exhibition area of 700,000 square meters. Each pavilion had been dedicated to a particular industry or a field: the Engineering Pavilion (1954), the Space Pavilion (1966), the Atomic Energy Pavilion (1954), the People's Education Pavilion (1954), the Radioelectronics Pavilion (1958), the Soviet Culture Pavilion (1964).

   

Please note that this list is a typical example of excursions offered each semester, it is in no-way an exact list of excursions offered in any given semester.  The cost of these excursions is included in your fees. There is no refund for these excursions should you choose not to, or are unable to participate.