Restrained and modest

City Day was held in Moscow for the 14th time

The tragic events of the end of August had a direct impact on the capital’s next birthday. On the eve of City Day, Moscow was clearly not in time for a holiday. In connection with well-known events, the organizing committee canceled mass entertainment events, and, in the words of the capital’s mayor, the holiday was to be held “as restrained and modest as possible.” Of the street events on City Day, he suggested leaving only “symbolic moments.” That's what they did.

One of these moments - the raising of the flag on Tverskaya in front of the city hall - passed off modestly. Yuri Luzhkov's welcoming speech was short, and the flag was raised by three of the 105 winners of the Moscow Masters competition of working professions: an excavator operator, a driver and a social worker. The rest of the Moscow masters were also awarded that day: 15 of them received brand new Moskvich cars, others received cash prizes from 10 to 40 thousand rubles. There were very few spectators on Tverskaya at this early hour, but judging by the number of law enforcement officers, they were counting on a much larger number. However, after the explosion in the passage on Pushkin Square, Muscovites do not have any festive associations with this place or a desire to participate in street festivities.

Moscow parks and squares were no more crowded that day. In some of them one could notice a few groups of retired activists with carnations and “Fatherland” flags, marching to the loud sounds of the song “My dear capital, my golden Moscow.”

In general, this song sounded everywhere on City Day and even came from loudspeakers. From it, and even from the rare congratulatory posters or the occasional balloon flying in the sky, one could guess about the holiday. The return to street loudspeakers was apparently explained not only by the modesty of the festive program, but also by the fact that on the eve of its day Moscow was left without television.

Even more “restrained” was the folk festival on Poklonnaya Hill, where singers of songs from the peoples of the North tried to “light up” visitors with children to no avail. However, the public preferred to spend time at the stalls, which were placed in larger numbers than usual. The action was enlivened only by the “roller engagement”: the bride and groom and their guests were dressed in classic suits and ties, the girls in evening dresses, but... on roller skates.

Perhaps the only thing that was festive about this day was the weather. Starting from seven in the morning, four special An-30 aircraft, “charged” with special reagents, ensured cloudless skies over the capital. However, this was only enough for Saturday. On Sunday, which was reserved for outdoor sporting events, there was heavy rain. Below him, sad traffic police officers were blocking the inner ring of the Moscow Ring Road, where a combined relay race of 40 stages took place - athletics, cycling and even roller skiing. The rest of the events dedicated to the holiday took place under the roof.

The Moscow mayor opened a sports complex in Rublev and, as usual, took a personal part in a football match: he made the first kick on the ball in a competition between two women's teams. At the concerts, which the day before it was decided to be held, according to Mr. Luzhkov, “without pop music and light variety music,” mostly brass music was performed that day.

Irina BELASHEVA, Maria VASENINA