This publication is an attempt to reconstruct some of the largely forgotten pages from Moscows life at the turn of the 19th century, to present a broad cross-section of its community from a governor-general to a shady dosser on the basis of widely diverse masterworks by renowned Russian photographers active at that time.

The photographs have been selected from the major collections belonging to. The Central State Archives of Cinematic and Photographic Documents in St. Petersburg, one of the basic sources of photographic material on the Emperor Nicholas II coronation festivities and other State events that took place in Moscow during his reign