3 ms·

Over 100 years after the revolution, shouldn't the same pattern of aligning with the dialect of the capital have applied in the opposite direction, making Mosco

• anovikov 6y ago
  Not because of this, but it has a perceived image of (intellectual, cultural and professional, while not economic) superiority because this is the only large city in Russia that has the bulk of its population being actually city dwellers for generations. See, all other cities have ever been overrun by Nazis with the bulk of their populations evacuating East and never returning (there was nothing to return to), being spread thin over the country and intermixing with villagers, or stayed and then ran away with Germans, or to Germany and then further West (or got caught by Commies in the end of war and sent to gulags or killed), or just simply died during the occupation, or left cities to survive in the countryside. St. Pete on the other hand, was blockaded for most of the war. Around 1/4 to 1/3 of population starved to death, but the rest stayed, wartime migration being minimal. These are the people who lived in the city and had urban professions for many generations, unlike anywhere else in Russia. Especially not in Moscow, which while never occupied, is now deserted by most Muscovites as they can't compete with millions upon millions of hungry and talented people from the provinces and from whole of ex-USSR, and live elsewhere by renting out their flats. Bulk of today's Moscow is first and second generation urban dwellers...