Europe’s largest city. 14 million some souls living and breathing in a region sure can cause a city to stay awake at all hours. But there is one, and only one, short period when Moscow seems abandoned. It is the few short hours on the morning of 1 January before the city again stirs to life with throngs of people walking the city plazas.
Although the song proclaims that “Moscow never sleeps” in truth there is a time when the fireworks have fizzled, drunks are passed out, every party person finally slipped into bed sometime between 4 and 6am there is a time when perhaps Moscow does sleep. Public transport is on a reduced schedule and the city on a reduced police schedule after the events of New Year’s Eve. If there is ever one time, just a single space of a few hours when Moscow is asleep, this is it.
Москва, 1 января в 9:00 (Moscow, 1 January at 9am). The beginning of the new year.
The Mendeleyev Journal - Live From Moscow 