The Next Russian Revolution

IF YOU START at the Kremlin—as almost everything still does in Russia—and drive down Novy Arbat, the first landmark you’ll pass, just before crossing the Moskva River, will be the White House, site of the famous confrontation with the hard-liners that ended the Soviet Union. Soon after, on your left, as you travel along Kutuzovsky Prospekt, is the post-Soviet Victory Park, home to a grandiose architectural monstrosity. Just down the road on your right, you’ll see a shiny white mall, featuring Chanel and Cartier, which is, perhaps, a truer monument to the spirit of post-Communist Russia. Eventually, after turning left off the main highway and driving about half a mile down a dirt road, you’ll come to a 900-acre patch of farmland, some 15 miles from the center of Moscow.