“In Moscow, as soon as he moved into his huge house with the dried-and drying-up princesses, with its enormous staff, as soon he saw—on driving through the city—the Iverskaya Chapel with countless candles burning before the gold casing, saw the Kremlin Square with its untrampled snow, the cabbies, the hovels of the Sivtsev Vrazhek, saw old Moscow men, who desired nothing and were not hurrying anywhere as they lived out their lives, saw little old women, Moscow ladies, Moscow balls, and the Moscow English Club—he felt himself at home, in a quiet haven. For him Moscow was comfortable, warm, habitual, and dirty, like an old dressing gown.”

– Leo Tolstoy, “War and Peace”