Short answers, pulled from the story.
Moscow has an estimated population of over 13 million residents within the city limits, over 19.1 million in the urban area, and over 21.5 million in its metropolitan area. The 2021 Russian census recorded 13,010,112 people, up from 11,503,501 in the 2010 census.
Moscow was first mentioned in chronicles under the year 1147, as part of the principality of Rostov-Suzdal. At the time it was a minor town on the western border of the principality, referred to as a meeting place of Yuri Dolgorukiy and Sviatoslav Olgovich.
During the reign of Peter the Great, the Russian capital was moved to the newly built city of Saint Petersburg on the Baltic coast in 1712. This led to a decline in Moscow's importance throughout the imperial period, and the capital was moved back to Moscow on the 12th of March 1918 by Vladimir Lenin.
Moscow hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Its Luzhniki Stadium staged seven World Cup games including the final, and the 1980 Olympics were boycotted by the United States and other Western countries over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
Over 40 percent of Moscow's territory is covered by greenery. The city has on average 27 square meters of parks per person, compared with 6 for Paris, 7.5 in London, and 8.6 in New York, and contains parks such as Izmaylovsky Park and Losiny Ostrov National Park.
The Seven Sisters are seven massive skyscrapers built during the Stalinist period, scattered throughout Moscow at about an equal distance from the Kremlin. Their form was allegedly inspired by the Manhattan Municipal Building in New York City, and their style has been described as Stalinist Gothic architecture.