Museum of Modern Sports

Moscow , Russian Moskva , oblast (region), western Russia . The oblast surrounds and includes the city of Moscow , the capital of Russia. Moscow oblast was formed in 1929. The main feature of its relief is the Klin-Dmitrov Ridge, which stretches roughly east-west across the oblast, north of Moscow city. The ridge, a line of terminal moraines, reaches a height of 1,000 feet (300 metres) with a steep northern slope to the boulder clay plain of the upper Volga River . South of the ridge is the broad, level plain of the Oka River and its major tributary, the Moscow River , on which the capital stands. In the southeast the plain gradually drops to the Meshchera Lowland, an area of extensive swamps. South of the Oka the land rises toward the northern edge of the Central Russian Upland .The climate is continental: winters are prolonged and cold, with January average temperatures of about 14 °F (?10 °C); summers are mild, with a July average of 64 °F (18 °C). Average annual precipitation ranges from 18 inches (450 mm) in the southeast to 26 inches (660 mm) on the Klin-Dmitrov Ridge, with the maximum precipitation falling in the summer. The natural vegetation of mixed forest , dominated by spruce , pine , oak , and birch , now survives over only 40 percent of the surface, but almost all remaining forest has been put under protective regulation for preservation. Grass marsh and peat bog occur, especially in the Meshchera Lowland. There are broad floodplain meadows along the rivers.