Going to a park has always been one of the favorite family pastimes in Russia. Despite the sweeping changes that took place over the past decade, Russians still enjoy that activity as much as they did in the Soviet era.

There has never been a shortage of parks in Moscow. Created in each and every district of the city beginning in the 1930s, they were beautifully verdant and equipped with such unimposing fairground attractions as swings, carousels, and playgrounds. Most of them were free, and fairground attractions were affordable for everybody at 15 kopeks a ride (a Soviet worker's average wage was 150 rubles per month).

Thank God Moscow has never experienced water shortages, so its parks and even its courtyards had lots of fountains; they are particularly beautiful at the Russian Exhibition Center, formerly called the Exhibition of Economic Achievements, or VDNKh.

Major parks, such as Gorky Park, Sokolniki, Izmailovo, VDNKh and some others, had Ferris wheels and rollercoasters, and in the mid-1970s they added arcades and amusement-park attractions imported from Czechoslovakia and East Germany.

Since the Soviet people had not seen anything better, the arrival of the Czech machines caused a real furor. People would spend half a day standing in lines, and were willing to pay 3 rubles, an outrageous price by Soviet-era standards (2 percent of the average monthly wage), for the thrilling experience.

Later, in the mid-1970s, Muscovites got acquainted with "kegelbans," or skittles, an East German version of bowling, alongside the first electronic slot machines, which were enormously popular throughout the 1980s.

Much has changed since that time, and now Moscow's major parks look very much like those in the West with ubiquitous bandstands, fairground attractions, slot machines, bright illumination, screams and laughter.

The cost of going to a park nowadays is not as painless to the budget as it used to be. A Sunday journey to Gorky Park with two kids will surely set you back at least $50 (more than one-third of the average monthly wage in Russia, which is currently $147), not including foods and beverages, and your expenses will triple if your little angels succeed in persuading you to buy them passes to the widely-advertised Tarzanka, or bungee jump.

The early 1990s marked the arrival of paintball. Quite a few small and shabby parks in Moscow were remade into paintball grounds. But those who apparently raised sizable investments for the project were disappointed: The game has failed to become a mass sport in this country for one simple reason – it is too costly for the vast majority of the population. After all, even representatives of the Russian middle class (families with income in excess of $200 per person per month) can hardly afford to pay $50 for 40 minutes of entertainment.

Without doubt, Ferris wheels are the pride of Moscow. The 75-meter Ferris wheel located in the Russian Exhibition Center (VVTs) was the biggest of its kind in Europe until 2000, when it fell second to the 125-meter London Eye or The Millennium Wheel. Probably Moscow will regain its position in 2004 when the planned 170-meter Ferris wheel will be erected in the Vorobyovy Gory park.