Bagrationovsky Rynok (Moscow)

If you’re looking for the traditional type of Russian souvenirs and presents for friends and family, head straight for Izmailovski market. For something they can use, and will save them a lot of money, the CD and DVD market at Bagrationovskaya is your place.

The market is not actually known as ‘Bagrationovski Rynok’ (rynok being the Russian word for market), but as ‘Gorbushka’, and you won’t meet a Muscovite who doesn’t know of it. ...
...CDs, and also has by far the best choice. To get there simply take the metro to ‘Bagrationovskaya’ (same area and metro line as Fili) and follow the crowds through a smaller outdoor market until you can see the enormous signs over the entrance to Gorbushka, which is an indoor market.

On the ground floor you will find shops and kiosks selling all kinds of electrical goods, anything from vacuum cleaners to mobile phones. The CD market ... more

If you’re looking for the traditional type of Russian souvenirs and presents for friends and family, head straight for Izmailovski market. For something they can use, and will save them a lot of money, the CD and DVD market at Bagrationovskaya is your place.

The market is not actually known as ‘Bagrationovski Rynok’ (rynok being the Russian word for market), but as ‘Gorbushka’, and you won’t meet a Muscovite who doesn’t know of it. It’s well known as the cheapest place in Moscow for CDs, and also has by far the best choice. To get there simply take the metro to ‘Bagrationovskaya’ (same area and metro line as Fili) and follow the crowds through a smaller outdoor market until you can see the enormous signs over the entrance to Gorbushka, which is an indoor market.

On the ground floor you will find shops and kiosks selling all kinds of electrical goods, anything from vacuum cleaners to mobile phones. The CD market is on the second floor. It’s not only open at weekends, but I’d definitely recommend trying to go then for more choice, but of course also bigger crowds.

I mostly bought CDs from Gorbushka at between 80 and 150 roubles for an album, standard price at the moment being 90 roubles (£1.80) for CDs by international artists and 100 roubles (£2) for Russian music. There are also a few stalls selling genuine CDs at full price… You didn’t think you’d get the real thing for £2 did you? No, not even in Russia, sorry! The fact that such a large percentage of the stuff sold at Gorbushka is illegal seems to mostly get overlooked by the Russian authorities, but I’m told that it does occasionally get ‘raided’. I’m not one of those people who never buys CDs and copies them from friends, I like my own copy of the real thing, but I just couldn’t resist going back every so often to Gorbushka until my last roubles had been spent. I came home with 20 or 30 CDs, but there’s not one of them that I would have ever paid full price for in the UK. I found myself buying CDs by artists I’d barely heard of, but most of them are great!

The quality of the CDs is of course an issue; it does vary a little, but in general is pretty good. I tended to look around a bit to find a better copy of the cover art, but you never get a full copy of the CD booklet with the cheap CDs anyway. In the end I’ve not had a problem with the sound quality of any of my CDs so far. The quality of the DVDs seem to be slightly less reliable, with occasional sound problems, features missing, no English language option, or messages along the bottom of the screen making it clear that you’re watching an illegal copy. I was surprised at how quickly they start selling new films on DVD when they are only just being advertised in the cinemas. You can also buy videos and playstation and gameboy advance games, although I’m not completely sure that these would work on standard UK consoles.

If you’re in Moscow for anything more than just a short holiday, then be sure to save some time for a couple of hours at Gorbushka; you can’t imagine this place until you’ve seen it with your own eyes.
 

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