Moscow

Moscow (モスクワ, Mosukuwa) is a fan-made character for the anime and manga series Hetalia: Axis Powers. She represents the capital city of Russia and received the human name, Anastasia (アナスタシア, Anasutashia, Russian: Анастасия, Anastasiya).

Appearance
Due to a diet consisting of cabbage soup and porridge in her earlier years, Moscow is a young girl of a short, slight stature. She has short chestnut curls and gray eyes, and is usually seen in warm, white-schemed clothing with a miniature ushanka perched on the side of her head. She has also worn a Red Army uniform at one point, and, until recently, Russia's old clothes.

As a result of catching colds from France, Turkey and Russia, Moscow always appears slightly feverish.

She is often accompanied by her brown bear, Misha, and a sunflower-patterned umbrella.

Personality and Interests
Moscow is a quiet, shy, and very sincere girl, with an appreciation for architecture, music and old cultures. Her hobbies include winter sports, abusing emoticons, eating caviar and drinking chamomile tea.

Moscow seldom smiles and her way of communicating more with gestures and facial expressions than words makes her hard to understand. Having been bullied over the years, she has also developed a defence born from xenophobia which makes her emit an intimidating aura whenever she feels threatened, so she generally comes across as a frightening spirit and her initial offers of friendship tend to be misunderstood as curses. On the contrary, Moscow is very warm-hearted and kind, but growing up with Russia has made her think that smiling scares people off so her smile still remains a rare thing.

Though incredibly earnest for her age, Moscow is still very much a child, and enjoys things like traditional fairy tales and wood-carved dolls, such that, when Russia brought home a daruma from Japan, Moscow first thought that it was a Baba Yaga house and remade it so it had an opening you could climb into, and thus the matryoshka was born.

In spite of her shyness, Moscow seems to have a lot of friends and is actually present at most of Russia's meetings with other countries - she just goes unseen because Russia tends to like putting her where his shadow is. She is also rather strong-willed despite having been beaten down a lot since she always manages to pick herself up and recover. At one point, she was even able to drive back Germany when he tried to capture her, and she becomes particularly spirited when it comes to sports.

Moscow has a noticeably large amount of animals, most notably Misha, a clumsy bear who people were afraid of because he was so strong. Others include an unnamed two-headed eagle and a hungry dragon, to whom she fed her meat rations so that it would stop terrorising the public. Moscow also appears to attract a lot of stray dogs and, while they never stay for long and she makes no attempts to pet any, she is rather protective of them.

In the rare times she talks, Moscow seems to end most of her sentences with '-ski'.

Russia
Though Russia found Moscow as an infant and they grew up together, Russia seems not to notice or just ignore Moscow a lot of the time, though this, like his cruelty, isn't intentional, and it is possible he is not even aware of it. He does care about Moscow, however, and, though she scarcely talks, they appear very close. In turn, Moscow sees Russia as a very precious person and quickly takes offense when someone criticizes Russia, even when she seems to have no problem with pointing out his faults herself.

The sunflower-patterned umbrella that Moscow always carries is a gift from Russia.

Italy
Italy and Moscow are childhood friends, and they get along very well. Moscow likes to visit Italy to sight-see, and they both share a love of art and music.

Lithuania
During his time as part of the Soviet Union, Lithuania was usually the one who was left to take care of Moscow, since Russia often forgot and the other Baltic states didn't even know she existed for a while. Though the two initially regard one another with fear (Moscow, because Lithuania and Poland had kidnapped her in the past, and Lithuania, because of the way Russia treated him), they share a quiet respect and friendship. Poland, typically, doesn't remember who she is.

South Korea
A completely unexpected friendship which largely stems from Moscow's avid fascination with South Korea's hair curl. Moscow admires South Korea's liveliness and confidence and, in turn, South Korea is more than happy to share his culture with her. Due to some circumstances they are unable to visit one another often, but it is noted that they stay in touch with one another, since Moscow carries around a phone which can contact South Korea wherever he is, and vice versa.

Canada
Upon meeting Moscow immediately mistakes Canada for America's clone and, horrified, tries to force a befuddled Canada back into America's body before he can multiply again. Despite the initial misunderstanding, Canada and Moscow are good friends, although Moscow continues to refer to Canada as America's clone, and they often play ice hockey together to psyche each other up.

Greece
The two share a long-time, mutually comfortable relationship. Perhaps because Greece is also a small talker, he seems to have no problem interpreting Moscow's strange little gestures and Moscow appears very relaxed when she's with Greece.

Trivia

 * Moscow doesn't have a known birthday, but she is celebrated on Federal City Day, the first weekend of September.
 * Moscow's childhood diet of porridge and cabbage soup is a nod to a Russian proverb, 'Щи да каша – пища наша' - cabbage soup and porridge is our food.
 * Misha is also the name of the Russian bear mascot for the Olympic games.
 * The colds Moscow have caught are a nod to the three main Fires of Moscow.
 * Baba Yaga is an old woman in Russian folklore who lives in a cabin with no windows or doors. In other versions, however, there actually is a front door, though the keyhole is replaced with a mouth of sharp teeth.
 * Matryoshka are hollow Russian dolls created by Vasily Zvyozdochkin and Sergey Malutin which are designed to open up to reveal a smaller doll, which opens up to reveal an even smaller doll, and so on. The inspiration of the doll is actually still ambiguous, but it is generally believed to have originated from the Japanese daruma.
 * NB: There may be some historical inaccuracies on this page. If any is found, notifiying the maker of this page would be much appreciated. Please do not use, copy, or edit any content in this page without the permission of the writer. Thank you.