Raushskaya Embankment is located in the most sparsely populated part of Moscow, between the Sofiyskaya and Kosmodamianskaya embankments. There are only two residential buildings in this area of Zamoskvorechye, although it would seem that the area with magnificent views is ideal for building a densely populated residential area.

It turns out that the area where Raushskaya Embankment is now located has been repeatedly flooded, as evidenced by the mark on one of the buildings. It shows the water level in the river during the flood of 1908, which was nine meters higher than the summer levels of the same year. By the way, the ill-fated flood completely flooded the power plant, which supplied electricity to a good half of Moscow at that time. So, Raushskaya is nothing more than a modified word “Rovush”, that is, an area crossed by grooves or ditches. With their help, gardeners of Ivan III removed excess water from the gardens, saving trees from the harmful effects of frequent floods.

Raushskaya Embankment acquired its stone appearance in the 30s of the XIX century. Then the garden ditches were filled up, and instead of them, the Vodotvodny Canal was dug, with the help of which the city authorities hoped to permanently solve the problem of floods. By the way, the channel really solved the problem, but only partially, as evidenced by the ill-fated story with the power plant.

Perhaps the most important architectural attraction of the embankment is the Church of St. Nicholas in Zayitsky. Someone may ask: what is the word “zayitsky”? This question has kept many Moscow historians awake for hundreds of years. There are different versions of the name origin. According to the first, most common, the word “Zayitsky” is associated with Cossacks living across the Yaik River (the current name of the Ural River). The implausibility of this version lies in the fact that nowhere in history are the “Zayitsky” Cossacks mentioned, only the Yaik Cossacks are mentioned, that is, those who lived on the Yaik River. According to the second version, “Zayayitsky” is a distorted word “Zayauzsky”, that is, across the Yauza River.

Walking along Raushskaya Embankment, you can't help but notice the building of the Balchug Hotel towering above it, the first five-star hotel in Moscow, built two decades ago on the site of the former hotel Bucharest. An interesting fact is that the word “balchug” is translated from Old Russian as “swamp”.