Airports/Aviation
Sheremetievo domestic flightsSheremetievo 2 28 km North West from City Center. It was built for the Moscow Olympics and is the 'main' airport.
Domodedovo South of Moscow, primarily for the more distant areas of the former Soviet Union, but also used by British Airways
Vnukovo South West. Used for internal flights
Bykovo South East of Moscow. Smalest of the passenger airports - does not have the fecilities to handle large modern aircraft.
Central Airport the former Khodynka Fields. The first civilian airport in Moscow, now used by sport flyers.
Tushino the first Moscow airport - Tushino was where the second 'False Dimitri' entrenched himself during the Times of Troubles. The MIL Helicopter company has used the site latterly.
Alexander 3
Because of his reactionary attitude, the police did nothing during a wave of pogroms against the Jews in 1881-2, after which 20.000 Jews were expelled from Moscow.Industrialization proceeded apace, as it had started to do after the Emancipation of the Serfs in 1861.
Alexander Gardens
The Gardens were laid out by Bove in 1819-1822, after the River Neglina was channeled underground. It was the first public garden in Moscow. The river had actually been originally channeled into pipes to enable the University to be rebuilt.
Troitsky (Trinity) Bridge is a reminder of the River.
The bridge connects Kutafya (Overdressed Woman) Tower and
Troitskaya (Trinity) Tower.
Alexei
Threatened by the dynastic ambitions of the Miloslavsky boyars, who intrigued against the foreign minister, Artamon Matveev. The two families lived near each other in the area of Armenian' Lane.
Maria
Alexei's second wife was Natalya Naryshkina,
In 1648 occured both an uprising against the policies of his minister Morozov, and a major fire. He was forced to banish Morozov - who did actually return to the city in October but he did not receive any further major role.
In the summer of 1662, rebels confronted Alexei at Kolomenskoe. Although it appeared that agreement had been made, a meeting ot the original rebel group with further rebels resulted in a return to Kolomenskoe - estimates exist of 9.000 rebels in total. The Streltsy were brought in and 63 rebels were executed.
Arbat
The Arbat was a suburb of Moscow in the 15. Century when the name referred to the entire area west of the Kremlin.Nowadays the Arbat is a road between the Boulevard and Garden Rings. In 1988, it was pedestrianized.
Cathedral of Archangel Michael
Built in 1509 by Alevisio Novy to replace an earlier wooden church of the same name. It is very similar to the Uspenskiy.
It contains many frescoes by Simeon Ushakov.
During Bazhenov's intended re-construction of the Kremlin, the South Wall cracked, resulting in buttresses being required, which are there to this day.
Andronikov Monastery
Founded in 1360 by Metropolitan Alexei. Andronik was the first abbot, Alexei having been summoned to the Crimea to treat the wife of the Khan.
In gratitude for this act, Alexei was given a plot of land owned by the Khan in the Kremlin, where Alexei founded the Chudov Monastery.
The Andronikov contains the oldest stone building in Moscow, the Spassky Cathedral, built 1420-27, although the entire building was dismantled in the 1930s and put together again - it is less than certain that the re-building was fully accurate. It had been badly burnt in 1812.
Andrei Rublev spent his last days here.
After the revolution, it became a prison camp, then housing. Due for demolition, it was apparently saved by a round of post-war patriotism. In 1960, it became the Andrei Rublev Museum, although it contains none of his icons.
Arsenal
There was a severe fire in 1701, which destroyed the northern part of the Kremlin. This was replaced by the Arsenal, occupying the site of the boyars' quarters during the Middle Ages. The Arsenal was only completed in 1736, after a 16 year moratorium because of war with Sweden, but was one of Moscow's largest buildings at the time. The Arsenal was intended by Peter the Great to be a deliberate attempt to upgrade and modernize Russia's military.Coincidentally, the Arsenal also suffered major fire damage in 1737. Moscow's principal architect, Prince Ukhtomsky, finished the restoration in 1754. Prior to the fire, its facade was covered with a pattern similar to the diamond patterns of the Granovitaya Palace.
It was badly damaged again by mines set by Napoleon, and was rebuilt by Bakarev, Tamanskiy, Mironovsky and Tyurin, this work being completed in 1828.
Nowadays, it is flanked by cannon captured during the Napoleonic Wars.
Art
The Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture was established in 1844 on Ulitsa Myasnitskaya. In 1872, it held the first major exhibition of the Wanderers Movement.
The staff includede Leonid Pasternak, father of Boris.
In 1920 it was converted to the Higher Technical-Artistic Workshop (VKhuTeMas), an institute similar to the bauhaus, but this only lasted for a short time.
Aviation
Junkers set up a factory in Fili. Maxim Gorky
Moscow Air Show
Baranovsky
Bazhenov, Vasili Ivanovich
After a brilliant start to his career, he was sent to Moscow, which was probably considered a bit of a let-down at the time, in comparison with Petersburg. He conceived the idea of a major rebuilding of the Kremlin, which was taken up by Catherine 2.
This rebuilding was officially started in June 1773, but was called off in 1775, by which time they had already demolished 17 office buildings (ptikazy) and the Treasury Building (Ruffo 1483).
The Tainitski Tower and the two Nameless Towers had also been demolished, and the entire wall between the Petrovskaya and Annunciation Tower taken down. These were rebuild faithfully by Bazhenov.
Beliy Gorod (White City)
The district that encircles the Kremlin and Kitai Gorod, within the Boulevard Ring. It gets its name from the white walls which were built around it between 1583 and 1593 by Fyodor Kon, these walls being destroyed in 1812 and replaced by the said Boulevard Ring. The walls were 10 kilometers long and 4-5 meters thick, with 28 towers.Although other sources say that the walls were demolished under Elizabeth and Catherine 2.
Chernishev used stone from the walls to build a mansion for himself - today's City Hall.
Black Death
The last major plague was in 1771. It had actually started in November 1770 in the Sukonny Dvor, a large textile factory, employing 3.000 people. Life came to a bit of a standstill in the city itself and, by the end, a third of the population had died.An icon of the Virgin used to 'protect' the Varkava Gate on the Kitai Gorod walls. During the plague, the icon was kissed by the population under the belief that it would protect them from infection. When Archbishop Amvrosy realized it was having the opposite effect, he attempted to remove the icon but, for his troubles, he was lynched in the Donskoy Monastery by a mob.
A quarter of Moscow's houses were burnt, houses having been burnt if someone died in them. All cemeteries in the center were closed and new large ones built further out, e.g. those at at the Donskoy and Danilov monasteries.
Plague riot
Bolshoi Theater
The Bolshoi can trace its history back to the Petrov theater established by Michael Maddox in 1776 on the corner of Ulitsa Petrovka - this was the first permanent theater in Moscow. It came under state control in 1806, but the year after it burnt down.
It was replaced in 1824 with a theater designed by Andrei Mikhailov, in collaboration with Bove. This theater itself burnt down in 1850 and was replaced by the present one, designed by Albert Kavos, in 1856 (although it retained certain features of Mikhailov and Bove's design).
It introduced ballet early on. Opera was introduced in the 1890s. It only became the major Russian theater after the Revolution - previously the Mariinski in Petersburg was considered the premier Russian theater.
In 1906, part of the theater sagged, but nothing was done about it until 1922 - its position above the Neglina river undermines the stability of the building. Problems returned in the late 1980s, but money was harder to come by this time.
During the Fifth Party Congress in July 1918, the Bolshoi was the scene of the final split between the Bolsheviks and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. Maria Spiridonova called for war. Left SR delegates were held prisoner while an attempted SR coup was put down.
Yuri Grigorovich was artistic director of the Bolshoi for 30 years until 1995.
Bolshoi Theatre, Russia’s principal opera and ballet theatre, situated in Moscow. Highly esteemed throughout its history, the theatre has developed an iconic status, becoming one of the most widely recognized ambassadors of Russian culture abroad.
Founded by Prince Peter Urusov, who in 1776 received the privilege of maintaining a theatre company in Moscow from Empress Catherine the Great, the theatre was originally called the Petrovsky. Its first building, designed by Christian Rosenberg, opened on the right bank of the Neglinka River in 1780. The theatre successfully staged operas, ballets, and melodramas until 1805, when the building was destroyed by fire. Nonetheless, the company was recognized as a government institution in 1806—achieving the status that it has retained ever since—and performed in temporary locations until a new building, designed by Osip Bove, opened in 1825 in the same location. Between that year and 1853 the company was known as the Bolshoi Petrovsky Theatre. Bovais’s building also burnt down, in 1853, and after renovation and extensive modification under Albert Cabos it reopened in 1856 as the Bolshoi.
In the latter decades of the 19th century, the Bolshoi Ballet and Opera (by then two separate companies) became influential not only in Russia but also abroad. Both staged Russian and Western operas and ballets, including works by Tchaikovsky and The Five as well as by Bizet, Gounod, Verdi, and Wagner. At the beginning of the 20th century, composer and director Sergei Rachmaninov and choreographer Aleksandr Gorsky became instrumental in shaping the theatre’s repertoire and in coaching talented performers, including the Bolshoi orchestra and choir. The ensembles gradually gained high recognition abroad, particularly after their tour to London in 1911. After the Revolution the theatre initially focused on the classical, Western repertoire; in the 1930s, however, it staged mostly works by Soviet composers.
The Bolshoi remained active throughout World War II, performing between 1941 and 1943 in Samara (formerly Kuybyshev), where the ensembles were evacuated, and after 1945 largely managed to maintain its position as one of the leading opera and ballet companies in the world. Both ensembles toured extensively abroad and performed at home in their main building as well as in the Beethoven Hall (opened in 1920) and, since 1961, in the Great Kremlin Palace (see Kremlin). After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 the theatre became plagued by economic difficulties and artistic wrangles. Two years later UNESCO and the Bolshoi launched a partnership project aimed at the long-awaited renovation of the main building. In 2002 the ensembles moved to a filial theatre while the main building was closed for restoration; it is expected to reopen in 2005.
Bolshoi Ballet one of the oldest and most famous Russian ballet companies. The Bolshoi Ballet originated in classes given at a Moscow orphanage in 1773. Performances by the company began in 1776 and transferred to the Bolshoi Theatre from 1825, when Adam Gluszkowsky was ballet master. At this time the company was prominent in the nationalist movement in Russian theatre.
The Italian choreographer Carlo Blasis worked with the company from 1861 to 1864. In the years that followed, the Bolshoi Ballet gave the first performances of Don Quixote (1869) by Marius Petipa and Wenzel Reisinger’s unsuccessful Swan Lake (1877). Generally during the 19th century the Moscow company was considered inferior to the St Petersburg company.
In 1900 Aleksandr Gorsky was appointed director and he developed the style of the Bolshoi Ballet, forming a reputation for dramatic performances that it has held ever since. Gorsky, with the dancers Yekaterina Geltzer and Vassili Tikhomirov, led the company through the Russian Revolution, and the development during the 1920s and 1930s of ballets celebrating Soviet achievements, such as The Red Poppy (1927), was a continuation of his style. Ballerinas at this time included Marina Semeyonova and Olga Lepeshinskaya.
After World War II the company gave the first performance of Cinderella by Prokofiev, with choreography by Rostislav Zakharov (1945). Galina Ulanova and Leonid Lavrovsky were transferred from the St Petersburg company and the Bolshoi became the dominant company in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In the 1950s Plisetiskaya, Struchkova, Timofeyeva, Farmayantz, Fadayachev, and Liepa were the leading dancers. In 1956 the company made a sensational debut in London that led to international recognition. In the mid-1960s Yuri Grigorovich was appointed director. He produced spectacular full-length ballets, most notably Spartacus (1968). These utilized mass movement, athletic male dancing, and acrobatic pas de deux for dramatic effect. Highly popular, these and revised versions of the classics have since formed the entire repertory. There was considerable opposition within the company to Grigorovich’s creative dominance until he was removed from his post by the Russian government. In 1995, Vladimir Vasiliev, an outstanding former principal dancer, became artistic director of the Bolshoi Theatre, overseeing the ballet, opera, and orchestra companies in challenging financial circumstances. He choreographed, among numerous other pieces, Balda (music by Dmitri Shostakovich, 1999). In 1998 Aleksey Fadeyechev, former principal dancer, was appointed artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet. The following year, he staged an internationally acclaimed revival of Gorsky's Don Quixote. In September 2000, after Vasiliev had been dismissed by President Vladimir Putin, Anatoly Iksanov was appointed general director of the Bolshoi Theatre, with conductor Gennadii Rozhdestvensky as artistic director. In October that year, Boris Akimov, former Bolshoi soloist and a renowned teacher who worked with, among other companies, the Royal Ballet (1988), succeeded Fadeyechev as artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet. Rozhdestvensky resigned in June 2001, just nine months after taking over the post, and Aleksander Vedernikov, formerly conductor of the Russian Philharmonia, was appointed in his place; Akimov remained the ballet director. In 2002 the theatre building closed for restoration—a three-year project sponsored by UNESCO—and the ballet and opera companies moved to an annex.
Boulevard Ring (Bulvarnoe Koltso)
The Boulevard Ring was laid out on the site of the ramparts of the Beliy Gorod after the fire of 1812. Many squares have the names of the original ten gates.Chistoprudniy Bulvar forms one stretch, off which is Chistye Prudy, named after a pond used originally for butchers' waste, but cleaned up after the pollution became unbearable.
Nikitskie Vorota : The gate was demolished in 1930s.
Tver Gate
St Peter's Gate Ulitsa Petrovka
Pokrova Gate Ulitsa Pokrova
Yauzkikh Vorota near the ploshscad of the same name.
It separates the White City from the Zemlyanoy Gorod.
Osip Ivanovich Bove
Chief Architect of the Reconstruction after the 1812 fire.
The Gagarin House, one of the few buildings destroyed by bombing in the Second World War, is often stated to be by him, although the house itself was built in the 1780s. It was reconstructed by Bove after being damaged in the 1812 fire.
Catherine Palace
Bazhenov was invited to submit a design for this work, but he was dismissed and it was built to a design of Quarenghi, with contributions by Camporezi, Rinaldi and Karl Blank. The site was formerly occupied by Rastrelli's Summer Annenhof.
It was finished during the reign of Paul 1, Catherine's son, who immediately used it for military purposes, a use which it has had up to the present. It now houses the Malinkovski Tank Academy.
Richard Chancellor
Chancellor landeded in Murmansk in 1553, and ended up traveling to Moscow. The Muscovy Company was set up and given duty-free privileges by Ivan 4., and given the English Court which, apart from its comercial function, served as a sort of English 'embassy'.
Cathedral of Christ the Savior/Redeemer
The original church was built to commemorate victory over Napoleon and was built between 1839 and 1883.
Before that particular church was built, the contract to build a memorial had been awarded to Alexander Vitberg, and the project was inaugurated on 12 October 1817 on the Sparrow Hills. All kinds of problems lead to Vitberg being brought to trial and exiled.
The plan was revived until Nicholas 1, and he chose Konstantin Ton to build the church, but adjacent to the Kremlin. To make room for the church, the Alekseevski Monastery was demolished, producing a site of four hectares. Construction took 43 years, being finally finished in 1883.
When finished, it was the tallest building in Moscow at a height of 103 meters. Its area of 9000 m2 could hold 10.000 people.
It was demolished in 1934 to make way for a 315 meter high Palace of Soviets. There was some problem with the water table, but also the foundations were ripped out in 1941 to form anti-tank defenses. Finally, in 1959, the plan was dropped and an open-air swimming pool built - the largest heated outdoor pool in the world.
The church was rebuilt between 1995 and 1997.
Circus
Established in 1880 by Albert Salamonskiy, it became the Moscow State Circus in 1919. The 'Old Circus' is in Tsvetnoy Bulvar, while the 'New Circus' is in the Lenin Hills.
Danilov Monastery
Since 1989, the official residence of the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church.
Founded by Prince Danil in 1282 at the latest. Ivan 1 moved everything into the Kremlin and it was Ivan 4 who revived the monastery in 1560.
The Trinity Cathedral was built by Bove in the 1830s.
Apparently it was the last working monastery in the USSR before being closed in 1930. From 1930, it became a borstal, then a factory - the church being allowed to reclaim the premises in 1983. Only a few of its original buildings remain.
Dolgorukiy, Yuri
Moscow was first mentioned in historical records in 1147. In this year Yuri Dolgorukiy, the son of the Kievan monarch Vladimir Monomakh, is recorded as throwing a feast at his hunting lodge overlooking the confluence of the Moskva and Neglina Rivers. Moscow was a village atop Borovitsky Hill, named after the pine trees that covered it.
In 1156, Yuri Dolgorukiy dedcided to erect a wooden wall around Moscow, and is thereby usually considered to be the founder of the city.
But, although he is usually credited with this act, he died in Kiev in 1157 and the task of actually building the “small wooden town” he had envisioned on Borovitsky Hill appears to have fallen primarily to his son Andrei Bogolyubsky, prince of Vladimir.
This wooden settlement was bigger than the
Slavic settlement previously established on the site.
It stretched from the spot where the
Borovitsky Gates stand today to the site of the Great Kremlin Palace.
On the south, it ran
along the Moscow River, reaching the point where the Tainitskaya
Tower now stands. In the
west it was bordered by the Neglina River and stretched
from the modern day Borovitsky
Gates to the Troitsky Gates. These two sides were joined by
an eastern wall closing off the
territory, including the whole of today’s Sobornaya Ploshchad. Yury
Dolgoruky’s fortress was
shaped like a triangle and was a third the size of the Kremlin today.
Its walls were 700 meters long.
Donskoy Monastery
Dates from 1593 to commemorate the occasion when Boris Godunov, as Regent, defeated the last Tartar raid on Moscow.
During the campaign, an icon by Theopanes the Greek, Presviatori Bogoroditsy (Our Lady of the Don), which had previously hung in the Annunciation Cathedral, had been brought to the monastery and paraded on the eve of battle. After a brief skirmish, the Tartars fled. The icon had been given to Dimitri Donsky by a group of Cossacks and had been taken by Dmitri on his campaigns against Mamai, ensuring victory at Kulikovo, according to superstition. Now the chasing away of the Tartars was being attributed to it. Nowadays, the icon is in the Treyakov Gallery while a copy hangs in the monastery.
The monastery was built up by successive people over the years - the present fortifications and cathedral date from a building program which ended in 1733 - the monastery being intended to guard the Kaluga Gates. The gate bell-tower was built during this time by Aleksei Yevlashev.
At the exact center of the complex lies the Great Cathedral of the Don Mother (also known as the 'New' Cathedral), one of the largest structures of its time, begun in 1684 and finished in 1698.
L During the Black Death, Archbishop Amvrosy attempted to hide in the Cathedral but was beaten to death by a mob.
Patriarch Tikhon was imprisoned here.
In 1929, it became a Museum of Atheism.
Services had resumed in the old cathedral in 1946. It was one of the few fortress monasteries to still have a functioning church in the 1980s.
Drainage Canal (Vodootvodniy Canal)
The canal was built between 1778-80. The Kriegskommissariat was built on the South side of the Moscow River and the Drainage Channel was built to remove the threat of flooding, leaving the building on an island, which still has no name. The river used to flood regularly in the spring.Previously the area constituting the new 'island' had been the Tsar's market garden.
Dubrovka Theatre
The Theater Tsentr Na Dubrovke, 7 Melnikova Ulitsa - the former House of Culture in south-east Moscow.
It became infamous during 2002 when Chechen rebels occupied it during a performance of the musical Nord Ost. They occupied it on 23 October, and the infamous gas attack took place 57 hours later, in the early hours of October 26. About 200 people died of the 800 in the theater.
There were insufficient medical facilities for the victims. They were seen being handled out of the building in a very unprofessional way (e.g. head unsupported, allowing the tongue to block the airway. 400 victims were sent to No. 13 Hospital, who only had 50 staff on duty.
In November 2002, the first writs were issued by victims against the authorities, especially Luzhkov and the city government. Soon the number of writs became appreciable. The lawyer Igor Trunov agreed to act for the victims, and received enormous abuse from the Russian government and its media. The legal proceedings suffered from the notorious subservience of Russian courts to the direct wishes of the Government. The intial writs were thrown out after a few hours. One case concerned a member of the orchestra whose family are convinced he was left to die without treatment because the authorities mistook his Tartar name to be Chechen.
For further details of the victims' grienvances go to
I am assuming this is the former Palace of Culture of the Likhachev (Zil) Automobile works, based in a former section of the Simonov Monastery. It was build by the brothers Alexander and Leonid Vesnin between 1930 and 1937. It was the largest of the several clubs that were built in this period. The main auditorium seats 1.200 and it had a library, lecture hall, gym and many other rooms. From what I have read, the best view of the building is from the Moscow River.
Embassies
The British Embassy lies directly opposite the Kremlin, on the Sofia Embankment. It was designed by Shekhtel for the Kharitonenko family. It was bought very cheaply by the British in the 1920s.THe French Embassy is, since 1938, the Igumnov House. This house has also previously been a medical institute, the Institute of the Brain.
The original German Embassy is now the Italian Embassy. On 6. July 1918, the German Ambassador was shot down by Zagoskin, a member of the SR, signalling the start of the attempted SR coup.
The Tunisian Embassy was formerly Beria's mansion. In 1993, it hit the headlines when several skeletons were found outside.
The 'House on the Mokhovaya' was a former US Embassy, as was the current Intourist HQ next-door to the National Hotel. The official residence of the American Ambassador was the setting by Bulgakov of Satan's Ball in Master and Marguerita. The house formerly belonged to the millionaire Vtorov.
English Court
The Muscovy Company was set up as a result of the chain of events which occured after Richard Chancellor landed in Murmansk in 1553. They were given the English Court in 1556 as a sort of English Embassy (the building was simply requisitioned from its previous owners). As an embassy, it can claim to be the first foreign embassy in Moscow. The third envoy was held under house arrest for a time as a result of Ivan the Terrible's request to marry Queen Elizabeth seemingly falling on deaf ears (or it may have been some other English lady, Mary Hastings).
The Company was thrown out of Russia in 1649 by Tsar Alexei after the Parliament took over power in England and executed Charles 1.
It was discoverd again during demolitions to clear the area for the Rossiya hotel. In the basement of an apartment block, a medieval house was discovered, which was eventually decided to be the English Court. It seems have been itself saved from demolition by Baranovski.
It was originally next door to the Romanoff Palace (although not nowadays), and it appears there were strong relations between the English and the Romanoffs prior to the family forming the new dynasty of Tsars, after which the Romanoff Palace became part of the Znamensky Monastery.
Espionage
After his defection, Guy Burgess lived in the Moskva Hotel on Manezhnaya Square
Fires
1331 During a report on this fire, the word kreml appears for the first time.
1337
1365 Great Fire which consumed much of the Kremlin
1445 Ivan 2 was captured by Tartars. He eventually returned to a city devastated by a fire.
1468
1469 After the fire, Ivan 3 rebuilt on a grand scale
1493 destroyed Ivan's palace. Replaced by Terem.
1547. This was Ivan 4's coronation year. The first buildings to burn were innumerable churches in the Arbat. The Armory in the Kremlin exploded. 25.000 houses were destroyed and 17.000 people died. Prince Yuri Glinsky was dragged from the Uspenskiy and murdered as rumors spread that the Glinsky family were responsible. This fire had been 'foretold' by Vasili (St. Basil), which first brough him to the attention of Ivan. The Patriarch declared the fire to be God's punishment for Ivan's wrongs.
1560 Anastasia
1611
1626 Kitai Gorod, Kremlin
1629
1633
1634
1648 in June.The fire, together with an uprising against taxation, cost 2.000 lives
1737 The Tsar Bell cracked during the fire - it had fallen from its belfry during a fire in 1701.
1812 The governor of Moscow, Count Rostopchin, was 'responsible' for the fire of 1812, during the first night of the French Occupation (according to many sources, although it could just as easily have been started by French troops, accidentally). According to the former story, it was started in the wine stalls of Kitai Gorod and carriage workshops of Karetniy Ryad. Wind fanned the flames and the fire raged for at least four days. It crossed the river into Zamoskvareche. It had started on 14. September and was not finally doused until 20 September. On 16 September, the Kremlin was threatened and Napoleon, who had been staying there, moved out to the Petrovski Palace. On the same day, the Vdovy Dom with 700 badly-wounded soldiers trapped inside was set ablaze. Three-quarters of the city's buildings were destroyed. Although Moscow was accustomed to fires, in a manner of speaking, this was something different.
As it turned out, the Kremlin suffered little. It was to suffer far more from the attempts of the French to blow bits up.
Rostopchin incurred the wrath of the crowd and had to escape. Ironically the Lubyanka area, where he lived, survived the fire unscathed, due to the actions of its residents. The Rostopchin Mansion, almost adjacent to the Lubyanka, later became a haunt of the KGB.
To;lstoy in 'War and Peace' proclaims that 'a great city of wooden buildings abandoned by its inhabitants was certain to burn'. He says it had happened elesewhere and was bound to happen in Moscow.
Football
The first organized football matches were played in 1897 (or around then). Different sources have slightly different stories to tell, although the new textile mills appear to be common to both. Some say that it was the English factory owner, Charnock, that attempted to introduce the game, importing Blackburn Rovers' strip for his new teams. Other sources mention Morozov's mills in Orekhovo Zuevo as the place of origin of the game in Russia.
Spartak. I get the impression that the story of Spartak would make a good film. Under the influence of the four Starostin brothers (Nikolai, Alexander, Andrei, Petr), they orinated as Krasnaya Presnaya in 1921, playing at the new Krasnaya Presnaya Stadium of 1922. The club had no affiliations with any government department.
In his early days, Beria played left-back for a team in Georgia. For some reason he managed to gain a grudge against the Starostins. Whether this was just because of the footballing achievements of Krasnaya Presnaya or whether it was something more personal, I am unsure. The term 'on-fiels humiliation' appears in at least one source.
In 1926, Krasnaya Presnaya moved to the 13.000 capacity Tomski Stadium, in Petrovski Park, close to Dinamo Stadium.
In 1934, they were renamed - in honor of Spartacus.
In 1936, a National League was instituted in the USSR. This was a period of intense rivalry between the two top-flight teams from Moscow, Spartak (an independent club) and Dinamo (the Secret Police Club).
In 1938, they won the League and Cup double. In 1939, Beria intervened and ordered Spartak to replay a disputed victory in the Semi-Final of the Cup.
In 1942, Starostins were arrested and accused of trying to kill Stalin. They were sentenced to 10 years hard labor in the Gulag.
Vasili, Stalin's son, managed to get the sentence formally cut to three years hard labor. On the other hand, it appears that the relevant Camp Comanders were so impressed with receiving the Narostins that they were unofficially excused hard labor anyway - they were put in charge of the camp football teams and were allowed to live in the locker rooms, which was presumably up-market in comparison with the 'usual' accommodation. Apparently this was all going on without the knowledge of the relevant authorities back in Moscow, and seems to have an added 'humor' insofar as the teams involved appeared to be the lcal Dinamo team(s). On the other hand, although excused hard labor, they remained in exile until 1954.
Since 1956, they have played at Luzhniki.
In the 1960's, Jim Riordan of Portsmouth played for Spartak, becoming the only British person to have played for a Soviet team.
In the 1930s, the Torpedo Stadium was built on the site of the Simonov Monastery. Torpedo were connected with the Zil Car Factory. In the 90s Torpedo moved to the Lenin (Luzhniki) Stadium.
Lokomotiv Stadium, east of Sokolniki Park, was built in Stalinist times for Lokomotiv, the railway team. Mowadays, the stadium is also used by Spartak.
A new Lokomotiv Stadium has been built in Bolshaya Cherizovskaya (used since 2002).
Charnock's club, KSO Orekhovo Sports Club, founded in 1887, and Russia's oldest team, was taken over by the Secret Service and given the name of Dinamo. Dinamo became the name of many secret police clubs in the USSR and Eastern Europe. D
During 1945, Dinamo toured Britain. They beat Cardiff 10-1, Arsenal 4-3 and drew with Chelsea 3-3. The last match was against Glasgow Rangers before a crowd of 90.000 at Ibrox.
Lev Yashin was one of their best known players - the only goalkeeper to become European Footballer of the Year (in 1963). He played with Dinamo for 22 seasons, and was first choice goalie for the USSR from 1954 to 1967.
Since 1928, they have played in the Dinamo Stadium on the Leningradsky Prospect (originally with a capacity of 35.000). The stadium is nowadays also used by TsKA.
TsKA (or CSKA) originated as the Army team.
Foreign Invasion
Mongol Invasions and DominationThe Mongols swept across Russia in 1237-40, razing the Kremlin to the ground in 1238, capturing Kiev in 1240, and bringing Kievan Rus to an end. The prinipalities in the area were made into vassal states of the Mongol Golden Horde. In this latter incarnation, the Mongols are usually referred to in the history books as Tartars - although the invasions stemmed from the Far East, by the time they had reached Europe they were comprised of a collection of various Asian races, Turks, Uzbeks, etc. etc.. Muscovy came to be the dominant Russian state by virtue of being allocated the role of the Golden Horde's ‘tax collector’ from the other Russian states.
In 1298, Mongols devastated the city again.
The line of Princes of Moscow was established by Daniel, youngest son of Alexander Nevski, when Moscow was set up as a separate principality in 1301 (with an area of 1300 km2). Daniel reigned until 1303.
When Mikhail of Tver was appointed Grand Prince of Vladimir by the Mongols in 1304, Prince Yuri of Moscow refused to accept the nomination and went to war against Mikhail in 1305 and 1308.
The first Muslim Khan, Uzbek, came to power in 1312. By some strange 'wheeler-dealing', Yuri was appointed Grand Prince in 1317. An attempt to follow this up with a military attack against Mikhail misfired and Yuri was defeated. Nevertheless, Mikhail was executed by the Khan for various reasons, not least of which was the fact that the Khan's daughter (Konchaka), who had just married Yuri and was captured during the aforementioned military campaign, died while in Mikhail's custody.
Yuri was required to act as a tax-collector although Khan Uzbek had to send four separate expeditions to help him. In 1322, the Khan transferred the title of Grand Prince to Dimitri of Tver, after some 'funny goings-on', during which Alexander, Dimitri's brother, stole the Mongol's tax money from Yuri. During Yuri's 'appeal', Dimitri murdered him - part of the reason being revenge for Yuri's part in his father's execution. Dimitri was subsequently executed by the Khan.
The title of Grand Prince went to Dimitri's brother, Alexander. But, after Alexander was forced to flee during an anti-Mongol uprising in 1327, Yuri's brother Ivan secured the Vladimir throne for himself, as a reward for helping the Mongols put down this rebellion by his fellow countrymen. It seems likely that this anti-Mongol uprising was provoked by a band of Mongols in the first place.
Ivan 1 (Kalitsa), moved the seat of the Orthodox Church from Vladimir to Moscow (it had moved to Vladimir from its original home of Kiev).
Karl Marx decribed the Grand Princes as the Tartars' hangman, sycophant and slave-in-chief.
The Golden Horde has given its name to the Ulitsa Bolshaya Ordynka in Zamoskvareche. Its ambassadors lived near this road that lead to their homeland.
Ivan was succeeded by Semen (Simeon) from 1341-53. Semen died of the plague.
Ivan 2, the brother of Semen, ruled from 1353-9. At first, the regent and commander of militia was Khvost. Khvost was murdered and his post taken by Alexei, the metropolitan.
Dimitri ascended to the title of Prince when he was 9 years old. Alexei still held power as Regent. After a three year wait, the title of Grand Prince returned to Moscow, when it was conferred on Dimitri in 1362.
Disagreements broke out between Dimitri and Khan Mamai. Twice, in 1370 and 1375, Mamai transferred the title of Grand Prince of Vladimir to the Prince of Tver, producing war between Moscow and Tver (in 1370, Tver were suported by Lithuania), in which Moscow both times came out on top. Except for a few brief interludes, Moscow's rulers kept the title of Grand Prince from then on.
In 1380, Grand Prince Dimitri, while Khan Mamai (who himself was head of a breakaway group from the Golden Horde) was threatened by a rival, attempted to shake off the Tartar yoke, and won a famous battle at Kulikovo, gaining the name Dimitri Donski. Unfortunately, in 1381 Mamai lost to his rival, Tokhtamysh, the latter then turning his attention to Moscow.
In 1382, Khan Tokhtamysh attacked Moscow and with a ruse broke into the Kremlin and killed large numbers of people (well into five figures). Nevertheless, the citadel, and the rest of the city, was soon rebuilt. Dimitri Donski had actually fled north, leaving the city to be defended by Ostei, a Lithuanian prince. The Tartars lured him out for alleged peace talks, but killed him instead. The oldest manuscripts of the city, rare manuscripts and icons were put to the torch.
In the end, Dimitri retained the post of Grand Prince but was forced to collect exceedingly high taxes. In 1386, he had to take up arms to force a reluctant Novgorod to pay up.
1389 Vasili 1
In 1395, the armies of Okhtamysh were destroyed by Tamerlane. Tamerlane marched towards the city, but in reality never carried out his threat. Nevertheless, Cyprian transported the icon 'Our Lady of Vladimir' to Moscow from Vladimir. It never returned to Moscow, and was placed in the Uspenski Cathedral (now in the Tretyakov gallert, a copy is in the Uspenskiy.
In 1408, one of Tamerlane's lieutenants, Edegei, rebelled against him and in the same year, he besieged Moscow, but withdrew after a large payment was made.
1425 Vasili 2 came to the throne when he was 10 years old. Vasili was beset by dynastic problems and faced opposition from Yuri Dmitrievich (his uncle), Vasili Kosoi (Yuri's son), Dimitri Shemiaka.
In 1433, Yuri took over but found little support. Vasili returned.
Vasili captured and blinded Vasili Kosoi, and when Vasili was himself captured later on by Dimitri Shemiaka, he himself was blinded as revenge. Nevertheless, by 1477 Vasili had won out over his opponents. Meanwhile, the Golden Horde had split.
Vsevolozhski erstwhile champion
In 1451, the tartars managed to get into the Kremlin thru a wooden section of the wall.
The Tartars were finally defied in a major way by Ivan 3. In 1480, he tore up the Khans yarlyk in the Uspenskiy Cathedral. The Tartars turned back from an attack on the city.
In 1571, the Crimean Tartars under Devlet-Girei attacked while Russia was distracted with a war against Lithuania, and was weakened by the issue of the Oprichnina. They crossed via a ford near the Novodevichiy Convent, burning the city and carrying off thousands of inhabitants as slaves. Ivan 4 himself fled, returning two years later.
Lithuania
The armies of Grand Prince Olgerd of Lithuania were repulsed in 1368 and 1370, when they were supporting the position of Michael of Tver as Grand Prince.
Vasili 2 faced opposite Yuri Dmitrievich, Vasili Kosoi, Dimiti Shemiaka 12/2/1446
Poland
1604, 4000 Poles marched , false Dimitri
1607 another false Dimitri appeared, although he never actually entered the city. Nevertheless, Moscow appealed to Sweden for help, provoked new Polish invasion.
Poles captured Moscow in 1610 , but were evicted in 1612, after 18 months of siege. The city was largely destroyed.
In 1618, Poles attacked.
Sweden
Thr Swedes threatened to attack in 1708-9. Bad weather worked against them. Earthworks had been constructed around the Kremlin.
France
In 7 September 1812, the battle of Borodino resulted in a defeat for Russia, and left Kutuzov so weak that he couldn't defend Moscow (so the prevailing story goes). Napoleon, at least, claimed the battle as a victory - at least 70.000 were dead, about half and half between the two parties, and a massive number by the standards of the day (and obviously by the standards of any age). It was apparently unprecendented in world history at the time.
There was a resulting mass exodus of civilians - by September, 100.000 had fled. Eventually the population sunk to 10.000 (from 200.000). Rostopchin had actually been evacuating treasures etc. and making plans since August.
On the same night (14 September) that the Napoleon arrived in the city, fires started. At the time, Napoleon was staying in Rastrelli's Palace that he had built for ElizabethNapoleon was outside Moscow as the city burnt (in the Petrovski Palace), and French troops resorted to looting. After 6 days, three-quarters of the buildings in the city had been destroyed.
On 13 October, the first snow fell, the fact that it should appear so early being an indication of a harsh winter. On 19 October, Napoleon decided to leave. On the same day, the wine stalls where the fire started waere blown up and the Simonov Monastery which had been spared the fire in September, was set alight. On October 21, parts of the Kremlin were blown up, but not all the French mines actually went off. Allegedly, rain stopped the destruction of most of the Kremlin. The last Frenchman left on 23 October. The population of the city by this time had sunk to about 3.000. Of Napoleon's original invasion force of 600.000, only 30.000 reached France.
Within 5 years, the city had been rebuilt, but the residential property was mostly of wood.
Deutschland
Deutschland declared war on Russian in the early hours of Sunday June 22 1941 and the people of Moscow heard about it about midday.
At 3 a.m. 24 June, the air siren went for the first time, anti-aircraft guns atacked the aircraft, but it turned out they were Russian aircraft - all Russian aircraft were forbidden to fly over the city.
The onion domes of the Kremlin were painted grey.
It was decided to supplement the defense of the city by drawing up a Home Guard, which eventually comprised 310.000 people, but was eventually wiped out in the defense against the Germans. Military command of the city was in the hands of General Artemev.
On 3 July, Stalin spoke on the radio for the first time since 1938.
On 6 July, the Home Guard assembled at Mosfilm.
11 July, 80.000 women and children are evacuated to the East.
12 July, Molotov and Cripps close an Anglo-Soviet Agreement
The Chief Architect of Moscow, Chechulin, designed plywood camoflauge screens for many squares and the river, which was proving an aid to enemt aircraft.
21 July, the first air raid. 200 aircraft, but only 10-15 got thru.
22 July, only a small number of aircraft got thru, but over a hundred people were killed in a shelter near Arbat Square.
On 24 July, 150 aircraft attacked, but found it hard to penetrate defenses. Incendaries did not have the full efedct expected because of preventative measures taken in Moscow.
End of July, Harry Hopkins.
In September, the city was defended by 800.000 soldiers.
On 2 October, Operation Typhoon began.
7 October, Zhukov arrived in the city. By mid October, the Germans were on the outskirts of the city. 450.000 people had been mobilized to build trenches. On October 16, panic broke out. Stalin stayed in the city. The traditional November parades on Red Square went ahead, but the troops went direct from there to the battlefront. The first snowstorm had taken place the night before.
On 15-16 November, Chaikovski's house in Klin was looted and began to be used as a motorcycle repair shop.
Yasnaya Polyana was turned into barracks.
In late December, the mean temperature fell to 15o below. The Red Army began to counter-attack, with reinforcements from East.
On 15 December, the Germans were driven out of Klin.
Eden arrived in Moscow.
Air raids destroyed the Gagarin House.
August 1942, S7 performed in Hall of Columns.
12 August 1942, Churchill.
5 September 1942, sudden air raid.
7 Novemer 1942, no parades took place.
Fortress Monasteries
- Andronikov
- Danilov
- Donskoi
- Novodevichy
- Novospassky
- Rozhdestvensky (Nativity) on the Boulevard Ring/Ulitsa Rozhdestvenka. Founded in the 14. Century.
- Simonov
- Vysoko-Petrovsky founded by Dimitri Donski in the then-village of Vysoko. It is now in Ulitsa Petrovka and, when later restored, its was built in the style of Naryshkin Baroque, the monastery being closed connected with the Naryshkin relatives of Peter the Great. .
- Sretenskiy All that is left is the Church of the Icon of Our Lady of Vladimir, in Ulitsa Bolshaya Lubyanka, where the icon was first greeted on its arrival in the city.
Garden Ring (Sadovoye Koltso)
Founded originally along the ramparts of the Zemlyanoy Gorod, the former Zemlyany Val. Its 'garden aspect' was obliterated during reconstruction in the the 1930s, when it was widened
three Stalin Skyscrapers.
Vladimir Gelfreikh
German Suburb (Nemetskaya Sloboda)
The English monopoly on trade only lasted until 1649. Shortly after, a foreigners' colony was established in Zayauze, established by Alexei under the influence of Nikon. It was a walled village, guarded by Russian sentries. In 1665, it contained 204 houses. Its area took up 1/5 of Moscow by area by the time of Peter the Great.
Peter the Great famously spent much time here, absorbing Western influences. No 6 Starokirochniy Pereulok was the home of Anna Mons, who seems to have been led to believe that she could have become Peter's second wife. Her relationship with Peter lasted twelve years. Peter built the Lefort Palace in 1697, the location of infamous drunken revels.
Tsar Paul built a Suburban Palace, which became the Bauman Technical Academy, where the Bolshevik Moscow Committee sat in the revolutionary times of 1905. The local organizer, Nikolai Baumann, was beaten to death outside.
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, it became known as the St. Germaine suburb.
Previously the foreign district had been the present-day Ukranian Quarter. Westerners had settled here after Mikhail Romanoff had allowed non-Orthodox people to live where they liked. After the foreigners were expelled, Ukranians began moving in, after Russia gained control of the Ukraine in 1667 (finally).
Today : Baumanskaya Ulitsa
Gorky Park
Founded in 1928 as the first Park of Culture and Rest, covering the grounds of the Golitsy Hospital by Kazakov and the Neskuchniy Palace, as well as an exhibition zone near the Krymskiy Val. (120 hectares)
The second such park was Sokolniki Park, laid out in 1930-31.
Government
Administratively, Moscow is segmented into 10 administration districts, the names of which are self-explanatory - Central, West, North-West, etc.. The districts are then segmented into city regions - there are 128 of them in Moscow.The Moscow City Duma is the main legislative body. The executive power is exercised by the Mayor, the prefects and the sub-prefects.
In October 1987, Yeltsin attacked Gorbachov and soon after was sacked from his post as leader of the Moscow Communist Party.
In March 1990, the local elections produced a new chairman of the Moscow Council, Gavril Popov.
In 1992, Luzhkov became mayor. yeltsin's new constitution (opposition to which caused Parliament to rebel in 1993), reduced the powers of Parliament and councils, giving enormous powers not just to the President but also to the mayors of major cities.
GUM (State Department Store) Gosudarstvenniy Universalniy Magazin
Known previously as the Upper Trading Stalls, it was built by Pomerantsev and Klein between 1890 and 1893, to replace a hall housing the 'Upper Trading Rows' that had burned down
Stalls had occupied this site since 1786 at least, and originally there were stalls from here all the way to the river.
It was nationalized and continued as a shop after the Revolution, but then it was taken over as an adminstrative center for the first five-year plan. In 1932, it was used for the laying-in state of Stalin's wife, Nadezhda, who had committed suicide.
In 1952, it re-opened as a shopping center again.
Granovitaya Palace (Faceted Palace)
The oldest secular building in Moscow, built between 1487 and 1491 by Marco Ruffo and Pietro Antonio Solario. It gets its name from the diamond-shaped pattern on the exterior. The upper floor is a large hall, the largest in Moscow when it was built. It was mainly used for feasts and for receiving ambassadors. The Red Staircase from this hall was demolished in the 1930s, in connection with alterations to the Kremlin Great Palace.
It was almost completely demolished during the time of the Polish occupation..
Hotels
National Hotel 1903 by Ivanov. Moscow's 'finest hotel' before the Revolution. In March 1918, Lenin lived in room 107 for a while.Hotel Metropol built in Art Nouveau style and designed by William Walcot in 1899. It was used for meetings of the Central Executive of the Soviets of Workers and Peasants Deputies in 1918-19.
House of Unions
On Okhotniy Ryad, it was originally the Dolgoruky House, a private mansion. In the 1780s, it was converted into a noblemens' club, when
Malvey Kazakov also added
the Hall of Columns.
Trade unions later took over the building during the Soviet Era, leading to its current name.
It was used for Lenin's lying in state.
During the 1930s, it staged Show Trials. In the summer of 1936, Bukharin, Kamenev and Zinoviev confessed to the murder of Kirov in 1934. In 1937, Radek was sentenced. In 1938, Bukharin was condemned.
During Stalin's lying in state, a large number of people were killed in the crush. The poet Yevtushenko famously wrote
Judgement was passed on the date of the funeral
when the people came to Stalin over people
for he taught them to walk over people
(I can think of rather more right wing politicians to whom the latter sentiment could be attached)
Today, the House is primarily used for concerts and public meetings.
Industry
Zil (Avtozavod imeni Likhachova) is Russia's oldest car factory, coming into existence in 1916.
The Hammer and Sickle factory was situated near the Andronikov Monastery.
Church of Intercession of the Holy Virgin (Fili)
Built in 1693 on the estate of the boyar, Naryshkin. Example of Moscow (or Naryshkin) baroque.
Ivan 3 (1462-1505)
Ivan 3 finally threw off the Tartar yoke. He was helped by the fairly recent split of the Golden Horde into separate khanates - Kazan, Crimea, Astrakhan and Siberia. He also had the advantage of the new technology of firearms against the bows and arrows of the Tartars.
He was married twice. His first marriage was to Princess Maria of Tver, who he married when he was 12 - the marriage produced a son and a grandson, Dimitri. His second marriage, to Sofia, produced a son Vasili, and the stage was set for disputes over the succession.
Initially Ivan sided with Dimitri. A boyar conspiracy came into being in favor of Vasili - when it was discovered, Ivan had several of Vasili’s friends beheaded on the frozen river and his second wife, Sofia, was imprisoned. A few weeks later, Dimitri was crowned as Tsarevitch.
A few years later, by 1499, as a result of Sofia's machinations, he came to believe he had been duped over the existence of a conspiracy. He beheaded a boyar who had opposed Vasili and imprisoned others. He handed his favor over to Vasili.
His second wife was the niece of the last emperor of Byzantium, Constantine 11 (and was originally named Zoe). This match strengthened the myth of Moscow and the Orthodox Church being a natural successor to the recently defunct Byzantine Empire as the seat of the Orthodox church.
In 1476, he stopped paying tribute to the Mongols, the extent of Muscovy quadrupled in size, and instituted a major building program in Moscow to confirm Moscow's elevated status.
The Uspessky cathedral was built in stone, followed by other churches and palaces - a major departure from the mostly wooden buildings of the city. He brought the architect Fioravanti to the city, and then Marco Ruffo, Pietro Solari and Alevisio Novi.
In 1480, he lost his nerve in his struggle against the Mongols, but it appears that the Mongol chief lost his almost simultaneously.
He adopted St. George and the Dragon as the emblem of Moscow (or the state of Muscovy to be more precise).
Ivan 4 (1533-1584)
The son of Vasili 3 and Elena Glinskaya. He became tsar at three years old, and his mother died when he was 8 years old. In 1547, he declared himself able to rule on his own account and had Andrei Shiuski, who had 'abused' his position in the past, thrown to the wolves.
At 17, he was crowned in Russia's first formal coronation.
Shuisky v. Belsky
He commissioned St. Vasili's to celebrate the victory of Kazan of 1552, although Ivan himself seems not to have excelled himself during this battle.
His early reign was influenced by the Glinski family. The Shyuskys seem to have successfully accused the family of causing a series of fires, which led Ivan to give some kind of public admission on Red Square to the effect that he been negligent so far and would rule better in the future.
He seems to have become especially tyrannical after the sudden death of his wife, Anastasia, in 1560, which he seems to have suspected was caused by poisoning.
In 1564, he left Moscow and no-one heard from him for a month. He spread word that he had abdicated because of certain actions of the boyars. Mobs besieged the Kremlin demanding his return. On his return he split the country into his own personal possession, the Oprichniki, and the 'rest', the Zemshchina. The Oprichniki was controlled by a vicious militia headed by Malyuta-Skuratov. Andrei Kurbski
During 1567-69, he placed the English ambassador under arrest.
In 1575-6, as a grotesque joke, he conferred his crown on Simeon Bekbulato.
He fled in 1571, when the Tartars attacked the city.
He was criticised by Filipp, the metropolitan. Filipp was eventually imprisoned and strangled.
In 1581, he killed his son, Ivan, by hitting him with an iron rod while in a rage.
His second wife was Maria, his third Marfa Sobakin, who soon died, his fourth wife was sent to a monastery. He married at least three other times, although they were not recognized by the church.
Ivan the Great Belltower
It is flanked by the Bono Tower, constructed from 1532 to 1543 by Petrok Maliy, which houses the principal bell of Moscow.
Its 21 bells were rung for the Victory Parade in 1945 after being silent since the Revolution.
Next to this again, there is the Tower of Patriarch Filaret 1624, built during the reign of Mikhail Feodorovich.
The French severely damaged the tower - it was rent from top to bottom, but did not fall down. It is now slightly out of true.
According to some sources, this is one of the largest parks in Europe, covering about 12 square kilometers, although another seemingly-reliable source has the area as only
300 hectares. The park lies adjacent to a former Royal Estate.
The Izmaylovo Royal Estate lies on an island and was established originally by the Romanoffs in the 15. century.
It was a favorite haunt of Tsar Alexei, and his son Peter also spent much time here.
To the west is Preobrazhenskoe where Peter the Great's army was born, originally in a 'rough and ready' form, the 'toy' regiments. In 1689, these toy regiments had reached a level where they were able to beat the Streltsy.
Starting out as an apprentice of Ukhtomsky, he became an assistant to Bazhenov.
His early works included Petrovsky Zamok (a rest house for traveling royalty, commissioned by Catherine the Great), and the pavilions on the Khodynka Fields erected in 1774 for celebrating the peace at the end of the Turkish war.
Nicholas 2. was the last person to stay in the Petrovski Zamok, close to his Coronation celebrations on the Khodynka Fields, which are actually just across the road. It became the Zhukovskiy Air Academy, whose graduates include Yuri gagarin, Mikoyan and Ilyushin.
He assisted Blank with the Foundling Home.
He served under Bazhenov on the Commission for the Rebuilding of the Kremlin Palaces.
While nominally under Karl Blank, he built the Senate, and simultaneously built the Church of Filip the Metropolitan.
He built a house for the military commander of Moscow, Z.G. Chernyshev, on Tverskay Ulitsa. When Chernyshev became Governor, the house was purchased by the state and became the official residence of the governors. Latterly it was used by Mossoviet, but the entire building was moved back several meters during widening of the Tverskaya (to become Gorki Ulitsa). It is now used by the city's mayor.
Other works - University, Golitsyn Hospital (Golitsyn was the Russian ambassador in Vienna), Sloboda Palace for Paul.
In 1812, he saw most of his work destroyed or damaged.
Notorious area on Podkolokolniy Pereulok. It was demolished in 1923.
An early suburb of Moscow and traditional commercial district, lying immediately to the
east of the Kremlin.
It was formerly
enclosed by a 2.6 kilometer-long wall, constructed originally by Petrok Maly from 1534-38, during the ‘reign’ of Elena, Regent
during Ivan 4’s minority. This wall ran from the Arsenal Tower of the Kremlin, and ran back to the Kremlin along the river. Two sections of this wall still exist -
adjacent to the Rossiya Hotel and adjacent to the Metropol Hotel, and indeed most sections seemed to have survived until their dilapidated remains were removed by Metro building et al in the 1930s. The walls were so broad that a horse-drawn carriage could be ridden across the top.
During the 1400s, noble families started moving out of the Kremlin and into Kitay Gorod, displacing the artisans living there at the time. Later, rich merchants formed the dominant population, as the noble families moved even further out. The rich merchants eventually moved out as well, leaving it as a predominantly commercial area.
The two main thoroughfares are Nikolskaya Ulitsa and Ulitsa Ilinka
The Synodal Printing House in Nikolskaya sits on the site of the Royal Print Yard, which in the 1500s produced Russia's first printed books. The printer was Ivan Fyodorov and his first book was The Apostle, first appearing in 1564. The story is that Ivan the Terrible visited every day until the first edition came off the press. However, Muscovites themselves stormed the press, forcing Fyodorov to flee. In 1703, Russia's first newspaper Vedomosti was produced here.
The Ulitsa Ulinka was formerly the financial center of the Kitai Gorod. It derives its name from the Church of St. Elijah.
The Monastery of the Epiphany, behind GUM, was founded by Prince Daniel, and is the second oldest monastery in the city.
Kitai Gorod includes the
district of
Zaryade.
Tretyakovskiy Gate later gate put thru by Sergei Tretyakov in 1871.
gates adjacent to the Lubyanka (Nikolskaya Ulitsa)
Ilinsky Gate at the end of Ulitsa Ilinka. The Ilinsky Gardens are named after the Ilinsky Gate.
The Church of the Ascension of 1530-32 established the tent-tower form. It was built by vasili 3., according to some sources in the hope of an heir, according to other sources to celebrate the birth of that heir - Ivan the Terrible. Ironically, the church was used for a scene in Eisenstein's film Ivan the Terrible.
It was extensively destroyed by the Tartars in 1591. And in 1606, it was used as the campsite of Ivan Bolotnikov.
The palace was rebuilt by Mikhail Romaoff and this was superseded, in 1667, by a wooden palace commissioned by Alexei. It became dilapidated after the capital was transferred, and was taken down by Catherine the Great. Much seems to have been destroyed in the 20th. century, although Baranovski was responsible for saving some buildings.
It is now on UNESCO's World Heritage List.
Named after the Presnaya River, and acquired its sobriquet of Krasnaya as a result of the socialist uprising of 1905. The river is now underground except for a pond inside the zoo.
The original site of the city. It was originally protected by wooden walls (pine, which was replaced by oak during the reign of Ivan 1), which began to be replaced by stone in the 1360s.
It seems that this stone wall was built, on average, about 60 meters outside the wooden walls, obviously enlarging the Kremlin in the process.
The word kreml first appears in 1331, then disappears and does not re-appear until 1580.
Ivan 1 commissioned a few stone churches - the uspenski (1327), the Chapel of Worship to the Chains of the Apostle Peter (1329), Joan Lestvichnik (also 1329) and the Archangel Cathedral (1333).
Wooden church of Savior in the Forest
The oldest known structure is the Church of Raising of Lazarus 1393, built to celebrate the victory of Kulikovo, which was discovered during the construction of the Kremlin Great Palace. It was restored in 1924 and now serves as the crypt of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, built in 1514 by Alevisio Novi.
After Ivan 3 had thrown off the Tartar yoke,
he embarked on a major re-building of the Kremlin from 1475 to 1525, including the walls. The size of the Kremlin was increased by a third. The Italian
influence was strong. The present walls were built by Solario and Ruffo from 1485 onwards - they took 10 years, replacing one section at a time. They used red brick instead of the white stone used previously.
Those facing Red Square are 19 meters high, and 6.5 meters thick. In fact, by this time several sections of the original stone walls had been repaired with wood, and it was exactly these weak points thru which invaders had entered in 1451. The 'new' Kremlin covered an area of 28 hectares. There are no extant buildings in the Kremlin which pre-date Ivan 3.
From 1508 to 1516, a moat w3as built on the Red Square side - it was 32 meters wide and 12 meters deep.
Rastrelli Winter Palace 1758 Elizabeth. Kremlin Palace Catherine 2
After the government moved from Petrograd in March 1918, it was Lenin who shortly after decided that the Kremlin would be the new seat of the Government. The Bolsheviks had taken the Kremlin by storm on November 3 1917.
Originally, Lenin lived in the Kavalerskiy Building, before moving into the Senate.
Later, Stalin lived in the Poteshniy Palace. His wife, Nadezhda shot herself there in 1932.
This originally belonged to Ilia Miloslavskii. Tsar Alexei remodelled it into a theater.
Restoration in 1924 rev west portal.
The Kremlin was closed to the public after Lenin's death, and re-opened to the public in 1955.
A central point is provided by the Sobornaya Ploshchad, the oldest square in Moscow, flanked by
Adjacent to the Great Kremlin Palace is the Cathedral of the Annunciation (Blagoveshchensky), built by Russian architects. Serving as the private church of the tsars, it was built in 1448-49 by Russians from Pskov, incorporating some features of a previous church built by Vasili 1. It was badly damaged in the fire of 1547, and then restored and added-to by Ivan 4. The iconostatis is by Andrei Rublyev, inherited from the wooden church of the same name.
The Church of the Deposition of the Robe 1484-5 was the chapel of the Metropolitans, and then the Patriarchs (until this role was taken over bt the Church of the 12 Apostles.
Three 'Imperial'Palaces are contained within the Kremlin:
Between the Great Kremlin Palace and the Borovitskiy Gate is the Armory Palace of 1849-51, by Ton.
Major plans were put in train by Catherine the Great under the architect Bazhenov, to build a new place. This involved tearing down a section of the wall next to the river, which was actually carried out, following an inaugaration ceremony in 1772. Work was suddenly abandoned after three years.
By 1795, an embankment between the Kremlin and the river had been built, and the Chanceries (long buildings of the prikazy) had removed, allowing a clear view of the churches from the south bank of the river.
The French laid several mines in 1812, not all of which went off. Damage was done to a couple of towers, a section of wall was blown up and fires broke out in the Faceted Palace and a couple of cathedrals.
There are 19 towers along the 2.235 meter long wall.
Corner Arsenal Tower (60m) a round tower, as a corner tower. Built by Solari, known as Sobakin originaly.
St Nicholas Tower (70m) triple-tiered. Built by Pietro Antonio Solari in 1491. Damaged by French mines in 1812. This is the tower thru which Minim and Pozharskiy stormed the Kremlin. It is named after an icon of St. Nicholas which used to hang in a side bastion.
The spire was designed by Karl Rossi.
Senate Tower
Savior Tower (Spassky Tower) and Gate with its clock tower with a height of 71 meters. This was the grandest gate and was used for the entry/exit of tsars, ambassadors, etc.. It was built by Pietro Antonio Solari in 1491. Originally it was called the Frolov after a church just inside, receiving the name Spasskaya in 1685. It was given a clock tower early on, but this was replaced by a Tsar's Tower (11m) erected in 1680, although it allegedly gets its name from an earlier wooden tower from where the young Ivan the Terrible used to hurl animals to their death. This is the smallest tower.
Alarm Tower (Nabatnaya) (38m) whose bell warned of fires
replaced Timofeyevskaya.
SS Constantine-Helena Tower (37m) served as a torture chamber in the middle ages. Once had a gate, from which troops exited on their way to Kulikovo in 1380. The gate was named after a nearby church. Built by Solari in 1490.
Moskva River Tower (Beklemishev Tower) (46m) built by Marco Ruffo in 1487. Protects the South East which was apparently often the first part to be attacked by the Tartars. Housed the prison. Damaged by a French mine in 1812. A round corner tower. The Beklemishev family of boyars used to live nearby.
Petrovski Tower In the 1770s, the entire wall between this tower and the Annunciation Tower was taken down, as part of Bazhenov's plan to rebuild the Kremlin, as approved by Catherine the Great. In 1775, she stopped the project, and Bazhenov restored the wall and towers to their previous state.
Second Nameless (Bezymiannyia) Tower
First Nameless (Bezymiannyia) Tower
Tainitski Tower (Secret Tower) (38m) has an underground passage to river for obtaining water.
Annunciation Tower
Vodovzvodnaya Tower Water Drawing Tower. Formerly Sviblov. A round corner tower. It had to be replaced after being blown up by the French.
Borovitskiy Tower (54m) Its name derives from the pine groves that once covered the hill on which the Kremlin was built. Built by Solari in 1490.
Armory Tower 1499
Commandant's Tower 1499
Trinity Tower (Troitskaya) the tallest tower at 76 meters. Built in 1495-9. Formerly the private entrance for tsars and their families. Named after the Trinity Monastery which was just inside. It is today's main entrance. In 1516, a bridge was built over the Neglina to the Kutafya Tower.
Kutafya Tower is the last survivor of several bastions that once protected the bridges into the Kremlin.
Middle Arsenal Tower 1499
In June 1953, Beria was arrested, and maybe murdered in the Presidium, which was built in 1932-34. It occupies the site of the Monastery of Miracles (Chudov) and the Convent of the Ascension (Voznesenskii) which were demolished in 1929. It was originally a training school for Red Army officers.
The Chudov was founded in 1365 on the grounds of the Court of the Tartar Khans, which was outside of the 'Kalita' Kremlin. Isidor was imprisoned here and Tsar Vasili Shuiskli had been compelled to become a monk here.
The Ascension Convent was founded by the Spassky Gate in 1389 by Eudoxia, the wife of Dimitri Donski.
The State Kremlin Palace was built from 1959-61 by Mikhael Posokhin and was formerly known as the Palace of Congresses. It stands on the site of the Church of Redeemer.
The Patriarch's Palace forms a continuous building with the Cathedral of the Twelve Apostles.
Of curiosity value is the Tsar Cannon (Tsar Pushka) which was to have guarded the Savior Gate but was never used, and the Tsar Bell (Tsar Kolokol) which originally fell from its tower during the fire of 1701, the fragments being used to cast a larger bell which cracked when doused in water during the fire of 1737.
The tsar rarely used the Palace. In the 1930s, two halls were joined together to form a meeting place for the Supreme Soviet.
The present-day industrial district is named after an estate awarded to Boris Sheremetev, a general at the Battle of Poltava. It fell into disuse after his grandson preferred to live at Ostankino.
The Left Social Revolutionaries where that section of the Revolutionary Socialist Party that supported the Revolution at the end of 1917. It was led by Maria Spriridonova, who had killed a policeman in 1906 as an act of revenge for the brutal suppression of peasants by the tsarist government. Her own treatment at the hands of interrogators and torturers became well known internationally and attracted a fair amount of protest.
On her release, she
became briefly mayor of Chita - one of her acts in this post was to blow the local prison up.
In May 1917, she became leader of the left wing of the RSP, and kept this position when the left SR split off. She was the revolutionaries' choice for Chair of the Constituent Assembly, but was not elected.
Although the Left SR withdrew from the coalition in mid-March, they remained involved in the Cheka. It was the Cheka Combat Detachment which launched the Left SR coup
of 6. July 1918. They held Dzerzhinsky prisoner in the Morozov House, until he was freed by Latvian troops.
The coup was quelled on 7 July. Dzerzhinsky's assistant, Alexandrovich, was executed. This was the first time that the Cheka had actually carried out an assassination that could beclassed as 'political'. On 16 July, the death penalty was restored - it had been abolished after the February Revolution. Maria Spiridonova spent 20 years in Siberia, and was shot in 1941, allegedly to stop her falling into the hands of the Germans.
(Aside:- The 'original' Morozovs were a serf couple who sold their cloth on the streets after the Great Fire and eventually bought their freedom. Within 30 years, they were owners of a mill, which was turned into an empire by Timofey, their son. Timofey's son, Savva, gave financial asistance to the Moscow Arts Theater. The family fled after the Revolution, and the Left SR seized the house and turned it into a fortress.
While visiting the Mikhalin factory on August 30 1918,, Lenin was shot. Fanny Kaplan was arrested and 'quietly' executed by Sverdlov, but it is probable that she was not the guilty party.
Seemingly a re-working of a design for a hydroelectric station, the Libray was constructed between 1928 and 1950, by Shchuko and Gelfreikh. The opening of Borovitskaya metro station, in 1985, caused subsidence and the loss of about 40.000 books.
The library was originally based in the Paskov House. This was originally a private house with a garden down to the Kremlin moat. In fact, when it was built by Bazhenov in the 1780s, it was one of the finest houses in Moscow. It was badly damaged during the 1812 fire, but restored by Bove with money from the King of Prussia, as a thank you for Russia's assistance in the war.
It was gambled away by Count Pashkov, it was bought by a Marshall who loved books and formed the Rumyantsev Library - the core of the later Lenin Library.
The Pashkov House has also been affected by substinence.
The stadium was built in Luzhniki in the 1950s, being opened in 1956 with a capacity of 103.000. In 1982, there was a major disaster when 340 fans were crushed to death during a match between Spartak and Haarlem. In 2008, the same stadium staged the European Cup Final between Chelsea and Manchester United.
Its initial 3 kilometers flanks Gorky Park, and reaches the former Kaluga Gate Square, the present-day Ploshchad Gagarina since 1961. In this year Gagarin toured Moscow.
Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya Ulitsa.
Andrei Bely
Bulgakov Applied to Stalin in 1930 for permission to emigrate - he was sent to the Moscow Arts Theater instead. In 1932, the ban on Day of the Turbins was lifted.
Master and Marguerita was finished in 1940, but only published in 1966.
Chekov
Dostoyevsky lived as a boy in the grounds of the Mariya Hospital, where his father was a doctor.
Vladimir Gilyarovski
Moscow and the Muscovites described the Moscow before the revolution.
Gogol portrayed the writer and director Zagoskin unkindly in The Government Inspector
Gorky returned to Moscow in 1931, although he only wrote one more play, Yegor Balichev and others and part of a novel, Life of Klim Samgin.
Mayakovsky futurist, in 1912 publishws 'A Slap in the Face of Public Taste'. Bed Bug. Bath House.
Nikolai Ostrovsky
How the Steel was Tempered is semi-autobiographical.
Boris Pasternak lived in the annex of the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture where his father was a teacher.
Pushkin
Solzhenitsyn lives west of Moscow, in Troitse-Lykovo, since returning in 1994.
Novy Mir published One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch under Kruschev, and 1984 under glasnost.
References to Moscow in works of fiction
The KGB headquarters was formerly the Rossiya Insurance Building, built in 1897. In the 19. century Lubyanskaya
The building was occupied by the Cheka in March 1918.
On 6 Feb 1922, the Cheka was renamed as GPU, and placed under the NKVD, the Peoples's Commisar for Internal affairs. It later became the OGPU, independent of the NKVD.
Yagoda, Ezhov in 1930s
Genrikh Yagoda, charged with murder of Gorky and executed. NKVD under Beria.
Now occupied by the FSB, the Federal Security Service (Federalnaya Dluzhba Bezopasnostii) with responsibiltity for interior intelligence. The exterior intelligence body, the SVR, is located in the outskirts.
In 1957, the city's largest toy shop was built opposite.
Former military riding school, built in 1817 for
Alexander 1. The 45 meter wide roof was unsupported by columns and allowed a whole troop of cavalry to
maneuver. In 1930 however, the roof sagged and had to be supported.
It was half-destroyed by a land mine in 1941.
After serving as a garage for the Kremlin, it re-opened in
1957 as the Great Exhibition Hall.
In 1962 it hosted the first exhibition of Modern art for some time, an exhibition which resulted in Kruschev famously criticising the abstract art on display. A notable name here was Ernst Neizvestniy, a sculptor.
Area west of Riga Station. It was redeveloped in the 1960s. Previously, the police had been wary of venturing into the area.
In 1703, Russia’s first newspaper Vedomosti was produced in the same place, the Royal Print Yard, which was in Nikolskaya Ulitsa - the site is now occupied by the Synodal Printing House.
Ivestia had their offices on the northern side of Pushkin Square.
The Ivestia Building was designed by Grigori Barkhin in 1927.
The adjacent Pravda Building (Sytin Dom) was built from 1929 to 1934 by Panteleymon.
Properly known as the Church of the Archangel Gabriel, it exceeded the city's previous highest building, the Ivan the Great Belltower in the Kremlin, by 3 meters.
It was struck by lightning in 1723, and was only re-built in a certain manner in 1776-80.
Inspired by the Sukharev Tower, it was built on the estate of Menshikov, who rose from humble origins to become Peter the Great's main adviser, although he manufactured some fanciful lineage for himself. The architect was Ivan Zarudniy, who was commissioned in 1701.
Mayakovskaya station, as one of the deepest stations, was used for a meeting between Stalin and top generals on 6. November 1941 - the eve of the revolution celebrations. It was designed by Alexei Dushkin in 1938, and he won the Grand Prix at the New York World fair for it. Dushkin also designed Kropotkinskaya and Ploshchad Revolutnii. Mayakovskaya was the HQ of the Anti-Aircraft Defense Force during the war.
The Circle Line station of Komsomolskaya, completed in 1952, was also a prizewinner at the New York World Fair. The designer was Shchusev. The Komsomol became legendary in the 1930s for their voluntary work on the Metro.
Novokutzretskaya was designed by Vladimir Gelfreikh and Igor Rozhin. The design for its mosaics are by Victor Frolov, who died in the siege of Leningrad - the designs were smuggled out the besieged city.
Christye Prudy (Kirovskaya) was the HQ of the General Staff in the War.
Nikola Fenomenov designed more than 10 stations despite being severely injured in the war.
Originally an assistant to Ivan Aleksandrovich Mordvinov, who had been requested to return to St. Petersburg in 1731 but who stayed in Moscow because of the dearth of architects there. When Mordvinov died in 1734, Michurin took over and finally produced a general plan in 1739 - in the meantime there had also been a fire in 1737. In 1742, Moscow was extended to the Kamerkollezhski, doubling its size.
He left for Kiev in 1747, passing all of his apprentices over to Prince Ukhtomsky.
The theater itself came into being as an alternative to the state-run theaters, in the spring of
1898, when Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko merged six of the best actors (Knipper among them) from his
The actual location where the 18 hour discussion about forming the theater was taken is : 17 Slavyanskiy Bazaar. The restaurant stayed open after time, until they finished their discussion at 2 o'clock in the morning.
The Seagull was an enormous success in the first year, after it had flopped in St.Petersburg six years earlier. This was 1898, and the play premiered at the Hermitage Gardens in Karetniy Ryad. The
Seagull became the theater's symbol.
A contemporary review of the previous St. Petersburg production dismissed "The Seagull" as "...a boring, drawn-out thing that embitters the
September rehearsal of "The Seagull", which featured MAT star Olga Knipper as Irina
In
1902 Shekhtel reconstructed the interior of the old Korsh Theater, in line with Stanislavski's wishes. Little ornamentation decorates the inside of the theatre, in order to focus the audience's attention on the stage.
As Chekhov began wrestling with "The Cherry Orchard" at his new estate in the Crimea, internecine
warfare was breaking out in the theater in Moscow. In early 1903, MAT began to split into two
factions: one side, led by the fiery actress, Knipper nemesis and, later, Gorky's mistress Maria Andreeva,
agitated for an ideological shift to accommodate the rising tide of revolutionary dramas.
Others, including Nemirovich-Danchenko and Knipper, fought to maintain
MAT's growing reputation for theater of strong literary value.
Anton Chekhov's final play, "The Cherry Orchard" premiered at the Moscow Art Theater in
January, 1904.
Later, the Czar's police raided the theater for holding an "unauthorized public gathering," a common action
wherever Gorky might be present.
The New Times dismissed not only the play, but the playwright as well. "Chekhov is not just a weak playwright, but an almost weird one, rather banal and monotonous".
Ten days later, the Russo-Japanese war broke out.
After the Revolution, most of its plays were by Gorky.
In 1930, Bulgakov expected to be exiled or worse, instead he was sent to the Moscow Arts Theater.
His experiences formed the basis of his book Teatralniy Roman.
The theatre is found in the pedestrianized street Kamergerskiy Pereulok and it's also worth noting the
Style-Modern benches and lampposts that decorate the passageway.
A new building was constructed on Tverskoy Bulvar (Garden Ring) in 1972.
Meyerhold, Inokennty Smokturovsky
The canal itself is 128 kilometers long and connects Moscow to the Volga. It was constructed between 1932 and 1937 by forced labour as part of the second five-year plan , with estimates of half a million dying during construction. It enters the Moscow River at the Serebryani Bor, to the west of the City Center.
The canalized Moscow River could only take small boats.
The Conservatory holds the Chaikovski International Competition, which takes place every four years.
Chalyapin left Moscow in 1922.
Talkov was shot by the bodyguard of another singer.
Further upstream there is an ornamental gateway thru an existing section of the Kitay Gorod walls fronting Tretyakovskiy Proezd. The gateway was knocked thru the wall in 1871 by Sergei Tretyakov in order to get easier access to the banks along the Kuznetskiy Bridge.
During Catherine the Great's time, the river had already been channelled underground
under what is now Neglinnaya Ulitsa, but it used to flood regularly because of blockages.
The Garden Ring is carried over the former valley of the river at Samotyochnaya Ploshchad.
He carried on his father's reactionary ways, describing democratic movements as
"senseless dreams of the people".
Assumed power in 1894. During his coronation in 1896, a stampede and collapse of scaffolding
caused the deaths of 2.000
spectators (Khodynka Field Disaster). Nevertheless the Coronation Ball went ahead in the evening.
On 9 January 1905, in St. Petersburg, the Imperial Guard fired on a crowd, killing several thousand.
Bloody Nicholas
He did not oppose the anti-Jewish pogroms.
After the Emancipation Act, factories and slums had sprung up.
Mainly erected in the time of Boris Godunov. Build on a hill, its features have now been impeded by the construction of the Kotelnicheskaya Apartments skyscraper. It is mentioned in First Circle by Alexander Solzhentisyn, where it is described in 1948 as a ruin, whereas twenty years earlier it had been in good condition. The church was rebuilt from 1958 to 1960.
Built between 1962 and 1967 as a much-needed road to relieve the congested roads in this general area, particularly the Arbat. Officially, it was called Prospekt Kalinina, but it seems to have been popularly dubbed the 'New Arbat' right from the start. The architecture was due to Mikhail Posokhin.
Founded in 1524 to commemmorate the capture of Smolensk from the Poles by Vasili 3.
Only the cathedral (the Cathedral of Our Lady of Smolensk) was built originally. The rest was built by Regent Sophia.
Irina Godunova retired here after her husband, Feodor 1, died in 1598. She originally carried on state business here (under her convent name of Alexandra), until her brother
Boris Godunov was proclaimed Czar in 1598 (after he had 'modestly' refused the offer of the crown, he retired to the Monastery, but was pursued by crowds of people, in a well-orchestrated campaign, which led to him accepting the throne 'seemingly reluctantly' on the steps of the Smolensk Cathedral). The convent was damaged during the Times of Troubles.
Regent Sofia re-built it but was later confined here for her pains in September 1689 when Peter the Great assumed power on his own account. At the time, rumors abounded that Sofia was about to depose Peter and install herself as monarch, which led Peter to flee Moscow for a while.
In 1698, the Streltsy Revolt produced stories that Peter hung about 200 of them in full view of Sofia's living quarters, although this could be apocrophal. Sofia remained in the monastery and adopted the name Susanna.
Peter’s first wife, Yevdokiya Lopukhina, was also confined there.
Its wealth once included 15.000 serfs
The French attempted to blow it up in 1812, but one of the nuns prevented this by
putting out the fuses (acording to a popular story).
In 1922, it was turned into a museum, but became the property of the Church again after
the War in 1945, apparently as a reward for the Church supporting the war effort, and it became home to the offices of the Patriarch and the Metropolitan. Restoration was carried out by Makarov.
It can lay claim, in a fashion, to be the oldest monastery in Moscow, dating back to the time of Yuri Dolgoruky. He founded the Spassky Monastery on the present-day site of the Danilov Monastery, which was transferred to the Kremlin in 1300 by Ivan 1. This was transferred by Ivan 3 to its present site in 1490, hence the name of Novospassky.
The bell tower was erected between 1759 and 1762 by Ivan Zherebtsov.
It was destroyed by the Tartars, being rebuilt in the seventeenth century fortified with seven bastions. After the Revolution it became a concentration camp, an orphanage, an NKVD archive, a furniture factory. Since 1991, owned by the Orthodox church.
The name originaly belonged to a market that spread from Manezhnaya Ploshchad to the Bolshoi Theater. This was removed in the 1930s when an autoroute was built, known then as Prospect Marx, which also chopped
Theater Square in half, isolating the Bolshoi Theater.
Also the name given to new underground shopping mall on Manezhnaya Ploshchad.
The Olympic Complex was built West of Prospekt Mira, designed by Mikhail Posokhin, Moscow's Chief Architect during the Brezhnev era.
Krylatskoe
In 1299, the seat of the Church had moved from Kiev to Vladimir. In 1322, the seat moved again, to Moscow, Peter was the first metropolitan in Moscow, although this was a fairly 'unofficial' arrangement. In 1325, Theognostus become the first official Moscow-based metropolitan.
1352 and 53 Simeon. BD both son and metro.
In 136?, metropolitan Aleksei became first regent for Ivan and then for Dimitri.
His successor was determined by Constantinople to be Cyprian, but Dimitri put forward his own candidate, Michael. The church was due to bow to Dimitri's proposal when Michael died on board ship, just off Constantinople. At this last moment, Pimin put himself forward as the Prince's favored choice for the appointment. For an unknown reason, possible because of this very deception, Pimin was imprisoned on his arrival back in Moscow, while Cyprian's standing took a change for the better - but only for two years. Pimin was released and officially recognized by the Prince as Metropolitan. The struggle still continued, and a new patriarch in 1389 voted in favor of Cyprian. This decision appeared to be academic because Cyprian's opponents had recently died, and the new prince, Vasili, was happy to have Cyprian as metropolitan.
In 1395, the icon of the Virgin of Vladimir was transferred to Moscow which was under threat from Tamerlane. It was never returned and ended up in the Uspennskiy Cathedral.
In 1439, Metropolitan Isidore was a negotiator at the Treaty of Florence which produced a formal union with the Roman Catholic Church, at a time when the Orthodox Church was in need of help, with the imminent collapse of the Byzantine Empire. This union did not go down well in Moscow, and Isidore was imprisoned on
19/3/1441, but he managed to escape in 1448.
In 1448, Iona (Johah) of Riazan was appointed without even consulting Constantinople.
In 1588, BG, the Metropolitan was upgraded to Patriarch, to replace one of the Patriarchates lost due to the Turks. Job was the first Patriarch.
A schism occured during the time of Patriarch Nikon, between him and the Old Believers (Raskolniki).
He wanted to restore the church to its Byzantine origins, many saw him as imposing alien ideas.
Nikon resigned and Tsar Alexei refused to reinstate him.
In 1721, Peter the Great set up the Church Council of the Holy Synod as a means of breaking the hold of the church over the state.
Tikhon was elected Patriarch on the eve of the Revolution. He spent one year in prison - May 1922 to June 1923.
The entire palace is made of wood and was built in the 18th century for the Sheremetev family. It was last occupied in 1856, and was allowed to decay, until it was re-opened in Soviet times as a Museum of Serf Art.
The Palace was specially built for performances. The wife of Nikolai Sheremetev, Parasha kovalyova, a serf on the Kusovo estate, became an accomplished opera singer under the name of Zhemchugova.
Formerly occupied by the Metropolitans, it was rebuild for Patriarch Nikon in 1652-6, by Ivan Semenov and Aleksey Korolkov. 3 stories, 4th. added in 1691. Simultaneously, the previous Metropolitans' church of The Deposition of the Robe was replaced in its role by the Church of the 12 Apostles for the new office of Patriarch.
Today it houses the Museum of 17th Century Life and Applied Art. The 12 Apostles contains a baroque iconostasis from the Convent of the Ascension.
A member of the Russian pantheon of despots, along with Ivan 4 and Stalin.
Peter the Great lived at Kolomenskoe until 1682. He became co-tsar at the age of 10 (his half-brother Ivan was co-czar, and his half-sister Sophia served as Regent, both of the Miloslavsky family), and soon after witnessed the Streltsy
revolt, engineered by Sophia, during which several of Peter’s relatives were butchered in front of his eyes
in the Kremlin. During three days, the Streltsy murdered 70 people, including Matveev, who had just returned from exile.
The showdown with Sophia occured in August 1689. In September, she was confined to the Novodevichiy Convent. She also had to 'watch' while the chief of the Streltsy, Feodr Shaklovityi, was tortured and executed.
Ivan died in 1696.
Also in 1696, Jakob Janssen, was broken on the wheel and beheaded for his actions (claimed to be desertion) before Azov, which caused the Russians great problems at the time.
In 1698, he aborted his visits around Western Europe (specifically he was in Vienna at the time) when he heard of the threat of a Streltsy mutiny. After his return, the Streltsy did rebel against him, but he defeated them with the help
of his foreign-officered army.
He refused to stay in the Kremlin and eventually moved permanently into the Preobrazhenskoe, conveniently close to the
German Suburb.
From 1710, he built St. Petersburg to replace Moscow, which he hated. In 1712 Petersburg
became the capital. While this new capital was being built, all building in stone was
banned in Moscow (in fact, banned outside of St. Petersburg). This ban lasted from 1714 to 1728.
Peter 2 moved the capital back to Moscow in 1728, but in 1730 Anna, the niece of Peter 1,
moved it back to Petersburg.
There appears to have been only 2 years of peace in Peter's entire reign. The taxes required for these military campaigns were extremely burdensome.
Despite the fact of what he did to Moscow, and the fact that he was not a very nice person, the new city administration thought it would be a good idea to build a giant statue of him in the middle of the Moscow River. It now has an armed guard after Socialists threatened to blow it up.
Under Peter 2, Moscow became the capital again, briefly - from 1727-1730.
Originally under the influence of Menshikov, Peter switched his allegiance to the Dolgoruky family, and eventually became engaged to the daughter of Prince Alexei Dolgoruky. It appears that it was the influence of the Dolgoruky that was responsible for a gradual shift back to Moscow, but unfortunately Peter died, still only 14 years old, of smallpox in the Lefort Palace.
His successor, Anna, remained in Moscow for another two years, before making Petersburg the capital again.
20.000 Jews were expelled from Moscow in 1891.
The Criminal Investigations Department on Ulitsa Petrovka
Mid 16th. century - population was 100,000, one of the largest in Europe.
1600 - about 80.000 (Time of Troubles)
1700 - about 150,000 (same as 1650)
1730 - 139.000
1785 - 180.000, still dominated by wooden buildings.
1862 - 400.000
1900 - over one million
1917 - the population was less than 2 million (with about the buildings made of wood), nowadays it is about 9 million.
The insurge of people created enormous housing problems. In the 1960, a a large-scale
building program was
initiated to provide single family flats, instead of the communal apartments then very common.
WW2 - 4 million, half left during latter part of 1942.
Formerly an old village. It was here were Peter's 'toy' regiments came into being. Eventually he had two regiments - the Preobrazhensky and the Semyononvsky Regiments - the nucleus of the Imperial Guard which later defeated the Streltsy and fought successfully in several battles.
Alexander Radischev was held, awaiting exile, in 'The Pit', adjacent to the Resurrection Gate and opposite to the present-day Historical Museum. Among his scurrilous works were Journey from St Petersburg to Moscow (1790).
Butyurka founded by Catherine the Great, as transit point for prisoners bound for Siberia. Solzhentisyn was imprisoned here.
Ivanovsky Convent on Ulitsa Zabelina. Prison for noblewomen, e.g. Countess Dariya Saltykova who murdered serfs, and Princess Tarakanova, the (illegitimate) daughter of Empress Elizabeth.
Krutitskoe Povdore Turned into a prison during the reign of Catherine the Great.
In 1834, Herzen was held here. It was formerly the seat of the Metropolitan of the Christian community within the Golden Horde. When a Patriarch of Moscow was created, the Metropolitan was pushed out of the Kremlin and took up residence here.
Lefortovo Mathias Rust spent 18 months here. In 1993, anti-Yeltsin protestors where imprisoned here, but were amnestied by the new parliament a few months later.
Taganka
Vsevolod Mayerhold arrested in 1939, executed in 1940. He was director, notably of the plays of Vladimir Mayakovsky.
1937. Founded 1912.
Catherine the Great's court architect.
Stariy Gostiniy Dvor in Ulitsa Ilinka.
In 1900, a circular railway around Moscow was built.
The Trans Siberian had been completed in haste in 1904 due to the imminent war with Japan.
Three stations stand on Komsomolsakaya Square which used to be called Three Stations Square, and the site of Kalchanovka Market, a notorious place of squalor.
Although primarily associated with Petersburg, Rastrelli's first work for the court in 1730 was the Annenhof, a wooden palace inside the Kremlin, close to the Arsenal. Soon after, he constructed the Summer Annenhof on the Yauza, opposite to the Lefort Palace. In 1736, the original Annenhof was moved the former German Colony near to the Summer Annenhof, the 'original' becoming the Winter Annenhof (the Kremlin appearing to be in a bad way at the time, many buildings being uninhabitable). The Winter Annenhof was burnt down in 1746, although there is still a park there marking the spot, the remnants of a garden, also laid out by Rastrelli, which suffered damage during a hurricane in 1905. The site of the Summer Annenhof is occupied by the
Catherine Palace.
Some think the Rostopchin House was designed by him.
The Winter Palace he built for the Empress Elizabeth was demolished in about 1840 to make way for the Kremlin Great Palace. It had been badly damaged during the time of the French occupation, but had been carefully restored since then.
In the end, the proposals included the enlarging of Petrov Square (later Theater Square), new squares at the Arbat, Krasnye Vorota and Taganka. Boulevards were to be laid out along the line of the former walls of Beliy Gorod and Zemlyany Gorod. The proposals received the Tsar's assent after his return in December 1815, and the Commission's work went ahead under Chief Architect, O. I. Bove.
Within five years the residential areas had been replaced, although some houses remained in ruins until the 1870s.
Red Square was the first public plaza to be re-opened.
Ulitsa Prechistenka
1928 onwards through the thirties
The Reconstruction was under the direction of
Stalin and Kaganovich
In 1937, Frank Lloyd Wright was in Moscow and criticised the Soviet Union's 'Grandomania'.
New Construction
Duma
Kaluga Gate Square and gigantic apartment block which later became Gagarin Square. It was built by
German POWs and Russian prisoners - including Solzhenitsyn.
Garden Ring After the war, Kaluga gates, Leninskiy Kutuzovskiy Prospects
St Sky
Moskva Hotel Designed by Shchusev. The asymmetrical facde is said to be due to the fact that two designs were submitted to Stalin, and he approved both, without realizing that he was supposed to choose between them. Under the prevailing situation, they decided to incorporate both designs (or that's what the story says anyway).
Palace of Soviets Work started in 1937 on what was to be the largest building in the world. An avenue was to lead there from Theater Square, leaving only the University and the Manege still standing - the road would then lead away to the Lenin Hills.
160 designs were recived, including one from Le Corbusier. The plan of Iofan was selected as a working model, and Shchuko and Gelfreith were selected to beat this plan into 'better' shape.
Buildings destroyed
Kazan Cathedral Built in 1636 to commemorate Mikhail Romanov's victory over the Poles. It was actually called Kazan after an icon of the Virgin of Kazan, which was carried into battle by Prince Pozharsky during the Time of Troubles.
Kitay Gorod walls, Vladimir Gate and district around which formed a major redevelopment plan. A Palace of Industry was to be built to the East of the Kremlin, which was to act as a counterpoint to other massive on the other side of the Kremlin, the Palace of Soviets.
Church of the Savior demolition in order to build a Palace of the Soviets, which was
to be 315 meters high. In the event, the steel that was laid for the foundations etc.
was ripped out to make anti-tank defenses in 1941. Later they had problems with water, and finally, in 1959, the site
became a swimming pool.
Resurrection gate completed 1680, demolished 1931. The chapel of the original gateway held an icon, the Iberian Virgin, to which you were supposed to pay your respects before entering Red Square.
Nikolaevski Palace 1775-6
Golitsyn Palace
Troekurov Palace
Nikitskiy Monastery, built in the 16 Century, pulled down in 1930s. The manastery gave its name to Bolshaya Nikitskaya Ulitsa, which is off Tverskaya and was once the main road to Novgorod.
Okhotniy ryad.
Red Staircase
Mediaeval Gate-Tower at the end of Ulitsa Nikolskaya.
Sukharev Tower was built in 1692-1701, under Mikhail Ivanovich Cheglokov. It was the second tallest building in Moscow at the time. It played a big part in Peter the Great's plans to reform education. One floor housed a mathematical and navigation institute. Yakob Bruce set up Russia's first observatory in the tower. Pulled down in 1934, only a few weeks after it had been repaired. The adjacent Sukharevka Square housed the
Sukharevka Market just after the revolution, stolen goods forming a high proportion of what was on offer. The tower was named in honor of Colonel Sukharev who escorted Peter the Great
to safety during the Strelsy Uprising of 1682. Its clock is now in a clock tower in Kolomenskoe.
Krasnye Vorota
arch Elizabeth in 1742.
Triumphal Arch by Osip Bove which stood on Tverskaya, near the Belorussian Station. It wazs removed as an impediment to traffic. It was rebuilt in 1968 on the main road to Kiev, along the road which Napoleon had entered and left the city, adjacent to the present-day Victory Park. Vitali's sculptures had been kept in the Donskoy Monastery.
Simonov Monastery
Blagoveshchensky na Zhitnom Dvore (Annunciation Church)
Built against the river wall of the Kremlin in the 1730s, it was badly built and had to repaired early on.
Church of the Savior in the Pine Forest (Spas na Boru) the oldest church in the Kremlin at the time, built in 1330.
Chudov Monastery Kremlin
Voznesenski Convent Kremlin
Assumption Church Pokrovka, built in 1696-1699.
Vladimir Gate, Kitai Gorod
Susov Ploshchad, built by A.A. Alabyan.
Bordered by the Kremlin, GUM, Kazan Cathedral, Resurrection Gate and St. Vasili’s (Basil's)
Cathedral.
Appears to dates from the end of the 1400s when
Ivan 3 gave orders for the houses and traders stalls that occupied this area
to be pulled down, to allow 200 meter firebreak on this side of the Kremlin.. It was originally called Trinity Square, after Trinity
Cathedral which occupied the site of present-day St. Basil’s Cathedral. Later it acquired the
name of Square of Fires, being finally named Red Square in the late 1600s.
The square used to end abruptly at the Spassky Tower, where there was a steep ravine down to the River. The Trinity Church stood atop of this slope.
In the early 1500s, Vasili 3 built a moat between the Square and the Kremlin - 35 meters wide and 3-4 meters deep, fed by the Neglina River.
The reason for this appears to be genuinely for protection, primarily against any 'unruly' crowd gathering in the square, but also against fire.
The Lobnoe Mesto, a circular stone platform, is a reminder of the great use made of the square both for
executions and for public announcements.
(Lobnoe Mesto can refer to either proclamations or executions - it
was used for both)
In 1570, Ivan 4 (the Terrible) staged a ‘festival of torture’ , frying 200 people to death etc., Apparently, he once
set free a group of wild bears among the populace on the Square.
The false Dimitri (the First) was killed here.
Until 1694, when it was discontinued by Peter, on Palm Sunday the tsar on foot would lead the Patriarch on horseback across the Square.
In 1698, Peter the Great carried out a large-scale execution of mutinous members
of the Streltsy Guard, apparently acting as axeman himself on numerous occasions.
In 1702, the first secular theater in Russia opened on Red Square. It disbanded in 1706, seemingly because of a lack of Russian plays (the plays were mostly in German).
Despite Ivan 3's pronouncement, the Square was allowed to become cluttered with market stalls again. These were swept away for a final time as a result of the events following on from the fire of 1812. The moat was filled in.
In 1818, a statue to Pozharski and Minim (by I.P. Martos) was erected outside what is now GUM, the first piece of sculpture to be put up in the city. It now stands outside St. Vasili's.
In 1883, The Historical Museum was built by Vladimir Sherwood.
After Moscow became the Russian capital again, it was used for large parades on May 1
and November 7. The Kazan Cathedral and Resurrection Gate were demolished.
In November 1941, the troops went direct from the parade to the front.
On June 24 1945, a major Victory Parade took place.
In 1968, a small demonstration was suppressed quickly.
In May 1987, Mathias Rust landed an aircraft here after flying from Helsinki.
Recently, the Resurrection Gate and Kazan Cathedral have been 'restored'. The latter reconstruction was helped by architect Pyotr Baranovski, who secretly made plans of the old cathedral as it was being pulled down.
1905
On 28. July 1904, St. Petersburg, SR revolutionaries assassinated the
Imperial Minister of Internal Affairs Pleve with a homemade bomb lobbed through the open
window of his passing carriage.
The Chicago News carried an editorial suggesting the bomb hurler be tracked down and signed
with the Chicago Cubs baseball team.
The "Bloody Sunday" massacre in St. Petersburg
occured in January, 1905. With more than 120,000 workers on strike throughout Russia, thousands amassed
outside the Imperial Palace in what was described in two accounts at least as an organized, orderly
workers' march.
"The thousands of workers who had marched to the Winter Palace on January 9 had come not to
present demands or to overthrow the government, but simply to make their views known and to
explain their miserable conditions". As the gathering swelled near the palace gates, outnumbered
troops panicked and began firing unprovoked and indiscriminately into the crowd. According to "moderate
estimates" at the time, approximately five hundred were killed and three thousand wounded, many
trampled and/or suffocated by the fleeing mob.
In his first public announcement a full ten days after the incident, Nicholas magnanimously
proclaimed that, "I believe in the honorable feelings of the working people and in their unshakeable
devotion to Me, and therefore I forgive them their guilt."
Petrograd under control of Trotski.
In October 1905 the Moscow committee of the party decided to stage a general strike in Moscow. In a very short
time this wave engulfed the whole of Russia and involved more than 2 million workers who came out in support of the
overthrow of autocracy. In Moscow and a number of other cities Soviets of Workers' Deputies sprang up. These mass
organizations of the working class were to become the prototype of the new Soviet political system established in
1917. The Moscow uprising took place in December, after the uprising in Petersburg had failed. The highest stage in the development of the 1905-1907 revolution in Russia was the armed uprising of the
Moscow proletariat in December 1905. The Presnya, Zamoskvorechye and workers' districts in the South-East of
Moscow became the centres of the uprising. Exceptional heroism was shown by the workers in the battles in the Presnya
district. The December uprising had a tremendous influence on the growth of revolutionary
The district of Krasnaya Presnya
first came under the historic limelight in December 1905, when the new urban proletariat, created by the rapidly growing
local textiles industry, responded to calls from the Moscow Soviet to overthrow the Tsarist government. Local workers
were poorly armed and failed to advance into central Moscow, but fell back behind barricades built at the nearby
Hunchback Bridge (Gorbaty Most), to prevent Tsarist troops from entering the Presnya area.
On December 9, the riots broke out. Bitter fighting occurred on the barricades and streets, especially in the workers' district of
Presnya. The revolutionaries did not succeed in winning the army over to the their side. Since this time the railroad workers did not
join the strike, the government was able to send loyal regiments from St. Petersburg and Tver to Moscow.
On December 20, the last desperate resistance in the workers' quarters died out. The government was again in command of the situation. In
the provinces too, smaller risings faded out. A rigorous clean-up was carried out by court martial and punitive expeditions.
After nine days of
bombardments and hundreds of casualties, the workers surrendered.
Hundreds were executed. Many were sent to Siberia.
Barrikadnaya celebrates this uprising.
1917
In contrast to Petrograd, where the Revolution occured almost bloodlessly on November 7 (some sources claim it took place amost without anyone noticing),
in Moscow there was fighting
between the Red Guard and the Army between 7 and 14 November.
On hearing of events in Petrograd, the Moscow Bolsheviks, based in the (later) Mossoviet Building, ordered important points to be seized. The Kremlin was seized under Ensign Berzin.
The White Guard forced the Bolsheviks out of the Kremlin the next day (9 Nov), as well as from the central Post Office and several railway stations, but the Bolsheviks began to receive reinforcements, even from Petrograd itself.
Important places of conflict included the Kremlin (particularly the Beklemishev Tower, the Nikolsky Gate and Uspenskiy Cathedral), the Metropol Hotel, the Passion Monastery on Pushkin Square, Lefortovo military barracks, Kaluga Square and Krasnaya Presnaya.
On 14. November, the Red Guard stormed the Kremlin.
The government troops were under the command of Colonel Riabtsev. The Red Guard had 50.000 inexperienced troops against 10.000 experienced government troops.
The Red Guard lost 500 men. The Uspenskiy was hit by a shell, the Chudov was hit several times, but was not destroyed. The clock and chimes of the Spassky Tower were smashed. Trinity Gate battered. Most of the shelling of the Kremlin was actually done with artillery based in the Sparrow Hills.
In March 1918, Moscow again became the capital, since Petersburg was under threat from the Germans.
Lenin was ensconced in the National Hotel, and he
decided that the Kremlin should be the seat of government. At the 7th. Party Congress, the Bolsheviks became the
Communist Party.In July 6-7, an abortive SR coup took place. Assassination of German ambassador.
Dzer held hostage at SR HQ. Lenin was shot at the Michelson Factory in August. 1000 hostages shot.
Commissioned by Catherine the Great, it was built by Matvei Kazakov during 1776-1787.
Involved the demolition of Prince Trubetskoi's Palace.
Since 1991, it is the official residence of the Russian President; previous to that it was used by the Council of Ministers.
Offices of the Supreme Soviet of USSR since 1918.
In 1908-12 he built a church for the Community of Martha and Mary at 36 Bolshaya Ordynka.
From 1928-33, the Ministry of Agriculture on the Garden Ring, which is allegedly the source for several buildings in Moscow.
Moskva Hotel.
Greatest advocate of Style Moderne. Early work on buildings for the Coronation of Nicholas 2.
Built the Ryabushinsky House for a banker, where Gorky later lived for a while. His other Style Moderne mansions are embassies.
Yaroslav Station.
Re-designed the Moscow Arts Theatre.
Morozov Mansion
Built 1794 to 1807. Commissioned by N.N. Sheremetiev in memory of his wife. It was designed by Elizoi Nazarov, who was a serf. Alterations were made later by Quarenghi. In Soviet times, it became the Sklifosovskiy Institute.
Founded by a monk called Feodor in 1370 (according to some sources, others say Simeon). It was the most exposed to the Tartars and had extremely thick walls. It was sacked by the Poles during the Times of Troubles and was rebuilt in 1640.
It had six churches (the oldest - the Church of the Asumption - was built in 1405) which were all blown up in one day in 1934. The southern wall and three towers (Dulo, Solevaya, Kuznechnaya) remain.
The Dulo Tower is believed to be by Kon.
The site was used for the Zil Car Factory, the Torpedo Football Stadium and the Dubrovna Theater.
Foreign Ministry (MID) on Smolenskaya Ploshchad. 172 meters high. Designed by Minkus and Gelfreikh.
Leningrad Hotel overlooking Komsomolskaya Ploshchad. 24 floors. Designed by Polyakov and Boretski.
Ukraine Hotel on Kutuzovskiy Prospekt, on the opposite side of the river to the White House. Completed in 1956, it has 36 stories and 1000 rooms.
Kudrinskaya Ploshchad built in 1950-54, it was the last skyscraper to be built. It is 22 stories high, and is purely residential. Built by Posokhin and Mndoyants.
Krasnye Vorota Built in 1947-53. The central block is 24 stories high and contains the Transport Construction Ministry and the Directorate for the Exploitation of Tall Buildings. The wings contain residential flats. Built by Dushkin and Mezentsev.
Moscow University on the Lenin Hills, the tallest of the skyscrapers. Built from 1949 to 1953. The main building is 36 stories tall. Designed by Lev Rudnev.
Kotelnicheskaya Apartments Adjacent to where the Yauza enters the Moscow River. This was the first of the seven Stalin skyscrapers, designed by Chechulin and Rostovsky. It has 30 stories and was built in the early 1950s, using POW and convicts.
The Streltsy were Russia’s first professional soldiers, instituted by Ivan 4, charged with guarding the Kremlin
and its environs.
The 1681 census showed 22,452 streltsy, stationed in various 'sloboda' distributed all over Moscow.
In 1682, Peter the Great, as a 10-year-old, was instilled with hatred of the Guard when they murdered several of his relatives on the Red Staircase in the Kremlin. This revolt was actually manipulated by Sofia, in order to make herself Regent, with Ivan recognized as co-tsar with Peter.
In 1698, when they revolted, they were defeated by Peter’s ‘new’ army officered by ‘foreign officers. He carried out a large-scale execution of members of the the Guard on Red Square, apparently acting as axeman himself on numerous occasions. I have seen this described by at least one source at one of the worst massacres in Russian history.
Founded in 1964 by Yuri Lyubimov, apparently taking advantage of changed attitudes during Krushchev's rule, attitudes which regressed with the rise of Brezhnev. Eventually able to stage The Master and Margarita and The House on the Embankment.
In 1983, Lyubimov was exiled for criticizing
the powers that be. He returned in 1989, but his relationship with the theater soured.
Vladimir Vysotsky.
Flanked by the Bolshoi Theater and Maly Theater.
It was originally marshy ground, regularly flooded by the Neglina, as Petrov Square.
It was laid out in the 1820s by Osip Bove.
The Maly Theater was originally a warehouse that was converted into a theater in 1838. It is the only original building left from Bove's conception of Petrov Square. Early on, it was connected with the playwright Alexander Ostrovsky. First Peoples' Artist, Maria yermolova.
From 1839 to 1911, it served as a military training ground.
It contains a section of the original Kitai Gorod walls (supplemented by a modern replica). The Metropol Hotel is a Style Modern building put up in 1899-1903 by William Walcott, who was appareantly British but born in Odessa. During 1918-19, the hotel was used as the meeting place of the Central Executive of the Soviets.
Sverdlov Square.
Pushkin chamber Tairov and Meyerhold pioneered expressionist drama, Brecht, Shaw, O'Neill. Malaya Bronnaya State Yiddish Theater Solomon Mikhoels murdered by NKVD in 1938.
Protecult Mayakovsky Meyerhold
anarchists.
Boris Godunov became tsar in 1598 on the death of Fyodor. He had been regent during Fyodor's reign and his sister, Irina, was married to Fyodor. But he was beset by rumors that he had been responsible for the murder of Dimitri, the youngest son of Ivan 4 and Maria Nagoy, in 1591. Further rumors that Dimitri had actually escaped led to a string of three 'false Dimitri's to appear on the scene in quick succession. Boris, however, died before the first one appeared.
The first 'False Dimitri' appeared at the head of Polish troops in June 1605. Boris had died by this time, in April 1605 - his 16 year old son, Feodor, was immediately executed and his wife, Maria, was also strangled. Dimitri alienated Muscovites by marriage to a Polish woman in May 1606, and various 'foreign influences'. He was overthrown in a revolt led by a boyar, Vasili
Shiuski, who became tsar himself.
Dimitri had tried to escape by leaping out of a window but injured himself in the process. He was captured and immediately killed.
1606 peasant revolt under Bolotnikov, which managed to circle Moscow in October 1606, but collapsed soon after.
1607 Second Dimitri, but was seen off without him entering Moscow.
In July 1610, Poland overthrew Shiuski and occupied the Kremlin. Confusion reigned at this point - although the throne was offered to the Poles (originally Vladyslav, although his father Sigismund the appeared to express an interest), they refused to compromise on certain points demanded of them before they took over. In the country at large, at least eight 'False Dimitri's appeared.
A volunteer army under Prince Pozharsky of Suzdal and Kosma (Vasili Shuisky) Minim of Nizhny Novogorod,
the city which had financed the campaign, besieged the city for eighteen months and expelled the Poles from Russia in 1612.
In 1613, Mikhail Romanoff, brother of Ivan 4's first wife, was made tsar, at 16 years old.
In 1619, Mikhail managed to recover his father, Filaret, from a Polish prison and made him patriarch.
Naryshkin (baroque church)
Nikon plain exteriors, paintings inside.
He built an 85 meter high bell-tower for the Simonov Monastery in 1835-39.
Church of Christ Savior
Great Kremlin Palace
Leningrad Station
The entrance design is from 1905, by Viktor Vasnetsov.
This church on Nikitnikov Pereulok once dominated a part of Kitai Gorod. It was originally the private church of influential merchant Nikitnikov, and was erected in 1635-53.
It seems to have been used as family residence(es) since the Revolution, before becomig a musum in 1967.
Unfinished palace of Catherine the Great. The estate was originally known as
In the 19 Century the bulvar was a flower market and red-light district. The atmosphere at the time was described by Chekhov. The bulvar is home to the 'Old Circus' ( a 'New Circus' having been built in the Lenin Hills.
The Tower was constructed in 1967 and is 540 meters high. The observation deck is at 337 meters.
It the scene of violent events on 3 October 1993, when it held out against takeover for six hours, resulting in 60 people dead, mostly outside among the 'attackers'. The official 'Yeltsin' explanation of these events seem to be under attack as time goes along. Doubts exist as to how the parliamentary supporters managed to get hold of the required trucks (complete with ignition keys) and why the OMON police seemed to be noticeably absent from the streets.
The 'main street' of Moscow. It formerly lead to Tver (and from there to Novgorod), and then later to St. Petersburg. After reconstruction in the 1930s, it was also known as as Ulitsa Gorky.
In the 1930s, the zig-zag road of between 8 and 15 meters width, was straightened and given a width of 40 to 60 meters. It was decided that from the Kremlin end, widening would take place on the eastern side up to Puskhkin, and from there widening would occur on both sides. A major problem was caused by the Mossoviet Building, built originally by Kazakov. It was nominally pushed back several meters, obviously changing its appearance in the process, and several neighboring buildings were likewise pushed back to line up on the western side of the street. At Pushkin Square, the Passion Monastery was demolished and the statue of Pushkin transferred to the other side of the street.
Before Revolution, Strastnaya Ploshchad after the 17 century Convent of the Passion, demolished in 1935.
1782 Katazov Gov. Gen. before Revolution Mossoviet
Number 14 was Yeliseev's Food Hall.
The area around the side street of Glinishchevskiy Pereulok was home to Nemirovich-Danchenko (5-7), Olga Knipper-Chekova, and Solzhentisyn (Flat 169 behind Tverskaya 12)
The monument to Alexander Pushkin was inaugurated on the western side of the square
at the end of Tverskoi Boulevard in the summer of 1880. Dostoevski and Turgenev were present at its unveiling. In 1950 the
monument was moved to Pushkin Square, on the other side of the road.
Filippos was the most fashionable coffee house in Moscow at one time. It became the restaurant of the Tsentralnaya Hotel.
He inherited Michurin's apprentices and formed them into a school, including Kokorinov, Bazhenov, Starov and "Kazakov. In 1751, he built the Church of St. Nikita the Martyr, on Staraya Basmannaya.
He designed the four Triumphal Gates for Elizabeth's Coronation in 1742. These were built in wood, but in 1753, the principal one was rebuilt in stone and stood, as Krasnye Vorota, at the junction of Staraya Basmannaya and Zemlyany Val, which is now officially Lermontovskaya Square (because Lermontov was born there) on the Garden Ring. The gate was pulled down in 1928, although the square is still called Krasnye Vorota unofficially, and is still the official name of the adjacent Metro station.
Established in 1755 during the reign of the Empress Elizabeth under the persuasion of her advisor,
Count Shuvalov. It opened in April with Mikhail Lomonosov as its head.
It was Russia's first University and offered three faculties originally : law, medicine and philosophy.
In 1793, it occupied a building overlooking the Kremlin, designed by Kazakov. The building stood on the site of the Oprichniy Dvor??, the quarters of the militia that controled the Oprichniki. This building was extensively damaged during the 1812 fire and was re-designed and largely changed in appearance by Domenico Gilliardi.
Its library was lost in the fire, but it was replenished by 1835, with 30.000 volumes. In 1835, the University had 500 students.
Other side of Bolshaya Nikitskaya Ulitsa
It was severely damaged by a land mine in the war.
Today's building 36 stories high. 1953 Lev Rudrev.
Often referred to as the Cathedral of the Assumption, although this appears not to be
an accurate name. The Assumption is a Roman Catholic idea relating to Mary - the real
Orthodox concept (often stated as Dormition) is similar to this Catholic idea, but different.
The present building was commissioned by Ivan 3 in the 1470s, replacing an original one of Ivan 1, which had become the seat of the Orthodox Church when the seat was transferred here from Vladimir in 1326.
Ivan 3’s first attempt collapsed before completion, during an earthquake of 1472. He brought Alberti Fioravanti from Bologna (or Venice where he had been working at the time), who possessed techniques way ahead of anyone in Russia. In four years, he built a church which was recommended as a model for other churches in Russia, but unfortunately he himself was thrown in prison, where he died in 1486. The church is said to be very similar inside to the Uspenskiy Cathedral in Vladimir, which is not surprising since Fioravanti seems to have been told to emulate it.
It was here that Ivan 3 tore up the charter binding Moscow to the Tartars.
1653 Nikon proposed it as a model for future churches, banning the Russian shatrovy or pyramid-style churches and returning to Byzantine architecture.
It was only actually used for the most grandest of functions, and monarchs continued to be crowned here even when St. Peterburg was the capital.
In 1812, it was used as a stable by the French. They made off with 5330 kg of silver, although it was recovered by Cossacks.
From the time of the Revolution, no services were held until 1989
Village that used to be located in the area of the current Lenin Library. The Church of St. Nicholas in Old Vagankov is a reminder of the name.
It was founded by Yevgeny Vakhtango, who split from MKhAT.
It was hit by a bomb at about 2 am. on 23 July 1941, killing 37.
From Red Square, eastwards
Church of St. barbara. 1796-1804, on the site of an earlier church by Alevisio Novi.
English Court
Church of St. Maxim the Blessed. 1690-99. Built by merchants from Novgorod.
Monastery of the Sign, split by the access road to the Rossiya Hotel., established on Romanoff estate in 1634.
Palace of Romanoff Boyars. Nikita Romanoff, brother-in-law to Ivan the Terrible established the Palace, whose complex once stretched roght down to the river. In 1613, the Romanoffs abandoned the palace on moving into the Kremlin as the new ruling dynasty. In 1859, it was restored by Nicholas 1, and became a museum.
Church of St. George, on the other side of access road to hotel. The patron saint of Moscow, but ironically built by inhabitants of Pskov in 1657.
The street was named Ulitsa Razina previously under the State capitalist regime, becasue razin traveled along here on his way to execution.
Constructed from 1555 to 1561, it was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible to to celebrate the capture of Kazan in 1552 (at which Ivan himself didn't exactly act like a hero, if things are to be believed). This was, nevertheless, a major victory, the first time that the Russians had won territory from their old masters, and Ivan decided to commemorate it, not with a building inside the Kremlin, as was to be expected maybe, but in the new suburb to the east.
It was originally white with golden domes and took on its current appearance in 1670.
It was built with eight chapels to symbolize the eight assaults on Kazan, gathered the central Pokrov chapel of 61 meters in height. In 1588, Feodor added a ninth chapel on the north-east side to cover the tomb of St. Vasili.
According to some sources, the most likely architect appears to be Postnik Yakovlev (nicknamed Barma, the Mumbler), while other sources list Postnik and Barma as two separate architects jointly responsible for the work. The popular legend is that he (or they respectively, presumably) was blinded to stop him building anything to surpass St. Vasili's, although in reality he built at least one other cathedral, in Vladimir. The story is likely to be apocryphal anyway for the very reason that, for a long time, the cathedral was the object of ridicule.
The cathedral was named officially "Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin by the Moat". "St Vasili" (usually described as a 'holy fool', i.e. an early Rasputin-type figure) had originally been buried in the graveyard of the Trinity church which stood originally on this site.
Napoleon attempted to blow the Cathedral up, and it was severely looted by his troops. The surrounding cemetery was removed in 1817 because of the
damage done by the French.
There is concern about the current state of the building. The foundations, particularly need work doing on them, but the Government seems to be reluctant to come forth with the required money.
Poklonnaya Park 1995
1939 Moscow Agricultural Exhibition
VDNkH Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy
set up by Krushchev
renamed 1958
Worker and Collective farm Girl. Vera Mukhina at 1937 World Expo in Paris.
Space Obelisk, 100 meters high,
1964 Museum of Cosmonautics
Completed in 1981 as offices for the Council of Ministers of the Russian Federation. It was taken over by the Russian parliament and became a rallying point when a coup was attempted on August 19, 1991.
Human barricades formed around the
White House to support Yeltsin et al
against a
putsch. Tanks filled the streets of Moscow although
the KGB failed to storm the White
House.
The situation was somewhat reversed in October 1993, when Yeltsin decided to bomb the Parliamentarians into submission, after they had refused to accept Yeltsin's dubious dissolution of parliament and sanctions against deputies, as a result of the growing opposition to his draft constitution. The defenders of the White House were led by Khasbulatov and Rutskoy.
Two days of clashes between riot palace and supporters of the White House, ended with the police surrendering. On the afternoon of October 3, during a 'victory rally' they were fired upon from the Mayoralty and the Mir Hotel. The parliamentarians stormed the Mayoralty which was set alight, and Khasbulatov reacted by urging the seizure of the TV Center and the Kremlin.
Suspicions exist that the police surrender might have been planned by Yeltsin to coax the White House into a trap. The attack on the TV Center was used as a pretext for a miltary attack on the White House the next day.
New elections resulted in a parliament sympathetic to the 'rebels', who straightaway voted for an amnetsy for all those arrested in October.
It is now known officially as the House of Government, although the Parliament is now situated on Okotniy Ryad, in the former Gosplan Building.
Across the Moscow River. Originally a bulwark against the Tartars, and guarded by 20 units of Streltsy. By 1900, it had become a major industrial district. Bolshaya Ordynka gets its name because it was originally route to the Golden Horde. Generally untouched by the reconstruction of 1930s.
The Ulitsa Varkava lays claim to being the oldest street in Moscow, dating from the 1300s. In the Soviet Union, it was called Ulitsa Razina (Razin was the leader of the revolt of 1670).
The area was once very downmarket, and has a bad 'write-up' in War and Peace.
In the 1960s, the Rossiya Hotel was built here.
East bank of the Yauza River, as far downstream as Taganka.
3000 churches Alexei 2 mid 1600s Peter the Great
Extends between the Boulevard and Garden rings and was once a humbler place than the White City, being surrounded by an earth rampart (and originally by a wooden rampart, from 1591). The fire of 1812 lead to reconstruction and a move to a more 'upmarket' type of resident. Anyone bulding a house along the line of the former rampart was obliged to plant trees - the origin of the Garden Ring. Effectively, this reconstruction pushed the 'lower classes' further out, with the Garden Ring forming the boundary between the middle class and the working class. This distinction was totally turned inside-out by the Revolution.
Contains the Arbat
Izmaylovo
Matvei Kazakov
Khitrov Market
Kitay Gorod
Kolomenskoe
Old royal estate. It started out as a settlement founded by refugees from Kolomna, a town destroyed by the Mongols in the thirtenth century.
In the sixteenth century, it became a royal residence, although it appeared to have gradually lost this significance as the capital moved to St. Petersburg, and it reverted to being a village again.
Krasnaya Presnya
Kremlin
See
Arsenal
clock tower designed by Christopher Galloway in 1642-45, who also replaced the clock. According to official sources, this clock was later discovered in the Faceted Palace in 1850 and put back in the tower, where it is to this day, although it was shattered during the Revolution. Other souces say the clock was replaced by the Butenop brothers in 1852. Either way, the dials are 6.12 meters in diameter. There is a legend that Napoleon's horse shied going through this gate because he refused to obey the prevailing custom of doffing your hat to an icon of the Savior (the icon, hung in 1648, giving the gate its name).
Kremlin Great Palace
It was built in 1838-49 during the reign of Nicholas 1, by Ton.
It involved the demolition of the Winter Palace built by Rastrelli for the Empress Elizabeth, and originally contained, in its courtyard, the Church of the Savior in the Pine Forest (Spas na Boru), the oldest church in the Kremlin at the time..
Kusukov
Left Social Revolutionaries
Lenin
Lenin Hills (Vorobyoviy Gory - Sparrow Hills)
Lenin Library
Lenin Stadium
Leninskiy Prospekt
The longest avenue in Moscow, running for
14 kms.
Literature
Lubyanka
Ploshchad was dominated by stabling for horses and various establishments connected with coaching. Insurance companies moved into the district in the 1890s
Manezh
Marina Roshcha
Markets
Skorodom On Ploshchad Petrovskiy Vorota, which specialized in everything necessary for building a house in short order - characteristic of a town where most of the buildings were of wood.
Media
Ivan Fyodorov produced Russia’s first printed book Menshikov's Tower
Metro
Part of the General Plan of 1931.
The first section was opened in May 1935, connecting 13 stations
between Park Kultury and Sokolniki (11.6 km).
Michurin, Ivan Fyodorovich
Mikhail Minkus
MKAD (Moskovskaya Koltsevaya Automobilnaya Doroga)
Officially, the Moscow Ring Road (MKAD), length 109 km, is considered the border of the Russian capital.
But new city districts (Mitino, Butovo, etc.) have emerged beyond the Ring Road.
The MKAD is one of six concentric roads.
Moscow Arts Theater
Moscow Philharmonic School with four players from Konstantin Stanislavsky's Society for Art and Literature. Thus was born the first theater in Russia relatively free of the tight
grip of restrictions in which Czar Nicholas II's Imperial Theater Committee held the state-run theaters.
The MAT did not escape the watchful eye of the Czar's secret police, however, who
reportedly replaced regular theater ushers during performances of Maxim Gorky's plays.
listener...This isn't a play. There is nothing theatrical in it...The auditorium expected something great
and got a bad, boring piece...Chekhov is not playwright. The sooner he forgets the stage, the better...".
Chekhov walked out of the next performance and into the freezing St. Petersburg night,
vowing never to subject himself to that kind of humiliation again.
A letter from Nemirovich-Danchenko in the spring of 1898 began to change that, and in so doing, began
a process that would lead to a successful re-staging of "The Seagull" in Moscow, followed by "The Three
Sisters", and, ultimately, "The Cherry Orchard."
Moscow Canal
Mosfilm
close to Sparrow Hills
Music
The Conservatory was founded by Nikolai Rubenstein in 1866. Chaikovski taught here until 1878. Aleksandr Scriabin studied here (his house is now a museum) as did Sergei Rachmaninov. From 1942, Shostakovitch taught here but he was sacked six years later.
Neglina River
Flowed down past the Kitai Gorod walls and
the side of the Kremlin to the Moscow River. It was channeled underground in 1819-22, allowing
the Alexander Gardens.
to be laid out. Excavations in the 1990s for the new shopping center under
Manezhnaya Square, uncovered sections of the Voskresenskiy Bridge which linked the Beliy Gorod and the Resurrection Gate. This is now the highlight of the new Archaelogical Museum, near the corner of the Moskva Hotel.
Nicholas 2
St Nikita beyond the Yauza
Noviy Arbat
Novodevichiy Convent
Novospassky Monastery
Okhotny Ryad
Olympics
Orthodox Church
Ostankino Palace
Patriarch’s Palace
Peter the Great
Peter 2
Pogroms
Petrovka 38
Population
Preobrazhenskoe
Prisons
Purges
Pushkin Museum
Quarenghi
Railway Stations
Rastrelli
Reconstruction
after Napoleon
In 1813, the Commission for the Construction of the City of Moscow was formed and it continued
until 1842. The task of drawing up a plan was initially given to a Scottish architect, William Hastie. Although approved by the tsar in 1813, other architects attacked it and started drawing up their own ideas, based strongly on a previous plan of 1775.
The Duma Building was built in the 1930s.
Red Army Theater
Red Square (Krasnaya Ploshchad)
Revolution
Senate Building
Alexei Viktorovich Shchusev
Fyodor Osipovich Shekhtel
Sheremetiev Hospital (Strannoprimnyi Dom)
Simonov Monastery
Stalin Skyscrapers
Streltsy (Musketeers)
Taganka Theater
Terem
The Terem served as the Imperial residence until the capital moved to Petersburg.
It replaced Ivan's imperial residence, which had been destroyed by fire in 1493. Although it was mostly built by Antip Konstantinov and Larion Ushakov in 1635-6 for Mikhail Romanoff, it incorporates other earlier buildings. The lower floors were from a building of Alevisio, started in 1499 and finished in 1508, a building restricted to women, the tsar himself and elderly clergymen.
Terem means 'tower chamber'.
After being disused, it was refurbished in 1837.
It is distinguished by its eleven gilded onion domes.
Theater Square
Theaters
Time of Troubles
Konstantin Andreevich Ton
Tretyakov Gallery
Contains the largest collection of Russian art anywhere. The gallery was the former home of art collector Pavel Tretyakov (his brother Serfei was also in on the concept), which was adapted for its present use in 1906. The gallery contains 2000 works formerly belonging to Tretyakov.
Church of Trinity
Tsaritsyno (Empress's Village)
Tsvetnoy Bulvar
TV Tower and TV Center
Tverskaya Ulitsa
Prince Dimitri Vasilievich Ukhtomsky
Universities
Moscow State University
Slavic Greek Latin Academy
Moscow's first Institute of Higher Education, the Slavic Greek Latin Academy was set up in the Zaikonospassky Cathedral and existed from 1687-1814.
Friendship of Peoples University
In Zamoskvareche, Patrice Lubumba University was founded in 1960 to train students from the Third World. Alumni include Carlos the Jackal (who was expelled).
Uspenskiy Cathedral
Vagankov
Vakhtangovo
Ulitsa Varkava
St. Vasili's Cathedral (Pokrova shto na rvu/Sobor Vasiliya Blazhennovo)
Victory Park
VVT - Vserossiyskiy Vystavochniy Tsentr, All Russia Exhibition Center (VDNkH)
White House
Yauza
Zamoskvareche
Zaradye
Zayauze
Zemlyanoy Gorod