Moscow, is the capital Russia, which the land area covers one-sixth of the world. Moscow has about 10 million inhabitants and is supposed to be something impressive. One of the first impressions Moscow gives is the one of a chaotic city with large busy avenues, jammed traffic, speedy life, glittering ads. At the same time you see calm gray residential areas, hidden little churches with golden domes and church music in the center of the city, and monumental Stalin's buildings. Unlikely contrasts are everywhere: fancy shops on Tverskaya street neighbor nearly falling apart concrete buildings of run-down Soviet hotels and government buildings; hip crowds wearing the latest design clothes sipping cocktails in a state-of-the-art cafes and rugged tired people with solemn and unhappy faces carrying the burden of existence in this new 'democratic' world, where everybody depends on oneself.

As everywhere in Russia it's like a mix of two worlds: Europe and Asia, democracy and communism, joy and grief, prosperity and poverty. Moscow could be just another capital, but it isn't. Rather, the city is an exaggerated version of everything you can get in Russia, as if confirming the quality of the character of some Russian people to take everything to extremes.

Today the capital of Russia is one of the biggest cities of Europe with 850-years history. Looking back to the 12th century we find out that during that time Moscow was only a small wooden town, the seat of a local Prince in the northern province of young, but strong and prosperous state called "Kievan Rus".

Foundation of Moscow

Prince Yuri Vladimirovich Dolgoruky, is considered to be the founder of Moscow. His name relates to the first written mention of Moscow, which dates back to 1147. That he "caused the city of Moscow to be built" does not, however, means that it was built on virgin land. It simply refers to the construction of a new fortress to protect the old settlement on part of Borovsky Hill where the Armory and the Palace of Congress are located today. One of the oldest Slavic cultures, dating to the middle of the 1st millennium B.C., takes its name, Dyakovo, from the village near Kolomenskoye, once in the suburbs of Moscow, where archeologists uncovered the remains of an ancient settlement. Not long ago, potsherds of precisely the same type were unearthed during excavations of Kremlin Hill. As a result the real age of Moscow can be given as about twenty-five hundred years rather than eight and a half centuries.

Being located in deep woods, which hindered the movement of Mongol-Tatar cavalry, Moscow had soon turned out to be a town situated right in the center of many major trade routes. The town had been quickly developing; it had managed to unite the forces of many separate principalities for the final battle against Mongol-Tatar yoke. Three famous Princes of Moscow contributed to the victory over Mongol-Tatar oppression. There was Ivan Kalita (ruled in Moscow from 1325 to 1340), who turned the small town into the capital of the Great Moscow Principality. During his rule the residence of the Russian Metropolitan was moved to Moscow. The first stone structures were ordered by Ivan Kalita to be built in Moscow. Dmitry Donskoy, the grandson of Ivan Kalita and the Great Prince of Moscow Principality (1359-1389), had strengthened the influence of Moscow and won the first military victory over Mongol-Tatar army in the history of ancient Rus. In 1380 the great battle happened. An army of an unprecedented size - 150,000 Russian warriors - was gathered at Kolomna and placed under the command of the Grand Prince of Moscow. In just one day a total of 200,000 men under arms were lost by both sides in the Battle of Kulikovo Field - a tremendous battle fought in the valley of the Don, the Nepryadva and the Krasivaya Mecha. It took the Russians seven days to bury all those who had fallen, and the days is still commemorated by the people. Every autumn, on Dmitri's Saturday, a celebration in memory of the fallen heroes of the Battle of Kulikovo is observed. In Moscow various places still exist which recall the rout of Khan Mamai, places which are dear to the heart of every Muscovite. Solyanka Street was the road along which the Moscow detachments marched to Kulikovo Field and along which they returned after they had won the battle. Dmitry Donskoy founded the Church of All Saints on Kulishki, now Nogin Square, in 1380 to commemorate the victory. Dmitry Donskoy was the first to order the stone wall to be built round Moscow. Ivan the Third (1462-1505) the grand-grand son of Dmitry and the Great Prince of Moscow and All Rus managed to complete the unification of Russian principalities around Moscow and to throw off the yoke of Mongol-Tatar Golden Horde. Ivan the Third initiated the construction of the stone town of Moscow, which was the time, when the famous Kremlin cathedrals Uspensky (Dormition), Blagoveshchencky (Annunciation), Arkhangelsky (Archangel Michael) were built. The Kremlin was surrounded by a new stonewall, which currently remains in Moscow. The towers were also built (during that time there were no tent roofs on towers). A bit later one more stonewall was built around the trade area called "Kitai-Gorod". The remains of this wall are still there in Moscow, not far from Nikolskaya Street.

The beautiful and ancient ensemble of the Moscow's Kremlin stands high on the hill towering over the left bank of Moskva-River. The Kremlin has always been perceived as a symbol of power and mighty of the Russian State, the national idea expressed in stone. Each era in the history of Russia left its significant architectural trace in the Kremlin.

Late in the evening the brightly illuminated Kremlin ensemble presents a fantastic, majestic and sophisticated harmony. The story says that Moscow stands on seven hills. It was there, on Borovitsky Hill, where the first walls of the Kremlin were built a long time ago.

Moscow in 16th Century

In 16th century new streets and small settlements were built round the Kremlin and Kitai- Gorod and during the period between 1583 and 1593 the new area of Moscow was also surrounded by a white wall of 9 km length (the construction was supervised by Fyodor Kon, the famous Russian architect). The white walls gave the name to this area of the ancient town, which was called Bely Gorod (White Town). At present Bulvarnoye Koltso, a kind of a street, replaces the walls of White Town which envelopes the city center by its boulevards. These boulevards are as follows: Prechistensky, Nikitsky, Tverskoi, Strastnoi, Petrovsky, Rozhdestvensky, Sretensky, Chistoprudny, Pokrovsky and Yauzsky. The names of several squares located in the area of Bulvarnoye Koltso ("Nikitskyie Vorota" "Pokrovskiye Vorota") still keep the memory about the ancient gates of the old White Town.

By the end of 16th century the town expanded far away from the old walls of White Town. A ground bank with a wooden wall on top was built round the new living areas of Moscow to protect citizens against Tatar raids. This part of Moscow, encircled by proper ground bank, got the name of Zemlyanoi Gorod (Ground Town). At present one of the main city streets - Sadovoe Koltso passes along the line of the ancient ground bank. The names of some of the streets remind of the ancient Zemlyanoi Gorod: Zemlyanoi Val, Krymsky Val, etc.

In the same 16th century the chain of Tsar dynasty was broken, the event, which took Russia to the long seven years of the Time of Troubles. Those were the years of civil war, uprisings, murder, foreign aggression and national disaster. The Russian state had reached the edge of downfall and again, like many times before it was saved by Moscow. Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and rural council elder Kuzma Minin managed to unite the opposing forces and the people's volunteers won decisive victory over foreign invaders. The monument to Minin and Pozharsky was erected at the Red Square, close to Cathedral of the Intercession. It was put because they played a great role during the war of 1612, being the leaders of people�s volunteers.

Moscow During the Rule of Romanov Dynasty

In 1613 Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov (1596-1651) was elected the Tsar of Russia. His ancestors ruled the country up to the October Bolshevik's revolt of 1917.

Peter the Great�s rise to power at the end of the 17th century, in the very difficult stages meant acceleration in construction work in Moscow. The great fire of 1701, which destroyed most buildings in the Kremlin, also played a part. Peter the Great gave orders that most of the new buildings erect buildings erected on the vacant plots were to be secular. The most remarkable example is the Arsenal, an imposing structure towering above the Kremlin walls. Originally intended as a place for storing weapons, it subsequently became the first museum of Russian military trophies.

However, after the foundation of St.Petersburg in 1703 and the transferal of the capital there from Moscow in 1712, construction work in Moscow was not only reduced but also outright suspended. But Moscow remained the heart of Russia and "the First Capital"; all Russian tsars were crowned in Moscow, in                 the Dormition Cathedral of the Kremlin. On the whole, the life in Moscow was more quiet and free, if compared to that in St. Petersburg, and more patriarchal. The city of Saint-Petersburg on the Neva River was in dire need of builders and building materials for the Tsar's new projects and as a result, between 1714 and 1728 all construction of stone buildings was prohibited in Moscow. Yet even after the ban was lifted, it took some time for things to return to normal. Although Moscow did not actually become a provincial town, it did take advantage of this opportunity to preserve and develop its 17th-century characteristics. While the city of Moscow continued to be a major trading center and the growth of industry continued to accelerate, it also became a kind of place of exile for those members of the nobility who were malcontent or who fell into disfavor with the Court. Living here, so far from the Tsar and his Court, they made every effort to demonstrate their independence by their way of life. That it why Moscow, at the time consisted mostly of urban estates where the manor house was surrounded by various service buildings, often with a large garden park containing various attractions such as pavilions, artificial grottoes, summerhouses, sculpture, pounds, fountains, and open-air theaters, which adjoined the front yard or, as it was called in the French manner, the cour d'honneur.

During the years of 17th and 18th centuries Moscow had greatly expanded its borders. Tsaritsa Elizaveta Petrovna ordered a so called "Kamer-Kollezhski" Bank to be built round the new living areas of Moscow. The bank remained the border of Moscow up to the beginning of 20th century. The bank purpose was not a military one; it was built to restrict smuggling of goods to Moscow (vodka, mainly), which were subject to high duty. The bank got its name from the state organization, which was in charge of taking custom duties: "Kamer-Kollegia" (Chamber Board).

In the beginning of the 19^th century all patriotic forces of Russia were united by Moscow during the Patriotic war of 1812. That's what Napoleon Bonaparte understood quite well. He said: "If I take Kiev, I would bind the legs of the Russian state. If I capture St. Petersburg, I would take it by the head, but when only capturing Moscow I would be able to seize its heart".

The stay of Napoleon�s Grande Army in Moscow for a month and a half in 1812 inflicted innumerable losses upon the city. The fires of 1812, which destroyed or damaged most buildings in the center of the city, brought about the ruin of quite a few of their former owners. Industrialists and merchants replaced the noble proprietors of the Moscow manors. The biggest and most luxurious estates were bought by the city for its needs. In most cases they were converted into city hospitals, and the State Assignation Bank was housed in the former manor house of the Lunins in Suvorovsky Boulevard.

Characteristic of new private mansions built after the fires of 1812 was their rather modest appearance. The tendency is particularly evident in the works of the leading Moscow architects of the first quarter of the 19th century such as Domenico Gilardi, Afanasy Grigoryev, and others. Yet even in those parts of the city where the so-called row houses predominated (i.e. houses built along the frontal lines of the streets and often joined by a common wall), an echo of the amenities of former estates could be found in the green inner courtyards, which looked more like gardens. The urban estate was now enclosed, as it were, within the mansion that faced on the adjoining plot of land, which could not be seen from the street. Particularly characteristic in this respect was the merchant district of Moscow, separated from the city center by the Moskva River, known as the Zamoskvorechye, so colorfully described by the celebrated Russian playwright Alexander Ostrovsky. An example of everyday life in the Zamoskvorechye in the middle and second half of the 19th century is to be seen in the playwrights� memorial house-museum in Ostrovsky Street. The abolition of serfdom in the early 1860s gave a fresh powerful impetus to the urban development of Moscow and stepped up the rate of construction work in the city. Alongside the mansions of financial tycoons, who often employed the architect Fyodor Shekhtel, innumerable tenement houses of an original architecture were built, in many ways reminiscent of the contemporary trends in tenement construction in West European countries. The most striking trend in Moscow architecture of the period was Russian Art Nouveau, whose brilliant examples include the Metropol and National hotels, the buildings in Kuznetsky Most Street, Petrovka Street, Petrovskiye Linii (Lane), and Pushkinskaya Street.

The Great October Social Revolution

Moscow was one of the centers of the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat in all three early 20-the century revolutions in Russia: in the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907, the February Revolution of 1917 and the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917.      

"The movement started in St. Petersburg, spread through all the marginal regions of Russia and mobilized Riga, Poland, Odessa, and the Caucasus; the conflagration has now spread to the very heart of Russia," Lenin wrote at the beginning of the first Russian revolution. 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 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 centers of the uprising. The workers in the battles in the Presnya district showed exceptional heroism. The December uprising had a tremendous influence on the growth of revolutionary consciousness among the workers. The experience gained by the Moscow workers helped the revolutionary proletariat in winning their victory in October 1917. In regards to the third Russian revolution on October 25 (November 7, new style) 1917 the Moscow Bolsheviks, on receiving information from Petrograd (now is St. Petersburg) that the revolution had begun, immediately formed a revolutionary center for controlling the transfer of power to the Soviets.

A complicated situation developed in Moscow. Having suffered defeat in Petrograd, the counter-revolutionaries were relying on a victory in Moscow. They had powerful forces on then side, including the well-armed and well-trained officers and cadets, and were grouped around the Alexandrovskoye Cadet College on Arbat Street, the Alexeyevskoye Military College, the Cadet Training Centers at Lefortovo and the headquarters of the Moscow Military District, which was situated on Prechistenka. Their objective was to take the Kremlin and the Moscow Soviet, destroy the revolutionary center and ensure the arrival in Moscow of military units with whose help they hoped to crush the revolution.

In this difficult situation the Bolsheviks suggested the formation of a Military Revolutionary Committee. The basic forces of the revolution were located in the workers' districts and in the military barracks. On October 27 the headquarters of the counter-revolutionary forces declared a state of martial law in the city and sent the Military Revolutionary Committee an ultimatum demanding its liquidation and the disarmament of all revolutionary units. The ultimatum was rejected. On October 29 revolutionary troops from Moscow supported by detachments of the Red Guard from the surrounding towns went over to the offensive. In the heavy fighting that followed the Red Guard units suffered considerable losses, but the revolutionary storm could not be abated and one by one the positions of the counter-revolution fell. Between October 30 and November 2 the basic objectives in the center of Moscow, where counter-revolutionary forces had lain entrenched, were liberated. The building of the Duma (pre-revolutionary parliament), where the counter-revolutionary headquarters were located, was taken. On November 2 Red Guards entered Red Square amid heavy fire and on the following morning workers' and soldiers' detachments took the Kremlin. Soviet power was established in Moscow.

The places connected with the revolutionary fighting both in 1905 and 1917 are sacred to the hearts of Muscovites. They are marked throughout the city with memorial plaques and monuments. In Moscow and the Moscow Region there are more than 170 buildings including factories, institutes, houses and flats where Lenin either visited, lived in, worked or spoke at. Many of them you will come across in your walk through the city, so the city itself will amplify our brief historical account.

In March 1918 a very memorable event took place-the Soviet government headed by Lenin moved from Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) to Moscow. This made Moscow the capital of the Soviet state. In December 1922 at the First All-Union Congress of Soviets the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was proclaimed. Since then Moscow has been the capital of the USSR. After the October revolt of 1917 great drastic changes took place in Russia. The Moscow populace figured significantly in the Revolution of 1905 and the Revolution of 1917. In 1918 the new government of Russia moved to Moscow, and in 1922 the city was officially made the Soviet capital. Large sections of the city were rebuilt and modernized after the Bolshevik victory.

After coming to power, communists wanted to set up a new state where everybody would be equal, where everybody will have enough, and live towards happiness and prosperity - all the ideals of communism. At least that's what they claimed they wanted. Bolsheviks were going to do all this fast, and they understood the changes won't happen by themselves, especially in a country that was an empire just a few years ago. So they decided to force the process. Lenin announced a period of military communism. It meant that those who didn't agree with the new regime would be forced to agree or find some other home. Also it meant drastic changes in economy and relationship with the outside world.
It was quite hard time for Russian people and for economy, the old patterns were destructed, the new were forcibly set up. All the private factories, companies were taken from the owners and given to the workers. All the people who still wanted to be independent from the government were either obliged to change their thinking, leave the country, or go to prisons.
During this period political changes were made. The new state of the USSR (United Soviet Socialistic Republics) was established. Some small countries around Russia were forced to join.
After about three years of the experiment Bolsheviks and Lenin saw that their idea doesn't work. The factories given to workers were run-down, the private companies, that used to be prosperous, were bankrupt, the economy was rapidly spinning down. It was clear that without a transitional period this society would not reach communism. So, to boost the individual initiative, entrepreneurship, and thus the whole economy, a new economic policy was adopted and announced: The New Economic Policy (NEP).

Stalin is famous for his repressionist leadership. When he became the leader of the communist party in the end of 20s, the new economic police (NEP) was changed to the new industrialization policy, which had all the signs of authoritarian economy.
All the individual initiative was suppressed, the industries were nationalized, those who didn't agree were extradited, sent to the concentration camps in the most remote and extreme areas (Far East, North) or killed.
Some people say that this new industrialization policy made Russia develop rapidly its run-down industrial sector and become one of the most powerful countries in the world, but the price that was paid for all this was too high.

The II World War

The World War II began with a cavalry charge in Poland by September 1939 and ended by atomic bombs of the Japanese cities by August 1945. This had been preceded by the civil war in Spain, the war between China and Russia against Japan, the Russian invasion of Poland and Finland and finally, in June 1941, the Great Patriotic War against Germany. There were battles near Moscow, the blockade of Leningrad, the defense of Stalinrgad  (now Volgograd).

In 1941 Hitler invaded the USSR, which now had no more than a skeleton army and a starving, terrorized population. The crippled country battled against the invading German forces; World War II (The Great Patriotic War, as it was called in the USSR) lasted for four years. Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) was surrounded and cut off from the outside world for 900 days. Today, a monument on the outskirts of Moscow (seen on the way into town from the airport) shows how close the Germans came to capturing Moscow. In December 1941, during World War II, powerful German armies were decisively repulsed at the approaches to Moscow. The battle under the Moscow was one of significant and crucial moments of the War. At least every tenth inhabitant of the USSR at the time was killed