History of Moscow
Encyclopedia
The city of Moscow
gradually grew around the Moscow Kremlin
, beginning in the 14th century. It was the capital of Great Russia
, also known as Muscovy, from 1340 to 1712, the capital of the Soviet Union
from 1922 to 1991, and since 1991 of the Russian Federation.
Situated on either bank of the eponymous Moskva River
, the city during the 16th to 17th centuries grew up in five concentric divisions, formerly separated from one another by walls: the Kremlin
("fortress"), Kitaigorod ("walled town", but interpreted as "Chinatown" by folk etymology), Bielygorod ("white town"), Zemlianoigorod (earthworks town), and Miestchanskygorod ("bourgeois town") outside the city walls.
After the fire of 1812
, the city ramparts were replaced with the Boulevard Ring
and Garden Ring
roads, replacing the walls around Bielygorod and Zemlianoigorod, respectively.
The city's population grew from 250,000 to above a million in the 19th century, and from one to ten million in the 20th century, putting it among the top twenty of the world's most populous cities
today.
(Schukinskaya site on the Moscow River). Within the modern bounds of the city other late evidence was discovered (the burial ground of the Fatyanovskaya culture, the site of the Iron Age
settlement of Dyakovskaya culture
, on the territory of Kremlin
, Sparrow Hills
, Setun River
, Kuntsevskiy forest park, etc.
The etymology of the name Moskva is Uralic
, perhaps Volga-Finnic (Mordvinic or Merya)).
In the 9th century, the Oka River
was part of the Volga trade route
, and the upper Volga watershed became an area of contact between the indigenous Uralic peoples such as the Merya and the expanding Turkic
(Volga Bulgars), Germanic (Varangians
) and Slavic
peoples.
The earliest East Slavic tribes recorded as having expanded to the upper Volga in the 9th to 10th centuries are the Vyatichi and Krivichi.
The Moskva River was incorporated as part of Rostov-Suzdal into the Kievan Rus in the 11th century. By AD 1100, a minor settlement had appeared on the mouth of the Neglinnaya River
.
. At the time it was a minor town on the western border of Vladimir-Suzdal Principality
.
In 1156, Knjaz Yury Dolgoruky fortified the town with a timber fence and a moat. In the course of the Mongol invasion of Rus
, the Golden Horde
burned the city to the ground and killed its inhabitants.
The timber fort na Moskvě "on the Moscow river" was inherited by Daniel
, the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky
, in the 1260s, at the time considered the least valuable of his father's possessions.
Daniel was still a child at the time, and the fort was governed by tiuns (deputies), appointed by Daniel's paternal uncle, Yaroslav of Tver.
Daniel came of age in the 1270s and became involved in the power struggles of the principality with lasting success.
Siding with his brother Dmitry
in his bid for the rule of Novgorod. From 1283 he acted as the ruler of an independent principality alongside Dmitry, who became Grand Duke of Vladimir.
Daniel has been credited with founding the first Moscow monasteries, dedicated to the Lord's Epiphany and to Saint Daniel.
until 1303 and established it as a prosperous city which would eclipse its parent principality of Vladimir by the 1320s.
On the right bank of the Moskva River, at a distance of 5 miles from the Kremlin not later than in 1282 Daniel founded the first monastery with the wooden church of St. Daniel-Stylite. Now it is the Danilov Monastery. Daniel died in 1303, at the age of 42. Before his death he became a monk and, according to his will, was buried in the cemetery of the St. Daniel Monastery.
Moscow was stable and prosperous for many years and attracted a large numbers of refugees from across Russia. The Rurikids maintained large landholdings by practicing primogeniture
, whereby all land was passed to the eldest sons, rather than dividing it up among all sons. By 1304, Yury of Moscow
contested with Mikhail of Tver for the throne of the principality of Vladimir
. Ivan I
eventually defeated Tver
to become the sole collector of taxes for the Mongol rulers, making Moscow the capital of Vladimir-Suzdal
. By paying high tribute, Ivan won an important concession from the Khan
.
While Khan of the Golden Horde
initially attempted to limit Moscow's influence, when the growth of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
began to threaten all of Russia, the Khan strengthened Moscow to counterbalance Lithuania, allowing it to become one of the most powerful cities in Russia. In 1380, prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow led a united Russian army to an important victory over the Mongols in the Battle of Kulikovo
. Afterwards, Moscow took the leading role in liberating Russia from Mongol domination. In 1480, Ivan III
had finally broken the Russians free
from Tatar control, and Moscow became the capital of an empire that would eventually encompass all of Russia and Siberia
, and parts of many other lands.
The original Moscow Kremlin
was built during the 14th century. It was reconstructed by Ivan III
, who in the 1480s invited architects from Renaissance Italy, such as Petrus Antonius Solarius, who designed the new Kremlin wall and its towers, and Marcus Ruffus who designed the new palace for the prince.
The Kremlin walls as they now appear are those designed by Solarius, completed in 1495. The Kremlin's Great Bell Tower was built in 1505–08 and augmented to its present height in 1600.
A trading settlement, or posad, grew up to the east of the Kremlin, in the area known as Zaradye (Зарядье). In the time of Ivan III, the Red Square
, originally named the Hollow Field (Полое поле) appeared.
In 1508–1516, the Italian architect Aleviz Fryazin (Novy)
arranged for the construction of a moat in front of the eastern wall, which would connect the Moskva
and Neglinnaya
and be filled in with water from Neglinnaya. This moat, known as the Alevizov moat and having a length of 541 meters, width of 36 meters, and a depth of 9.5–13 m was lined with limestone and, in 1533, fenced on both sides with low, 4-meter thick cogged brick walls.
captured Moscow, burning everything except the Kremlin. The annals record that only 30,000 of 200,000 inhabitants survived.
The Crimean Tatars
attacked again in 1591, but this time were held back by new defense walls, built between 1584 and 1591 by a craftsman named Fyodor Kon
.
In 1592, an outer earth rampart with 50 towers was erected around the city, including an area on the right bank of the Moscow River. As an outermost line of defense, a chain of strongly fortified monasteries was established beyond the ramparts to the south and east, principally the Novodevichy Convent
and Donskoy
, Danilov
, Simonov
, Novospasskiy
, and Andronikov monasteries, most of which now house museums. From its ramparts, the city became poetically known as Bielokamennaya, the "White-Walled". The limits of the city as marked by the ramparts built in 1592 are now marked by the Garden Ring
.
Three square gates existed on the eastern side of the wall, which in the 17th century, were known as: Konstantino-Eleninsky, Spassky, Nikolsky (owing their names to the icons of Constantine and Helen, the Savior and St. Nicholas which hung over them). The last two were directly opposite the Red Square, while the Konstantino-Elenensky gate was located behind Saint Basil's Cathedral.
The Russian famine of 1601 - 1603 killed perhaps 100,000 in Moscow.
From 1610 through 1612, troops of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
occupied Moscow, as its ruler Sigismund III
tried to take the Russian throne. In 1612, the people of Nizhny Novgorod
and other Russian cities conducted by prince Dmitry Pozharsky
and Kuzma Minin rose against the Polish occupants, besieged the Kremlin, and expelled them
. In 1613, the Zemsky sobor
elected Michael Romanov tsar, establishing the Romanov dynasty.
During the first half of the 17th century, the population of Moscow doubled from roughly 100,000 to 200,000. BIt expanded beyond its ramparts in the later 17th century. By 1682, there were 692 households established north of the ramparts, by Ukrainians
and Belarusians
abducted from their hometowns in the course of Russo-Polish War (1654–1667)
. These new outskirts of the city came to be known as the Meshchanskaya sloboda
, after Ruthenian meshchane "town people".
The term meshchane (мещане) acquired pejorative connotations in 18th century Russia and today means "petty bourgeois" or "narrow-minded philistine".
The entire city of the late 17th century, including the sloboda
s which grew up outside of the city ramparts, are contained within what is today Moscow's Central Administrative Okrug.
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Moscow ceased to be Russia's capital when Peter the Great
moved his government to the newly-built Saint Petersburg
on the Baltic coast in 1712.
After being demoted from the status of capital, the population of Moscow at first decreased, from 200,000 in the 17th century to 130,000 in 1750. But after 1750, the population grew more than tenfold over the remaining duration of the Russian Empire, reaching 1.8 million by 1915.
By 1700, the building of cobbled roads had begun. In November of 1730, the permanent street light was introduced, and by 1867 many streets had a gaslight. In 1883, near the Prechistinskiye Gates, arc lamps were installed. In 1741 Moscow was surrounded by a barricade 25 miles long, the Kamer-Kollezhskiy barrier, with 16 gates at which customs tolls were collected. Its line is traced today by a number of streets called val (“ramparts”).
Between 1781–1804 the Mytischinskiy water-pipe (the first in Russia) was built. In 1813 a Commission for the Construction of the City of Moscow was established. It launched a great program of rebuilding, including a partial replanning of the city-center. Among many buildings constructed or reconstructed at this time were the Grand Kremlin Palace
and the Kremlin Armoury
, the Moscow University, the Moscow Manege
(Riding School), and the Bolshoi Theatre
. In 1903 the Moskvoretskaya water-supply was completed.
In the early 19th century, the Arch of Konstantino-Elenensky gate was paved with bricks, but the Spassky Gate was the main front gate of the Kremlin and used for royal entrances. From this gate, wooden and (following the 17th century improvements) stone bridges stretched across the moat. Books were sold on this bridge and stone platforms were built nearby for guns - "raskats". The Tsar Cannon
was located on the platform of the Lobnoye mesto
.
The road connecting Moscow with St. Petersburg, now the M10 highway, was completed in 1746, its Moscow end following the old Tver
road which had existed since the 16th century. It became known as Peterburskoye Schosse
after it was paved in the 1780s. Petrovsky Palace was built in 1776–1780 by Matvey Kazakov
as a railway station specifically reserved for royal journeys from Saint Petersburg to Moscow, while coaches for lesser classes arrived and departed from Vsekhsvyatskoye station.
When Napoleon
invaded Russia in 1812, the Moscovites were evacuated. It is suspected that the Moscow fire
was started by accident by Napoleon's troops trying to keep warm.
Moscow State University
was established in 1755. Its main building was reconstructed after the 1812 fire by Domenico Giliardi
. The Moskovskiye Vedomosti newspaper appeared from 1756, originally in weekly intervals, and from 1859 as a daily newspaper.
The Arbat Street
had been in existence since at least the 15th century, but it was developed into a prestigious area during the 18th century. It was destroyed in the fire of 1812 and was rebuilt completely in the early 19th century.
In the 1830s, general Alexander Bashilov
planned the first regular grid of city streets north from Petrovsky Palace. Khodynka
field south of the highway was used for military training.
Smolensky Rail station (forerunner of present-day Belorussky Rail Terminal
) was inaugurated in 1870.
Sokolniki Park
, in the 18th century the home of the tsar's falconers well outside of Moscow, became contiguous with the expanding city in the later 19th century and was developed into a public municipal park in 1878. The suburban Savyolovsky Rail Terminal was built in 1902.
In January 1905, the institution of the City Governor, or Mayor
, was officially introduced in Moscow, and Alexander Adrianov became Moscow's first official mayor.
Following the success of the Russian Revolution of 1917
, Lenin, fearing possible foreign invasion, moved the capital from Saint Petersburg back to Moscow on March 5, 1918.
In the beginning of 20th century, several strikes and armed risings in Moscow paved the way to the October Revolution
. In 1918 the Bolsheviks moved the seat of government from Saint Petersburg
back to Moscow.
The Moscow Metro
opened in 1935. The Krymsky Bridge
was completed in 1938, replacing an earlier wooden pontoon of 1786, besides numerous other bridges built during the 1930s.
During the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet State Committee of Defense and the General Staff of the Red Army
were located in Moscow. In 1941 16 divisions of the national volunteers (more than 160,000 people), 25 battalions (18,000 people) and 4 engineering regiments were formed among the Muscovites. In November 1941, German Army Group Centre
was stopped at the outskirts of the city and then driven off in the course of the Battle of Moscow
. Many factories were evacuated, together with much of the government, and from October 20 the city was declared to be in a state of siege. Its remaining inhabitants built and manned antitank defenses, while the city was bombarded from the air. On May 1, 1944 a medal "For the defense of Moscow" and in 1947 another medal "In memory of the 800th anniversary of Moscow" were instituted.
The postwar years saw a serious housing crisis, solved by the invention of high-rise apartments
. There are about 13,000 of these standardized and prefabricated apartment block, housing the majority of Moscow's population. Apartments were built and partly furnished in the factory before being raised and stacked into tall columns. The popular Soviet-era comic film Irony of Fate
parodies this construction method.
The city of Zelenograd
was built in 1958 at 37 km from the city center to the north-west, along the Leningradskoye Shosse, and incorporated as one of Moscow's administrative ogrkugs
. Moscow State University
moved to its campus on Sparrow Hills
in 1953.
On May 8, 1965 due to the actual 20th anniversary of the victory in World War II
Moscow was awarded a title of the Hero City
. In 1980 it hosted the Summer Olympic Games
.
The MKAD
ring road was opened in 1961. It had four lanes running 109 km along the city borders.
The MKAD marked the administrative boundaries of the city of Moscow until the 1980s, when outlying suburbs beyond the ring road began to be incorporated.
In 1991 Moscow was the scene of a coup attempt
by conservators opposed to the liberal reforms
of Mikhail Gorbachev
.
. Since then, the emergence of a market economy in Moscow has produced an explosion of Western-style retailing, services, architecture, and lifestyles.
The city has continued to grow during the 1990s to 2000s, its population rising from below nine to above ten million.
In 1995-1997 the MKAD
ring road was widened from the initial four to ten lanes.
In December 2002 Bulvar Dmitriya Donskogo
became the first Moscow Metro station that opened beyond the limits of MKAD. The Third Ring Road, intermediate between the early 19th-century Garden Ring
and the Soviet era outer ring road
, was completed in 2004.
The city's population is rapidly increasing. The ubiquitous presence of legal and illegal permanent and temporary migrants plus merging suburbs raise the total population to about 13.5 mln people.
>
Year
Population
1825
241 500
1840
349 100
1852
373 800
1858
336 400
1864
351 600
1868
416 400
1871
601 969
1886
753 459
1891
822 400
1897
1 038 600
1900
1 175 000
1908
1 359 200
1912
1 617 157
>
Year
Population
1915
1 817 000
1920
1 028 200
1926
2 019 500
1936
3 641 500
1939
4 137 000
1956
4 847 000
1959
5 032 000
1970
6 941 961
1979
7 830 509
1989
8 769 117
2002
10 126 424
2005
10 407 000
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
gradually grew around the Moscow Kremlin
Moscow Kremlin
The Moscow Kremlin , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...
, beginning in the 14th century. It was the capital of Great Russia
Great Russia
Great Russia is an obsolete name formerly applied to the territories of "Russia proper", the land that formed the core of Muscovy and, later, Russia...
, also known as Muscovy, from 1340 to 1712, the capital of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
from 1922 to 1991, and since 1991 of the Russian Federation.
Situated on either bank of the eponymous Moskva River
Moskva River
The Moskva River is a river that flows through the Moscow and Smolensk Oblasts in Russia, and is a tributary of the Oka River.-Etymology:...
, the city during the 16th to 17th centuries grew up in five concentric divisions, formerly separated from one another by walls: the Kremlin
Moscow Kremlin
The Moscow Kremlin , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...
("fortress"), Kitaigorod ("walled town", but interpreted as "Chinatown" by folk etymology), Bielygorod ("white town"), Zemlianoigorod (earthworks town), and Miestchanskygorod ("bourgeois town") outside the city walls.
After the fire of 1812
Fire of Moscow (1812)
The 1812 Fire of Moscow broke out on September 14, 1812 in Moscow on the day when Russian troops and most residents abandoned the city and Napoleon's vanguard troops entered the city following the Battle of Borodino...
, the city ramparts were replaced with the Boulevard Ring
Boulevard Ring
The Boulevard Ring is Moscow's second centremost ring road . Boulevards form a semicircular chain along the western, northern and eastern sides of the historical White City of Moscow; in the south the incomplete ring is terminated by the embankments of Moskva River...
and Garden Ring
Garden Ring
The Garden Ring, also known as the "B" Ring , is a circular avenue around the central Moscow, its course corresponding to what used to be the city ramparts surrounding Zemlyanoy Gorod in the 17th century....
roads, replacing the walls around Bielygorod and Zemlianoigorod, respectively.
The city's population grew from 250,000 to above a million in the 19th century, and from one to ten million in the 20th century, putting it among the top twenty of the world's most populous cities
World's largest cities
This article ranks the world's largest cities, in population or land area, using a variety of ranking methods.-Ambiguities in measuring the "size" of a city:...
today.
Prehistory
The oldest evidence of humans on the territory of Moscow dates from the NeolithicNeolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
(Schukinskaya site on the Moscow River). Within the modern bounds of the city other late evidence was discovered (the burial ground of the Fatyanovskaya culture, the site of the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
settlement of Dyakovskaya culture
Dyakovskaya culture
Dyakovo culture is an Iron Age culture which occupies the significant part of the Upper Volga, Valday and Oka River area.The Dyakovo monuments, mostly sites became the subject of interest in the early 19th century. The earliest phase of the culture was a colonization in the late 9th - early 8th...
, on the territory of Kremlin
Moscow Kremlin
The Moscow Kremlin , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...
, Sparrow Hills
Sparrow Hills
Sparrow Hills, Vorobyovy Gory is a hill on the right bank of the Moskva River and one of highest points in Moscow with an altitude up to 220 m ....
, Setun River
Setun River
The Setun is a river in the west of Moscow and the largest tributary of the Moskva River in Moscow. The length of the river is , of which is in Moscow itself. Its basin has an area of . The Setun River originates in the village of Salariyevo in Moscow Oblast and flows into the Moskva River near...
, Kuntsevskiy forest park, etc.
The etymology of the name Moskva is Uralic
Uralic languages
The Uralic languages constitute a language family of some three dozen languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Mari and Udmurt...
, perhaps Volga-Finnic (Mordvinic or Merya)).
In the 9th century, the Oka River
Oka River
Oka is a river in central Russia, the largest right tributary of the Volga. It flows through the regions of Oryol, Tula, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Vladimir, and Nizhny Novgorod and is navigable over a large part of its total length, as far upstream as to the town of Kaluga. Its length exceeds...
was part of the Volga trade route
Volga trade route
In the Middle Ages, the Volga trade route connected Northern Europe and Northwestern Russia with the Caspian Sea, via the Volga River. The Rus used this route to trade with Muslim countries on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, sometimes penetrating as far as Baghdad...
, and the upper Volga watershed became an area of contact between the indigenous Uralic peoples such as the Merya and the expanding Turkic
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
(Volga Bulgars), Germanic (Varangians
Varangians
The Varangians or Varyags , sometimes referred to as Variagians, were people from the Baltic region, most often associated with Vikings, who from the 9th to 11th centuries ventured eastwards and southwards along the rivers of Eastern Europe, through what is now Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.According...
) and Slavic
Early Slavs
The early Slavs were a diverse group of tribal societies in Migration period and early medieval Europe whose tribal organizations indirectly created the foundations for today’s Slavic nations .The first mention of the name Slavs dates to the 6th century, by which time the Slavic tribes inhabited a...
peoples.
The earliest East Slavic tribes recorded as having expanded to the upper Volga in the 9th to 10th centuries are the Vyatichi and Krivichi.
The Moskva River was incorporated as part of Rostov-Suzdal into the Kievan Rus in the 11th century. By AD 1100, a minor settlement had appeared on the mouth of the Neglinnaya River
Neglinnaya River
The Neglinnaya River , also known as Neglimna, Neglinna, Neglinka , is a 7.5-km long underground river in the central part of Moscow and a tributary of the Moskva River. It flows in the tunnels under Samotechnaya Street, Tsvetnoy Boulevard, Neglinnaya Street and Alexander Garden and Zaryadye...
.
Early history (1147-1283)
The first reference to Moscow dates from 1147 as a meeting place of Yuri Dolgorukiy and Sviatoslav OlgovichSviatoslav Olgovich
Sviatoslav Olgovich , Prince of Novgorod Novhorod-Siversky , Bilhorod Kyivsky and Chernihiv...
. At the time it was a minor town on the western border of Vladimir-Suzdal Principality
Vladimir-Suzdal
The Vladimir-Suzdal Principality or Vladimir-Suzdal Rus’ was one of the major principalities which succeeded Kievan Rus' in the late 12th century and lasted until the late 14th century. For a long time the Principality was a vassal of the Mongolian Golden Horde...
.
In 1156, Knjaz Yury Dolgoruky fortified the town with a timber fence and a moat. In the course of the Mongol invasion of Rus
Mongol invasion of Rus
The Mongol invasion of Russia was resumed on 21 December 1237 marking the resumption of the Mongol invasion of Europe, during which the Mongols attacked the medieval powers of Poland, Kiev, Hungary, and miscellaneous tribes of less organized peoples...
, the Golden Horde
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
burned the city to the ground and killed its inhabitants.
The timber fort na Moskvě "on the Moscow river" was inherited by Daniel
Daniel of Moscow
Daniil Aleksandrovich was the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky and forefather of all the Grand Princes of Moscow....
, the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky
Alexander Nevsky
Alexander Nevsky was the Prince of Novgorod and Grand Prince of Vladimir during some of the most trying times in the city's history. Commonly regarded as the key figure of medieval Rus, Alexander was the grandson of Vsevolod the Big Nest and rose to legendary status on account of his military...
, in the 1260s, at the time considered the least valuable of his father's possessions.
Daniel was still a child at the time, and the fort was governed by tiuns (deputies), appointed by Daniel's paternal uncle, Yaroslav of Tver.
Daniel came of age in the 1270s and became involved in the power struggles of the principality with lasting success.
Siding with his brother Dmitry
Dmitry of Pereslavl
Dmitry Alexandrovich was Grand Prince of Vladimir-Suzdal from 1276 until 1281 and then from 1283 until 1293.Dmitry was the second son of Alexander Nevsky. When his elder brother Vasily died young, Dmitry remained the chief heir to his illustrious father. As early as 1259, he was left by Alexander...
in his bid for the rule of Novgorod. From 1283 he acted as the ruler of an independent principality alongside Dmitry, who became Grand Duke of Vladimir.
Daniel has been credited with founding the first Moscow monasteries, dedicated to the Lord's Epiphany and to Saint Daniel.
Grand Duchy (1283-1547)
Daniel I ruled Moscow as Grand DukeGrand Duchy of Moscow
The Grand Duchy of Moscow or Grand Principality of Moscow, also known in English simply as Muscovy , was a late medieval Rus' principality centered on Moscow, and the predecessor state of the early modern Tsardom of Russia....
until 1303 and established it as a prosperous city which would eclipse its parent principality of Vladimir by the 1320s.
On the right bank of the Moskva River, at a distance of 5 miles from the Kremlin not later than in 1282 Daniel founded the first monastery with the wooden church of St. Daniel-Stylite. Now it is the Danilov Monastery. Daniel died in 1303, at the age of 42. Before his death he became a monk and, according to his will, was buried in the cemetery of the St. Daniel Monastery.
Moscow was stable and prosperous for many years and attracted a large numbers of refugees from across Russia. The Rurikids maintained large landholdings by practicing primogeniture
Primogeniture
Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings . Historically, the term implied male primogeniture, to the exclusion of females...
, whereby all land was passed to the eldest sons, rather than dividing it up among all sons. By 1304, Yury of Moscow
Yury of Moscow
Yuriy Danilovich, also known as Georgiy Danilovich was Prince of Moscow and Grand Prince of Vladimir ....
contested with Mikhail of Tver for the throne of the principality of Vladimir
Vladimir
Vladimir is a city and the administrative center of Vladimir Oblast, Russia, located on the Klyazma River, to the east of Moscow along the M7 motorway. Population:...
. Ivan I
Ivan I of Russia
Ivan I Danilovich Kalita was Prince of Moscow from 1325 and Grand Prince of Vladimir from 1328.-Biography:Ivan was the son of Prince of Moscow Daniil Aleksandrovich....
eventually defeated Tver
Tver
Tver is a city and the administrative center of Tver Oblast, Russia. Population: 403,726 ; 408,903 ;...
to become the sole collector of taxes for the Mongol rulers, making Moscow the capital of Vladimir-Suzdal
Vladimir-Suzdal
The Vladimir-Suzdal Principality or Vladimir-Suzdal Rus’ was one of the major principalities which succeeded Kievan Rus' in the late 12th century and lasted until the late 14th century. For a long time the Principality was a vassal of the Mongolian Golden Horde...
. By paying high tribute, Ivan won an important concession from the Khan
Khan (title)
Khan is an originally Altaic and subsequently Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, widely used by medieval nomadic Turko-Mongol tribes living to the north of China. 'Khan' is also seen as a title in the Xianbei confederation for their chief between 283 and 289...
.
While Khan of the Golden Horde
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
initially attempted to limit Moscow's influence, when the growth of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 12th /13th century until 1569 and then as a constituent part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1791 when Constitution of May 3, 1791 abolished it in favor of unitary state. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic...
began to threaten all of Russia, the Khan strengthened Moscow to counterbalance Lithuania, allowing it to become one of the most powerful cities in Russia. In 1380, prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow led a united Russian army to an important victory over the Mongols in the Battle of Kulikovo
Battle of Kulikovo
The Battle of Kulikovo was a battle between Tatar Mamai and Muscovy Dmitriy and portrayed by Russian historiography as a stand-off between Russians and the Golden Horde. However, the political situation at the time was much more complicated and concerned the politics of the Northeastern Rus'...
. Afterwards, Moscow took the leading role in liberating Russia from Mongol domination. In 1480, Ivan III
Ivan III of Russia
Ivan III Vasilyevich , also known as Ivan the Great, was a Grand Prince of Moscow and "Grand Prince of all Rus"...
had finally broken the Russians free
Great standing on the Ugra river
The Great Standoff on the Ugra river The Great Standoff on the Ugra river The Great Standoff on the Ugra river ( in Russian, also (Ugorschina in English, derived from Ugra) was a standoff between the forces of Akhmat, Khan of the Great Horde, and the Grand Prince Ivan III of Russia in 1480, which...
from Tatar control, and Moscow became the capital of an empire that would eventually encompass all of Russia and Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, and parts of many other lands.
The original Moscow Kremlin
Moscow Kremlin
The Moscow Kremlin , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...
was built during the 14th century. It was reconstructed by Ivan III
Ivan III of Russia
Ivan III Vasilyevich , also known as Ivan the Great, was a Grand Prince of Moscow and "Grand Prince of all Rus"...
, who in the 1480s invited architects from Renaissance Italy, such as Petrus Antonius Solarius, who designed the new Kremlin wall and its towers, and Marcus Ruffus who designed the new palace for the prince.
The Kremlin walls as they now appear are those designed by Solarius, completed in 1495. The Kremlin's Great Bell Tower was built in 1505–08 and augmented to its present height in 1600.
A trading settlement, or posad, grew up to the east of the Kremlin, in the area known as Zaradye (Зарядье). In the time of Ivan III, the Red Square
Red Square
Red Square is a city square in Moscow, Russia. The square separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod...
, originally named the Hollow Field (Полое поле) appeared.
In 1508–1516, the Italian architect Aleviz Fryazin (Novy)
Aloisio the New
Aloisio the New, known in Russian as Aleviz Novyi or Aleviz Fryazin, was an Italian Renaissance architect invited by Ivan III to work in Moscow...
arranged for the construction of a moat in front of the eastern wall, which would connect the Moskva
Moskva River
The Moskva River is a river that flows through the Moscow and Smolensk Oblasts in Russia, and is a tributary of the Oka River.-Etymology:...
and Neglinnaya
Neglinnaya River
The Neglinnaya River , also known as Neglimna, Neglinna, Neglinka , is a 7.5-km long underground river in the central part of Moscow and a tributary of the Moskva River. It flows in the tunnels under Samotechnaya Street, Tsvetnoy Boulevard, Neglinnaya Street and Alexander Garden and Zaryadye...
and be filled in with water from Neglinnaya. This moat, known as the Alevizov moat and having a length of 541 meters, width of 36 meters, and a depth of 9.5–13 m was lined with limestone and, in 1533, fenced on both sides with low, 4-meter thick cogged brick walls.
Tsardom (1547-1721)
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the three circular defences were built: Kitay-gorod (Китай-город), the White City (Белый город) and the Earthen City (Земляной город). However, in 1547, two fires destroyed much of the town, and in 1571 the Crimean TatarsCrimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars or Crimeans are a Turkic ethnic group that originally resided in Crimea. They speak the Crimean Tatar language...
captured Moscow, burning everything except the Kremlin. The annals record that only 30,000 of 200,000 inhabitants survived.
The Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars or Crimeans are a Turkic ethnic group that originally resided in Crimea. They speak the Crimean Tatar language...
attacked again in 1591, but this time were held back by new defense walls, built between 1584 and 1591 by a craftsman named Fyodor Kon
Fyodor Kon
Fyodor Savelyevich Kon was a 16th century Russian military engineer and architect, the builder of Smolensk Kremlin and the Bely Gorod fortification ring of Moscow ....
.
In 1592, an outer earth rampart with 50 towers was erected around the city, including an area on the right bank of the Moscow River. As an outermost line of defense, a chain of strongly fortified monasteries was established beyond the ramparts to the south and east, principally the Novodevichy Convent
Novodevichy Convent
Novodevichy Convent, also known as Bogoroditse-Smolensky Monastery is probably the best-known cloister of Moscow. Its name, sometimes translated as the New Maidens' Monastery, was devised to differ from an ancient maidens' convent within the Moscow Kremlin. Unlike other Moscow cloisters, it has...
and Donskoy
Donskoy Monastery
Donskoy Monastery is a major monastery in Moscow, founded in 1591 in commemoration of Moscow's deliverance from an imminent threat of Khan Kazy-Girey’s invasion...
, Danilov
Danilov Monastery
Danilov Monastery, in full Svyato-Danilov Monastery or Holy Danilov Monastery , is a monastery on the right bank of the Moskva River in Moscow, Russia...
, Simonov
Simonov Monastery
Simonov monastery in Moscow was established in 1370 by monk Feodor, a nephew and disciple of St Sergius of Radonezh.The monastery land formerly belonged to Simeon Khovrin, a boyar of Greek extraction and progenitor of the great clan of Golovins. He took monastic vows in the cloister under the name...
, Novospasskiy
Novospassky Monastery
Novospassky Monastery is one of the fortified monasteries surrounding Moscow from south-east.It was the first monastery to be founded in Moscow in the early 14th century. The Saviour Church was its original katholikon...
, and Andronikov monasteries, most of which now house museums. From its ramparts, the city became poetically known as Bielokamennaya, the "White-Walled". The limits of the city as marked by the ramparts built in 1592 are now marked by the Garden Ring
Garden Ring
The Garden Ring, also known as the "B" Ring , is a circular avenue around the central Moscow, its course corresponding to what used to be the city ramparts surrounding Zemlyanoy Gorod in the 17th century....
.
The Russian famine of 1601 - 1603 killed perhaps 100,000 in Moscow.
From 1610 through 1612, troops of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
occupied Moscow, as its ruler Sigismund III
Sigismund III Vasa
Sigismund III Vasa was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, a monarch of the united Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1587 to 1632, and King of Sweden from 1592 until he was deposed in 1599...
tried to take the Russian throne. In 1612, the people of Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...
and other Russian cities conducted by prince Dmitry Pozharsky
Dmitry Pozharsky
For the ship of the same name, see Sverdlov class cruiserDmitry Mikhaylovich Pozharsky was a Rurikid prince, who led Russia's struggle for independence against Polish-Lithuanian invasion known as the Time of Troubles...
and Kuzma Minin rose against the Polish occupants, besieged the Kremlin, and expelled them
Time of Troubles
The Time of Troubles was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last Russian Tsar of the Rurik Dynasty, Feodor Ivanovich, in 1598, and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613. In 1601-1603, Russia suffered a famine that killed one-third...
. In 1613, the Zemsky sobor
Zemsky Sobor
The zemsky sobor was the first Russian parliament of the feudal Estates type, in the 16th and 17th centuries. The term roughly means assembly of the land. It could be summoned either by tsar, or patriarch, or the Boyar Duma...
elected Michael Romanov tsar, establishing the Romanov dynasty.
During the first half of the 17th century, the population of Moscow doubled from roughly 100,000 to 200,000. BIt expanded beyond its ramparts in the later 17th century. By 1682, there were 692 households established north of the ramparts, by Ukrainians
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
and Belarusians
Belarusians
Belarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...
abducted from their hometowns in the course of Russo-Polish War (1654–1667)
Russo-Polish War (1654–1667)
The Russo-Polish War of 1654–1667, also called Thirteen Years' War, First Northern War, War for Ukraine was the last major conflict between Tsardom of Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Between 1655 and 1660, the Second Northern War was also fought in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,...
. These new outskirts of the city came to be known as the Meshchanskaya sloboda
Sloboda
Sloboda was a kind of settlement in the history of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The name is derived from the early Slavic word for "freedom" and may be vaguely translated as "free settlement"....
, after Ruthenian meshchane "town people".
The term meshchane (мещане) acquired pejorative connotations in 18th century Russia and today means "petty bourgeois" or "narrow-minded philistine".
The entire city of the late 17th century, including the sloboda
Sloboda
Sloboda was a kind of settlement in the history of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The name is derived from the early Slavic word for "freedom" and may be vaguely translated as "free settlement"....
s which grew up outside of the city ramparts, are contained within what is today Moscow's Central Administrative Okrug.
Empire (1721-1917)
Peter I of Russia
Peter the Great, Peter I or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov Dates indicated by the letters "O.S." are Old Style. All other dates in this article are New Style. ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother, Ivan V...
moved his government to the newly-built Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
on the Baltic coast in 1712.
After being demoted from the status of capital, the population of Moscow at first decreased, from 200,000 in the 17th century to 130,000 in 1750. But after 1750, the population grew more than tenfold over the remaining duration of the Russian Empire, reaching 1.8 million by 1915.
Between 1781–1804 the Mytischinskiy water-pipe (the first in Russia) was built. In 1813 a Commission for the Construction of the City of Moscow was established. It launched a great program of rebuilding, including a partial replanning of the city-center. Among many buildings constructed or reconstructed at this time were the Grand Kremlin Palace
Grand Kremlin Palace
The Grand Kremlin Palace , also translated Great Kremlin Palace, was built from 1837 to 1849 in Moscow, Russia on the site of the estate of the Grand Princes, which had been established in the 14th century on Borovitsky Hill...
and the Kremlin Armoury
Kremlin Armoury
The Kremlin Armory is one of the oldest museums of Moscow, established in 1808 and located in the Moscow Kremlin .The Kremlin Armoury originated as the royal arsenal in 1508. Until the transfer of the court to St Petersburg, the Armoury was in charge of producing, purchasing and storing weapons,...
, the Moscow University, the Moscow Manege
Moscow Manege
Moscow Manege is a large oblong building which gives its name to the vast Manege Square, which was cleared in the 1930s, adjacent to the more famous Red Square...
(Riding School), and the Bolshoi Theatre
Bolshoi Theatre
The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds performances of ballet and opera. The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world...
. In 1903 the Moskvoretskaya water-supply was completed.
In the early 19th century, the Arch of Konstantino-Elenensky gate was paved with bricks, but the Spassky Gate was the main front gate of the Kremlin and used for royal entrances. From this gate, wooden and (following the 17th century improvements) stone bridges stretched across the moat. Books were sold on this bridge and stone platforms were built nearby for guns - "raskats". The Tsar Cannon
Tsar Cannon
The Tsar Cannon is a huge cannon on display on the grounds of the Moscow Kremlin. It was cast in 1586 in Moscow, by the Russian master bronze caster Andrey Chokhov. Mostly of symbolic impact, it was never fired in war...
was located on the platform of the Lobnoye mesto
Lobnoye Mesto
Lobnoye mesto , also known as the Place of Skulls, is a 13-meter-long stone platform situated on Red Square in Moscow in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral....
.
The road connecting Moscow with St. Petersburg, now the M10 highway, was completed in 1746, its Moscow end following the old Tver
Tver
Tver is a city and the administrative center of Tver Oblast, Russia. Population: 403,726 ; 408,903 ;...
road which had existed since the 16th century. It became known as Peterburskoye Schosse
Leningradsky Prospekt
Leningradsky Prospekt , or Leningrad Avenue, is a major arterial avenue in Moscow, Russia. It continues the path of Tverskaya Street and 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street north-west from Belorussky Rail Terminal, and changes the name once again to Leningrad Highway past the Sokol metro station...
after it was paved in the 1780s. Petrovsky Palace was built in 1776–1780 by Matvey Kazakov
Matvey Kazakov
Matvey Fyodorovich Kazakov was a Russian Neoclassical architect. Kazakov was one of the most influential Muscovite architects during the reign of Catherine II, completing numerous private residences, two royal palaces, two hospitals, Moscow University, and the Kremlin Senate...
as a railway station specifically reserved for royal journeys from Saint Petersburg to Moscow, while coaches for lesser classes arrived and departed from Vsekhsvyatskoye station.
When Napoleon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
invaded Russia in 1812, the Moscovites were evacuated. It is suspected that the Moscow fire
Fire of Moscow (1812)
The 1812 Fire of Moscow broke out on September 14, 1812 in Moscow on the day when Russian troops and most residents abandoned the city and Napoleon's vanguard troops entered the city following the Battle of Borodino...
was started by accident by Napoleon's troops trying to keep warm.
Moscow State University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
was established in 1755. Its main building was reconstructed after the 1812 fire by Domenico Giliardi
Domenico Giliardi
Domenico Gilardi , was a Swiss architect who worked primarily in Moscow, Russia in Neoclassicist style. He was one of key architects charged with rebuilding the city after the Fire of 1812...
. The Moskovskiye Vedomosti newspaper appeared from 1756, originally in weekly intervals, and from 1859 as a daily newspaper.
The Arbat Street
Arbat Street
The Arbat is an approximately one-kilometer long pedestrian street in the historical centre of Moscow. The Arbat has existed at least since the 15th century, thus laying claim to being one of the oldest surviving streets of the Russian capital. It forms the heart of the Arbat District of Moscow...
had been in existence since at least the 15th century, but it was developed into a prestigious area during the 18th century. It was destroyed in the fire of 1812 and was rebuilt completely in the early 19th century.
In the 1830s, general Alexander Bashilov
Alexander Bashilov
Alexander Alexandrovich Bashilov was a Russian general officer of Napoleonic Wars period, later engaged in urban planning of Moscow and its suburbs.-Military career:...
planned the first regular grid of city streets north from Petrovsky Palace. Khodynka
Khodynka
Khodynka Field is a large open space in the north-west of Moscow, at the beginning of the present day Leningradsky Prospect. It takes its name from the small Khodynka River which used to cross the neighbourhood...
field south of the highway was used for military training.
Smolensky Rail station (forerunner of present-day Belorussky Rail Terminal
Belorussky Rail Terminal
Belorussky Rail Terminal is one of nine rail terminals in Moscow. It was opened in 1870 and rebuilt in its current form in 1910-12.-Long distance:-Other destinations:-Suburban destinations:...
) was inaugurated in 1870.
Sokolniki Park
Sokolniki Park
Sokolniki Park, named for the falcon hunt of the Grand Dukes of Muscovy formerly conducted there, is located in the eponymous Sokolniki District of Moscow. Sokolniki Park is not far from the center of the city, near Sokolnicheskaya Gate. The park gained its name from the Sokolnichya Quarter, the...
, in the 18th century the home of the tsar's falconers well outside of Moscow, became contiguous with the expanding city in the later 19th century and was developed into a public municipal park in 1878. The suburban Savyolovsky Rail Terminal was built in 1902.
In January 1905, the institution of the City Governor, or Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
, was officially introduced in Moscow, and Alexander Adrianov became Moscow's first official mayor.
Soviet era (1917-1991)
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
, Lenin, fearing possible foreign invasion, moved the capital from Saint Petersburg back to Moscow on March 5, 1918.
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
. In 1918 the Bolsheviks moved the seat of government from Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
back to Moscow.
The Moscow Metro
Moscow Metro
The Moscow Metro is a rapid transit system serving Moscow and the neighbouring town of Krasnogorsk. Opened in 1935 with one line and 13 stations, it was the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union. As of 2011, the Moscow Metro has 182 stations and its route length is . The system is...
opened in 1935. The Krymsky Bridge
Krymsky Bridge
Krymsky Bridge or Crimean Bridge is a steel suspension bridge in Moscow. The bridge spans the Moskva River 1,800 metres south-west from the Kremlin and carries the Garden Ring across the river. The bridge links the Crimean Square to the north with Krymsky Val street to the south...
was completed in 1938, replacing an earlier wooden pontoon of 1786, besides numerous other bridges built during the 1930s.
During the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet State Committee of Defense and the General Staff of the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
were located in Moscow. In 1941 16 divisions of the national volunteers (more than 160,000 people), 25 battalions (18,000 people) and 4 engineering regiments were formed among the Muscovites. In November 1941, German Army Group Centre
Army Group Centre
Army Group Centre was the name of two distinct German strategic army groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created on 22 June 1941, as one of three German Army formations assigned to the invasion of the Soviet Union...
was stopped at the outskirts of the city and then driven off in the course of the Battle of Moscow
Battle of Moscow
The Battle of Moscow is the name given by Soviet historians to two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II. It took place between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated Hitler's attack on Moscow, capital of...
. Many factories were evacuated, together with much of the government, and from October 20 the city was declared to be in a state of siege. Its remaining inhabitants built and manned antitank defenses, while the city was bombarded from the air. On May 1, 1944 a medal "For the defense of Moscow" and in 1947 another medal "In memory of the 800th anniversary of Moscow" were instituted.
The postwar years saw a serious housing crisis, solved by the invention of high-rise apartments
Tower block
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, office tower, apartment block, or block of flats, is a tall building or structure used as a residential and/or office building...
. There are about 13,000 of these standardized and prefabricated apartment block, housing the majority of Moscow's population. Apartments were built and partly furnished in the factory before being raised and stacked into tall columns. The popular Soviet-era comic film Irony of Fate
Irony of Fate
The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! is a Soviet comedy-drama directed by Eldar Ryazanov as a made-for-TV movie. The screenplay was written by Emil Braginsky and Ryazanov, loosely based on Ryazanov's 1971 play Once on New Year's Eve . For distribution outside of the Soviet Union, the film was...
parodies this construction method.
The city of Zelenograd
Zelenograd
Zelenograd is a city, which, along with the territories and settlements under its jurisdiction, forms one of the administrative okrugs of Moscow - Zelenograd Administrative Okrug...
was built in 1958 at 37 km from the city center to the north-west, along the Leningradskoye Shosse, and incorporated as one of Moscow's administrative ogrkugs
Administrative divisions of Moscow
The federal city of Moscow, Russia is divided into ten administrative okrugs, which are in turn subdivided into districts . The city does not have a downtown area; the urban core is scattered across the city. Prominent business areas include Tverskoy, Arbat, and Presnensky Districts to the east...
. Moscow State University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
moved to its campus on Sparrow Hills
Sparrow Hills
Sparrow Hills, Vorobyovy Gory is a hill on the right bank of the Moskva River and one of highest points in Moscow with an altitude up to 220 m ....
in 1953.
On May 8, 1965 due to the actual 20th anniversary of the victory in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Moscow was awarded a title of the Hero City
Hero City
Hero City is a Soviet honorary title awarded for outstanding heroism during the German-Soviet War of 1941 to 1945. It was awarded to twelve cities of the Soviet Union. In addition the Brest Fortress was awarded an equivalent title of Hero-Fortress...
. In 1980 it hosted the Summer Olympic Games
1980 Summer Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament...
.
The MKAD
MKAD
MKAD is a ring road encircling the City of Moscow.The acronym is a transliteration of the Russian МКАД, for Московская Кольцевая Автомобильная Дорога .The growth of traffic in and around Moscow in the 1950s made the city planners realise Russia's largest metropolis...
ring road was opened in 1961. It had four lanes running 109 km along the city borders.
The MKAD marked the administrative boundaries of the city of Moscow until the 1980s, when outlying suburbs beyond the ring road began to be incorporated.
In 1991 Moscow was the scene of a coup attempt
Soviet coup attempt of 1991
The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt , also known as the August Putsch or August Coup , was an attempt by a group of members of the Soviet Union's government to take control of the country from Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev...
by conservators opposed to the liberal reforms
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
of Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
.
Recent history (1991 to present)
When the USSR was dissolved in the same year, Moscow became a capital of RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. Since then, the emergence of a market economy in Moscow has produced an explosion of Western-style retailing, services, architecture, and lifestyles.
The city has continued to grow during the 1990s to 2000s, its population rising from below nine to above ten million.
In 1995-1997 the MKAD
MKAD
MKAD is a ring road encircling the City of Moscow.The acronym is a transliteration of the Russian МКАД, for Московская Кольцевая Автомобильная Дорога .The growth of traffic in and around Moscow in the 1950s made the city planners realise Russia's largest metropolis...
ring road was widened from the initial four to ten lanes.
In December 2002 Bulvar Dmitriya Donskogo
Bulvar Dmitriya Donskogo
Bulvar Dmitriya Donskogo is the southern terminus and the newest station of the Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line of the Moscow Metro. It is the first station of the system built outside of the MKAD beltway encircling most of the city. The station opened on 26 December 2002...
became the first Moscow Metro station that opened beyond the limits of MKAD. The Third Ring Road, intermediate between the early 19th-century Garden Ring
Garden Ring
The Garden Ring, also known as the "B" Ring , is a circular avenue around the central Moscow, its course corresponding to what used to be the city ramparts surrounding Zemlyanoy Gorod in the 17th century....
and the Soviet era outer ring road
MKAD
MKAD is a ring road encircling the City of Moscow.The acronym is a transliteration of the Russian МКАД, for Московская Кольцевая Автомобильная Дорога .The growth of traffic in and around Moscow in the 1950s made the city planners realise Russia's largest metropolis...
, was completed in 2004.
Historical demographics
| > | Year | Population |
|---|---|
| 1350 | 30 000 |
| 1400 | 40 000 |
| 1600 | 100 000 |
| 1638 | 200 000 |
| 1710 | 160 000 |
| 1725 | 145 000 |
| 1738 | 138 400 |
| 1750 | 130 000 |
| 1775 | 161 000 |
| 1785 | 188 700 |
| 1800 | 250 000 |
| 1811 | 300 000 |
| 1813 | 215 000 |