View of Zamoskvorechye from the Saint Basil Cathedral
Monument to Minin and Pozharsky (sculptor — I. Martos)
The Kremlin is the oldest part of Moscow, an urban fortress, the center of Russian statehood. It is located on the elevated bank of the Moscow River at the confluence of the Neglinnaya River, on Borovitsky Hill (one of the seven historical hills of Moscow). The contemporary area of the Kremlin is 27.5 hectares (67.95 acres). The first settlements on this site date back to the 2nd millennium BC. Near the end of the 11th century, a Slavic town arose here. The first annalistic mention of Moscow dates back to 1147. Originally, the Kremlin was called the "grad" or "grad of Moscow"; the name Kremlin entrenched around the 14th century. The initial fortification did not exceed an area of 1.5 hectares (3.71 acres); under Yuri Dolgoruky, in 1156 a new “grad” was built, almost five times the size of the previous one, and was surrounded by a rampart and a moat. In 1237, during the Mongol-Tatar invasion, the Kremlin was destroyed. At the end of the 13th century, the first stone temples were erected. In 1339, oak walls and towers were built. In 1367, new walls of white stone were erected under Dmitry Donskoy, which secured the nickname "white-stone" for Moscow. In the second half of the 15th century, the Kremlin was rebuilt with the participation of Italian architects, who were then considered the best European builders. At this time, the contemporary Kremlin architectural ensemble began to take shape: Cathedral Square was formed with the Archangel Cathedral — the tomb of the Great Princes (1505–1508), the Assumption Cathedral — the tomb of the Russian metropolitans and patriarchs, the place of crowning for the kingdom and the coronations of Russian sovereigns (1475–1479, architect Aristotle Feoravanti), the Annunciation Cathedral (1484–1489) — the home church of the Russian Grand Dukes and Tsars, the Church of the Deposition of the Robe (1484–1489), the stone Sovereign Palace (which stood on the site of the Grand Kremlin Palace), with the Faceted Chamber (1487–1491) and, finally, with the bell tower of Ivan the Great (1505–1508, 1600). In the years 1485–1495. around the Kremlin, brick walls and towers have been erected, standing to this day. From the side of Red Square, a moat was dug, equipped with additional fortifications, and the Kremlin became one of the best fortresses in Europe. In the Kremlin wall, whose width is from 3.5 to 6.5 meters (3.83 to 7.11 yards), and the height ranges from 5 to 19 meters (5.47 to 20.78 yards), there are 18 towers, including 4 passage ones (Troitskaya, Borovitskaya, Spasskaya and Nikolskaya; two other towers, Konstantino-Eleninskaya and Taininskaya, in more ancient times also were passage ones, but later they were blocked). In the 17th century, all the towers, except Nikolskaya, were crowned with tents. In 1633–1636, The Terem Palace was built. The Amusement Palace was built in 1651–1652. In 1642–1656, the Patriarchal Chambers with the Church of the Twelve Apostles were erected. Under Peter I in 1702, the construction of the Arsenal began. In the 1770s, a plan appeared for building a huge palace in the Kremlin (the author of the project was V. I. Bazhenov), for which a giant construction site was prepared in the part of the Kremlin facing the Moscow River: ancient buildings were demolished and even part of the wall was demolished, but for lack of funds, the construction was stopped at the very beginning and Bazhenov’s plan was not realized (the layout of the proposed palace, which is located in the Museum of Architecture, was preserved). After a while, the demolished wall was restored. In 1776-1787, the Senate building was built. In September–October 1812, Moscow was occupied by the army of Napoleon; during the retreat, October 11, 1812, Napoleon ordered to blow up the Kremlin buildings. It is believed that the begun rain damped the wicks, and although the explosions thundered, they were much weaker than their organizers thought: sections of the walls were damaged, several towers, including Nikolskaya, suffered strongly, the walls of the cathedrals and Ivan the Great were cracked. In the years 1816-1819. under the leadership of architect O. I. Beauvais, the damage in the Kremlin was repaired, the damaged buildings were restored; the most damaged Nikolskaya Tower received a new decorative paraphernalia "in the Gothic style." In 1820-1840, the building of the Grand Kremlin Palace (architect K. A. Thon) was erected, which became the main royal residence in the Kremlin (in the previous period, small and cramped ancient palaces caused a lot of inconvenience in placing the royal family and retinue during coronations and other celebrations; there were cases when emperors Pavel I and Alexander I were forced to stay in homes of private persons). In 1844–1851, the building of the Armory Chamber was erected, which was the first Moscow museum. In 1898, in the southeastern part of the Kremlin, near the slope to the Moscow River, a monument to Alexander II was erected, surrounded on three sides by a gallery decorated with mosaic portraits of all Russian rulers, starting with the legendary Rurik. In February 1905, Moscow Governor-General Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was killed by the terrorist I. Kalyaev near the Nikolsky Gate of the Kremlin. A memorial cross was erected at the scene of the murder. Both of these monuments were barbarously demolished after the October Revolution. In the 1930s the buildings of the ancient Chudov and Ascension Monasteries were demolished, in their place the building of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR (1932–1934) was erected, now also destroyed. Finally, in 1959-1961. The Kremlin's newest building, the Kremlin Palace of Congresses (architect M. V. Posokhin), now, after the ban of the CPSU, used as a theatre of mediocre ballet, New Year's performances for children and performances of valetudinarian showmen, appeared. The Kremlin displays the Tsar Cannon and the Tsar Bell.
Red Square is the central square of Moscow. It arose in the 15th century under the Grand Duke Ivan III in the territory of the Posad, which was liberated for buildings of trade and originally called so Torg (trading place). In the future, the name of the square changed several times: it was called Troitskaya in the 16th century, after the wooden church of the Holy Trinity that stood here, than Pozhar (fire, conflagration), after the fire of 1571, when all the shopping arcades and boutiques that stood here burnt down. By the second half of the 17th century, when the temples decorating the area were erected, the name Krasnaya (Red), that in old Russian meant "beautiful", was assigned to it. In 1508-1516. a moat was dug along the Kremlin wall on Red Square, connecting the Moscow River with the Neglinnaya. Its width near the Moscow River reached 40 meters (43.74 yards), it later passed close to the walls of the Intercession (St. Basil's) Cathedral. Bridges were thrown over the moat to the Kremlin gates, and the moat itself was fenced by not high serrated battlements. In 1535–1538, the Kitai Gorod wall was erected, enclosing the Red square on both sides and incorporating it into the Kitai Gorod (one of the gates of its wall, the Resurrection one, can be seen even now). In the 1530s, Lobnoye Mesto (forehead place) was built; in 1555–1561, the Intercession Cathedral was erected as a monument to the capture of the Kazan Khanate by Ivan the Terrible. A few years later, the building of the Zemsky Prikaz (land order) was built in the northern part of the square, in which at the beginning of the 18th century the main Moscow pharmacy, and later the university, was located. At the beginning of the 18th century, here, not far from the Zemsky Prikaz, was the "Comedial Temple," the first wooden Moscow theatre. In 1625, in memory of the liberation of Moscow from Polish intervention, the Kazan Cathedral was built. The square was repeatedly landscaped, temporary haphazardly piled up buildings were demolished. It underwent major reconstruction in the late 17th century. At the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, the Kremlin moat was backfilled, all additional fortifications were dismantled; in 1804, the sqaure was first paved with cobblestones. After 1812, improvement of the square continued: the Upper Trading Rows building was built, a monument to K. Minin and D. Pozharsky was erected in 1818 (initially it stood in the center of the square near the Trade Rows building; in 1930 it was moved to Intercession Cathedral), along Kremlin wall there was made a small boulevard of two rows of trees. In the last quarter of the 19th century, the appearance of Red Square basically took its shape: the buildings of the Historical Museum (on the site of the Zemsky Prikaz) and the new Upper Trading Rows (GUM), in place of the dilapidated old building, were erected. In 1892 the square was lit by electric lamps, at the beginning of the 20th century a tram ran along it (traffic stopped in 1930 because, like the transferred monument to Minin and Pozharsky, it interfered with grandiose parades). The last building that appeared on Red Square is the Mausoleum of V. I. Lenin (1924–1930, architect A. V. Schusev) and the concrete stands surrounding it. Around the Mausoleum there has developed a necropolis of the Soviet state leaders and the international labour movement activists (the first mass graves of the perished participants in the October Revolution appeared on this site in November 1917). Here are buried I. V. Stalin, F. E. Dzerzhinsky, Y. M. Sverdlov, M. V. Frunze, M. I. Kalinin, A. A. Zhdanov, K. E. Voroshilov, S. M. Budyonny, L. I. Brezhnev and others. In total there are 2 fraternal graves, 11 individual ones and over 100 burials in the Kremlin wall.
View of the Kremlin
New department store "Moskva" on Leninsky Prospekt
M. V. Lomonosov State University on Lenin Hills
Monument to A. S. Pushkin (sculptor — A. Opekushin)
V. I. Lenin Central Museum
Monument to Karl Marx (sculptor — K. Kerbel, architects — R. Begunets, N. Kovalchuk, V. Makarevich and V. Morgulis)
Monument to Ivan Fedorov (sculptor — S. Volukhin)
A. S. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts
"Moskva" swimming pool
The "Ukraina" Hotel
Gardens in Repin Square
Marx Proskpekt
State Tretyakov Gallery
Kievsky Railway Station
View of the Luzhniki
Pushkin Square
Kutuzovsky Prospekt
Red Square
Congress Palace in the Kremlin
The Kremlin. Tsar-Bell
At the Kremlin wall in Red Square
Krymsky Bridge
Smolenskaya Embankment
Panorama-Museum "The Battle of Borodino"
Pravda Street
View of Bolshaya Sadovaya
State Academic Bolshoi Theatre of the USSR
"Rossiya" cinema
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