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Sightseeing in Moscow

A Short History of Moscow

1147 Moscow was founded by Prince Yuri Dolgoruky (1090-1157). Prince Svitoslav Olgovich is invited to Moscow, the documented mention of Moscow. Originally Moscow was nothing more than a hunting village built on the top of a hill.

1156 By 1156 Dolgoruky constructed a wooden fort and encircled the settlement with a rampart and moat. This was the original Kremlin and it provided the inhabitants of the surrounding area, including crftsmen and merchants, with protection from attack.

1238 The ferocious Mongol and grandson of Genghis Khan, Batu Khan, leading tens of thousands of horsemen, conquers Moscow. After they burned Moscow to the ground, Batu demanded the right ear of every citizen as proof that Moscow had been destroyed. Heavy annual tributes (taxes) we levied on both rich and poor. Ruling prices we expected to assist in collecting those taxes. Those not able to pay we either sold into slavery or had their heads chopped off on the spot.

1328 Ivan Kalita, one of the ruling princes who extracted taxes on the Mongols behalf, and earned the nickname “Moneybags”, is named the first Grand Prince of Moscow by the Khan. The first stone buildings and churches are constructed inside the walls. About 30,000 people live in the city.

1380 Grand Prince Dmitry Ivanovich (1350-1389) refuses to pay the annual tribute to the Mongols and repells two sieges. A famous event takes place which is known by every Russian to this day – the Battle of Kulikovo in which 100,000 troups led by the Grand Prince defeat a much larger Mongol force.

1462-1505 The lands around Moscow are unified by Ivan III, the Grand Prince of Moscow and All Russia. He marries the 350-pound niece of Contantine XII, the last emperoro of Byzantium, who had been defeated by the Muslim Ottomans in 1453. Russia has now succeed Byzantium as the “second Rome”. The population now numbers 100,000.

1547-84 Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV) is crowned the first Tsar of All Russia at the age of 17. Ivan defeats the Tartars in Kzan in 1552 and builds St. Basils Cathedral in commemoration. Legend has it that he gouged out the eyes of its architects so they would never again be able to create such a beautiful cathedral. In a fit of rage, Ivan murdered his own son.

1598 Boris Godunov (1551-1605) is elected the next tsar. Gudonov builds another wall around the Kremlin and and Kitay Gorod, which remained until the 19^th century when it was demolished to make way for the Boulevard Ring Road.

1613 16 year-old Mikhail Romanov (1596-1645) and grandnephew of Ivan the Terrible, is selected as Tsar. This is the beginning of the 300-year Romanov dynasty. 200,000 people inhabit Moscow.

1671 Cossack leader Stepan Razin leads an uprising in the Volga region. He is caught and brought to Moscow, where he is executed on Red Sqaure, and as a warning to others, he was dismembered and some of his body parts were mounted on stakes.

1682 Peter the Great (1672-1725) becomes Tsar. Nearly seven feet tall, he was famously strong.

1697 Peter the Great spends time in England and Holland, where he studies ship-building.

1709 Peter defeats the Swedes at the Battle of Poltava, one of the most decisive battles in world history. He now reigns supreme in Northern Europe.

1712. St. Petersburg, built on land taken from the Swedes, becomes the capital of Russia.

1762 Catherine the Great (1729-1796) becomes Tsarina.

1773 Cossak rebel Yemelyan Pugachev (1726-1775) leads a peasant uprising. The gap between the rich and the poor has grown to unbearable levels and Pugachev represents hope for the peasants. However in 1775 he is capture by Catherine the Great and publicly executed in Moscow.

1812 Napoleon invades Russia. After defeating Russian forces at the battle of Borodino, he occupies Moscow. The Russian forces, fleeing the city, set fire and most of the city is destroyed. Soon Marshal Mkhail Kutuzov forces a weary Napoleon out of the city on October 19. Napoleon troops are left without food and shelter and suffer through the harsh winter. Only 20,000 of Napeoleon’s 550,000 troops survived the Russian campaign. Aleksandr I pursued Napoleon and the remnants of his army all the way to Paris and occupied it in 1814. Legend has it that Russian troops, sitting at a café in Paris, grew impatient with the slow service and starting crying “Bistro, Bistro” which means “fast” in Russian. This is the origin of the French word for café, Bistro.

1825 A group known as the Decembrists launch an unsuccessful coup. They were dissatisfied with the serfdom and lack of reforms and plotted to replace the existing autocratic order. Hundreds were sent to Siberia.

1861 Serfdom is abolished by Aleksandr II (1818-1881) More than half of all Russians were serfs at this time. Moscow grows from a huge influx of landless peasants to the cities. The population is now one million.

1881 Aleksandr II is assassinated in St. Petersburg. As he is traveling along a canal, an explosion occurs near his carriage and stupefied, he gets out to investigate. A second bomb is thrown and hits the Tsar directly. Aleksandr II is brought back to his palace and succumbs to his wounds that evening. The Church of Spilt Blood is built on the side of the canal where the bomb which killed the Tsar went off. To this day, this church is one of the favorite attractions of St. Petersburg.

1894 Nicholas II (1868-1918) becomes the last Tsar. On the day of his coronation in Moscow, a celebration is held on a large field on the outskirts of Moscow. Food and drink is offered to the desperate masses and in the resulting rush hundreds of people are trampled to death. Nicholas decides to continue with his coronation that day and many believe that the Romanov dynasty was cursed to extinction because of this.

1905 on January 22, 1905, known as Bloody Sunday, 200,000 people march the streets of St. Petersburg and unarmed works stormed the Winter Palace. More than 500 were killed and thousands wounded. Discontent throughout the country was so great that by the end of the year more than 1500 government officials had been assassinated.

1914 Russia enters World War I against the Germans. Moscow suffers through the war from shortages. 15 million Russians were drafted for the war and six million were killed.

1916 The mad monk has infiltrated the confidence of the wife of the Tsar and many believe that the source of Russia’s failures comes from Rasputin’s bad influence on the Russian royal family. Rasputin is poisoned and then shot by Price Felix Yousupov in his St. Petersburg palace on the Moika canal. The palace is a favorite tourist destination nowadays in St. Petersburg.

1917 On November 7, 1917 the Bolsheviks overwhelm the Winter Palace with hardly a shot being fired. The Socialist revolution is successful and Tsar Nicholas II abdicates the throne. The Last Tsar and his family are murdered by the Bolsheviks the next year in the city of Ekaterinberg.

1918 The capital is moved back to Moscow from St. Petersburg.

1922 The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is born.

1924 Lenin dies and is embalmed in a mausoleum on Red Square. Petrograd is renamed Leningrad

1941 Germany invades Russia. Russian Marshal Georgy Zhukov launched a counter-attack in December. By this time Germans were suffering from the freezing cold of 45 degrees Celsius below freezing.

1945 The Russians celebrate victory and the end of the war on May 9, 1945. Over 20 million Russians died as a result of the war.

1956 Nikita Kruschev, Chairman of the Politburo, delivers a secret speech at the Twentieth Party Congress. The extent of Stalin’s shocking crimes were revealed for the first time.

1961 The Soviet Union makes history by launching Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. Moscow honors Yuri for his feat on April 14.

1980 Moscow hosts the XXII Olympic games.

1991 Gorbachev is ousted following a failed coup d’etat by hardline communists. The Soviet Union is dissolved.

1997 Moscow celebrates its 850^th anniversary

1999 Vladimir Putin is the anointed successor to Yeltin.

History of Moscow

Map of Moscow (from 2008)

Map of Moscow (from 1653)