M O S C O W
Brief History
The
Kremlin and its surrounds were probably settled by the 11th century, but the
founding of Moscow is traditionally ascribed to Yury Dolgoruky, Prince of
Suzdal, who is recorded as giving a feast here in 1147. In 1237-38 Moscow was
sacked along with the rest of the Vladimir-Suzdal realm by Tatars led by Batu,
Genghis Khan's grandson. These Tatars set up a capital at Saray on the southern
Volga and became known as the Golden Horde. Moscow, near river trade routes, 
became
a princedom in its own right, and emerged as the Golden Horde's chief northern
tribute collector. It wasn't until the late 15th century, under Prince Ivan III,
called the Great, could Moscow cease paying tribute to the horde. By the end of
Ivan's reign, Moscow's control stretched from Novgorod in the west to Tula in
the south, towards the Urals in the east and to the Barents Sea in the north.
Ivan brought Italian architects to build cathedrals in the Kremlin and styled
himself ruler 'of all Russia'.
Ivan
IV ('the Terrible') expanded Muscovite territory by launching the conquest of
Siberia and winning control of the Volga. By 1571 the city had over 100,000
people and was one of the biggest in the world. Tsar Boris Godunov faced both
famine and a Polish-backed invasion. The seven years after his death were the
Time of Troubles - characterized by civil war, invasions and Moscow being
occupied by Poland. The Poles were driven out and 16-year-old Mikhail Romanov
was elected tsar by a council of nobles, launching the 300-year Romanov dynasty
and a period of consolidation during which Moscow's territory spread southwards.
Peter
the Great toured Europe in 1697-98. He built a new capital, St
Petersburg, on the Baltic to open Russia up to Western trade and ideas and
to
consolidate military victories over Sweden. He disliked Moscow, where as a boy
he had seen his uncle and his mother's advisers killed in a palace coup, and
forced the nobility to move to St Petersburg. However, Moscow remained important
enough to be Napoleon's main goal when his troops marched on Russia in 1812.
After the bloody Battle of Borodino 130km (81mi) west of the city, the Russians
abandoned Moscow and allowed Napoleon to march in and install himself in the
Kremlin. The night he arrived a great fire broke out which burnt most of the
city, including the stores. With winter coming, the French had to pull out
little more than a month after they had arrived.
Moscow
was feverishly rebuilt and the city's population grew from 350,000 in the 1840s
to 1.4 million in 1914. October 1917 saw more savage street fighting in Moscow
than in St Petersburg. The Bolsheviks occupied, lost and retook the Kremlin over
an eight-day period. In 1918 the government moved back to Moscow after two
centuries' absence, fearing that St Petersburg (Petrograd back then) might come
under German attack. Moscow became the epicenter of the country's total reorganization.
Under Stalin, one of the world's first comprehensive urban plans was devised for
Moscow. The first line of the metro was completed in 1935. German troops came
within 40km (25mi) of the Kremlin in December 1941. After WWII huge housing
estates grew up round the outskirts.
Moscow
had been in the forefront of political change, and a thorn in the flesh of the
national leaders, since the first whispers of glasnost in the mid-1980s. Boris
Yeltsin, made the city's new Communist Party chief in 1985, became hugely
popular as he sacked hundreds of corrupt commercial managers, set up new food
markets and permitted demonstrations. This last was too much for the communist
old guard and led to Yeltsin's resignation in 1987.
It
was the rallying of Muscovites behind Yeltsin at Moscow's 'White House', 
seat
of the parliament of the Russian Republic, that foiled the old-guard coup in
1991 and precipitated the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union. By the
mid-1990s Moscow was very much the vanguard of the 'new Russia', filling up with
all the things Russians had expected capitalism to bring but which had barely
begun to percolate down to the provinces: banks, stock exchanges, casinos,
advertising, BMWs, new shops, hotels, restaurants and nightlife.
Yes, the populace now prefer impromptu street markets to the huge state department stores, and churches which were destroyed or abandoned during the Soviet era are being lovingly restored. But anyway at any step you'll find the real flavor of Moscow in its small nooks and crannies, each of them unique.
WELCOME TO MOSCOW WITH UKRAINETOUR !
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