Trips and Tales (Part 20)
Following on from last week, here’s a continuation of the “nuts and bolts” background to Moscow: Russia’s illustrious and historical capital.
Some History
There is evidence of habitation in the Moscow area dating back to Neolithic times, of Iron Age settlements and, subsequently, Slavic tribes right up to 1000 A.D. By 1200 A.D. Moscow had become a small, feudal, trading town. The first written record of the name “Moscow” appears in 1147, and translates as “the city by the Moskva River”.
In spite of attempts to fortify the expanding town with a moat and defensive wooden wall, Moscow was burned to the ground by the Mongol Golden Horde in 1238 A.D. It was later rebuilt to become the capital and centre of tax collection for the Vladimir-Suzdal region under Ivan I, and all for the benefit of its Mongol-Tartar overlords. In 1382 an attempt was made to break their grip, by Prince Dmitri Donskoi, son of Ivan II. His upgrading of the Kremlin’s oak walls to limestone citadel and fortifications had already enabled Moscow to withstand three sieges and a local conflict within the Vladimir-Suzdal region. Now, his attempts to throw off the Mongol-Tartar yoke brought two victories: The Battle of Vozha River (1378) and the Battle of Kulikovo (1380).
Although this was arguably the beginning of the end for Mongol-Tartar rule, and foreshadowed the birth of Russia as we know it, the subsequent Siege of Moscow (1382) resulted in Dmitri Donskoi’s defeat and forced allegiance to the Mongol Khan, the (temporary) destruction of the city and the extension of Mongol-Tartar rule for almost a hundred more years, until The Great Standoff on The Ugra River (1480) under Ivan III, which ultimately positioned Moscow to become the capital city of the fledgling Russian Empire. Had the Mongols not been let in through Moscow’s gates under the false oath that they had ceased their attack, the birth of modern Russia may have occurred a century earlier. But once throught the gates, they turned on the Muscovites and sacked the city.
Even under Ivan III and his successors, Moscow still experienced repeated trauma before losing its status as capital city to St. Petersburg in 1712. From 1571 onwards it encountered invasion, fire, foreign occupation and internal uprising, yet somehow survived. New defences were built to encircle Moscow: “Kitay-gorod”, the “White City” and the “Earthen City”. Additional defensive walls were constructed after the city was attacked and burnt again, this time by Crimean Tartars, and still further defensive measures were put in place: a 50-towered, external earthen rampart with a series of fortified monasteries beyond, and ultimately the 16-gated, 25-mile-long “Kamer-Kollezhskiy” Barrier. Internally, the city saw the introduction of cobbled, lit streets during the 18th century, and the ground-breaking Mytischinskiy water-pipe, finished in 1804.
The city was destined to burn again in 1812 during Napoleon’s abortive attempt to conquer Russia. This time the city was set alight and evacuated by the Muscovites themselves, as the French emperor advanced upon the once-capital. Fortunately, the brutal Russian winter came to aid the native, acclimatised population (as it would again at Stalingrad, over a century later), proving instrumental in the defeat and near obliteration of the invading forces.
A spate of re-planning, re-design and building/rebuilding occurred throughout the 19th Century, capped by the completion of the Moskvoretskaya water-supply in 1903. Moscow received its first Mayor in 1905 and was granted capital status again in 1918, one year after the Russian Revolution. Just over four years later, this capital of the “Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic” became that of the larger “Soviet Union”, as the former fused with other socialist republics. In 1941 Moscow came perilously close to occupation again, as the German forces reached the city’s outskirts, only to be diverted from their path at the Battle of Moscow. Interestingly, Stalin remained, refusing to evacuate. In a similar display of stubborn determination, the Moscow Metro (started in 1932) continued to be built, undeterred by bombing and the threat of encroaching German ground assault.
Today, two decades after Gorbachev’s programme of reform, the end of the Cold War and the ultimate demise of the Soviet Union, Moscow is a bustling, successful and often hard-nosed capital, importing and embracing more and more of the long-envied freedoms and dubious excesses of the West, arguably at the expense of some of its own rich culture.
Next time: Trips and Tales (Part 21)
Musings on great cities and on the beaten track in Moscow.
[Photo by Maxim Trudolubov]