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95-653: One of the most symbolic constructions in Russia's history , the Moscow Kremlin Wall can be traced back to the 12th century when Moscow was founded in 1147. The original outpost was surrounded by the first walls in 1156, built by Yuri Dolgoruki , prince of Suzdal , which were most likely a simple wooden fence with guard towers. Destroyed in 1238 by the Mongol-Tartar invasion , the Moscow Kremlin

190-662: A vassal of Vladimir, but soon it absorbed its parent state. A major factor in the ascendancy of Moscow was the cooperation of its rulers with the Mongol overlords, who granted them the title of Grand Prince of Moscow and made them agents for collecting the Tatar tribute from the Russian principalities. The principality's prestige was further enhanced when it became the center of the Russian Orthodox Church . Its head,

285-583: A bone fragment found in Denisova Cave , belonging to a female who died about 90,000 years ago, shows that she was a hybrid of a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father . Russia was also home to some of the last surviving Neanderthals - the partial skeleton of a Neanderthal infant in Mezmaiskaya cave in Adygea showed a carbon-dated age of only 45,000 years. In 2008, Russian archaeologists from

380-646: A huge (Europe's biggest) earth- and wood-fortified grad inhabited around 500 BC by Heloni and Budini . In 513 BC, the king of the Achaemenid Empire , Darius I , would launch a military campaign around the Black Sea into Scythia, modern-day Ukraine, eventually reaching the Tanais river (now known as the Don ). Greeks, mostly from the city-state of Miletus , would colonize large parts of modern-day Crimea and

475-702: A powerful, autocratic ruler, a tsar. The first Russian ruler to officially crown himself " Tsar " was Ivan IV . Ivan III tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde over the Rus', renovated the Moscow Kremlin , and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Biographer Fennell concludes that his reign was "militarily glorious and economically sound," and especially points to his territorial annexations and his centralized control over local rulers. However, Fennell argues that his reign

570-641: A result, the Grand Duchy of Moscow tripled in size under his rule. During his conflict with Pskov, a monk named Filofei (Philotheus of Pskov) composed a letter to Ivan III, with the prophecy that the latter's kingdom would be the Third Rome . The Fall of Constantinople and the death of the last Greek Orthodox Christian emperor contributed to this new idea of Moscow as New Rome and the seat of Orthodox Christianity, as did Ivan's 1472 marriage to Byzantine Princess Sophia Palaiologina . Under Ivan III,

665-732: A single state. Between 1922 and 1991 the history of Russia essentially became the history of the Soviet Union . During this period, the Soviet Union was one of the victors in World War II after recovering from a surprise invasion in 1941 by Nazi Germany and its collaborators , which had previously signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union's network of satellite states in Eastern Europe, which were brought into its sphere of influence in

760-581: A vassal to the Golden Horde, not having the strength to resist its power. Daniil Aleksandrovich , the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, founded the principality of Moscow (known as Muscovy in English), which first cooperated with and ultimately expelled the Tatars from Russia. Well-situated in the central river system of Russia and surrounded by protective forests and marshes, Moscow was at first only

855-635: Is a river that flows through western Russia . It rises about 140 km (90 mi) west of Moscow and flows roughly east through the Smolensk and Moscow Oblasts , passing through central Moscow. About 110 km (70 mi) southeast of Moscow, at the city of Kolomna , it flows into the Oka , itself a tributary of the Volga , which ultimately flows into the Caspian Sea . According to recent studies,

950-816: Is a surname, most common in Russia, Bulgaria , Ukraine and North Macedonia . Additionally, there are similarly named places in Poland like Mozgawa . According to one of the Finno-Ugric hypotheses, the Merya and Muroma people, who were among the several pre-Slavic tribes which originally inhabited the area, called the river Mustajoki "Black river", and the name of the river derives from this term. Various other theories (of Celtic , Iranian , Caucasic origins), having little or no scientific ground, are now largely rejected by contemporary linguists. To distinguish

1045-553: Is from the Proto-Balto-Slavic root * mŭzg -/ muzg - from the Proto-Indo-European * meu - "wet", so the name Moskva might signify a river at a wetland or a marsh. Its cognates include Russian : музга , muzga "pool, puddle", Lithuanian : mazgoti and Latvian : mazgāt "to wash", Sanskrit : májjati "to drown", Latin : mergō "to dip, immerse". In many Slavic countries Moskov

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1140-470: Is important for its introduction of a Slavic variant of the Eastern Orthodox religion, dramatically deepening a synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next thousand years. The region adopted Christianity in 988 by the official act of public baptism of Kiev inhabitants by Prince Vladimir I . Some years later the first code of laws, Russkaya Pravda ,

1235-597: Is rated as the worst in Europe, and Russia's human rights situation has been increasingly criticized by international observers. The first human settlement on the territory of Russia dates back to the Oldowan period in the early Lower Paleolithic . About 2 million years ago, representatives of Homo erectus migrated from Western Asia to the North Caucasus (archaeological site of Kermek  [ ru ] on

1330-599: Is the oldest known emblem of the Moscow state in the era of Ivan III , established during the construction of the tower in 1490. It is planned to restore the removed drawing and transfer it to the Moscow Kremlin Museum for safekeeping, and a copy is to be made for the Borovitskaya Tower . Kremlin walls are studied by non-destructive methods, for example, using geophysical radars and pits. During

1425-722: The Arab Caliphates . In the 8th century, the Khazars embraced Judaism. Some of the ancestors of the modern Russians were the Slavic tribes , whose original home is thought by some scholars to have been the Pripet Marshes . The Early East Slavs gradually settled Western Russia in two waves: one moving from Kiev (present-day Ukraine ) towards present-day Suzdal and Murom and another from Polotsk (present-day Belarus ) towards Novgorod and Rostov . From

1520-644: The Cossack leader Stenka Razin , who led a revolt in 1670–1671. In 1721, in the wake of the Great Northern War , Tsar Peter the Great renamed the state as the Russian Empire ; he is also noted for establishing St. Petersburg as the new capital of his Empire, and for his introducing Western European culture to Russia. In 1762, Russia came under the control of Catherine the Great , who continued

1615-749: The Khazars , ruled the lower Volga basin steppes between the Caspian and Black Seas through to the 8th century. Noted for their laws, tolerance, and cosmopolitanism, the Khazars were the main commercial link between the Baltic and the Muslim Abbasid empire centered in Baghdad . They were important allies of the Eastern Roman Empire , and waged a series of successful wars against

1710-852: The Metropolitan , fled from Kiev to Vladimir in 1299 and a few years later established the permanent headquarters of the Church in Moscow under the original title of Kiev Metropolitan. By the middle of the 14th century, the power of the Mongols was declining, and the Grand Princes felt able to openly oppose the Mongol yoke . In 1380, at Battle of Kulikovo on the Don River , the Mongols were defeated, and although this hard-fought victory did not end Tatar rule of Russia, it did bring great fame to

1805-545: The Moscow Canal (1932–1937), the Moskva River has also collected a share of Upper Volga water. This has enabled reliable commercial shipping, which was previously interrupted by summer droughts (older dams built in 1785, 1836 and 1878 were not effective). The average discharge , including Volga waters, varies from 38 m /s (1,300 cu ft/s) near Zvenigorod to 250 m /s (8,800 cu ft/s) at

1900-542: The Mukachyovo village 30 virsts (country miles) from Moscow, limestone was hauled back on sledges, allowing the construction of the first stone walls to begin the following spring. The walls successfully withstood two sieges during the Lithuanian–Muscovite War (1368–72) . Within a few years the city was adorned with beautiful white-stone walls. Whilst it was successfully invaded by the Tatars again in 1382,

1995-515: The Pontic Steppe was known as " Scythia ". ) Remnants of these long-gone steppe cultures were discovered in the course of the 20th century in such places as Ipatovo , Sintashta , Arkaim , and Pazyryk . In the later part of the 8th century BCE, Greek merchants brought classical civilization to the trade emporiums in Tanais and Phanagoria . Gelonus was described by Herodotus as

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2090-773: The Russian Revolution in 1917. The end of the monarchy initially brought into office a coalition of liberals and moderate socialists, but their failed policies led to the October Revolution . In 1922, Soviet Russia , along with the Ukrainian SSR , Byelorussian SSR , and Transcaucasian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR , officially merging all four republics to form the Soviet Union as

2185-638: The Russian famine of 1601–1603 and increased the social disorganization. Boris Godunov 's reign ended in chaos, civil war combined with foreign intrusion, devastation of many cities and depopulation of the rural regions. The country rocked by internal chaos also attracted several waves of interventions by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . During the Polish–Muscovite War (1605–1618) , Polish–Lithuanian forces reached Moscow and installed

2280-570: The Russian language was little influenced by the Greek and Latin of early Christian writings. This was because Church Slavonic was used directly in liturgy instead. A nomadic Turkic people, the Kipchaks (also known as the Cumans), replaced the earlier Pechenegs as the dominant force in the south steppe regions neighbouring to Rus' at the end of the 11th century and founded a nomadic state in

2375-763: The Sea of Azov during the seventh and sixth centuries BC, eventually unifying into the Bosporan Kingdom by 480 BC, and would be incorporated into the large Kingdom of Pontus in 107 BC. The Kingdom would eventually be conquered by the Roman Republic , and the Bosporan Kingdom would become a client state of the Roman Empire . At about the 2nd century AD Goths migrated to the Black Sea, and in

2470-586: The Stolypin reforms of 1906–1914, the constitution of 1906 , and the State Duma (1906–1917) attempted to open and liberalize the economy and political system, but the emperors refused to relinquish autocratic rule and resisted sharing their power. A combination of economic breakdown, mismanagement over Russia's involvement in World War I , and discontent with the autocratic system of government triggered

2565-593: The Taman Peninsula ). At Bogatyri/Sinyaya balka  [ ru ] , in a skull of Elasmotherium caucasicum , which lived 1.5–1.2 million years ago, a stone tool was found. 1.5-million-year-old Oldowan flint tools have been discovered in the Dagestan Akusha region of the north Caucasus, demonstrating the presence of early humans in the territory of present-day Russia. Fossils of Denisovans in Russia date to about 110,000 years ago. DNA from

2660-580: The Time of Troubles , ending with the coronation of Michael Romanov as the first Tsar of the Romanov dynasty in 1613. During the rest of the seventeenth century, Russia completed the exploration and conquest of Siberia , claiming lands as far as the Pacific Ocean by the end of the century. Domestically, Russia faced numerous uprisings of the various ethnic groups under their control, as exemplified by

2755-605: The Treaty of Pereyaslav between Russia and the Ukrainian Cossacks . In the treaty, Russia granted protection to the Cossacks state in Left-bank Ukraine , formerly under Polish control. This triggered a prolonged Russo-Polish War (1654–1667) , which ended with the Treaty of Andrusovo , where Poland accepted the loss of Left-bank Ukraine, Kiev and Smolensk . The Russian conquest of Siberia , begun at

2850-579: The petty principalities around Moscow had been united with the Grand Duchy of Moscow , which took full control of its own sovereignty under Ivan the Great . Ivan the Terrible transformed the Grand Duchy into the Tsardom of Russia in 1547. However, the death of Ivan's son Feodor I without issue in 1598 created a succession crisis and led Russia into a period of chaos and civil war known as

2945-491: The 17th century, culminating in the first Russian colonisation of the Pacific in the mid-17th century, the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667) that incorporated left-bank Ukraine, and the Russian conquest of Siberia . Poland was divided in the 1790–1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, south of Siberia. Moskva River The Moskva ( Russian : река Москва, Москва-река , Moskva-reka )

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3040-420: The 3rd and 4th centuries AD, a semi-legendary Gothic kingdom of Oium existed in Southern Russia until it was overrun by Huns . Between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD, the Bosporan Kingdom was also overwhelmed by successive waves of nomadic invasions, led by warlike tribes which would often move on to Europe, as was the case with the Huns and Turkish Avars . In the second millennium BC, the territories between

3135-436: The 7th century onwards, East Slavs constituted the bulk of the population in Western Russia and slowly conquered and assimilated the native Finnic and Baltic tribes , such as the Merya , the Muromians , and the Meshchera . Scandinavian Norsemen, known as Vikings in Western Europe and Varangians in the East, combined piracy and trade throughout Northern Europe. In the mid-9th century, they began to venture along

3230-419: The Borovitskaya tower. Before 1917 it was also possible to book an excursion, lasting over two hours, to walk along the perimeter of the Kremlin walls, beginning at the Borovitskaya tower. The southern part of the wall faces the Moskva River . The eastern part faces Red Square . The western part, formerly facing the Neglinnaya River , is now part of the Alexander Garden . The bridge which previously crossed

3325-419: The Byzantine Empire in 988, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated as a state due to the Mongol invasions in 1237–1240. After the 13th century, Moscow emerged as a significant political and cultural force, driving the unification of Russian territories . By the end of the 15th century, many of

3420-400: The Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy . Moscow's leadership in Russia was now firmly based and by the middle of the 14th century its territory had greatly expanded through purchase, war, and marriage. In the 15th century, the grand princes of Moscow continued to consolidate Russian land to increase their population and wealth. The most successful practitioner of this process was Ivan III , who laid

3515-517: The Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of Novosibirsk , working at the site of Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of Siberia , uncovered a 40,000-year-old small bone fragment from the fifth finger of a juvenile hominin , which DNA analysis revealed to be a previously unknown species of human, which was named the Denisova hominin . The first trace of Homo sapiens on the large expanse of Russian territory dates back to 45,000 years, in central Siberia ( Ust'-Ishim man ). The discovery of some of

3610-405: The Kama and the Irtysh Rivers were the home of a Proto-Uralic-speaking population that had contacts with Proto-Indo-European speakers from the south. The woodland population is the ancestor of the modern Ugrian inhabitants of Trans-Uralia. Other researchers say that the Khanty people originated in the south Ural steppe and moved northwards into their current location about 500 AD. A Turkic people,

3705-416: The Khazars. Thus, the first East Slavic state, Rus' , emerged in the 9th century along the Dnieper River valley. A coordinated group of princely states with a common interest in maintaining trade along the river routes, Kievan Rus' controlled the trade route for furs, wax, and slaves between Scandinavia and the Byzantine Empire along the Volkhov and Dnieper Rivers. By the end of the 10th century,

3800-407: The Kremlin appears as a loose triangle, deviating from the geometric ideal on the southern side where instead of a straight line, it repeats the contours on the original hill on which the Kremlin rests. Because of this the vertical profile is by no means uniform, and the height at some places ranges from no more than 5 metres (16 ft) quadrupling to 19 metres (62 ft) elsewhere. The thickness of

3895-402: The Moskva River and from the Upper Volga reservoirs (north and north-west of the city). Canals, built within Moscow city limits, have created a number of islands. Some of them have names in Russian, some have none. Major, permanent islands (west to east) are: One of the most famous is an unnamed artificial island in the center of the city between the river proper and the Bypass Canal There

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3990-403: The Moskva and Oka — Kolomna . As of 2007, there are 49 bridges across the Moskva River and its canals within Moscow city limits; the first stone bridge, Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge , was erected in 1692. Within the city, the river is 120–200 metres (390–660 ft) wide, the narrowest point being under the Kremlin walls. Drinking water for the city of Moscow is collected from five stations on

4085-404: The Oka inlet. The speed of the current, depending on the season, varies from 0.1 m/s (0.33 ft/s) (winter, dams closed) to 1.5–2.0 m/s (4.9–6.6 ft/s) (May, dams open). Moscow ( Москва́ ), the capital of Russia, is situated on its banks. The river also flows through the towns of Mozhaysk , Zvenigorod , Zhukovsky , Bronnitsy , Voskresensk , and — at the confluence of

4180-423: The Polish prince Władysław IV Vasa as the Tsar of Russia on 6 September [ O.S. 27 August] 1610. The Poles occupied Moscow on 21 September [ O.S. 11 September] 1610. Moscow revolted but riots there were brutally suppressed and the city was set on fire. The crisis provoked a patriotic national uprising against the invasion , both in 1611 and 1612. A volunteer army, led by

4275-433: The Rus' principalities, along with tax collection by various overlords such as the Crimean Khans , continued into the early 16th century, despite later claims of Muscovite bookmen that the indecisive standoff at the Ugra in 1480 had signified "the end of the Tatar yoke" and the "liberation of Russia". The Mongols dominated the lower reaches of the Volga and held Russia in sway from their western capital at Sarai , one of

4370-495: The Russians defeated the Crimean Tatar army at the Battle of Molodi and Ivan abandoned the oprichnina . At the end of Ivan IV's reign the Polish–Lithuanian and Swedish armies carried out a powerful intervention in Russia, devastating its northern and northwest regions. The death of Ivan's childless son Feodor was followed by a period of civil wars and foreign intervention known as the Time of Troubles (1606–13). Extremely cold summers (1601–1603) wrecked crops, which led to

4465-412: The Russians in such areas as military tactics and transportation. Under Mongol occupation, Muscovy also developed its postal road network, census, fiscal system, and military organization. At the same time, Prince of Novgorod, Alexander Nevsky , managed to repel the offensive of the Northern Crusades against Novgorod from the West. Despite this, becoming the Grand Prince, Alexander declared himself

4560-450: The Sit' River , and then moved west into Poland and Hungary . By then they had conquered most of the Russian principalities. Only the Novgorod Republic escaped occupation and continued to flourish in the orbit of the Hanseatic League . The impact of the Mongol invasion on the territories of Kievan Rus' was uneven. The advanced city culture was almost completely destroyed. As older centers such as Kiev and Vladimir never recovered from

4655-407: The Soviet Union , leaving Russia again on its own and marking the start of the history of post-Soviet Russia . The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic renamed itself as the Russian Federation and became the primary successor state to the Soviet Union . Russia retained its nuclear arsenal but lost its superpower status. Scrapping the central planning and state-ownership of property of

4750-527: The Soviet era in the 1990s, new leaders, led by President Vladimir Putin , took political and economic power after 2000 and engaged in an assertive foreign policy . Coupled with economic growth, Russia has since regained significant global status as a world power. Russia's 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula led to economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union . Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine led to significantly expanded sanctions . Under Putin's leadership, corruption in Russia

4845-399: The Spasskaya tower are normally (with the exception of official and religious ceremonies) closed to the public. The gates under the Nikolskaya tower are often used for service duties only. Visitors to the Kremlin normally enter the premises via the gates under the Troitksaya tower, except for those who wish to visit the Armoury chamber and the Treasury fond, which are accessible via the gates of

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4940-424: The boyars cooperated with the first Romanovs, enabling them to finish the work of bureaucratic centralization. Thus, the state required service from both the old and the new nobility, primarily in the military. In return, the tsars allowed the boyars to complete the process of enserfing the peasants. In the preceding century, the state had gradually curtailed peasants' rights to move from one landlord to another. With

5035-406: The closing stages of World War II, helped the country become a superpower competing with fellow superpower the United States and other Western countries in the Cold War . By the mid-1980s, with the weaknesses of Soviet economic and political structures becoming acute, Mikhail Gorbachev embarked on major reforms, which eventually led to the weakening of the communist party and dissolution of

5130-400: The current riverbed of the Moscow River was occupied about 12 thousand years ago. In addition to Finnic tribes, the Moskva River is also the origin of Slavic tribes such as the Vyatichi tribe. The name of the city is thought to be derived from the name of the river. Several theories of the origin of the name have been proposed. The most linguistically well-grounded and widely accepted

5225-512: The declining Golden Horde , now divided into several Khanates and hordes. Ivan and his successors sought to protect the southern boundaries of their domain against attacks of the Crimean Tatars and other hordes. To achieve this aim, they sponsored the construction of the Great Abatis Belt and granted manors to nobles, who were obliged to serve in the military. The manor system provided a basis for an emerging cavalry-based army. In this way, internal consolidation accompanied outward expansion of

5320-494: The devastation of the initial attack, the new cities of Moscow, Tver and Nizhny Novgorod began to compete for hegemony in the Mongol-dominated Rus' principalities under the suzerainty of the Golden Horde . Although a coalition of Rus' princes led by Dmitry Donskoy defeated Mongol warlord Mamai at Kulikovo in 1380, forces of the new khan Tokhtamysh and his Rus' allies immediately sacked Moscow in 1382 as punishment for resisting Mongol authority. Mongol domination of

5415-475: The earliest evidence for the presence of anatomically modern humans found anywhere in Europe was reported in 2007 from the Kostenki archaeological site near the Don River in Russia (dated to at least 40,000 years ago ) and at Sungir (34,600 years ago). Humans reached Arctic Russia ( Mamontovaya Kurya ) by 40,000 years ago. During the prehistoric eras the vast steppes of Southern Russia were home to tribes of nomadic pastoralists . (In classical antiquity,

5510-458: The end of the 16th century, continued in the 17th century. By the end of the 1640s, the Russians reached the Pacific Ocean, the Russian explorer Semyon Dezhnev , discovered the strait between Asia and America. Russian expansion in the Far East faced resistance from Qing China . After the war between Russia and China, the Treaty of Nerchinsk was signed, delimiting the territories in the Amur region. Rather than risk their estates in more civil war,

5605-443: The erection of a new defence perimeter including Antonio Fryazin (Antonio Gilardi), Marko Fryazin (Marco Ruffo), Pyotr Fryazin ( Pietro Antonio Solari ) and Alexei Fryazin the Old ( Aloisio da Milano ). (The term Fryazin was used to refer to all people of Italian origin at this time). The new walls were erected by building on top of the older walls (some white stone can still be seen at the base in some places). The thickness and height

5700-473: The faction controlling the throne. However, the Time of Troubles caused the loss of much territory to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Russo-Polish war , as well as to the Swedish Empire in the Ingrian War . In February 1613, after the chaos and expulsion of the Poles from Moscow, a national assembly elected Michael Romanov , the young son of Patriarch Filaret , to the throne. The Romanov dynasty ruled Russia until 1917. The immediate task of

5795-458: The first Russian feudal representative body ( Zemsky Sobor ), curbed the influence of the clergy, and introduced local self-management in rural regions. Tsar also created the first regular army in Russia: Streltsy . His long Livonian War (1558–1583) for control of the Baltic coast and access to the sea trade ultimately proved a costly failure. Ivan managed to annex the Khanates of Kazan , Astrakhan , and Siberia . These conquests complicated

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5890-414: The first central government bodies were created in Russia: Prikaz . The Sudebnik was adopted, the first set of laws since the 11th century. The double-headed eagle was adopted as the coat of arms of Russia . Ivan proclaimed his absolute sovereignty over all Russian princes and nobles. Refusing further tribute to the Tatars, Ivan initiated a series of attacks that opened the way for the complete defeat of

5985-401: The foundations for a Russian national state. Ivan competed with his powerful northwestern rival, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , for control over some of the semi-independent Upper Principalities in the upper Dnieper and Oka River basins. Through the defections of some princes, border skirmishes, and a long war with the Novgorod Republic, Ivan III was able to annex Novgorod and Tver. As

6080-404: The ground level it is only possible to enter six of the towers, the rest only from the walls. Four gate towers exist, all crowned with ruby stars, they are Spasskaya, Borovitskaya, Troitskaya and Nikolskaya. Although up to the 1930 it was also possible to enter the Kremlin via the gates of Tainitskaya tower, however these were covered up yet leaving their portal clearly visible. The main gates in

6175-515: The histories of the East Slavs . The traditional start date of specifically Russian history is the establishment of the Rus' state in the north in the year 862, ruled by Varangians . In 882, Prince Oleg of Novgorod seized Kiev , uniting the northern and southern lands of the Eastern Slavs under one authority, moving the governance center to Kiev by the end of the 10th century, and maintaining northern and southern parts with significant autonomy from each other. The state adopted Christianity from

6270-469: The impostor False Dmitriy I in 1605, then supported False Dmitry II in 1607. The decisive moment came when a combined Russian-Swedish army was routed by the Polish forces under hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski at the Battle of Klushino on 4 July [ O.S. 24 June] 1610. As the result of the battle, the Seven Boyars , a group of Russian nobles, deposed the tsar Vasily Shuysky on 27 July [ O.S. 17 July] 1610, and recognized

6365-412: The interior corridors inside the walls have rooms with no exterior illumination ( kamoras ) where particularly dangerous criminals were contained. To date twenty towers survived, highlighting the walls. Built at a different time, the oldest one, Tainitskaya dates to 1485 whilst the newest one-Tsarskaya to 1680. Three of the towers, located in the corners of the castle have unique circular profiles. From

6460-414: The largest cities of the medieval world. The princes had to pay tribute to the Mongols of the Golden Horde, commonly called Tatars ; but in return they received charters authorizing them to act as deputies to the khans. In general, the princes were allowed considerable freedom to rule as they wished, while the Russian Orthodox Church even experienced a spiritual revival. The Mongols left their impact on

6555-409: The massive fortification suffered no damage. Dmitry Donskoy's walls stood for over a century, and it was during this period that Muscovy rose as the dominant power in Northeastern Rus. By the end of the 15th century, however, it was clear that the old constructions had long passed their time and Czar Ivan the Great 's visions. Between 1485 and 1495 a whole brigade of Italian architects took part in

6650-407: The merchant Kuzma Minin and prince Dmitry Pozharsky , expelled the foreign forces from the capital on 4 November [ O.S. 22 October] 1612. The Russian statehood survived the "Time of Troubles" and the rule of weak or corrupt Tsars because of the strength of the government's central bureaucracy. Government functionaries continued to serve, regardless of the ruler's legitimacy or

6745-453: The migration of aggressive nomadic hordes from Asia to Europe via the Volga and Urals . Through these conquests, Russia acquired a significant Muslim Tatar population and emerged as a multiethnic and multiconfessional state. Also around this period, the mercantile Stroganov family established a firm foothold in the Urals and recruited Russian Cossacks to colonise Siberia. In the later part of his reign, Ivan divided his realm in two. In

6840-458: The minority Norse military aristocracy had merged with the native Slavic population, which also absorbed Greek Christian influences in the course of the multiple campaigns to loot Tsargrad , or Constantinople . One such campaign claimed the life of the foremost Slavic druzhina leader, Svyatoslav I , who was renowned for having crushed the power of the Khazars on the Volga. Kievan Rus'

6935-673: The new monarch was to restore peace. Fortunately for Moscow, its major enemies, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden , were engaged in a bitter conflict with each other, which provided Russia the opportunity to make peace with Sweden in 1617 and to sign a truce with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1619. Recovery of lost territories began in the mid-17th century, when the Khmelnitsky Uprising (1648–1657) in Ukraine against Polish rule brought about

7030-564: The perimeter on the outside. During the reign of Czar Alexei Romanov , the towers were built up with decorative spires and the walls were restored. However their historical mightiness was dampened as the material became brick not stone. Successive restorations of varying scale took place during the reigns of Empress Elizabeth and Alexander the First as well as the later Soviet and Russian times, preserving their original character and style. With an outer perimeter of 2,235 metres (7,333 ft),

7125-577: The periphery of Kiev, would establish the basis for the modern Russian nation. The invading Mongols accelerated the fragmentation of the Rus '. In 1223, the disunited southern princes faced a Mongol raiding party at the Kalka River and were soundly defeated. In 1237–1238 the Mongols burnt down the city of Vladimir (4 February 1238) and other major cities of northeast Russia, routed the Russians at

7220-483: The pits, wooden piles used by ancient builders to compact soils were found. It was also during this period that the bases of the walls were examined for the first time. It was found out that the foundation was 7-11 metres deep and there were also found pieces of granite, presumably from Valday . 55°44′57″N 37°37′0″E  /  55.74917°N 37.61667°E  / 55.74917; 37.61667 History of Russia The history of Russia begins with

7315-529: The population were subject to military levy and special taxes. Riots among peasants and citizens of Moscow at this time were endemic and included the Salt Riot (1648), Copper Riot (1662), and the Moscow Uprising (1682). By far the greatest peasant uprising in 17th-century Europe erupted in 1667. As the free settlers of South Russia, the Cossacks , reacted against the growing centralization of

7410-635: The princely family that ruled it collectively. Kiev's dominance waned, to the benefit of Vladimir-Suzdal in the north-east, Novgorod in the north, and Halych-Volhynia in the south-west. Conquest by the Mongol Golden Horde in the 13th century was the final blow. Kiev was destroyed. Halych-Volhynia would eventually be absorbed into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , while the Mongol-dominated Vladimir-Suzdal and independent Novgorod Republic , two regions on

7505-401: The reign of Ivan IV (1547–1584), known as "Ivan the Terrible". He strengthened the position of the monarch to an unprecedented degree, as he ruthlessly subordinated the nobles to his will, exiling or executing many on the slightest provocation. Nevertheless, Ivan is often seen as a farsighted statesman who reformed Russia as he promulgated a new code of laws ( Sudebnik of 1550 ), established

7600-690: The river and the city, Russians usually call the river Moskva-reka (Moskva river) instead of just Moskva . The river is 473 km (294 mi) long (or 502 km (312 mi)), and the area of its drainage basin is 17,600 km (6,800 sq mi). It has a vertical drop of 155 m (509 ft) (long-term average). The maximum depth is 3 metres (9.8 ft) above Moscow city limits, and up to 6 metres (20 ft) below it. Normally, it freezes in November–December and begins to thaw around late March. During an unusually warm winter in 2006–2007, ice began melting on January 25. The portion of

7695-548: The river running through Moscow only freezes occasionally on account of contamination. The absolute water level in downtown Moscow is 120 metres (390 ft) above sea level (long-term average of summer lows after World War II ); a historical maximum of 127.25 metres (417.5 ft) above sea level was set by the 1908 flood. The main tributaries of the Moskva are, from source to mouth: Sources of water are estimated as 61% thaw, 12% rain and 27% subterranean. Since completion of

7790-456: The river still stands, and is done in the same style as the Kremlin wall. Various sections of the Moscow Kremlin Wall are periodically restored and the condition of the battlements is constantly monitored. In 2015, the largest restoration in recent memory began. Brickwork and white stone decorations were repaired along the 500-metre stretch. Some of the bricks were replaced with new ones made of

7885-483: The same materials using the old technology. Waterproofing works were carried out. For the first time in 150 years, the Troitskaya Tower was restored. In 2016, restoration work was carried out on a 500-metre-long section of the wall. As part of the restoration, the Borovitskaya Tower was renovated and preparations were made to preserve three unique relief white-stone emblems on its outer corners. One of them

7980-502: The state now fully sanctioning serfdom , runaway peasants became state fugitives, and the power of the landlords over the peasants "attached" to their land had become almost complete. Together, the state and the nobles placed an overwhelming burden of taxation on the peasants, whose rate was 100 times greater in the mid-17th century than it had been a century earlier. Likewise, middle-class urban tradesmen and craftsmen were assessed taxes, and were forbidden to change residence. All segments of

8075-609: The state, serfs escaped from their landlords and joined the rebels. The Cossack leader Stenka Razin led his followers up the Volga River, inciting peasant uprisings and replacing local governments with Cossack rule. The tsar's army finally crushed his forces in 1670; a year later Stenka was captured and beheaded. Yet, less than half a century later, the strains of military expeditions produced another revolt in Astrakhan , ultimately subdued. Much of Russia's expansion occurred in

8170-412: The state. By the 16th century, the rulers of Moscow considered the entire Russian territory their collective property. Various semi-independent princes still claimed specific territories, but Ivan III forced the lesser princes to acknowledge the grand prince of Moscow and his descendants as unquestioned rulers with control over military, judicial, and foreign affairs. Gradually, the Russian ruler emerged as

8265-452: The steppes along the Black Sea (Desht-e-Kipchak). Repelling their regular attacks, especially in Kiev, was a heavy burden for the southern areas of Rus'. The nomadic incursions caused a massive influx of Slavs to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north, particularly to the area known as Zalesye . Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated as a state because of in-fighting between members of

8360-517: The walls also varies from 3.5 to 6.5 metres (11 to 21 ft). The top of the walls, along their entire length, have outwardly-invisible battle platforms which also range from 2 to 4.5 metres (6 ft 7 in to 14 ft 9 in) in width (in proportion to the thickness). A total of 1,045 double-horned notched "teeth" crown the top of the walls, with a height ranging from 2 to 2.5 metres (6 ft 7 in to 8 ft 2 in) and thickness from 65 to 75 centimetres (26 to 30 in). Some of

8455-883: The waterways from the eastern Baltic to the Black and Caspian Seas . According to the legendary Calling of the Varangians , recorded in several Rus' chronicles such as the Novgorod First Chronicle and Primary Chronicle , the Varangians Rurik , Sineus and Truvor were invited in the 860s to restore order in three towns – either Novgorod (most texts) or Staraya Ladoga ( Hypatian Codex ); Beloozero ; and Izborsk (most texts) or "Slovensk" ( Pskov Third Chronicle ), respectively. Their successors allegedly moved south and extended their authority to Kiev , which had been previously dominated by

8550-585: The westernizing policies of Peter the Great, and ushered in the era of the Russian Enlightenment . Catherine's grandson, Alexander I , repulsed an invasion by the French Emperor Napoleon , leading Russia into the status of one of the great powers . Peasant revolts intensified during the nineteenth century, culminating with Alexander II abolishing Russian serfdom in 1861. In the following decades, reform efforts such as

8645-568: The zone known as the oprichnina , Ivan's followers carried out a series of bloody purges of the feudal aristocracy (whom he suspected of treachery after prince Andrey Kurbsky 's betrayal), culminating in the Massacre of Novgorod in 1570. This combined with the military losses, epidemics, and poor harvests so weakened Russia that the Crimean Tatars were able to sack central Russian regions and burn down Moscow in 1571 . However, in 1572

8740-452: Was also "a period of cultural depression and spiritual barrenness. Freedom was stamped out within the Russian lands. By his bigoted anti-Catholicism Ivan brought down the curtain between Russia and the west. For the sake of territorial aggrandizement he deprived his country of the fruits of Western learning and civilization." The development of the Tsar's autocratic powers reached a peak during

8835-415: Was dramatically increased requiring many wooden houses which surrounded the Kremlin to be torn down. In the following centuries Moscow expanded rapidly outside the Kremlin walls and as Russia's borders became more and more secure their defensive duty has all but passed. The cannons which were installed in the walls were removed after the turn of the 17th century, as was the second, smaller wall which repeated

8930-592: Was introduced by Yaroslav the Wise . From the onset, the Kievan princes followed the Byzantine example and kept the Church dependent on them. By the 11th century, particularly during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise , Kievan Rus' displayed an economy and achievements in architecture and literature superior to those that then existed in the western part of the continent. Compared with the languages of European Christendom,

9025-484: Was rebuilt by the Russian Knyaz Ivan Kalita . In 1339-1340 he erected a bigger fortress on the site of the original outpost which was defended by massive oak walls. Thought to be an impenetrable defence from raids, it was proven to be useless against raids which burned Moscow in 1365. Nevertheless, the young knyaz Dmitry Donskoy in 1367 began a rebuilding of the fortress. All winter long from

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