KREMLIN

Description

Essentials about the Kremlin in brief

Together with the neighboring Red Square, the Kremlin is the main attraction of Moscow. It is the oldest part of the Russian capital and therefore its historical center. Until the 16th century, the Kremlin served as the residence of the Grand Princes of Moscow and then of the Russian tsars until the transfer of the capital to St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 18th century. In the Middle Ages and early modern times, the Kremlin was also the seat of the metropolitans and later patriarchs of Moscow. After the October Revolution, it once again became the center of state power in 1918. Initially the seat of the Soviet government, it has been the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation since 1992. The name “Kremlin” is therefore also used as a synonym for the entire Soviet or, today, Russian leadership. Within the Kremlin walls are a multitude of cathedrals, palaces and administrative buildings from different eras. Last but not least, the Kremlin is a museum and, as the political and formerly religious center of Russia, a part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The grounds of the Kremlin

Characteristic of the architectural ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin is its fortification complex, which consists of a triangular boundary wall with 20 towers. It was built for the most part between 1485 and 1499 and is well preserved to this day. After its completion, it served several times as a model for similar fortresses built in other Russian cities. Within the Kremlin walls are numerous sacred and secular buildings – cathedrals, palaces and administrative buildings – from different eras. Last but not least, the Kremlin is a museum and, as Russia’s political and former religious center, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1990.

The 27.5-hectare site of the Kremlin is located on Borovitsky Hill, about 25 meters high, on the left bank of the Moskva River. Borovitsky Hill, often referred to simply as Kremlin Hill, is one of the seven hills on which the present-day Moscow city center was built. At the time of Moscow’s foundation it had a particularly good strategic location for building a city. It was washed by rivers on two sides and due to its elevated position it offered its inhabitants not only relatively high security from attackers, but also good protection from floods, which occurred quite frequently in Moscow until the end of the 18th century.

The present Kremlin area has approximately the shape of a triangle. Its southern side completely faces the Moskva River bank, while the western side was formerly washed by the Neglinnaya River (which today runs underground) and today borders the Alexander Garden. The entire eastern section adjoins the famous Red Square.

The walls and towers of the Kremlin

The ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin consists, on the one hand, of the fortification complex, which includes the walls and watchtowers dating back to the late 15th century, and, on the other hand, of the entirety of the buildings, monuments, streets and squares within these fortress walls. The dark red brick Kremlin wall is 2,235 meters long along its entire course. Depending on the topographical conditions, it has a height of 5 to 19 meters, without taking into account the towers built into it, and is at least 3.5 meters thick. In some places, which were considered particularly vulnerable to attack in the Middle Ages, the thickness of the Kremlin wall is up to 6.5 meters.

In addition to the wall itself, the 20 Kremlin towers are part of the citadel’s fortification complex. With the exception of Tsar Tower, erected only in 1680 for purely decorative purposes, all the towers were built at the same time as the wall. When they were built, they had a purely defensive function and only in the 17th century, when the Kremlin’s importance as a fortress gradually declined, were they raised for representational purposes, adding their characteristic tent roofs and spires. All 20 Kremlin towers are different in shape and height, although there are several towers that look very similar when compared superficially. The tallest tower is Troitskaya Tower, located in the central area of the western section of the wall, which has a height of 80 meters, including the spire and the red star crowning it.

Four Kremlin towers have passage gates in their base section, through which the entrance or entry to the Kremlin is made today. These are Borovitsky Tower and the Troitskaya Tower on the western section of the wall, and Nicholas and Spasskaya Tower on the side facing Red Square. Visitors can enter and leave the Kremlin through the former two gates, while the two entrances located on Red Square are currently reserved for the personnel of the Kremlin-based authorities and the soldiers of the Kremlin garrison.

The buildings on the Kremlin grounds

Since its construction at the end of the 15th century, the area of the present Kremlin, surrounded by the fortress wall, has had its approximately triangular shape with the three peaks facing north, southwest and southeast. Some of the buildings on the Kremlin territory stand directly on the Kremlin wall or are even – like the Arsenal – attached to it. Only the southern section of the wall, which stretches along the Moskva River, does not have any additional buildings today. There, on the slopes from the hilltop to the shore, stretches the so-called Secret Corridor Garden, the largest green space on the Kremlin grounds.

A large part of the Kremlin buildings are located a little further behind the walls and are separated by streets and squares, which have their own names similar to all other Moscow streets and squares. Among the well-known squares in the Kremlin are mainly the two squares accessible to tourists: Ivan Square and Cathedral Square. The former, named after the Church of St. Ivan Klimakos that once stood here, is known primarily for its historical significance: From the 14th to the 17th centuries, it was Moscow’s largest and most important square for gatherings and popular festivals. Cathedral Square is known for its self-contained architectural ensemble: The five surviving ecclesiastical buildings of the Kremlin are located here, namely the Cathedrals of the Archangel, the Dormition and the Annunciation, as well as the Church of the Laying Down of the Robe of the Virgin Mary and the Ivan the Great Bell Tower. Geographically, Cathedral Square is also the center of the Kremlin compound as well as the highest point of the Kremlin hill.

Visiting the Kremlin

Since the Moscow Kremlin became open to the public again in the middle of the 20th century after a thirty-year hiatus, it has simultaneously fulfilled two key functions: On the one hand, it is the official residence of the Russian president (or was the seat of the Soviet government until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991), but on the other hand, it is an open-air museum. Due to its function as the presidential seat, the Kremlin is a specially secured area that is accessible to the public only with certain restrictions.

Tourists can enter the Kremlin through the two entrances at Kutafya Tower and Borovitsky Tower and must pass through a security checkpoint. There is a fee for entering the Kremlin. A separate ticket must be purchased to visit the Armory and the exhibitions in the Patriarchal Chambers. Inside the Kremlin, a number of areas are generally off-limits to the public. This applies primarily to the building complex around the Senate Palace, which is part of the President’s official residence.

The history of the Kremlin

Historical traces of the Kremlin

The emergence of the Kremlin proper is closely connected with the foundation and further construction of the city of Moscow, which probably took place in the 11th or 12th century. Nevertheless, several excavations have proved the existence of even much older human settlements on Borovitsky Hill. For example, traces of the Finno-Ugric people of the Merja from the Iron Age were found on parts of the present-day Kremlin site. On the other hand, the settlement of the banks of the Moskva River with Slavic peoples, who can be called the ancestors of today’s Russians, began only at the end of the 1st millennium. Also directly on the Borovitsky Hill objects and remains of fortifications of Slavic settlers were repeatedly found during excavations.

The origin of the Kremlin in the 12th Century

When, around the 10th century, the first cities and smaller states (principalities) gradually began to form across the European part of present-day Russia, a fortified settlement may also have been established on the banks of the Moskva between the mouths of the Neglinnaya and Yausa rivers, which can be regarded as the first Russian precursor of the Kremlin. The Kremlin hill was very suitable for this purpose: this site on a natural elevation, which was washed by rivers on two sides and was originally also noticeably higher and steeper than today, had a strategically and defensively extremely favorable location. Officially, the year 1147 is considered to be the year of Moscow’s foundation, but Moscow was mentioned in preserved written documents of that year as a settlement that had already existed for a longer period of time. The origin of both the Kremlin and the actual city of Moscow can be clearly proven only from documents of the later 12th century.

Since nothing remains of the original buildings of the Kremlin today, conclusions about the possible appearance of the castle in the 12th century can only be drawn on the basis of archaeological finds. Apparently, the enclosure, as well as other defensive structures, was built of wood, since stone fortresses began to be built in Russian lands only a few centuries later. The total length of the enclosure was probably only about 500 meters; thus, the extent of the castle area was much smaller than the present one. In the southwestern part of the present Kremlin, remains of wooden piles from the 12th-century Kremlin wall were discovered in the mid-19th century during the construction of the armory building.

The origin of the name “Kremlin”

The term “Kremlin” did not appear in documents at that time; instead, the fortified place on the Moskva River was simply called “Gorod” (meaning “city”). The term “Kremlin” probably began to prevail only from the 14th century. Its origin is most often assumed to be in Russian or in Primitive Slavonic. Thus, fortified cores of larger Old Russian cities were sometimes called “krom”, “krem” or “kremnik”.

The beginning of the Kremlin as a center of power in the 13th and 14th centuries

Due to frequent fires and raids, the wooden fortifications did not last and had to be rebuilt again and again. It is known, for example, that the Kremlin was burned down in 1179, thus only about 20 years after its presumed construction. Also in the 13th century Moscow was attacked twice by Tartars and destroyed in large parts.

A first radical renewal of the Kremlin began in 1339 under Grand Prince Ivan I “Kalita”. The outdated castle, which had been damaged many times in previous attacks and fires, was demolished in order to build a new Kremlin in its place. Its walls, now about 1,670 meters long, were built of solid oak and additionally covered with clay on the outside for better protection against fire. Ivan also had a wooden grand ducal palace built in the Kremlin. Just over a decade earlier, in 1327, a stone church building was erected in the Kremlin for the first time, the Cathedral of the Dormition, the first predecessor of today’s Kremlin Cathedral of the same name. Incidentally, at the same time, Moscow Metropolitan Peter was the first Russian church leader to have a residence built in the Kremlin, marking the beginning of the Kremlin as the center of power of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The wooden Kremlin of Ivan Kalita’s reign was the first forerunner of today’s Kremlin, the general layout and structure of which are still known today. Its area was much larger than in the 12th century and covered about two thirds of the present Kremlin territory. Even then, Moscow proper was no longer limited to the Kremlin. More and more small merchants’ and craftsmen’s settlements grew up around it, which were protected from possible attacks by an additional fortification wall a few decades later. Both crafts and supra-regional trade flourished there, which was greatly favored by the location on the navigable Moskva River. The most famous of the settlements on the left bank of the Moskva River in front of the Kremlin walls was the suburb of Kitay-gorod immediately east of the Kremlin. Its central marketplace – later known as Red Square – still adjoins the Kremlin to the east and is extremely closely connected with it in its historical development.

The first stone Kremlin in the 14th and 15th centuries

In 1365 a particularly devastating conflagration occurred, during which large parts of the oak walls also collapsed. Since Moscow was still at war with several neighboring principalities at the time, it was necessary to rebuild the castle quickly. To protect against the frequent fires, it was decided for the first time to have the new Kremlin built of stone instead of wood. The walls, which were completed as late as 1367, were somewhat similar to today’s Kremlin walls in terms of their structure – for the first time they were equipped with defense towers at strategically particularly important points. In its extension the Kremlin at that time already corresponded to a large extent to its present form.

The new stone Kremlin, with some modifications and extensions, lasted for more than a century and proved to be much more durable than its wooden predecessors. The inhabitants and defenders of the castle managed to successfully repel several enemy attacks in the late 14th and 15th centuries.

The expansion of the Kremlin in the 15th and 16th centuries

A considerable part of the present structure of the Moscow Kremlin dates from the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century, when the fortifications were completely rebuilt and several new buildings were added inside the Kremlin, some of which still exist today. It was the reign of the Grand Prince Ivan III, who no longer considered the old castle, which in the meantime had become dilapidated in many places, to be adequate for its role. The reason for this was, on the one hand, the considerable revival of the Moscow state, which now united all the former Russian principalities and was able to finally free itself from the centuries-long Mongol-Tatar invasion by 1480.

On the other hand, Ivan’s marriage to the Byzantine empress niece Sofia Palaiologa in 1472 also played a role. As a result of this marriage, Ivan III saw himself as the rightful heir to the rulers of the defunct Byzantine Empire, which is why his Moscow residence was now to be lavishly expanded as an important center of Orthodox Christianity (the so-called “Third Rome”). This prompted Ivan to invite, among others, several master builders from Italy, known for its special architecture, to Moscow for the construction of the new fortress.

The reconstruction and expansion of the Kremlin, which was initiated under Ivan III and was probably the most comprehensive to date, lasted practically his entire reign, i.e. for more than 40 years from 1462 to 1505. Among the first buildings erected in the process was today’s Cathedral of the Dormition, which was completed in 1479.

The new fortress wall of the Kremlin

In the years 1485 to 1499 the entire fortification wall of the Kremlin was renewed. This wall is essentially the Kremlin wall that has survived to this day, and the towers that were built at the same time are also the same – although most of them have been heavily modified over the centuries. The Italian builders used brick for the first time in Moscow’s urban construction history, which still gives the Kremlin its typical dark red color – instead of the former white. The towers were built within firing distance of each other; however, they received their now characteristic tent roofs and spires only at the end of the 17th century.

The new palaces and cathedrals of the Kremlin

Within the Kremlin walls, among the buildings erected at the end of the 15th century, apart from the Cathedral of the Dormition, the most noteworthy is the splendidly decorated Palace of Facets, which today belongs to the ensemble of the Great Kremlin Palace, completed only in the 19th century. It served the Grand Duke as a representative place for ceremonial receptions and acts of state. At about the same time the present ensemble of the Kremlin Cathedral Square was largely completed: The Cathedral of the Dormition and the Palace of Facets were joined by the Church of the Laying Down of the Robe of the Virgin Mary (completed in 1486), the Cathedral of the Annunciation (1489), the Cathedral of the Archangel (1508), and finally the Ivan the Great Bell Tower (1508).

The Kremlin as residence of the Russian Tsars

Under the reign of Ivan IV “the Terrible”, who founded the Tsardom of Russia in 1547, the Kremlin finally advanced to become the residence of the Russian tsars. As late as the beginning of the 17th century, Tsar Boris Godunov planned new ambitious building projects in the Kremlin during his short reign, but only the addition of the current spire to the Ivan the Great Bell Tower and the construction of a new Tsar’s Palace, which was demolished in the 1770s, could be realized. A few years later, all building activity in Moscow and other Russian cities came to a temporary halt when large parts of the Russian Tsardom were dominated by Polish-Lithuanian invaders. During this period, the Kremlin was affected when its buildings were damaged in battles and a large number of treasures and works of art were looted from the Kremlin churches.

The Kremlin in the 17th century

During the 17th century, existing structures were restored and new structures were built. Thus, in this century most of the Kremlin towers were equipped with their characteristic decorative tent roof structures. Another striking new building in the 17th century Kremlin was constructed in 1635-1636, the Terem Palace, now part of the Great Kremlin Palace, which served as the residential residence of Russian tsars and their family members until the end of the century. Finally, it is worth mentioning the buildings of the Church of the Twelve Apostles and the residential and working residence of the Moscow Patriarch, erected in a contiguous complex of buildings. They were completed in 1656 and since then have been able to express in a special way the importance of the Kremlin not only as the residence of secular rulers, but also as the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In the 17th century, apart from the tsar and the clergy, the privilege of living in the Kremlin was reserved only for particularly rich and venerable nobles (the so-called “boyars”) with their families. The only example of a boyar residence of that time preserved in the Kremlin to this day is the so-called Palace of Pleasure from 1651, which originally served as the residence of the Miloslavski family and was converted a few years later as one of the first Russian venues for theatrical performances for the “amusement” of the tsar’s family.

The Kremlin in the 18th century

The beginning of the 18th century marked two historical events for the Kremlin. Firstly, the then Tsar Peter I “the Great” had the new capital of this empire moved from Moscow to the newly founded Saint Petersburg, with deprived the Kremlin of its status as the Tsar’s residence. Secondly, in 1701, the fortress was hit by one of the most momentous major fires in its history, which destroyed most of the wooden buildings that remained there. Regardless of the damage, this fire gave a new impetus to building activity in the Kremlin. On the western section of the Kremlin wall a larger plot of land was uncovered, on which Peter soon ordered the construction of an armory (or, as he himself called it, an “armory”). Thus began the creation of the present arsenal building, which is one of the most striking Kremlin structures of the 18th century.

In 1753, under Empress Elizabeth, a new Moscow residence of the Russian tsar was built on the Kremlin grounds, near the southern section of the wall, which is the immediate predecessor of today’s Great Kremlin Palace. In 1787, another architecturally charming building was built in the Kremlin near the Arsenal, the Senate Palace, which is today the core of the Russian President’s official residence.

The Kremlin in and after the war against Napoleon

In 1812 the Kremlin ensemble again suffered considerable destruction when the entire city of Moscow was temporarily under French occupation during Napoleon Bonaparte’s Russian campaign. During the stay of Napoleon’s troops on the Kremlin premises, a large number of church treasures were looted or damaged. The Kremlin was hit even harder when the French army had to retreat. In revenge for his defeat, Napoleon wanted to blow up the entire Kremlin, including fortifications and other architectural monuments. The area was mined, but due to heavy rain and the fierce resistance of local residents, among other things, explosions occurred only in places. Reconstruction work on the Kremlin continued into the 1830s. In the course of this work, the immediate surroundings of the Kremlin were also redesigned. The riverbed of the Neglinnaya was moved to an underground canal and in its place the Alexander Garden was laid out along the western section of the Kremlin wall. The Red Square was also redesigned.

Finally, at the end of the reconstruction works in the Kremlin, the construction of a new Moscow residence of Russian tsars was begun, exactly where grand dukes’ and tsars’ chambers had stood since the 14th century. Tsar Nicholas I had a new classicist imperial residence built between 1844 and 1851, which, together with the already existing buildings of the Palace of Facets and the Terem Palace, forms the present-day ensemble of the Great Kremlin Palace. Almost at the same time, the new building of the Armory was built next to the new tsar’s residence, which was connected to the palace by a roofed gallery.

The Kremlin in the late 19th century

These projects represented the last major construction activities in the Kremlin in the 19th century and gave the southern part of the Kremlin facing the Moskva River, except for some details, the shape that has been preserved to this day. At the beginning of the 20th century the Kremlin with its two monasteries – the Chudov and the Assumption Monasteries – was still primarily one of the most important Orthodox pilgrimage sites. Notwithstanding the transfer of the tsarist capital to St. Petersburg, the Kremlin also remained one of the centers of state power in the 18th and 19th centuries, as all important acts of state – including the solemn tsarist coronation ceremonies – still took place in the Moscow Kremlin. In addition, the Kremlin was still a comprehensive museum complex during the time of the tsars, and a visit to it was considered obligatory for every visitor to Moscow, and the public had almost unrestricted access to it. However, the latter changed after 1917.

The Kremlin during the October Revolution

For Moscow, the October Revolution of 1917 was associated not only with decisive social upheaval and the end of the Russian Tsarist Empire, but also with several days of fierce fighting, from which the Kremlin ensemble in particular suffered. Several Kremlin towers were severely damaged, and the Chudov Monastery complex and the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary were also severely damaged. After the end of the fighting, the so-called Revolutionary Necropolis was laid out in front of the eastern Kremlin wall on Red Square for the approximately 250 Red Guards who had fallen at that time, where other prominent revolutionaries and statesmen of the Soviet Union were later buried.

The Kremlin in the early Soviet period

The following years marked further drastic changes in the history of the Moscow Kremlin. The new Soviet Russian government, including revolutionary leader Lenin, moved from St. Petersburg (at that time called “Petrograd”) to Moscow on March 12, 1918, as the new rulers hoped for better protection against possible uprisings, coups or foreign interventions behind the walls of the Kremlin. Thus, after two centuries, Moscow regained its capital status, which it still holds today. Several Kremlin buildings were used as residences for statesmen and their relatives and servants.

For the Kremlin, which was now once again the seat of state power, the arrival of the government not only brought rapid reconstruction of the buildings damaged during the fighting. As a highly secured residence, the Kremlin closed its doors to the general public in 1927 and since then could no longer be entered without a pass. All the clergy residing in the Kremlin were also expelled from there in the course of the 1920s. The two monasteries on the Kremlin grounds – the Chudov Monastery and the Ascension Monastery – which had been severely damaged during the fighting in 1917, were initially closed as part of the Bolsheviks’ anti-religious campaign and finally completely demolished in 1929. On the vacated land, by 1934, the new neoclassical-style building of the Military School for Commanders of the Red Army was constructed. Today it is known as the Kremlin Administrative Building and is a part of the Presidential Residence inside the Kremlin.

The Kremlin under Stalin

Under Lenin’s successor Josef Stalin, who also had an apartment set up in the Senate Palace of the Kremlin, further demolitions and architecturally not always successful reconstructions of old buildings were carried out. In 1933, the Great Kremlin Palace was prepared as a conference venue, for which purpose one of the oldest Kremlin buildings preserved up to that time – the neighboring Church of the Redeemer in the Forest from the 1330s – was demolished. Finally, from 1935 to 1937, the gilded double-headed eagles from the tsarist era were removed from the tops of the Kremlin’s four passage towers and replaced with Soviet stars made of red ruby glass to symbolize the new ideology and the victory of the socialist revolution.

During the Battle of Moscow in World War II and the frequent air raids on Moscow at the time, damage to the Kremlin remained comparatively minor because the fortress was well secured by building camouflage and additional anti-aircraft defenses. The movable treasures, including exhibits from the Armory, were evacuated to the Soviet hinterland as a precaution even before the start of hostilities.

The Kremlin under Khrushchev

After Stalin’s death, his comparatively liberal successor, Nikita Khrushchev, relaxed the rules for visiting the Kremlin. From 1955 on, the ensemble within the Kremlin walls could again be entered and visited by the public free of charge. Also, by 1961, the last remaining official residences on Kremlin territory were dissolved. Large parts of the ensemble were prepared as a museum.

The Congress Palace of the Moscow Kremlin, now known as the State Kremlin Palace, was also built during Khrushchev’s reign and is the youngest building on the Kremlin grounds to date. It replaced the Great Kremlin Palace as the central meeting place of the Communist Party and is now used primarily for cultural events. Since the completion of the Congress Palace in 1961, nothing new has been built on the Kremlin grounds; only restoration work on existing structures has been carried out.

The Kremlin after the end of the Soviet Union

With the opening of the Soviet Union during the perestroika period of the late 1980s, the Kremlin’s importance as a major landmark of the country increased increasingly for foreign visitors as well. Despite the damage to the substance of the historic ensemble caused by the construction and demolition campaigns of the 20th century, most of which was irreparable, the Kremlin – together with the neighboring Red Square – therefore became the first structure on Russian territory to be inscribed by UNESCO on the World Heritage List.

Today’s Kremlin as a secular center

In the 1990s and 2000s, further restoration work was carried out in the Kremlin with the aim of preserving the historical substance as an open-air museum. Some interventions in the ensemble dating from the Soviet era were reversed. Even though the Kremlin, as the presidential residence, is currently only partially open to the public, as the oldest part of Moscow it remains its undisputed most important tourist attraction with around two million visitors annually.

Today’s Kremlin as a spiritual center

The Kremlin also currently plays a certain role again in Moscow’s spiritual life, although it is no longer considered a place of pilgrimage for Orthodox believers, as it was before the October Revolution. The Kremlin’s four main surviving church buildings – the Cathedral of the Archangel, the Cathedral of the Dormition, the Cathedral of the Annunciation and the Church of the Laying Down of the Vestments – were returned to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the early 1990s and now serve not only as museums, but also as places of worship, where solemn liturgies take place on certain church feast days, as well as church services with the participation of the Moscow Patriarch and often also high-ranking members of the government.