RED SQUARE

Description

Essentials about Red Square in brief

It is the most famous square in Russia and, along with the Kremlin, the main sight of Moscow: Red Square. Due to its historical importance and the many worth seeing buildings that surround it, such as the Kremlin, St. Basil’s Cathedral, the GUM Department Store, Kazan Cathedral, Lenin’s Mausoleum and the State Historical Museum, Red Square has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990.

The layout of Red Square

The square has an approximately rectangular shape, is 70 meters wide and 330 meters long. It extends lengthwise from northwest to southeast along a section of the Kremlin wall, which forms its boundary on the southwestern side. To the northeast, the square is bordered by the imposing GUM Department Store building and the historic Kitai-gorod district. To the northwest are the famous State Historical Museum and the Resurrection Gate. And the conclusion of the square in the southeast is represented by the world-famous St. Basil’s Cathedral. Visitors can look at Red Square and its architecture at their leisure, because with the exception of the access road to the Kremlin’s Redeemer’s Gate leading through it, the square is a pedestrian zone.

The name “Red Square”

To dispel a widespread misconception right at the beginning: The name “Red Square” has no relation to communism or the Soviet Union, nor to the color of the Kremlin walls and towers. In fact, the name is documented as early as the 17th century (when the Tsar still ruled Russia and the Kremlin walls were painted white) and actually means “beautiful square”. The adjective “krasny” originally meant both “red” and “beautiful” in the Russian language. However, over time it has lost the meaning “beautiful” and is now used in everyday language only as “red”.

The history of Red Square

Red Square in the 14th century

The emergence of today’s Red Square is directly connected with the expansion of the old tsarist capital Moscow beyond the boundaries of its core, the medieval fortress of the Kremlin. For several centuries after the foundation of Moscow in 1147, the Kremlin was the city proper, while the areas outside its walls were either quite rural or completely uninhabited. It was not until the 14th century that the craftsmen’s and merchants’ settlement of Kitai-gorod grew up outside the Kremlin walls, and its inhabitants sold their products on the Kremlin grounds.

Red Square in the 15th century

When towards the end of the 15th century the trading activities in numerous, rather chaotically arranged stalls and booths almost overflowed the territory of the Kremlin, the Moscow Grand Duke Ivan III decided to have trade outside the Kremlin moved to Kitai-gorod so that the inhabitants of the fortress would not feel inconvenienced by the traders and the defensibility of the complex would be preserved in case of attack.

The specific reason for this relocation was brought about in 1493 by one of the then frequent major fires in Kitai-gorod, which was dominated by wooden buildings, in which a large number of the houses east of the Kremlin were destroyed. Shortly thereafter, a tsar’s decree was issued, according to which all rows of markets were to be moved from the territory of the Kremlin in front of its eastern walls, and the fire-ravaged area immediately adjacent to these eastern walls was not to be built on with houses, so that a possible fire could not endanger the Kremlin. Therefore, the year 1493 is also considered to be the year of origin of Red Square, even though there might have been a square in this area even before that.

Red Square in the 16th century

In the 16th century, the square had little in common with an ordinary inner-city square; rather, the newly created open space to the east of the Moscow Kremlin resembled a huge bazaar, whose numerous rows were bustling with activity throughout the day. All kinds of goods from all over Russia and abroad were offered here.

The marketplace did not have an official name in the 16th century. It is true that the former main market square inside the Kremlin had already borne the name “Beautiful Square” before its relocation. However, it was to take several centuries before the name followed the actual square out of the Kremlin. In the vernacular, the name Torg (meaning “trade”) was initially common for this square due to its primary importance. After the wooden Holy Trinity Church was built in 1552 on the very spot where today’s St. Basil’s Cathedral stands, the name “Holy Trinity Square” became common.

Red Square from the 17th to the 19th century

On the other hand, the lively trade on Holy Trinity Square remained unchanged for decades, which ultimately led to it being built up with ever larger market stalls, craftsmen’s booths and tents. Again and again, the tsars issued decrees to demolish certain buildings and to refrain from erecting houses on the square in the following. But this was of little use, because the buildings destroyed in the frequent fires were always rebuilt from scratch. That is why the square was often called Poschar (meaning “fire”) in the vernacular until the 17th century.

The decisive transformation of the square from a purely commercial place to the literal “Beautiful Square” of the tsarist capital began at the end of the 17th century. In the 1690s, the state authorities had all the market rows, some of which reached right up to the Kremlin wall, moved a few hundred meters lower to Kitai-gorod. Consequently, the various rows of shops were created there, some of which are considered to be the forerunners of today’s GUM Department Store on the east side of Red Square.

Meanwhile, on the vacated Trinity Square, in the late 17th as well as in the 18th century, in addition to St. Basil’s Cathedral, completed as early as 1561, several architecturally sophisticated buildings were erected, including Kazan Cathedral and the building of the Governor’s Administration. In addition, during the reign of Catherine the Great, the square, which had previously been almost entirely unpaved, received a wooden plank pavement for the first time, which was finally replaced by cobblestones in 1804. From the late 17th century, when the embellishment of the square had just begun, also date the first historical documents in which it is first referred to under its present name Krasnaya Ploshchad, meaning “the Beautiful Square”.

For centuries, Red Square subsequently retained its unchallenged role as the central square of Moscow. Before the move of the capital of the Russian Tsarist Empire to the newly founded Saint Petersburg, the laws and decrees of the Tsar were publicly proclaimed on the Red Square. It was also the site of various folk festivals and all official ceremonies, such as military parades and Orthodox services on important holidays.

Red Square in the 20th century

The present architectural ensemble of Red Square was essentially completed at the beginning of the 20th century, after its northeastern side was built up with the new building of the GUM Department Store and the very similarly designed wholesale building right next to it.

A few months after the political upheaval in Russia brought about by the October Revolution of 1917, Moscow became the capital again and Red Square became the main grandstand of the new state power. The most important relic of the Soviet period is the prominent Mausoleum of Lenin. In addition, Red Square became a regular venue for military parades and other propaganda events during Soviet times. Even today, the pompous parade marking Victory Day against Nazi Germany in World War II is held annually on May 9.