Today, we discuss the history of one of Russia's most famous architectural achievements, The Kremlin.
Today, we discuss the history of one of Russia's most famous architectural achievements, The Kremlin.
Episode 298 – The Kremlin
Last time, we ended our three-part series on the people’s perspective on the Russian Revolution. Today, I will cover a subject that I have wanted to do for a long time, the iconic Moscow place known as the Kremlin.
The Kremlin, which translates into the "fortress inside a city." Aside from St. Basil's Cathedral, the Kremlin in Moscow is one of Russia's most well-known structures. The Cathedral and Lenin's Mausoleum sit in Red Square within the Kremlin.
Spread out over 28 hectares or 70 acres, it is surrounded by the Red Square, the Moskva River, and the Alexander Gardens while sitting on the Borovitsky Hills. Historians say the Kremlin has three phases: the original wooden Kremlin, the Renaissance Kremlin, and the modern Kremlin. The first known construction of the walls that would later be known as the Kremlin began in 1156 during the reign of Prince Yuri Dolgoruky. It would become the home of the heads of Muscovy and then the Tsars of Russia until the time of Peter the Great when the seat of government moved to St. Petersburg. It would return as the home of the Soviet government under Lenin and remains so to this day in modern Russia.
Its strategic location overlooks the Moskva and the Neglinnaya rivers. The Neglinnaya is currently flowing underground and serves as a tributary to the Moskva. The Moskva River flows into Russia's major waterways, including the Volga River and the Caspian Sea, making it the crossroads between the north and south of Russia. This is why Moscow became such an important city after the fall of Kyiv.
The first Kremlin during the wood phase was the home of priests, merchants, and the princely class. It was about 8 acres in size, its wall was made of oak, and it had a 16-foot-deep moat surrounding it. The Mongols destroyed the Kremlin in 1237. The rebuild retained many of the original designs. It would remain this way until the reign of Ivan I in the mid-14th century.
Known as Ivan Moneybags because of his collecting taxes for the Golden Horde, he lavished his wealth on the city of Moscow, especially the Kremlin. Another of his extensive building programs included several churches. Ivan had built the Cathedral of the Assumption (1326/1327), the Church of St. John of the Ladder to the Bell Tower (1329), the Cathedral of the Savior of the Forest (1330), and the Cathedral of the Archangel (1333). He also replaced the walls of the Kremlin with solid oak as opposed to the flimsier construction of old. Towers of up to 13 meters or 43 ft were built, along with many gates being created.
The Kremlin under Ivan would become the city's center, with much of the trade and governing coming from it. Because there were still a number of threats around the region, Dmitri Donskoi fortified the oak walls with limestone in 1367. This would be a fortuitous decision as it was able to withstand a siege by a Lithuanian army under the leadership of Prince Algirdas in 1368. The first siege lasted only three days, with the Lithuanian army being overwhelmed by the Kremlin's imposing structure, which had significantly increased in size and depth. They returned in 1370 but again failed to breach the walls of the Kremlin.
In an article from a website I love when it comes to all things history, worldhistory.org, they said this about an event that would change the Kremlin forever. "In 1382, the Kremlin faced its first real threat from the Mongol Golden Horde and the Khan Tokhtamysh (r. 1379-1380). Prince Dmitry fled Moscow as the Golden Horde approached. The Kremlin withstood three days of siege – an impressive show of resistance against 30,000 trained men.
In the end, the Kremlin's fall was the result of trickery. The princes of Suzdal from the Principality of Vladimir-Suzdal had sided with Khan Tokhtamysh and the Golden Horde. They persuaded the people in the Kremlin that the Golden Horde's feud was with Dmitry and not the people of Moscow. Believing this lie, the gates of the Kremlin were opened, and the Golden Horde struck. They sacked and burned the Kremlin and killed or enslaved thousands. Dmitry returned to the Kremlin, extended its walls and defenses, and rebuilt buildings in stone.”
Unfortunately, the Kremlin would fall into a state of disrepair over the coming decades due to earthquakes, fires, and natural wear and tear. Under Ivan III, aka Ivan the Great, Moscow's Kremlin would be revitalized under Ridolfo Fioravanti, an architect, engineer, and expert in military fortifications brought to Moscow from Bologna. I would usher in the second phase of the Kremlin, The Renaissance Period.
After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Ivan the Great decided to make Moscow the third Rome. In Europe, a place that Russia was trying to reconnect with after the Mongol invasions, the Renaissance Italians were considered the best architects, particularly builders of reinforced barriers to sieges. This is one of the main reasons why Fioravanti was selected by Ivan.
While Fioravanti was in demand all over Europe, he thought Moscow was the best place to show off his talents. He would introduce unique building techniques, including the use of metal spades and a pulley system. Fioravanti would also reinforce the limestone walls with a layer of bricks, giving it that famous red-colored look. He would also be responsible for designing and constructing the Dormition Cathedral, also known as the Assumption Cathedral, which was consecrated in 1479.
After Fioravanti's dismissal and possible imprisonment in 1479 for reasons not known, the architect Marco Ruffo, also known as Marco Fryazin, arrived in Moscow in 1480 and worked on several new buildings. The Grand Ducal Palace in 1514, the picturesque Chamber of Facets, and the royal dining hall were included. At the request of Ivan III, Aloisio Lamberti da Montagnana began construction on the new Cathedral of the Archangel, completed in 1508. It would become the future burial place of many royals, but Ivan would die three years before its completion, never getting to see it in its final shape.
Another incredible piece of architecture the Tsar did not get to see was named after him, the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, also completed in 1508. It was designed by Bon Fryazin and is the tallest structure in the Kremlin. Over the years, it played a vital role in the defenses of the Kremlin as its central watchtower. Interestingly, the name Fryazin is not necessarily a surname but one given to people from Northern Italy by the Russians.
The most famous of all of the Italian architects to work on the Kremlin was Pietro Antonio Solari. Born in Carmona in 1445, Solari would arrive at the invitation of Ivan III in 1487. For the next two years, he would design and build most of the walls, except the western wall, and towers of the Kremlin, including the Borovitskaya, Konstantino-Eleninskaya, Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, and Corner Arsenalnaya towers.
Before passing away in 1493, Solari recommended that his replacement be Alevisio da Carcano, who created a moat connecting the Moskva and Neglinnaya Rivers in 1508, the latter we discussed earlier. Ivan’s successor, Vasily III, would continue to utilize Italian architects.
Under his rule, the inner Kremlin would build a second wall and moat, devising a series of mazes that would make it difficult for an invading army to maneuver. The wooden walls would be converted into stone, completed in 1538, five years after the death of Vasily, during the early years of Ivan IV.
After Ivan took control of the government, he set about modernizing the Kremlin. The streets were converted from dirt to cobblestones, and the Tsar's Palace was completely renovated and extended. Also, the Cathedral of the Annunciation, initially built in 1489, had nine domes on its roof added.
Of course, this needed a lot of money to complete, so, in typical Ivan the Terrible style, he took away land and wealth from those whom he deemed unfaithful, used the cash to do as he pleased, and gave the land within the Kremlin to those of his loyal followers. The Kremlin was now a formidable fortress and would house almost all of the central government members under the now self-proclaimed Tsar of All of Russia.
Of course, this would be followed by one of the worst times in Kremlin history, The Time of Troubles. Because of the number of mazes and walls, instead of protecting those inside, it would be viewed as a sort of tomb, especially when foreign invaders took over. The fires would consume most of the wooden structures, leaving much of the city in ruins. Following that debacle, Moscow would suffer from years of famine and disease. It would be a long journey before it would return to all of its glory.
When the first Romanov, Michael, was chosen to lead Russia, one of his first jobs was to rebuild the Kremlin and Moscow. This required an unpopular rise in taxes, but it was a necessary evil at the time. Foreign workers were imported as there were not enough skilled laborers in the area.
The streets needed to be cleared of piles of rubble, the remaining buildings required to be cleaned of all the soot from the fires, and the churches needed lots of repairs as well. The Terum Palace was one of the most significant structures constructed during the 1630s.
Aloisio da Milano constructed the first royal palace in the 1500s, with only the ground floor of that structure surviving until it was rebuilt. Between 1635 and 36, Tsar Michael constructed five stories, primarily by Russian builders and architects.
The new structure was surrounded by numerous buildings, including the Boyar Platform, Golden Staircase, Golden Porch, and the adjoining Golden Tsaritsa's Chamber. This had been originally built for Ivan the Terrible’s wife, likely his first, Anastasia. It would be covered with 11 golden domes of the Upper Savior Cathedral.
Under Alexis and Feodor III, the Kremlin would remain the main functioning governmental seat. It would continue during the early reign of Peter the Great, but viewed Moscow and, in particular, the Kremlin as representing the old Russia, something he wanted to vault into the past. He actually had its walls whitewashed, returning it to its original state. It would lose its distinctive red-colored beauty. Of course, the Kremlin would no longer be the seat of the Russian government when Peter moved it to St. Petersburg in 1712, where it would remain until 1918.
Under Peter’s daughter Elizabeth, she would employ Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, her favorite architect, to construct a wooden Winter Palace in the Kremlin. While nowhere near the opulence of the one in St. Petersburg, it was still impressive. The Moscow version would be completed in 1749, with the one in St. Petersburg in 1754.
When Catherine II came into power, it was clear early on that she was not enamored of Moscow or the Kremlin. Still, she fully understood the structure's significance in the Russian people's eyes. Catherine would hire Russian architect Vasily Bazhenov to renovate the Kremlin into a place worthy of her idea of something the Russians could be proud of.
Bazhenov would try to emulate St. Peter's Basilica in Rome as his vision of what was to come. His ideas included a new grand palace, parade grounds, and marble tiles. To make way for this venture, old buildings in the Kremlin had to come down, including the original Nameless Tower, the Taynitskaya Tower, the Armory, and a cathedral dedicated to martyrs. Bazhenov would build miniature versions of what he saw the new Kremlin to look like. Unfortunately, Catherine was no longer interested in any of it, and after a while, funding dried up, leaving only the miniatures as a reminder of what could have been.
The next architect to put his hands on the Kremlin was Matvey Fyodorovich Kazakov, who put a Gothic touch on the Senate and government structures. Following him would be Ivan Vasilyevich Egotov. He would build the final version of the Armory, which later became the first Russian history museum where a number of the Fabergé eggs and much of the confiscated works of art from the Tsars would remain.
In 1812, another disaster would befall the Kremlin; the invasion and occupation by Napoleon Bonaparte and the Grande Armee. Even though he would only stay for a few days, when it became apparent that remaining in Moscow, with fires raging all around him, Napoleon ordered the Kremlin to be destroyed. Although the Palace of the Facets was lit on fire, the gunpowder placed around the walls and near the buildings was wet and did not, for the most part, explode as planned. While some damage did occur, it was minimal. A Russian soldier said, "So long as the bells chime, the Kremlin endures."
Fyodor Sokolov was hired by Tsar Alexander I to rebuild the Kremlin. It would take over 20 years to restore the Kremlin to its former glory. The Kremlin would only see minor changes and updates because St. Petersburg remained the capital for over a century.
In 1918, after the successful overthrow of the Provisional Government by the Bolsheviks, the capital of Russia and then the Soviet Union were moved to Moscow, with the Kremlin being the new seat of government. Lenin chose the Kremlin Senate as his residence. Joseph Stalin also had some administrative rooms within the Senate building, but the majority of his living quarters were within the Kremlin proper.
By orders of Stalin, wherever the golden eagles of the Tsars appeared, they would be replaced by golden stars representing the Soviet Union. Lenin’s Mausoleum would be constructed within the Kremlin, with an addition of the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. The Chudov Monastery, Ascension Convent, and their adjacent 16th-century cathedrals were torn down to make way for a military academy.
According to Gregory Manaev, in a 2019 article entitled How the Russians Made the Kremlin Disappear During World War II, “All the Kremlin towers were re-painted using different colors and covered with wooden tents. Every roof inside the Kremlin was painted rusty brown so as to make them indistinguishable from typical Moscow roofs. The Kremlin grounds, paved with cobblestone, were covered up with sand. Tents painted to look like roofs were stretched over the Kremlin gardens, with the facades of the buildings also painted to confuse the German pilots.
The ingenious plan was concocted by Boris Iofan, the most prominent and prosperous Soviet architect of the time. One of the enemy's main targets was Lenin's Mausoleum. It was hidden under a giant square wooden tent to make it look like a building. Lenin's body was transported away from the capital and returned only in 1945.”
After the war, the Kremlin was closed off to foreign visitors and most of the Soviet populace, not to be re-opened until the Khrushchev Thaw in 1955. Some of the buildings would be converted into the Kremlin Museums in 1961. It would be the first Soviet structure added to the World Heritage list in 1990. Unfortunately, for historical reasons, the Soviet era was not all that beneficial. During the Soviet rule, 28 out of 54 historic buildings in the Kremlin were destroyed, including 17 out of 31 churches and cathedrals.
During the many years of construction of the Kremlin, there were 13 towers. The first one, the Tainitskaya Tower, also known as the Secret Tower, was erected in 1485. The last one, known as the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, was built in 1508. There were seven churches and cathedrals, with the first being the Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos, which was consecrated in 1394. The last was The Church of the Twelve Apostles, consecrated in 1656.
As for the palaces within the Kremlin, there were four built, beginning with the Palace of Facets, which was completed in 1492. Others included the Terem Palace, completed in 1636; The Grand Kremlin Palace, completed in 1849; and finally, The State Kremlin Palace, completed in 1961.
Again, quoting from worldhistory.org, "The Kremlin is one of Russia's most famous and visited landmarks. It has played an integral part in Russia's royal, political, religious, and defense history, and today, it remains the center of the Russian government, with the Grand Kremlin Palace becoming the official residence of the Russian President in 2023.
The Kremlin still remains a fortress in every sense of the word. Its tight security is overseen by a Russian Commandment and the Kremlin Regiment (Presidential Regiment), and there are strict security protocols set in place to protect this historical landmark, such as GPS jamming systems and protection from the Moscow Air Defense Region. Despite all the security, tourists are allowed to visit the Kremlin, with thousands of visitors being attracted each year to the imposing fortress with its golden domes, red walls, towers, and multi-colored roofs. The Kremlin has seen the best and worst parts of Russian history and will no doubt continue to play an essential part in Russia's future.”
Well, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Join me next time when we try to answer the question, Who was Vladimir Lenin Really?
So, until next time, Dasvidania eh Spasiba za Vinyamineya.