Historic View of Moscow
'Come to me, brother, to Moscow.' Little did old Prince Urie Dolgorouky think, when he wrote this invitation to his friend Prince Sviatoslav Olgovitch, in 1147, that he was writing…
From: 1147 C.E. To: 1913 C.E.
Location: Moscow, Russia
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
“Moscow: Historical” from Russia by G. Dobson, et al.
'Come to me, brother, to Moscow.' Little did old Prince Urie Dolgorouky think, when he wrote this invitation to his friend Prince Sviatoslav Olgovitch, in 1147, that he was writing an historical document. However, it has become so, for this is the earliest authentic document which mentions Moscow.
Before then the place where Moscow now stands was called Kuchkova, after the Kuchki family, who owned the land. However, old Prince Dolgorouky acquired the land, built a strong wooden wall round the little village, lodged in it a small garrison, and renamed it Moskva, or ' the place by the bridge.' However, his little fort was completely destroyed by fire a few years after.
In 1272 Prince Daniel Nevsky settled at Moscow, which from that year became a separate princedom.
Thanks to its central position, and to the wily policy of its Princes, the population of the town rapidly increased, as also the wealth of its Princes. For their own safety the old Princes fortified with strong wooden walls the little triangle of high ground contained on one side—the south—by the Moscow River, and on the west and north by a small river, with marshy banks—the Neglinia. This was the Kremlin, the fortress. Moscow became so important that the Metropolitan forsook Vladimir, the old Church capital, and moved to Moscow, where the first stone building in the town, the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin, was built in 1339, under the superintendence of foreign architects, as the Russians only understood wooden buildings. In 1367 the whole of Moscow, including the wooden walls of the Kremlin, was burnt down. Prince Dmitry Donskoi then had a stone wall built round the Kremlin. This was badly constructed, and was replaced, early in the fifteenth century, by the walls now standing, which were constructed under the direction of Italian architects.
Owing to its central, and consequently protected, position, Moscow suffered less than any of the other princedoms in Russia from the invasions of the Tartars, Swedes, Poles, etc.; consequently people flocked to it for shelter, the population rapidly increased, and the coffers of the Moscow Princes became well filled.
When the Tartars put up the post of Grand Prince (or Grand Duke, as we say now) for auction, the Moscow Princes easily outbid the others, and thereby still more increased their wealth and influence. Ultimately the Princes of Moscow became looked on as hereditary Grand Dukes of Russia. This brings us to the end of the fifteenth century, when the Tartar yoke was nearly broken. Moscow is now vastly improved; Byzantine architects are building stone palaces for the wealthy nobles, and the Grand Dukes of Moscow now style themselves 'Monarchs of all Russ.'
Ivan III. (1462-1505) married Sophia Palæologus, niece of the last Emperor of Byzantium, and on the fall of Constantinople considered himself the heir of the Byzantine Emperors, and adopted the double-headed eagle as his arms. Hundreds of Greeks and Italians came to Moscow with Sophia Palolæogus and on the fall of Byzantium, and brought Greek art with them. In 1547 Ivan IV. was crowned in Moscow with a royal diadem, and assumed the title of Tsar, which for so long had been the attribute of the Tartar Khans. Ivan earned the name of 'the Terrible ' by his extraordinary cruelties. However, he was an unscrupulous, sagacious, powerful, and politic ruler, and did as much to raise the fortunes of his country as Oliver Cromwell did for England. During his reign the Cossack Yermak conquered Siberia, and it was added to Ivan's dominions.
The growing influence of this the first Tsar of Muscovy is shown by the fact that England opened up commercial undertakings with Moscow, and sent out expeditions under Richard Chancellor in 1553, and Sir Hugh Willoughby. Ivan was so impressed by their accounts of the greatness of England that, having just got rid of his seventh wife, he sent over an Ambassador to England with a letter to his 'good friend' Queen Elizabeth, requesting her to send him out a bride from her family. Queen Elizabeth suggested Lady Mary Hastings, daughter of the second Earl of Huntingdon, who was of royal blood. The Russian Ambassador, Pizemsky, returned to Russia with glowing accounts of the bride, and also with the Order of the Garter (this is still preserved in the treasury in Moscow) for Ivan, who was so pleased that he gave the English the monopoly of Russian trade. However, Ivan died suddenly, in 1584, before the negotiations were completed, and Lady Mary Hastings escaped being Ivan's eighth bride.
Horsey writes: ‘Ivan Vasiliwich was full of readie wisdom, cruel, bloudye, merciless : he was sumptuously intomed in Michell Archangel church, where he remains a fearfull spectacle to the memory of such as pass by or heer his name spoken of, who are contented to cross and bless themselves from his resurrection againe.'
Dobson, G., et al. Russia. A. and C. Black, 1913.
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