Moscow History
From Moscowiki
Moscow has long and fascinating history. The first Russian reference to Moscow dates from 1147 when Yuri Dolgoruki called upon the prince of the Novgorod Republic to “come to me, brother, to Moscow". This city went through the Mongol-Tatar invasion, and then with the help of Ivan Kalita Moscow become one of the most influential principalities of that time. It was ruled by Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and Romanovy Dynasty. Moscow managed to stop Napoleon's invasion, being burnt down and then rose from the ashes. After the October revolution Moscow became the capital of Soviet Union. Now it is more than 860 years, but it is still fresh and young and open for changes.
[edit] Moscow Ancient Times
In 5th-6th centuries the ancestors of Eastern Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, Byelorussians) spread over vast territory from the Carpathians in the West to upper Don-river in the East and from Ladoga lake in the North to the region of the Dnepr river in the South. On their way the Slavs assimilated many tribes, for instance, Finno-Ugric. Signs of these international contacts are still registered in the Russian language, even the toponym Moscow is said to be of Finno-Ugric origin. The Slavs gradually formed big tribal unions (polyane, drevlyane, vyatichi), powerful enough to make raids on the greatest empire of those days, Byzantium, forcing Byzantian leaders to write manuscripts ‘How to fight Slavic barbarians’.
[edit] Mongol-Tatar Invasion
Kievian Rus consisted of many principalities, each with a prince eager to reign in Kiev. Their avidity and thirst for power caused many bloody intrigues and intestine strives. This led to disunion and weakening of the state. As a result in 1237 Russians fell easy victims to the well-organized Mongolian troops. For the next 240 years abased Russia paid exorbitant yearly tributes to the khans, though Russian princes were allowed to govern the country themselves.
[edit] Ivan Kalita: The Rise of Moscow
In the 14th century Moscow Prince Ivan I Kalita (“Moneybags”) was appointed chief “tax-collector”; this fact obviously gave Moscow supremacy over its neighbours. Yet Moscow was advantageously situated in the centre of many trade routes, which allowed the city to flourish. 50 years later Mongolian army suffered their first ever defeat (known as the Battle of Kulikovo) from the reunited forces of many separate principalities led by Ivan Kalita’s grandson, the Grand Prince of Moscow Principality Dmitry Donskoy (1359-1389). The centralization of Russian lands around Moscow began. Anyhow, it was not until the reign of Ivan III (1462-1505), Dmitry Donskoy’s grandson, that the unification of Russian principalities around Moscow was completed and the Tatar yoke was finally shaken off. Ivan the Third initiated the reconstruction of Kremlin in stone and he was also the one to thank for the erection of brick walls around Kremlin and the area of Kitay-gorod.
[edit] Ivan the Terrible
In 1533 three-year-old boy mounted Russia’s throne – Ivan IV (1533-1584), later known as Ivan the Terrible. He was the first Russian Grand Prince to call himself Tsar of All Russia (the word tsar is derived from Caesar). Ivan the Terrible conquered Kazan and Astrakhan khanates expanding the territory of Russia to the Urals and Volga region and opening the way to Siberia. He also initiated many reforms that led to further strengthening of tsar’s absolute power: administrative reforms, first steps to serfdom, restructuring of the army etc. Some reforms were clearly positive for the country but they were all carried out ruthlessly; Ivan’s crusades still shock with their relentlessness and cruelty.
[edit] The Time of Troubles
After the death of Ivan the Terrible in 1584 his retarded son Fedor became Tsar but the actual ruler was Boris Godunov (1598-1605) who mounted the throne after childless Fedor’s death in 1598. Godunov carried on rather successful foreign policy; during his reign new lands joined Russia, several military campaigns against Crimean Tatars were crowned with success; the patriarchate was instituted in Russia demonstrating the independence and maturity of the state; Moscow and other boundary towns were fortified. Finally a pretender to the throne appeared claiming to be Ivan the Terrible’s dead son Dmitry. He sought support from Poland. The Poles finally reached Moscow in 1610. And only then, in those devastating circumstances Prince Pozharsky and his compatriot Kozma Minin managed to awaken the spirit of patriotism in Russians and to expel the Poles in 1612. This period of deposed tsars, false pretenders to the throne, wars and disarray is known as the Time of Troubles.
[edit] Romanovy Dynasty
Tired of civil war and anarchy, Moscow leading citizens gathered to elect a new tsar. In 1613 16-year old Mikhail Romanov, grandnephew of Ivan the Terrible’s first wife Anastasia, was named hereditary tsar. Romanovy dynasty was to rule for more than 300 years up until the October Bolshevik revolution in 1917. Mikhail’s heir, Alexey the Quiet (1645-1676) made further steps in modernizing Russia, carried out the codification of the law, although it was exactly during his reign that serfdom, actual slavery, was legalized. In 1654 the Ukraine joined Russia extending influence of the Moscow state to the South. The most important event of Alexey’s reign was the schism in the Church between the reformers, led by Patriarch Nikon, and the conservative Old Believers.
[edit] Peter the Great
Peter the Great was probably the most discussed, most controversial and most extraordinary Russian Tsar. In order to get familiar with modern European technologies in shipbuilding and other fields, he became the first tsar ever to go abroad with the aim of studying. After this educational trip Peter got reforms going: he built Russian navy, reformed the army, restructured administrative system, supported the development of Russian industry and trade. He was also a very successful commander, defeating the Swedes, who had been a threat to Russia for more than a century, and the Turks, giving Russia free access to the Black and Caspian Sea. All this allowed to say that Peter the Great “hacked a window to Europe” for Russia. Peter’s final step in fighting the spirit of old Russia was the removal of the capital from Moscow to recently built pompous St.-Petersburg. For the next 200 years Moscow existed in St.Petersburg’s shadow being Russia’s second city.
[edit] Palace Revolutions
From the death of Peter the Great to the beginning of Catherine the Great’s reign, Moscow throne was occupied by six different monarchs who came to power after dirty palace intrigues and palace revolutions. Two of them – Ivan Antonovich and Peter III – were deposed by force and assassinated. This period was the time of political instability, when the country was mostly ruled by women and minors (so-called “The Petticoat Period”).
[edit] Catherine the Great
In 1762, the wife of Peter III, a German princess, planned a conspiracy, as a result of which her husband was dethroned and killed. Under the name of Catherine II she proved herself as an energetic and intelligent leader. She was one of the most educated monarchs of her time, art and literature lover, even Voltaire and Didro were among her correspondents. Catherine aimed to continue the centralization of power using rough methods, she liquidated self-government in the Ukraine, suppressed many peasant rebellions (Pugachev’s Rebellion for example), made territorial gains at the expense of Turkey and Poland. At the same time she carried out a progressive reform of education in Russia, reform of Russia’s legal system and some other innovations.
BLACK PEOPLE
[edit] 19th-Century Russia
In 1812 Napoleon army invaded Russia and almost reached Moscow. The great Russian commander Mikhail Kutuzov decided to sacrifice Moscow. Deserting the city, Russian troops set Moscow on fire; as a result two thirds of the wooden city were destroyed. Left without food, which they hoped to find in Moscow, French soldiers were forced to abandon the city and start their terrible retreat. The Napoleonic wars were a turning point in the history of the Russian Empire, as many soldiers returned from Europe “infected” with liberal ideas. Moscow became a fertile environment for the seeds of growing political discontent, which resulted in so-called Decembrists Rebellion. Finally the Big day for Russian peasants came: 1861 is the year of the Emancipation of the serfs. Slavery in Russia was officially over and some other liberal reforms by tsar Alexander II (1855-1881) opened the way for capitalism in Russia. Anyhow, former serfs were too poor. Their miserable existence was one of the reasons why the Bolshevik’s revolution was accepted so easily by the working classes.
[edit] October Revolution
There were several reasons for the revolution in 1917.
- Russia’s defeat in the Russian-Japan war in 1905
- Poor living conditions of working classes
- Russia’s taking part in the World War I
In February 1917 the entire world observed the end of monarchy in Russia: strikes broke out in St.-Petersburg, people took the streets and finally the tsar had to abdicate the throne. Now the power was in the hands of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Soviets. Later the Provisional Government was elected but it was still unable to solve the main problems. Under these circumstances the Bolsheviks decided that their time had come and started an armed uprising. In the night, October 26th, the Bolsheviks took the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, former residence of the tsar occupied by the Provisional Government. A new era began.
WHITE POWER
[edit] Soviet Union
In December 1922 the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics was proclaimed; Moscow became capital of the new state. The first person to govern the Soviet Union was Vladimir Lenin. Being a charismatic speaker, he managed to captivate millions of souls with his obsessive communistic ideas. For many decades Lenin was almost God to Russians.
After Lenin’s death in 1924, Iosif Stalin took his position as General Secretary of the Communist party. A real paranoiac and sadist, Stalin gradually removed all his enemies and possible rivals. Several waves of purges (1937-1938) brought millions of innocent people to labour camps, where most of them died of inhuman treatment and starvation. Stalin’s regime encouraged denunciation and spying. People were afraid to speak in their own houses, always waiting for a neighbour to overhear something and tell the CheKa.
Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. The war of 1941-1945, which caused death of more than 20 million Russian people, and that is the part of World War II, is known in the history of Russia as the Great Patriotic War.
But while the whole world celebrated the victory over the Nazis, Stalin got the wheel of repressions going again, as he wanted to get rid of those who had seen what it was like in so called capitalistic world. The terror lasted until his death in 1953.
[edit] Khruschev's Thaw and Brezhnev's Stagnation
Stalin’s successor was Nikita Khruschev. Once loyal to Stalin, he suddenly transformed into comparatively liberal Soviet governor. At the 20th Party Congress he denounced Stalin’s crimes; as a result thousands of political prisoners were released and rehabilitated, forbidden books were published and many Stalin’s crimes were revealed. Artists, poets, writers could breathe rather freely and many very interesting works in every art were created. This period is known as "the Thaw".
Khruschev’s Thaw was followed by a period of stagnation and political marasmus when Leonid Brezhnev came to power bringing bureaucracy and corruption. After his death the Politburo (the ruling top of the Communist Party) had no intention of letting a younger generation in, so Brezhnev was succeeded by 68-year-old Andropov and 72-year-old Chernenko.
[edit] Perestrojka
Mikhail Gorbachev was the man to change the situation. He became General Secretary in 1985 and announced his policies of Perestrojka (restructuring) and Glasnost (openness). Gorbachev was a dynamic leader, full of new ideas and willingness to revitalize economics and make the Soviet Union more liberate. In March 1990 the First Congress of National Deputies of the USSR declared a transition to the presidential system of governing and elected Mikhail Gorbachev as first President of the Soviet Union. The first and the last. In 1990 the Soviet Union was about to collapse. Soviet republics declared their independence one after another. in August 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed and a new state appeared - the Russian Federation.
[edit] Moscow Present Times
During the 1990s Russia has changed greatly. The country rushed into capitalism, trying to repair an omission and to catch up with the rest of the civilized world. Over the last ten years Moscow life has been jetting. Countless bars, restaurants and nightclubs illuminate Moscow streets with their neon-signs in the evening, giving the impression that Russians are always ready to party. Moscow mayor, Yury Luzhkov, seems never to be tired, always busy building, constructing, opening, presenting etc. He initiated the reconstruction of the historical centre of the city; churches and other architectural monuments destroyed in 1920s and 30s (Kazansky cathedral, Voskresensky Gates of Kitay-gorod, Cathedral of Christ the Saviour) are being rebuilt.
[edit] Moscow History Timeline
Main acticle: Moscow History Timeline.
