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The History of Moscow

1147 Prince Yuri Dolgoruky founds Moscow and builds the first wooden Kremlin.

1237 The grandson of Genghis Khan and his Mongolian army burn Moscow down. For the next 230 years Russian principalities pay tribute to the Golden Horde (later known as Tatars), though they are largely left to self govern.

1325 Moscow becomes the seat of the Russian Orthodox Church. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 the church sees Moscow as the Third Rome.

1475-79 Ivan III (the Great) throws off Tatar rule, and Moscow becomes the capital of a unified Russian state.

1533 Three year old Ivan IV (the Terrible) becomes Grand Duke of Moscow and proclaims himself tsar (emperor) in 1547

1552 & 1556 Battles against the Tatars; vanquishing of the ‘Golden Horde’.

1571 The Tartars raided Moscow, burning much of the city and taking thousands of citizens as slaves.

1613 After 10 years invasions the Poles are ousted from Moscow; first Romanov elected as tsar.

1712 Moscow loses the capital title to St. Petersburg, but all tsars continue to be crowned in Moscow.

1755 Moscow University is founded by Empress Elizabeth.

1812 After the military clash at Borodino Field, 110 km from Moscow, French Napoleon Bonaparte enters the city and finds it empty and lonely; fire breaks out and reduces more than 2/3 of Moscow to ashes during the 39-day occupation by Napoleon Bonaparte.

1813 Talented architects design plan for the rebuilding of the ruined Moscow and over the next thirty years the face of the city changes dramatically. Moscow changes from a feudal town in a bourgeois city and the present-day appearance of the centre was founded in those times, e.g. with the Alexandrov Garden, the Theatre Square with Bolshoi and Maly theatres.

19th century Known as the Golden Age for arts and science. Moscow was a birthplace for many famous artists, writers, painters, scientists and politicians.

1900 Moscow counts 1 million citizens making it the 10^th most populous city in the world and thanks to the rail way developments (Trans Sib) the fastest growing.

1918 After the Revolution the Bolsheviks move the seat of government back to Moscow.

1922 When the Bolsheviks founded the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Moscow officially becomes the Soviet capital.
1935 The first Metro line, the underground Palaces for the people, is opened.
1941 Battle of Moscow; Germans invade Russia and advance to within a few hundred miles of Moscow but the city stands firm.
1950s Decade of Stalin’s Gothic architecture and Russian baroque. Most famous are the Seven Sisters, the Moscow Skyscrapers (Vysotki). These sisters still dominate the city’s skyline.
1960 The boundaries of the city are expanded to the Outer Ring Road, more than doubling the city’s area.

1980 Moscow hosts the Summer Olympics Games boycotted by western countries due to the war in Afghanistan.

1990 Thanks to Glasnost and Perestroika, the first, and the worlds largest, McDonalds opens at Pushkin Square for weeks queues of 5km for a hamburger.

1990 Moscow party chief Boris Yeltsin is elected chairman of the Russian Republic and becomes Russia’s first democratic elected president in 1991.

1994 Moscow’s mayor Yury Luzhkov decides to rebuild Church of Christ the Saviour, that opens in 2000.

1997 Huge celebrations for Moscow’s 850th anniversary for which much of the city is renovated.

1990s From a city with almost no restaurants, hidden clubs and KGB prostitutes Moscow rises as Night Life and Party Capital where everything is available – from naked hairdressers to dancing in the Gulag Club.

2000 – 2008 After the chaos of the 1990s Moscow develops itself as an international business and congress centre, and becomes the most expensive city in the world. At the same time, the city becomes the playing field for Chechen terrorists who carry out bombings in the Metro and in October 2002, the audience of the Dubrovka theatre are held hostage. 130 die in the rescue attempt. Under president Vladimir Putin Moscow becomes again a political power; when the Kremlin speaks the world listens (at least).