MOSCOW
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MOSCOW
In 1300 the Kremlin was enclosed by a strong wall of
earth and wooden palisades, and it then received
its appellation. In 1316 the Metropolitan of Kieff
changed his see from that city to Vladimir, and in
1322 thence to Moscow. The first cathedral of
Moscow was built in 1327. The e.xample of the met-
ropolitan was followed in 1328 by Grand Duke Ivan
Danilovich, who left Vladimir and made Moscow his
capital. In 1333 he was recognized by the Khan of
Kazan as the chief prince of Russia, and he extended
the fortifications of Moscow. In 1367 stone walls
were built to enclose the Kremlin. Notwithstanding
self Tsar, the Slavonic name for king or ruler found
in the church liturgy, and that name has survived
to the present time, although Peter the Great again
changed the title and assumed the Latin name
Imperator (Emperor). This latter name is the one
now commonly used and inscribed on pubhc mon-
uments and buildings in Russia. Moscow was al-
most completely destroyed by fire in 1547; in 1571 it
was besieged and taken by Devlet-Ghirei, Khan of the
Crimean Tatars, and again in 1591 the Tatars and
Mongols under Kara-Ghirei for the last time entered
and plundered the city, but did not succeed in taking
Memoriai of Alexander 11
Kremlin, across the River Moskva
this, the city was again plundered by the Tatars two years later. During the rule of Dimitri Donskoi in 1382 the city was burned and almost entirely de- stroyed. Vasili II was the first Russian prince to be crowned at Moscow (1425).
The city, although still the greatest in Russia, be- gan to decline until the reign of Ivan III (1462-1505). He vyas the first to call himself "Ruler of all the Russias" (H ospodar I'seya Rossii), and made Moscow pre-eminently the capita! and centre of Russia, be- sides constructing many beautiful monuments and buildings.
His wife, who was Sophia Palajologus, was a Greek princess from Constantinople, whose marriage to him was arranged through the pope, and who brought with her Greek and Italian artists and architects to beautify the city. But even after that the Tatars were often at the gates of Moscow, although they only once succeeded in taking it. Under Ivan IV, sur- named the Terrible (Ivan Grozny), the development of the city was continued. He made Novgorod and Pskoff tributary to it, and subdued Kazan and Astra- khan. He was the first prince of Russia to call him- X.— 38
the Kremlin. During the reign of Ivan the Terrible
the adventurer Yermak crossed the Ural Mountains,
explored and claimed Siberia for Russia; the first code
of Russian laws, the Stogtav (hundred chapters), was
also issued under this emperor, and the first ]iiintiiig-
oflnce set up at Moscow. Ivan was succccilcd by
Feodor I, the last of the Rurik dynasty, during whose
reign (1584-98) serfdom was introduced and the
Patriarchate of Moscow established. During the
latter part of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, Boris
GodunofT, a man of high ambitions who had risen
from the ranks of the Tatars, attained to great
power, which was augmented by the marriage of his
sister to Feodor. To ensure his Ijrothcr-in-law's suc-
ces.sion to the throne, he is said to have caused the
murder of Ivan's infant son, Demetrius, at Uglich in
1582. When Feodor I died, Boris GodunofT was made
Tsar, and ruled fairly well until 1005. The y<ar
before his death the "False Demetrius" (Ijzltniliiiiitri)
appeared. He was said to have gone under the name
of Gregory Otrepieff, a. monk of the Chudoff monas-
tery (Monastery of the Miracles) in the Kremlin,
who fell into disgrace, escaped to Poland, gave himself
