A thousand years ago, there was nothing to indicate that Moscow should ever be a great city. But then events elsewhere came along that changed things. One thing that Moscow had going for it was it's location. Many cities have been built because of what they were near. Moscow grew into the largest city that is within Europe not because of what it was near but because of what it was away from, and that was conflict.
The Great Schism of 1054 took place over controversy between eastern and western Christians over how much authority the pope should have. The eastern part of the church split away to form the Eastern Orthodox Church. The center of this church was the Hagia Sophia, in Constantinople, and this was where the split took place.But in subsequent centuries Byzantium, of which Constantinople was the capital, was threatened by Moslem conquerors known as the Ottomans. They ultimately conquered the city in 1453.
The reason was that the Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church, which split away in 1054 to form the Eastern Orthodox Church, was due to the great impression that it made on Vladimir of Kiev. It was him who chose it as the religion of what is known as the Kieven Rus, which was the predecessor of Russia, as well as Ukraine.
After the fall of Constantinople, although it remained the official center of the Eastern Orthodox Church, it needed a new practical center of operations. The obvious choice would be Kiev. As the name implies, it was the center of the Kievan Rus, which were now the bearers of Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
But there was a problem with that. Kiev had suffered devastating destruction in a Mongol invasion of the Thirteenth Century. It would not fully recover it's importance as a city until the Nineteenth Century. It was this Mongol invasion that brought the Kievan Rus to an end.
What ended up happening is that the center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity ended up moving further north, to a place called Moscow, which became the capital of Russia as well. Moscow became known as the "Third Rome". The papacy was based in Rome. When the split of 1054 occurred, Constantinople became the "Second Rome". With the conquest of that by the Ottomans, and the destruction of Kiev by the Mongols, Moscow became the "Third Rome".
However the Rurik Dynasty died out and was eventually replaced by the Romanovs, best-known for Peter the Great, and had St. Petersburg especially built as their capital. This allegedly happened because Peter the Great was in the Kremlin when there was an uprising in Moscow. This moved the center of gravity away from Moscow. St. Petersburg is Russia's second-largest city.
But that ultimately changed due to conflict. St. Petersburg was close to the other countries of Europe. When the Romanov Dynasty was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in 1917, they moved the capital back to Moscow.
It was not that they sympathized with the Ruriks, or necessarily thought that Moscow would be a better capital that St. Petersburg. After all, St. Petersburg was a special place to the Bolsheviks because that was where their revolution had begun. It was simply that Russia had been at war with Germany and the Central Powers and Moscow was further away, at a safe distance from the conflict. Even if enemy forces could reach Moscow, by that time the capital city functions could be shifted to a city further east.
For the second time, the center of power had been moved to Moscow not because of anything that had been done there but because of conflict elsewhere. Today, it is the largest city that is completely within Europe.
One way that you can see this procession from Constantinople to Kiev, and then to Moscow, is that Vladimir founded the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev. It was named for the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Sophia%27s_Cathedral,_Kiev#/media/File:Kij%C3%B3w_-_Sob%C3%B3r_M%C4%85dro%C5%9Bci_Bo%C5%BCej_02.jpg
Today the Danilov Monastery in Moscow is the headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Church, and is colored exactly the same green and white, with gold domes, as St. Sophia in Kiev.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danilov_Monastery#/media/File:Danilov_convent_02.jpg
THE KREMLIN AND RED SQUARE
Moscow is centered around the Kremlin, from where Russia is governed. A kremlin is actually a walled citadel, and there are kremlins in other Russian cities as well. But the Moscow Kremlin is by far the best-known and is the one being referred to any time the term is mentioned outside Russia.
The Moscow Kremlin was completed in 1495. Inside it's red walls with the familiar red towers are several each palaces and cathedrals. But the Grand Kremlin Palace, with the green roof and from where the country is actually governed, was completed in 1849. Some of the red towers of the Kremlin walls are square and some are cylindrical. The best-known, with the accompanying gate, is the Spasskaya Tower. The Spasskaya Tower is immediately adjacent to St. Basil's Cathedral. Each of the Kremlin towers has it's own story.
The Kremlin is the area enclosed by walls, with the mostly-white cathedrals and palaces with gold onion domes inside. It was built mainly between the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Just outside it's red walls are Red Square, which has St. Basil's Cathedral, with the eight onion domes, at it's southwest end, and the red building of the State Historical Museum at the other end.
The fantastic St. Basil's Cathedral was built in 1561. On the opposite side of Red Square from the wall of the Kremlin is the stone building of GUM, the State Department Store that is now a popular mall. The Mausoleum of Lenin is in Red Square against the wall of the Kremlin. Also inside the Kremlin walls are both the world's largest cannon, the Tsar Cannon from 1586, and also the world's largest bell, the Tsar Bell.
One thing that I have wondered about is that St. Petersburg has the Peter and Paul Fortress, which is a citadel like a kremlin but, unlike walled citadels in other Russian cities, it is not referred to as a kremlin.
I have also wondered about the blank shot from a naval gun of the cruiser Aurora, anchored at St. Petersburg, that was used by the Bolsheviks to signal the beginning of the October Revolution, in 1917. Was it done to evoke a historical link with the famous Tsar Cannon, the largest cannon in the world, that was a showpiece of the Kremlin? This blank shot in 1917 effectively acted as the opening bell of the Revolution, which would evoke a historical link to the largest bell in the world, the Tsar Bell, the largest bell in the world near the Tsar Cannon as another showpiece of the Kremlin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Cannon#/media/File:Moscow_July_2011-10a.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bell#/media/File:Tsar_Bell_in_Kremlin.jpg
A good perspective from which to begin our visit to Moscow is the northeast corner of Red Square. The small red cathedral with the gold dome is Kazan Cathedral. To the left of that cathedral are two gates with two spires above, this is the Iberian Gate to Red Square. Both were razed by the Communists but rebuilt in the 1990s. The red building to the left of that is the State Historical Museum. At the opposite end of Red Square is St. Basil's Cathedral, with it's multiple domes. Adjacent to that is the Spasskaya Tower and Gate to the Kremlin.
If you see a metal status of a man carrying a cross, that is Vladimir the Great. He is the one who made the momentous decision of choosing the Byzantine rite of Christianity as the religion of the kingdom known as the Kievan Rus. This kingdom was the predecessor of Russia, Belarus and, Ukraine, and is where the name of Russia comes from. As we saw in the compound posting on this blog, "The House Of Holy Wisdom, Where The Modern World Began", this decision was made because Vladimir's envoys were so impressed with the Hagia Sophia. Without this decision the formation of the Eastern Orthodox Church, to replace the Catholic Church in the east, would likely not have occurred following the Great Schism of 1054.
There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >, After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.
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https://www.google.com/maps/@55.7601534,37.6252551,3a,75y,78.98h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipM9bxPBqrDaQE2fk5at34z4GTtwpiYJO6-3c2ey!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipM9bxPBqrDaQE2fk5at34z4GTtwpiYJO6-3c2ey%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya230.90912-ro-0-fo100!7i10240!8i5120
Central Moscow is set up in a "ring road" pattern. There was once a rampart around what was then the city that was removed and is now the series of roads, known as the Garden Ring. Does this remind you of the Ringstrasse that we saw on our visit to Vienna? The following scenes begin at the main intersection at the Garden Ring, north of Red Square and the Kremlin.
https://www.google.com/maps/@55.7733192,37.621255,3a,75y,113.16h,90t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sj6SUtKSDXL1RXF_lihrNAQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dj6SUtKSDXL1RXF_lihrNAQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D127.258156%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100
This is central Moscow south of the Moscow River, what we could call the "South Bank" of Moscow. You can see many more churches with onion domes.
https://www.google.com/maps/@55.7410901,37.625154,3a,75y,8.83h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipP6n2_sTFTMkr8Pvbt1ExPnuhCfOYVWnzlQY0ai!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipP6n2_sTFTMkr8Pvbt1ExPnuhCfOYVWnzlQY0ai%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya35.112617-ro-0-fo100!7i5376!8i2688
This is the district of Tverskaya, beginning along the main street of the same name. It is in central Moscow and within the Garden Ring. Like any great city, there is more to it than historical sites and famous buildings. This is more of a look at everyday life in Moscow.
https://www.google.com/maps/@55.7650145,37.6046323,3a,75y,3.1h,90t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1s-j-zNSL1-Y8TowmZNOmzww!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D-j-zNSL1-Y8TowmZNOmzww%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D1.7434248%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100
To understand Moscow, we have to be familiar with it's "Seven Sisters". These are tall buildings that were built in the Mid-Twentieth Century. The Seven Sisters are all similar, but not identical, to one another. You have already seen one, near the Kremlin and Red Square, the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building, beside the Moscow River. Possibly the best-known of the Seven Sisters is the main building of Moscow State University. This is Russia'a premier university and is more then two hundred years old, although the following "Seven Sister" building is from the Mid-Twentieth Century.
https://www.google.com/maps/@55.7020924,37.5292423,3a,75y,40.94h,111.22t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1suEVvkajeo3LewP8owMLaPQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DuEVvkajeo3LewP8owMLaPQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D71.815926%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656
Here is some of modern Moscow, west of the Kremlin along New Arbat Avenue. There is yet another of the "Seven Sisters" nearby, the Hotel Ukraina.
https://www.google.com/maps/@55.7527203,37.5880783,3a,75y,132.89h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sLii-YL_AEq7d5ndvduUeRQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DLii-YL_AEq7d5ndvduUeRQ%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D148.79292%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192
There were originally intended to be "Nine Sisters", but only seven were built. Along the river near the Kremlin was the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. It had originally been built to commemorate the victory over Napoleon. The cathedral was dynamited in 1931 to make way for what would surely have been the "princess" of the sister buildings, the Palace of the Soviets. The foundation was built but the Second World War brought a halt to construction. The building was never completed and, after the war, the foundation was made into a vast swimming pool. Finally, to the delight of Christians across the world, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was rebuilt just as it had originally been. The color of the cathedral is white with gold onion domes, just like most of the buildings within the nearby Kremlin.
https://www.google.com/maps/@55.7444815,37.6053456,3a,75y,90.82h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipN_OAzkkvyc_isrzPUkdWsojk3B0OhY7_IjY7k!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipN_OAzkkvyc_isrzPUkdWsojk3B0OhY7_IjY7k%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya292.13358-ro-0-fo100!7i10000!8i5000
Here is the modern skyscrapers of Moscow, the Moscow International Business Center. Notice how the building with the "twisted" structure resonates with some of the domes at St. Basil's Cathedral.
https://www.google.com/maps/@55.748776,37.5387674,2a,75y,74.92h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s3VvSoyY5LAT3BEmWWBYYuQ!2e0!3e2!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D3VvSoyY5LAT3BEmWWBYYuQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D64.4156%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656
We can see a reflection of St. Basil's Cathedral in the northern part of Moscow. The Ostankino Tower, I remember when it was the tallest structure in the world, it was built in the 1960s in the form of a rocket, as a monument to space exploration after Sputnik had been the first object to be launched into space, and Yuri Gagarin had been the first human in space.
Not far from the Ostankino Tower is the Church of the Holy Trinity at Ostankino, that is based on the architecture of St. Basil's. In the images of that church, you can see the same structure the color of fire, the green roof below the central dome, the high semi-circles that could represent astronomical bodies or craters on the moon and, the towers that could represent the rockets of the future. But this church does not seem to have the triangles pointing upward that are seen on St. Basil's cathedral.
The following scenes begin at the observation deck of the Ostankino Tower. Notice how much parkland and green space Moscow has within the city. Russia has more land area than any other country and so Moscow has plenty of room to spread out.
https://www.google.com/maps/@55.8199298,37.6120561,2a,75y,90h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sRVNjiEbv_UsAAAQ4-fe_Sw!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DRVNjiEbv_UsAAAQ4-fe_Sw%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D100.468155%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656
THE FANTASTIC ST. BASIL'S CATHEDRAL
St. Basil's Cathedral, in Red Square and just outside the Kremlin, was built by Ivan the Terrible (who was no doubt named by his enemies) to commemorate military victories. It was completed in 1561. The cathedral consists of eight churches built around a central church, and supposedly represents fire rising into the sky.
This building is representative of Moscow becoming the center of the Eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity. The Orthodox Church had split from the Catholics in 1054. The center of the new church was Constantinople, until Byzantium was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453. The center of the Orthodox Church then moved to Kiev, and later to Moscow.
The thing that is so special about this building is that it is completely original, with no predecessor. It is a unique mix of symmetry and asymmetry that goes by rules that are all it's own. Very likely, it could be considered as the single most attractive building in the world.
Have you ever wondered what meanings might be in the architecture of this building?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Basil%27s_Cathedral#/media/File:Moscow_05-2012_StBasilCathedral.jpg
The towers vary in height. Some of the towers are polygons, while some are cylindrical. Maybe this represents different situations, in life and in history, sometimes things fit together neatly, and sometimes they don't. But that is only the way it seems to us because everything always fits together neatly for God, even if we cannot see how.
This is what the world looks like. It doesn't always fit together as neatly as we would like it to, and sometimes doesn't seem to make sense at all, at least from our limited human perspective.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Basil's_Cathedral#/media/File:St_Basils_Cathedral_closeup.jpg
The domes are all different from one another, yet there is a basic similarity between them. Can this represent how people are different, and come in different colors and vary in height, but are much more similar than they are different, and all are created by the same God?
Notice how Moscow's "Seven Sister" buildings are a reflection of the towers and domes of St. Basil's Cathedral. They are not exactly the same, and vary in height, but there is a basic sameness about them.
Is there a political prophecy in the cathedral, with the high central tower representing Russians and the other towers representing the other nationalities that would eventually come together to make up the republics of the Soviet Union? Or did the cathedral act as a model of the future Soviet Union, and set the precedent to bring it about?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Basil's_Cathedral#/media/File:Sant_Vasily_cathedral_in_Moscow.JPG
Do the upward pointing triangles, with semi-circles above them, stand for the flame and smoke which would be a welcome sight in the cold winter? Or are they prophetic, standing for the many rockets that Russia would someday launch into earth orbit, the moon and other planets, with the semi-circles standing for these astronomical bodies?
Or, as in all of these examples, does it work in reverse? Is it the symbolism in this cathedral that led Russia to be such a space-faring nation? Did these triangles, pointing upward on the towers of the cathedral toward semi-circles, lead Russia to point the rocket upward that would put Sputnik, represented by a semi-circle, as the first man-made object to orbit the earth, to be followed by Yuri Gagarin as the first human to orbit the earth?
The semicircles atop the tall central tower look like craters on the moon. They also look like eyes of the lens of cameras. Could this be a prophecy that Russia would be the first nation to photograph the far side of the moon, which would turn out to be much more heavily cratered than the side facing earth?
We can only see one side of the moon from earth. Unlike other buildings, the domes of St. Basil's Cathedral cannot be seen all at once. There is no vantage point at ground level where all of the domes can be seen. Is this what led Russia to be the first nation to photograph the far side of the moon?
St. Basil's Cathedral consists of eight churches, each with a tower and a dome, around a central church.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Basil's_Cathedral#/media/File:St_Basil%27s_Cathedral_Line_Drawing.png
It wasn't known at the time of construction, but there would turn out to be eight planets in orbit around the central sun. The idea that the sun was the center of the Solar System had only relatively recently been introduced, and was not widely-known. The green roof of the lower level seems to represent the plants that cover the earth, and depend on the sun for life.
Could it be that the arrangement of this cathedral was actually a prophecy of the structure of the Solar System, of which Russia would take such an important role in exploring? At the time that the cathedral was built it was not known that the planets, including the earth, vary in size and color and composition, just like the domes on the cathedral.
Not only that but the "ring road" layout of the streets of Moscow very much resembles the orbits of the planets in the Solar System, with St. Basil's Cathedral in the place of the sun.
Incredibly, the four outer planets were found to be striped in the same way as some of St. Basil's domes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter#/media/File:Jupiter_and_its_shrunken_Great_Red_Spot.jpg
You can spend a long time wondering about the meaning of this fantastic building. Has anyone ever thought of naming the domes for the planets?
My favorite dome is the one with red and white horizontal stripes, the one facing away from Red Square. Which is your favorite dome?
Here are some scenes around St. Basil's Cathedral. You can collapse the side panel for a full-screen view.
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