The Kremlin is more than just a Russian version of the Houses of Parliament, as cold war spy novels may have lead you to believe, but is the fortified seat of Russian political and religious power.

Four palaces and four cathedrals fit within the walled, twenty towered complex. The layout is triangular and centred around a central square, Cathedral Square, which is lined by three of the cathedrals, including the grand Cathedral of the Dormition where the Tzars were crowned and the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael where many monarchs are buried.

The complex also encloses The State Armory, the Great Kremlin Palace, the modern State Kremlin Palace, the Patriarch’s Palace, medieval Terem Palace, The Arsenal, the Presidium and the Senate. Digging below the current Kremlin (nuclear bomb shelters?) unearthed proof that the site has been in constant use since the second millennium BC, mostly as a fort.

Ivan III started work on the version standing today, including the walls (3.5 to 6.5 metres thick) and the Ivan the Great Bell Tower (the exact centre of Moscow) in the last 15th, early 16th Century, and also decreed that no other structures could be built up around it (he actually built a moat to prevent it.). The Kremlin then became the Imperial residence and remained so off and on (the Tzars had to evacuate several times due to wars and uprisings and Napoleon tried to blow it up when his invasion failed, but luckily his destruction plans failed as well.) until the Revolution, when it became the grand office of the President of Russia. Lenin chose to live in the Kremlin and his room there is still preserved as are some of Stalin’s (you can tell they’re his because he had all the golden Imperial eagles removed.) and one of the main current uses for the Kremlin is as a museum.

Kremlin actually means fortress in Russian so there are technically many Kremlins - the Moscow Kremlin being ‘The Kremlin’.

Kremlin Visitors Website.

Written by  World Reviewer Staff.

Add comment

Comments, reviews and questions