"moscow" a Moscow Travel Page by doug48

moscow began as a small slavic settlement in the 6th century AD. in the 8 th century the area around moscow was invaded by the varangians (vikings). the varagians used moscow as a trading post with kiev and constantinople. in 862 AD rurik, a viking chief, settled in novgorod near present day st. petersburg and for a period of time that was the capitol of the rus. in 863 AD the eastern orthodox missionary cyril journeyed to russia from constantinople to spread christanity. cyril invented the russian (cyrillic) alphabet which greatly increased literacy among the rus. rurik's successor oleg conqured kiev and moved the capitol of the rus there. in 988 AD grand prince vladimir converted to christanity. in 1156 prince yurly dolgorukly built moscow's first kremlin (fortress). in the 13 th century russia was invaded by the mongols. for two hundred and fourty years the russians had to pay tribute to the "golden horde". in the late 14 th century moscow's grand prince dmitrity donskoy gathered an army and finally defeated the mongols. by the 15 th century ivan III "the great" made moscow the capitol of an empire that stretched from the artic ocean to the ural mountains.

the first tsar of russia was ivan IV "ivan the terrible". he was responsible for russia's first police state. in 1610 poland invaded russia and laid seige on moscow. prince pozharskiy gathered an army and expelled the poles in 1612. the first romanov tsar was mikhail romanov who founded a three hundred year dynasty. during this period moscow developed into a major city and boasted that it was the "third rome". tsar peter I "the great" wanted russia to become a modern european state. in 1697 he left moscow for western europe to study shipbuilding and other european technologies. on his return to russia he built a modern navy and founded the city of saint petersburg on the gulf of finland. in 1712 he moved the capitol of russia from moscow to saint petersburg. saint petersburg was to be russia's capitol for the next 200 years. in 1812 napoleon led his grande armee through poland into russia. napoleon entered moscow but the moscovites set fire to the city. without shelter or provisions napoleon was forced to retreat. at the out break of WWI russia joined the allies against imperial germany. russia lost 3,500,000 men in the war and it's economy was in chaos. this was the begining of the end of the romanov dynasty.

on october 26 th 1917 the bolsheviks started the russian revolution.lenin became the soviet dictator and in 1918 he murdered the romanov family. lenin moved the capitol of russia back to moscow and saint petersburg was renamed leningrad. joseph stalin became dictator after lenin's death in 1924. stalin's brutal regime sent millions of russians to the gulags were most of them died. in 1941 the germans invaded russia and stalin joined the allies in WWII. even though russia defeated nazi germany the red army lost twenty million men. also during the war millions of russian civilians died in the seiges of leningrad and stalingrad. after the war relations with russia's former allies broke down and started the era known as the cold war. during the cold war the russian economy could not keep up with the arms race with the west and in 1991 gorbachev outlawed the communist party. by the end of 1991 the soviet union was history.

a couple of books that provide an interesting insight on russian history are, "russia and the russians", geoffrey hosking, pub: havard press, "a history of twentieth century russia", robert service, pub: harvard press, "stalin", edvard radzinsky, pub: anchor books, and "lenin", robert service, pub: harvard press.
a great guide book for visiting moscow, moscow dk eyewitness travel guides. (www.dk.com)