Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/653

 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