Moscow

mos'ko, a former capital of Russia. It is in this respect the successor of Kiev and the predecessor of St. Petersburg. It is situated on one of the headwaters of the Volga River, very near the geographical center of European Russia. It is about 400 miles by rail from St. Petersburg. The connecting railway follows almost a straight line. Although the capital was moved to St. Petersburg for the sake of a seaport, Moscow is still the Holy City, the mother city of the Greek Church. The czar is crowned here. At the coronation of Nicholas II in 1896, over 2,000 people were crushed to death by the press of the crowd. The principal nobles maintain Moscow residences. The city is said to have been founded about 1147 by the prince of Kiev. It grew up around an important military fortress known as the Kremlin. The city itself is still surrounded by an earthen wall of great extent, now utterly useless as a defense. The general aspect of the city is picturesque. There is an unusually large number of mosques with varicolored domes and minarets, which, together with innumerable palaces, and the high, gloomy towers of the Kremlin, give the city an unusually impressive effect.

The Kremlin itself is the chief center of interest. It is a capacious inclosure entered by five immense gates. It contains the great palace or government building, as well as the ancient palace or royal residence of the czar. The cathedral in which the czar is crowned occupies an immense space in the center. It is an antique, heavy building of clumsy pillars, crowned by five cupolas. The Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, also within the inclosure, contains the tombs of many czars, including Peter the Great. A museum in a wing of the great palace contains a large collection of royal antiquities, including crowns, thrones, and armor belonging to former czars and men of military note. Many trophies of war are preserved here. Among other interesting objects in the Kremlin is the tower of Ivan the Great. It is 300 feet in height. It contains a chime of bells and is crowned by a golden dome, from the center of which rises a crescent surmounted in turn by the cross. The Great Bell of Moscow, the largest in the world, stands at the bottom of the tower on a pedestal of granite. It formerly hung in a wooden tower, now burned to the ground. The Kremlin is noted for "an enormous bell that is never rung and for a gun that is never fired."

Aside from the Kremlin, the commercial quarters of the city and the university with its observatory, botanic garden, library, and museums, are of interest. The city possesses a number of beautiful squares and public gardens, but the streets as a whole are narrow, crooked, and squalid. The better houses are plastered with stucco and are painted green and red and yellow.

Moscow is the chief manufacturing city, of Russia. Its establishments give employment to from 100,000 to 150,000 workingmen. Cotton, woolen, and silk, paper, leather, and iron goods, to the value of $150,000,000 a year, are made. The city is connected by canal, river, and railway with all parts of the empire. It is one of the great commercial centers of Europe. Tea and other products from China and the Far East are received overland. Moscow is the center of the Russian book trade.

The population in 1905 was reported at 1,359,254. The inhabitants are nearly all Russians. The city has passed through many vicissitudes. It has been sacked by Mongol, Lithuanian, Tartar, Pole, and Cossack. In 1812 it was entered by the French under Murat and Napoleon, who took up their quarters in the Kremlin. By order of the Russian authorities, the inhabitants of the outer city fled, after first putting the torch to their homes. Fortunately the historical portion was not injured seriously. The residence sections were soon rebuilt.

See Kiev; St. Petersburg; Russia; Napoleon