Kremlin

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

THE, an architectural E, an architectural pile in Moscow, on the N. bank of the the N. bank of the river Moskva. It forms the center of the the center of the city of Moscow, and around it, with a round it, with a radius of about a mile, is a line of bouleline of boule. vards, extending, however, only on the only on the N. side of the river. Outside of this side of this line, and concentric with it, is another is another line of boulevards, with a radius of a radius of a mile and a half; while beyond all, and eyond all, and forming the girdle of the city, is the city, is the outer rampart, with a circumference of sereumference of 26 English miles. The Kremlin comprises the principal buildings, as the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin, founded in 1326, a small but gorgeously decorated edifice; the Cathedral of the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, containing the containing the tombs of all the czars down to the time own to the time of Peter the Great, who changed the ho changed the royal burial place to Petrograd, the to Petrograd, the Church of the Annunciation, the floor nnunciation, the floor of which is paved with jaspers, agates, with Jaspers, agates, and carnelians of various shapes; the various shapes; the tower of Ivan Veliki, 200 feet in height, ki, 200 feet in height, and surmounted by a magnificent gilded dome from which, as from all the domes of Moscow, rises the "honorable cross"; the Czar Kolokol (king of bells), the greatest bell in the world, several palaces and collections of ancient arms and other antiquities ; the arsenal, surrounded by the splendid trophy of 850 cannons, taken from the French, and the senate. The walls of the Kremlin are surmounted by 18 towers, and pierced with five gates. The Kremlin suffered during the revolution of 1917, and was pillaged at various times during revolutionary uprisings that followed. When the central Bolshevik Government was moved from Petrograd to Moscow, it became its headquarters.