Moscow
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Moscow. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
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 2026 Editor's Note: By way of comparison, Moscow today is home to about 13 million people, up from the 1,359,254 this article reports for 1905. (Ed: BR 2026-06-22)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the second capital (formerly the only capital) of the former Russian empire. It is the chief town of the government of Moscow, and is situated in a highly cultivated district on the Moskwa river, 400 miles S. E. of Petrograd, with which it is in direct communication by rail. It is surrounded by a wall of earthen rampart 26 miles in circuit and of no defensive value; and a considerable portion of the inclosed space is unoccupied by buildings. The quarter known as the Kreml or Kremlin, on a height about 100 feet above the river, forms the center of the town, and contains the principal buildings. It is inclosed by a high stone wall, and contains the old palace of the czars and several other palaces; the Cathedral of the Assumption, founded in 1326, rebuilt in 1472; the Church of the Annunciation, in which the emperors are recrowned; the Cathedral of St. Michael; the Palace of Arms, an immense building occupied by the senate, the treasury, and the arsenal; and the Tower of Ivan Veliki (209 feet), surmounted by a gilded dome, and having at its foot the great Czar Kolokol, or king of bells, 60 feet round the rim, 19 feet high, and weighing upward of 192 tons, the largest in the world. Outside the Kreml the chief building is the Cathedral of St. Vassili, with no less than 20 gilded and painted domes and towers, all of different shapes and sizes. Among the principal educational establishments are the Imperial University, founded in 1755 by the Empress Catharine. It has a rich museum and a library of 200,000 volumes, and is the most important of the Russian universities. Moscow is the first manufacturing city in the empire, and before the World War its industrial and commercial activity had greatly increased. The principal manufactures are textile fabrics, chiefly woolen, cotton, and silk, besides hats, hardware, leather, chemical products, beer, and spirits. From its central position Moscow was the great entrepôt for the internal commerce of the empire. The foundation of the city dates from 1147. It became the capital of Muscovy, and afterward of the whole Russian empire; but was deprived of this honor in 1703, when Petrograd was founded. The principal event in the history of Moscow is the burning of it in 1812 for the purpose of dislodging the French from their winter quarters. The Alexandra observed the ceremony of coronation in the Grand Kremlin in Moscow on May 26, 1896. The city suffered greatly in the revolution of 1917, and under the Soviet rule its population was reduced to less than half that of 1915. In March, 1918, Moscow became again the center of government, in_place of Petrograd. See RUSSIA and WORLD WAR. Pop. before the World War about 1,800,000.