Moscow history

The city of Moscow

The city of Moscow is named after the river Moskva. The first reference we have of the city of Moscow dates back to 1147 when Yuri calls his brother Dolgorukiy Severski Novgorod to go to Moscow. Nine years after Prince Yuri built a wooden wall around the emerging city, around the year 1237, the Mongols burned the city and killed all its inhabitants. Moscow recovered and became the capital of the Vladimir Suzgal independent in 1327.

The Grand Duchy of Moscow

The Moscow history would improve and would become known as the Grand Duchy of Moscow, attracting many refugees from Russia. In 1380 Moscow won the battle of Kulikovo, but two years later it was sacked by Khan Tokhtamysh. In the year 1480 with Ivan III the Russians released tartar control and so Moscow would become the center of power in Russia.

The attack of the Crimean Tatars

Around 1571 the Crimean Tatars attacked and sacked Moscow, burning everything but the Kremlin. In 1609 the Swedish army began a march to Moscow to help Tsar Vasili and I entered Moscow in 1610, they suppressed the rebellion against the Tsar but quickly withdrew in early 1611, so the Polish-Lithuanian army decided to invade Moscow.

The Polish-Muscovite War

During the Polish-Muscovite War Hetman Stanislaw entered Moscú after winning the Klushino Battle. The 17th century was the century that had plenty of risings. These were the liberation of Moscow from the Polish–Lithuanian invaders (1612), the Salt Riot (1648), the Copper Riot (1662), and the Moscow Uprising of 1682. After the epidemics from 1570 until 1656 in 1712 Russia changed the capital city and Saint Petersburg was founded. In 1771 it was the last shot of the plague that in total took 100 000 lives in Moscow. Around 1812 during the French invasion, on September 14th during one of Napoleon’s last trips, he tried to arrive in Moscow but the cold, hunger and fortuity intervention of the military Russians killed like 400 000 soldiers. Napoleon had to retire his troops and just a few thousand soldiers survived. 

The first mayor of Moscow

In 1905 Alexander Adrianov became the first mayor of Moscow, in 1918 Moscow became the capital of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and of the Soviet Union. During World War II in 1945 after the German Invasion all the military boarding schools were home of the Red Army located in Moscow. In 1980, it hosted the Summer Olympic Games and in 1998 was host to the first World Youth Games.