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_The Story of Moscow_
_All rights reserved_
[Illustration: _Ikon of the Holy Virgin of Vladimir_]
_The Story of_ MOSCOW
_by Wirt Gerrare Illustrated
by Helen M. James_
[Illustration: colophon]
_London: J. M. Dent & Co.
Aldine House, 29 and 30 Bedford Street
Covent Garden, W. C. 1900_
PREFACE
Readers of the modern histories of Russia may wonder by what right
Moscow is included among MEDIÆVAL TOWNS, for it is the fashion of recent
writers to ignore the history of the mighty Euro-Asian empire prior to
the eighteenth century and the reign of Peter the Great. It is at that
period this story of the old Muscovite capital ends. To many, then, this
account of the town and its vicissitudes during the preceding five
centuries may have the charm of novelty; perchance to others, who have
wrongly concluded that the old buildings were all destroyed during
Napoleon's invasion, the few typical antiquities chosen for illustration
out of many like, will attract to a closer acquaintance with memorials
of a past that was but little influenced by the art of the west.
Moscow, where the east merges with the west but remains distinct and
unconquered, has a fascination all its own; the town not only has been
great, but is so yet; its influence pervades the Russian empire and is
still mutable and active; its story therefore comprises more than the
legends and associations of an ordinary city, but, if confined merely to
an enumeration of the facts and traditions of the past will not be void
of interest, and however fully given, must fall far short of what the
imaginative reader may reasonably expect. Of the meagre character of
this present account I am fully aware; of its positive errors I am, at
present, unhappily ignorant, but I trust that those who discover
mistakes will not only forgive, but notify me of them, that later
readers may be as grateful for the favour as I myself shall be. Of place
names I have given the idiomatic, instead of the usual literal
translation; where I have attempted an equivalent reproduction of the
original the transliteration will be comprehensible to those who know
nothing of either French or German. That I may not be charged with
inconsistency in this, I may explain that where a foreign spelling--as
rouble--has become familiar I have used the Anglicism. To most readers
the names will, I fear, be unpronounceable however spelled; but only the
expert will regret that I have not given the original Russian. To them
the excuse I offer is, that to everyone ignorant of the tongue Russian
names are absolutely undecipherable, being apparently composed of an
alphabet in spasms made up into words of poly-syllabic length.
It is difficult for one not of the Eastern Church to write justly of
Russian Ecclesiasticism; an alien, however carefully he may observe, is
liable to obtain faulty impressions and make erroneous deductions; so to
me any criticism seems an impertinence. I have tried to present its
artistic phases fairly, but am conscious that the ninth chapter is the
least satisfactory of all that I have written.
For the rest, my task has been easy: I have had but to examine, compare,
and judge the work of others and from their stored treasures make my
selection. I have produced little that is really original: others have
delved amid ruins for vestiges of the earlier Moscow; have unearthed
ancient monuments; transcribed illegible manuscripts; ransacked
archives, measured walls, calculated heights, weighed bells and counted
steps; formed theories and found evidence to support them; so have
rendered my labour light and pleasant. I regret that I, who at best am
but an intelligible interpreter, cannot acknowledge more particularly
the hundred and more authorities from whom I have drawn; in the same
inadequate, general fashion I must thank many friends, English and
Russian, for the kindly interest they have taken in the work and the
intelligent assistance they have rendered me in its compilation. For
direction to valuable sources of information, and other services, I am
conscious of particular indebtedness to the Rev. F. Wyberg, of the
English Church, Moscow, and to Mr V. E. Marsden, the correspondent of
the _Standard_ there--either of whom might have written a much better
book about the town they know so well. The object of this volume I shall
consider to be achieved if its perusal gives to anyone pleasure equal to
that its compilation has brought me; or awakens even a few readers to a
greater interest in Moscow, and a better understanding of the Russian
people.
WIRT GERRARE.
[Russian poetry in cyrillic letters]
_White-walled and golden-headed,
Beautiful, bizarre,
The pride of all the millions
Ruled by the Russian Tsar:
The cradle of an Empire,
Shrine of a great race,
With Europe's noblest cities
Moscow holds its place!_
V. E. M.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
_Introduction--Pre-Muscovite Russia_ 1
CHAPTER II
_Origin and Early History_ 11
CHAPTER III
_Moscow under the Mongols_ 21
CHAPTER IV
_Moscow of the Princes_ 37
CHAPTER V
_Ivan the Terrible_ 47
CHAPTER VI
_The Troublous Times_ 80
CHAPTER VII
_Moscow of the Tsars_ 111
CHAPTER VIII
_The Kremlin_ 147
CHAPTER IX
_Moscow of the Ecclesiastics_ 172
CHAPTER X
_Moscow of the Citizens_ 206
CHAPTER XI
_Ancient Customs and Quaint Survivals_ 227
CHAPTER XII
_The Convents and Monasteries_ 253
CHAPTER XIII
_Moscow of the English_ 270
CHAPTER XIV
_The French Invasion--and after_ 284
CHAPTER XV
_Itinerary and Miscellaneous Information_ 303
_Index_ 309
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
_The Virgin of Vladimir (Vladimirski Bogeimateri)
by St Luke_ _Frontispiece_
_The Kremlin_ 13
_Danilovski Monastery_ 17
_Spass na Boru_ 29
_Ilyinka Gate of the Kitai Gorod_ 39
_Doorway of St Lazarus_ 45
_Alarm Bell Tower_ 58
_Vasili Blajenni_ 67
_The Terem--A Corridor_ 83
_Church of the Assumption_ 89
_Dom Romanovykh_ 108
_Belvedere of the Terem_ 117
_Krutitski Vorot_ 122
_Krasnoe Kriltso_ 126
_Throne Room of the Terem_ 135
_Vosskresenski Vorot and Iberian Chapel_ 143
_Kremlin--Wall and Tower_ 148
_Terem and Belvedere of the Potieshni Dvorets_ 154
_Church of Our Saviour behind the Golden Gates_ 161
_Potieshni Dvorets, or Pleasure Palace_ 167
_Church of the Nativity (Rojdestva V-Putinkakh)_ 181
_Uspenski Sobor--The Ikonostas_ 186
_Cathedral of the Annunciation (Blagovieshchenski
Sobor)_ 193
_Church and Gate of Mary of Vladimir_ 204
_Srietenka--The Sukharev Bashnia_ 208
_St Nicholas "Stylite"_ 218
_Dom Chukina_ 223
_Krestovia in the Romanof House_ 229
_Varvarka Vorot of the Kitai Gorod_ 238
_A Chastok (Watch Tower)_ 245
_Petrovski Monastery_ 250
_Simonov Monastery_ 261
_Novo Devichi Convent_ 267
_Spasski Vorot, Tower over the Redeemer Gate_ 279
_Borovitski Gate and St Saviour's Cathedral_ 299
_Plan of the Kremlin_ _face_ 125
_Map of Moscow_ " 308
MOSCOW
CHAPTER I
_Introduction--Pre-Muscovite Russia_
"Cimmerii a Scythis nomadibus ejecti."--HERODOTUS.
The mediæval pilgrim to Moscow, getting his first glimpse of the Holy
City from Salutation Hill, saw before him much the same sight as the
tourist of to-day may look upon from the same spot. Three miles away a
hill crowned with white-walled buildings, many towers, gilded domes and
spires topped with Cross-and-Crescent; outside the wall that encircles
this hill, groups of buildings, large and small; open fields,
trees--singly, in rows, clumps and thickets--separate group from group;
ever and anon above the many hued roofs reach belfries, spires,
steeples, domes and minarets innumerable. Beyond, to right and left, the
scene repeats itself until the bright coloured buildings become
indistinguishable from the masses of verdure and all merge in the haze
of the plains east and west, or the faint outline of forest to the
north.
Long ago the tremendous extent of this town, apparently without limit,
amazed strangers no less than the richness and multitude of its
buildings filled pilgrims with awe and reverence. To the tourist to-day
it is as a vision of magnificent splendour and brilliance, for seen in
the clear sunlight of a summer day Moscow has beauty and brightness no
other city possesses. Long lines of ivory whiteness capped with vivid
green or flushed with carmine and ruby; great globes of deepest blue,
patches of purple and dashes of aquamarine; many gleaming domes of gold,
glowing halos of burnished copper, dazzling points of glistening
silver--such make Moscow at sunset like part of a rainbow streaked with
lightning and thickly bedizened with great gems.
Intense colours, sharp contrasts characterise Moscow. The extravagances
of design and colouring, unconcealable even in the general prospect, are
obvious on closer inspection. The stranger arriving by railway gets no
bird's-eye view of the town; but on his way from the station in the
suburbs towards the central town sees the painted roofs, coloured walls,
pretentious pillars, cupolas with golden stars, strange towers,
fantastic gates, immense buildings, tiny cottages, magnificent spaces,
narrow winding streets; irregularities and incongruities so many that
Moscow first, and most lastingly, impresses by its _bizarrerie_.
With fuller acquaintance the diversity of style appears in keeping with
the spirit of the place, and seeming incongruities are softened, or
redeemed, by originality of design or execution. The buildings of Moscow
are multiform, but there is dissimilarity rather than contrariety; the
usual elsewhere is the unconventional here, and conformity is attained
by each being unlike all others. An early traveller wrote: "One might
imagine all the states of Europe and Asia had sent a building by way of
representation to Moscow," and in a certain sense this is still true.
But it would be incorrect to assume, therefore, that cosmopolitanism is
a dominant trait. The very reverse is the fact. Moscow is essentially
Russian, and though there is abundant evidence of borrowing from Greece,
Italy and Byzantium; from Moor, Goth and Mongol; of appropriation of
classic, mediæval and renaissance methods, the prevalent style seems to
be not exactly the combination of any so much as the outcome of all. Not
that indigenous forms are wanting, but their elemental quality is
obscured by the wondrous versatility and adaptability of the artists.
The result is as confusing as though an author in writing out his
original ideas made constant random use of different alphabets in each
word.
This method, so characteristic of Russia, is perplexing rather than
intricate, but he would be very learned or foolhardy who, acting on the
rule that to see the house is to know the inmates, if shown Moscow
should at once predicate the character of its inhabitants.
Yet more than most towns Moscow reflects the life history of its people;
whatever there is of beauty, of strength, of individuality, is the
result of human intelligence, experience and effort. No town of like
importance owes so little to nature, so much to man. And the dominant
tone is religious; religious feeling has inspired the noblest efforts,
ecclesiastical influence has conserved such oneness of purpose as Moscow
manifests. Withal there is strong individualism, both clerical and
secular.
Paradoxical as Moscow is, it is in the highest degree interesting. If no
one object can be pointed to as typical of race or period, no public
work shown as the result of persistent policy or genius of peculiar
citizenship, Moscow in its entirety demonstrates the development of a
people. Even the opposing principles of diffusion and cohesion, and the
parts they have served in the history of this race, are so unmistakably
expressed that the sight-seer, even, feels that in Moscow, most surely,
must be found the key not only to the history of Russia, but also to the
character of men who have conquered and hold the largest part of two
continents.
Moscow, the town that has cradled and nursed a mighty nation, does not
lack story; but its story comprises much of the early history of the
empire subsequently evolved, and consequently much that may be
considered foreign to the city itself must be stated if the tale is to
be complete, or even comprehensible by those to whom the ancient history
of Russia is unknown.
* * * * *
To begin at the beginning. European Russia is an immense plain, its
centre elevated scarcely three hundred feet above sea-level; the hills,
few, low and unimportant. Lakes are plentiful, and great rivers with
many ramifications flow slowly by tortuous channels--mostly towards the
north-west or the south-east. Large tracts of forest and marsh in the
centre terminate with frozen wastes to the north, and merge with rough,
sandy pastures on the south.
At various periods, Europe has been invaded and peopled by different
races from the east, and the last of these migrants, the Slavs, for the
most part took the direction of the great water-ways of Russia, that is,
from the south-east towards the north-west. In addition to their nomadic
habit, various causes, amongst which must be counted internecine
warfare, led to the dispersion of the Slavs, whilst effective occupation
by earlier migrants and the determined resistance of aboriginal races
checked their progress in some directions. The Scythian branch of the
Slav race settled on the Don about 400 B.C. but was gradually driven
from the shores of the Black Sea by the Greek colonists of Miletus.
These colonies were taken by the Romans later, and about 300 A.D. the
Slavs again asserted their dominion there for a period. Other branches
of the Slav race and wilder races from Asia pressed westward, laying the
country waste. Huns, Turks, Goths, Bolgars, Magyars, Polovtsi,
Pechenegians and others, at different times, drove Slavs of pastoral
habit aside from their path. In the fifth century Slavs established
themselves on the Dnieper at Kief and at Novgorod on the Ilmen, where
they progressed and became civilised. In the seventh century they were
once more on the shores of the Black Sea in the south, and in the north
Novgorod was a thriving commercial centre.
The Slav republics suffered at the hands of Asiatics on the south, and
from the depredations of vikings on the north; moreover there were
internal dissensions. In A.D. 864, Rurik, a Varoeger prince--the same
who, it is believed, laid waste the maritime provinces of France in 850
and in 851 entered the Thames with 300 sail and pillaged
Canterbury--made himself master of the northern republic, took up his
residence at Novgorod and founded a dynasty which lasted 700 years.
There is a legend to the effect that his coming was at the invitation of
the Slavs, who sought his aid and sovereignty, but there can be no doubt
it was as a conqueror that Rurik came and established his race in
Russia. Some of his followers, led by Askold and Dyr, sought fortune and
conquest further south. These became masters of Kief, pressed on to
Constantinople in 200 ships, embraced Christianity and returned to Kief,
intending there to found a separate kingdom and dynasty. After the death
of Rurik, his son Igor, a minor, succeeded; his uncle, Oleg, as regent,
went to Kief; there he treacherously killed the two usurping leaders,
took possession of the city and, appointing Igor to the throne,
determined that Kief should be the "mother of Russian towns." The
people were then pagans, and the Northmen kept to the practices of their
ancestors until about 955, when Olga was regent; she visited
Constantinople and was there baptised into the Christian faith. Some
thirty years later, Vladimir, the seventh in descent from Rurik,
ascended the throne, and during his reign the Christian religion was
generally adopted throughout his realm. Kief then became closely
associated with Constantinople, its connection with the Byzantine empire
being both ecclesiastical and commercial. Novgorod, on the other hand,
remained in closer touch with the west, supplying the Northmen with the
wares of Araby and Ind that reached Russia by way of the Volga. Otther,
the Scandinavian founder of Tver, where the Tmak joins the Volga north
of Moscow, was a great trader and traveller; at one time going as far
east as Perm on the Kama (Biarmaland), at another to England--where he
gave King Alfred particulars of the fairs in the east, and the methods
of trading with Asian merchants.
In the Historical Museum of Moscow is a well arranged collection of
prehistoric antiquities found in the empire. There is nothing among the
stone implements to show that the earliest races in Russia in any way
differed in habit from those of the same era occupying western Europe
and the British Isles. The most ancient of the relics (Rooms I., II.)
were found with bones of the mammoth in the district of Murom in
Vladimir, and at Kostenki near Voronesh. Some ear-rings and a bracelet
of twisted silver were found in the Kremlin, and a few other early
remains when excavating for the foundations of the new cathedral, but
these trifles are not evidence of early occupation, since they may have
been left by travellers along the waterways.
The frescoes are fanciful representations of supposed incidents in the
life of the early inhabitants, and the models of tumuli, tombs, dolmens,
cromlechs and the like, enable one to picture some part of the rude life
of the people. Particularly deserving notice are the models of the
dwellings of different races found in Russia: in many the living room is
raised well above the ground. It was on the first-floor that the
mediæval Muscovites lived; it is still the _bel-étage_, and preferred by
all.
The picture by Semiradski representing the funeral rites of the Bolgars
has the warrant of history. On the death of a chief of this tribe, the
remains were placed in a boat on a pile of wood; horses, cattle, slaves,
were slain and added; the wife, or a maid offering herself a sacrifice,
was fêted for a time, then placed in the boat, and as soon as her
attendants bade her farewell the pyre was fired, and subsequently a
mound raised over the ashes.
The stone idols, remarkable in their likeness to each other, are from
all parts of Russia; a similar one is to be seen at Kuntsevo, near
Moscow, but both the "babas," as they are called, and pre-christian
crosses, are more common in the south and east of Russia than in
Muscovy.
To the little that this Historical Collection tells of the early Slavs
may be added such facts as ancient chroniclers have recorded. The
Russians lived together in communities governed by elected or hereditary
elders; reared cattle and farmed bees; they were nomadic, idolatrous,
hospitable and fond of fermented liquors.
Some writers dispute, disregard, or belittle the Varangian dominion in
Russia; contending that the Varoegers themselves were Slavs, were
closely akin to them, or were quickly absorbed by them. To the contrary
it is urged that Rurik and his followers possessed qualities peculiar
to the Northmen; that his kingdom in Russia resembled other Scandinavian
colonies, and that certain customs he introduced were foreign to Slav
habits. Vladimir, a direct descendant of Rurik, conquered Poland; his
son, Yaroslaf, both on account of his warlike achievements and the
splendour in which he lived, was respected throughout Europe. His
daughters married into the reigning houses of France, Hungary and
Norway; a daughter of Vsevolod married Henry IV. of Germany; Vladimir,
the grandson of Yaroslaf, married Gyda, the daughter of Harold II. King
of England; their son, Mstislaf, married Christina, daughter of the King
of Sweden. Such a close connection between the Scandinavian and Russian
courts is not likely to have obtained if the members belonged to
different races. Scandinavian conquerors to some extent mixed with the
peoples whose territory they occupied; usually they married their own
race. They fought with each other on matters of precedence and
succession; they thought much of personal valour and honour, and lived
in the present with little regard to dynasty. They, as little as the
Slavs to-day, would pay tribute to suzerains.
Doubtless the Varangian leaders and their military companions,
subsequently known as the _drujni_ of the Russian princes, gave to the
Slav character love of enterprise and power to initiate--traits which
have always distinguished Russian nobles from the peasantry. Again, the
"Russkaia Pravda" of the tenth century is contemporary with and akin to
"Knut's Code," which the English usually, but wrongly, attribute to King
Alfred. One other point tells in favour of Scandinavian dominion: the
freedom accorded to women and the high position some of them took in the
state. But their privileges and influence declined with the ascendency
of the Slav, and the seclusion of women in the Asiatic manner
subsequently obtained in Moscow and lasted there until the days of Peter
the Great.
The Northmen introduced into Russia their system of succession, the
_odelsret_ that still prevails in Norway. The descendants of Rurik, with
their military comrades, fought against each other for the throne of
Kief, or the inheritance of other possessions. As with each succeeding
generation the princely family multiplied, the country was rent with
dissensions. Now the ruler of Kief, then he of Novgorod became
paramount; in 1158 the reigning prince of Vladimir succeeded, and, for
the time, Kief became of second importance. The history of Russia during
the tenth and succeeding centuries is a story of strife and disaster.
Wars, with varying success, against Poles, Swedes, Lithuanians, and the
predatory tribes on the south and east; fires, famine, pestilence,
succeeded each other and re-occurred. In 1124 Kief, the opulent and
sacred city, was destroyed by fire; some years later Novgorod was
depopulated by famine; robbers exacted blackmail from voyagers on the
great waterways; trade decayed. In 1224 the Russians made common cause
with their enemy the Polovtsi to repel an invasion of Tartars; they were
beaten and Kief fell--50,000 of its inhabitants being put to the sword.
Thirteen years later a second invasion of the Tartars resulted in the
fall of Vladimir and the subjection of southern and eastern Russia to
Mongol rule. Livonians, Swedes and Danes attacked Novgorod, but were
repulsed. Pressed on these sides the Russians could extend only towards
the inhospitable north. In these times and with this environment Moscow
was founded, and nursed; became a rallying point for the Slav race; grew
strong and rich; and, by the genius of its rulers, dominated Russia.
Slowly but surely the Scandinavian element was absorbed; with Ivan I.
(1328-1341) the time of transition practically ended. A new policy of
aggrandisement was adopted and the Muscovite was evolved from the Slav
race. Round Moscow, subject to the Tartar yoke, the people became
patient and resigned; born to endure bad fortune, they could profit by
good. The princes of Moscow gained their ends by intrigue, by
corruption, by the purchase of consciences, by servility to the Tartar
Khans, by perfidy to their equals, by murder and treachery. "Politic and
persevering, prudent and pitiless, it is their honour to have created
the living germ which became great Russia."