Until the late 1950s there was increasing air pollution in Moscow, Smog was common, often with heavy concentrations of sulphur dioxide. A major campaign to control noxious emissions was launched, assisted greatly by a changeover from coal to natural gas as the principal fuel. Some factories that had contributed to pollution were moved out of the city. Slight improvement in Moscow's air had been marked, but since the 1980s the growing number of motor vehicles and the increase in the number of power generators have once again bolstered the concentrations of such exhaust pollutants as carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide.
History
Moscow has played a vital role in Russian history. It was the capital of Muscovy (the Grand Principality of Moscow) in the late thirteenth century - hence, the people of Moscow are known as Muscovites. Gradually the princes of Moscow extended their rule over the other surrounding Russian princedoms, and the town became the leader in the long struggle against Mongol hegemony. By the second half of the fifteenth century, especially after the annexation of Novgorod in 1478, Moscow had become the undisputed centre of a unified Russian state.
When in 1712 Peter I (the Great) transferred the capital to his new city of St Petersburg on the Gulf of Finland, Moscow was quick to recover and retained its major role in the cultural life of Russia. The eighteenth century saw the foundation of Moscow University - the first in Russia - and a medical and surgical college. Industry flourished, too, and by the time of
Napoleon's invasion in 1812 the population had grown to 275,000.
The Napoleonic invasion has become legendary: after a bitter fifteen-hour battle on August 26 (September 7, New Style) at Borodino on the approaches to Moscow, the Russian commander-in-chief, General M, L Kutuzov, evacuated both troops and civilians from the city, which was occupied by the French a week later. A fire broke out and spread rapidly, eventually destroying more than two-thirds of all the buildings. Looting was rife. The lack of supplies and shelter and the continual harassment by Russian skirmishing forces made it impossible for Napoleon to winter in Moscow, however, and on October 7 (October 19, New Style) the French troops began their catastrophic retreat.
In 1813 a Commission for the Construction of the City of Moscow was established. It launched a great programme of rebuilding, which included a partial replanning of the city centre. Among many buildings constructed or reconstructed at this time were the Great Kremlin and Armoury palaces, the university, the Manezh (riding school), and the Bolshoi Theatre. Industry also expanded rapidly in this century, and the Moscow stock exchange was established. The emancipation of the serfs in 1861 and the beginning of the railway era with the opening of the line to St Petersburg in 1851 greatly increased labour mobility, and large numbers of peasants from the villages began moving to the city. Between 1897 and 1915 Moscow yet again doubled in size, to a population of nearly 2 million.
Moscow resumed its status as capital city in March 1918 when Lenin and the Soviet government moved to Moscow. In the civil war period (1918-20), Moscow, like other Soviet cities, suffered greatly, with grave food shortages, loss of population, and reduction of industry. But in the years following the final establishment of Soviet power and peace, recovery was swift, and the city functioned as one of the main springboards for industrialization elsewhere in the Soviet Union. During the Second World War, the Germans in late 1941 reached the outskirts of Moscow, less than 25 miles (40 km) from the Kremlin. Many factories were evacuated, together with much of the government and most residents. From October 20 the city was declared to be in a state of siege. Its remaining inhabitants built and manned anti-tank defences while the city was bombarded from the air. A desperate counter-attack on December 6 threw the German forces back from the outskirts and saved Moscow. Recovery was quick after the war, with further growth of the city's economy. Two major events have marked the city's progress: in 1947, two years after the war's end, Moscow celebrated its 800th anniversary, and in 1980 it hosted the Summer Olympic Games.
in the post-war period, migration to Moscow caused a housing shortage that reached grave proportions in the 1950s. Under Nikita Khrushchev a major construction programme was initiated. Much of the old housing, often single- storied and made of wood, was clearcd, and extensive new tracts of large apartment buildings sprang up around the historic core of the city. Considerable urban renewal took place in the centra) areas, and high-rise buildings now dominate the skyline.
As the capital of post-Soviet Russia, Moscow was at the centre of the country's historic transformation. In the decade following the Soviet collapse, many historical buildings, especially churches, underwent a sweeping renovation on a scale without precedent in the city's history. Moscow is a city whose splendour continues to bedazzle.
The Sights
A map of Moscow presents a pattern of concentric rings that circle the rough triangle of the Kremlin and its rectangular extension, the Kitay-gorod, with outwardly radiating spokes connecting the rings; the whole pattern is modified by the twisting, north-west- to south-east-trending Moskva (Moscow) River. These rings and radiais mark the historical stages of the city's growth: successive epochs of development are traced by the Boulevard Ring and the Garden Ring (both following the line of former fortifications), the Moscow Little Ring Railway (built in part along the line of the former Kamer-Kollezhsky customs barrier), and the Moscow Ring Road.
As throughout its history, the Kremlin remains the heart of the city. It is the symbol of both Russian and (for a time) Soviet power and authority, and since 1991 it has served as the official residence of the president of the Russian Federation. The Kremlin's crenellated red brick walls and its 20 towers (19 with spires) were built at the end of the fifteenth century, when a host of Italian builders arrived in Moscow at the invitation of Ivan III (the Great). One of the most important towers, the Saviour (Spasskaya) Tower, leading to Red Square, was built in 1491 by Pietro Solario, who designed most of the main towers; its belfry was added in 1624-5. The chimes of its clock are broadcast by radio as a time signal to the whole country. Also on the Red Square front is the St Nicholas (Nikolskaya) Tower, built originally in 1491 and rebuilt in 1806. The two other principal gate towers - the Trinity (Troitskaya) Tower, with a bridge and outer barbican (the Kutafya Tower), and the Borovitskaya Tower - rise from the western wall.
RED SQUARE
Large public square in central Moscow
Red Square lies north of the Moskva River, adjacent to the Kremlin, and covers some 18 acres (7.3 hectares). Dating from the late fifteenth century, it has long been a busy market area as well as a focal point in Russian history as the scene of executions, demonstrations, riots, and parades. Located around it are the State Historical Museum (1875-81), the nine-towered Cathedral of St Basil the Blessed (1554-60), the former state department store GUM, and the tomb of Lenin, The square and Kremlin were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1990.
Within the Kremlin walls is one of the most striking and beautiful architectural ensembles in the world: a combination of churches and palaces, which are open to the public and are among the city's most popular tourist attractions, and the highest offices of the state, which are surrounded by strict security. Around the centrally located Cathedral Square are grouped three magnificent cathedrals, superb examples of Russian church architecture at its height in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. These and the other churches in the Kremlin ceased functioning as places of worship after the Russian Revolution of 1917, but from 1990 services recommenced in most Kremlin churches. The Cathedral of the Assumption is the oldest, built of white stone in 1475-9 in the Italianate-Byzantine style. Its pure, simple, and beautifully proportioned lines and elegant arches are crowned by five golden domes. The Orthodox metropolitans and patriarchs of the fourteenth to eighteenth centuries are buried there. Across tlie square is the Cathedral of the Annunciation, built in 14849 by craftsmen from Pskov (though burned in 1547, it was rebuilt in 1562-4). Its cluster of chapels is topped by golden roofs and domes. Inside are a number of early fifteenth-century icons attributed to Theophanes the Greek and to Andrey Rublyov, considered by many to be the greatest of all Russian icon painters. The third cathedral, dedicated to St Michael the Archangel, was rebuilt in 1505-8: in it are buried the princes of Moscow and the tsars of Russia (except Boris Godunov) up to the founding of St Petersburg.