History of Moscow Timeline

During the 16th and 17th centuries, three circular defenses were built: Kitay-gorod, the White City and the Earthen City, and the city grew up in five concentric divisions formerly separated by walls: the Kremlin, Kitaigorod, Bielygorod, Zemlianoigorod, and Miestchanskygorod.

The Kremlin's Great Bell Tower was built in 1505–08 and augmented to its present height in 1600. In 1508–1516 the Italian architect Aleviz Fryazin (Novy) arranged for a moat in front of the eastern wall, connecting the Moskva and Neglinnaya rivers; it was lined with limestone and fenced with brick walls in 1533.

Image source: Ivan the Great Bell Tower

In 1547, two fires destroyed much of the town, and in 1571 the Crimean Tatars, supported by the Ottomans, burned down Moscow.

The Crimean Tatars attacked again in 1591 but were held back by new defense walls built between 1584 and 1591 by craftsman Fyodor Kon. In 1592, an outer earth rampart with 50 towers was erected around the city, whose limits today are marked by the Garden Ring.

Image source: Fyodor Kon

The Russian famine of 1601–1603 killed perhaps 100,000 people in Moscow.

Image source: Russian famine of 1601–1603

From 1610 through 1612, troops of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth occupied Moscow, as its ruler Sigismund III tried to take the Russian throne.

Image source: Polish–Russian War (1609–1618)

In 1612, the people of Nizhny Novgorod and other Russian cities conducted by prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin rose against the Polish-Lithuanian occupiers, besieged the Kremlin, and expelled them.

Image source: Monument to Minin and Pozharsky

In 1613, the Zemsky sobor elected Michael Romanov tsar, establishing the Romanov dynasty.

Image source: House of Romanov

Fires burned out much of the wooden city in 1626 and 1648, and plague killed upwards of 80% of the people in 1654–55. Despite this, the population doubled from roughly 100,000 to 200,000 during the first half of the 17th century.

Moscow expanded beyond its ramparts in the later 17th century. By 1682 there were 692 households established north of the ramparts by Ukrainians and Belarusians abducted during the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667). The entire late-17th-century city is contained within today's Central Administrative Okrug.

By 1700, the building of cobbled roads had begun. In November 1730, permanent street light was introduced, and by 1867 many streets were lit by gas, with arc lamps installed near the Prechistinskiye Gates in 1883.

Moscow ceased to be Russia's capital when Peter the Great moved his government to the newly built Saint Petersburg on the Baltic coast in 1712, except for a brief period from 1728 to 1732 under the influence of the Supreme Privy Council.

In 1741 Moscow was surrounded by a barricade 25 miles long, the Kamer-Kollezhsky rampart, with 16 gates at which customs tolls were collected.

Image source: Kamer-Kollezhsky rampart

The highway between Saint Petersburg, now the M10 highway, was completed in 1746, its Moscow end following the old Tver road which had existed since the 16th century.

Image source: M10 highway (Russia)

After losing capital status, Moscow's population fell from 200,000 to 130,000 by 1750, but then grew more than tenfold over the remaining duration of the Russian Empire, reaching 1.8 million by 1915. The city's population grew from 250,000 to over a million during the 19th century.

Moscow State University was established in 1755. Its main building was reconstructed after the 1812 fire by Domenico Giliardi, and the university moved to its campus on Sparrow Hills in 1953.

Image source: Moscow State University

The Moskovskiye Vedomosti newspaper appeared from 1756, originally in weekly intervals, and from 1859 as a daily newspaper.

Image source: Moskovskiye Vedomosti

Petrovsky Palace was built in 1776–1780 by Matvey Kazakov as a station specifically reserved for royal journeys from Saint Petersburg to Moscow.

Image source: Petrovsky Palace

Between 1781 and 1804 the Mytischinskiy water pipeline, the first in Russia, was built.

When Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812, the Moscovites were evacuated and the fire of 1812 destroyed much of the city, including the Arbat area, which was completely rebuilt in the early 19th century.

Image source: French invasion of Russia

After the fire of 1812, the city ramparts were replaced with the Boulevard Ring and Garden Ring roads, replacing the walls around Bielygorod and Zemlianoigorod respectively. In 1813 a Commission for the Construction of the City of Moscow was established.

The 645-kilometer long railway between Moscow and Saint Petersburg began operating in 1851. Smolensky Rail station, forerunner of present-day Belorussky Rail Terminal, was inaugurated in 1870, and the Savyolovsky Rail Terminal was built in 1902.

Image source: Saint Petersburg–Moscow railway

In January 1905, the institution of the City Governor, or Mayor, was officially introduced in Moscow, and Alexander Adrianov became Moscow's first official mayor. In 1903 the Moskvoretskaya water pipeline began operations.

Image source: Mayor of Moscow

In November 1917, upon learning of the uprising in Petrograd, Moscow's Bolsheviks began their own uprising, and on November 2 (15), 1917, Soviet power was established in the city after heavy fighting. On March 12, 1918, Lenin moved the capital back to Moscow, which served as capital of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and then the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1991.

Image source: October Revolution

Engineers for the Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Company were given a show trial and deported in 1933, ending the role of British business in the USSR.

The Moscow Metro opened in 1935 and immediately became the centerpiece of the transportation system. The same year, a greenbelt was built as part of Soviet-era urban-growth controls that produced controlled metropolitan development.

Image source: Moscow Metro

On December 6, 1941, German Army Group Centre was stopped at the outskirts of the city and driven off in the course of the Battle of Moscow. In 1941 Muscovites formed 16 divisions of national volunteers, 25 battalions and 4 engineering regiments.

Image source: Battle of Moscow

On May 1, 1944, a medal 'For the defense of Moscow' was instituted, followed in 1947 by another medal 'In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow'.

Image source: Medal "For the Defence of Moscow"

The city of Zelenograd was built in 1958 at 37 km from the city center to the north-west, along the Leningradskoye Shosse, and incorporated as one of Moscow's administrative okrugs.

Image source: Zelenograd

On May 8, 1965, due to the actual 20th anniversary of the victory in World War II, Moscow was awarded the title of Hero City.

Image source: Hero City (Soviet Union)

In 1980 Moscow hosted the Summer Olympic Games.

Image source: 1980 Summer Olympics

The MKAD ring road was opened in 1961, and in 1995–1997 it was widened from the initial four to ten lanes.

Image source: Moscow Ring Road

In 1991 Moscow was the scene of a coup attempt by conservatives opposed to the liberal reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev, and since 1991 the city has served as capital of the Russian Federation.

Image source: 1991 Soviet coup attempt

In December 2002, Bulvar Dmitriya Donskogo became the first Moscow Metro station that opened beyond the limits of the MKAD.

Image source: Annino (Moscow Metro)

The Third Ring Road, intermediate between the early 19th-century Garden Ring and the Soviet-era outer ring road, was completed in 2004.

Image source: Third Ring Road (Moscow)