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The Russian name for the Red Square is
"Krasnaya Ploshchad," meaning the beautiful square. Western
"Kremlinologists" have erroneously applied to the square the second
meaning of the Russian word "Krasnaya," "Krasnii," meaning
beautiful and red, and neglecting the real intention of Muscovites to call the
square "Krasnaya" because of its beauty. In all probability the
square received its first shape in the 15th century when new red brick walls
were erected around the Kremlin, separating it from the rest of Moscow. At that
time the field to the west of the Kremlin was known by various names, such as
Trinity square (after the wooden Trinity Church which was later removed to make
space for Saint Basil's Cathedral), "pozharishche" (Site after a
fire) because wooden buildings that existed there were often swept by fire,
"Torg" (market square, etc. The square received its present name in
the first half of the 17th century when the new impressive Spasskii (Savior)
gate tower was erected. This was the most beautiful of all Kremlin towers, with
a high steeple and a clock; its gate was used for ceremonial purposes. The
beauty of the new gate-tower prompted the people to rename the square
"Krasnaya Ploshchad." Please go to
Moscow table for many photos.
A good part of the Russian history happened to take place on this square. It
was here that the people learned about their new tsars, and saw tsarevichs when
they reached sixteen years of age. The square was an ideal place for parades,
for the tsar to meet his people, but also as his tribunal and for public
punishments. Vassili Shuisky was proclaimed tsar there, and later on the same
spot forced to abdicate. Ivan the Terrible used it often for his punitive
assaults. It was on the Red Square that he aligned the members of that
unfortunate delegation from Pskov, and ordered that their beards be first
burned and then extinguished with boiling wine. All this happened before a
large crowd of people. With the help of the "Streltsi" - a sort of a
praetorian guard of Moscow rulers, Sophia became the regent during the minority
of her brothers, the diarchy of Ivan and Peter. To make this possible the
streltsi wiped out the Narishkin family, and many boyars who sided with them
were executed on the Red Square. In the Vysoko-Petrovskii monastery, the most
noted church is named after Metropolitan Saint Peter. Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich
ordered it renovated to commemorate the birth of his son Peter. Also for his
namesake were the so-called Naryshkin palaces, gifts to the family in gratitude
for the birth of the future emperor. Later in 1690 when Peter I claimed the
throne, he ordered the renovation of the church of Saint Peter, the
Metropolitan, and the erection of a new church, replacing the wooden one which
served as burial place for his ancestral uncles', Ivan and Aphanasiya
Kirillovich Narishkin, brothers of Aleksei Romanov's second wife , and to
construct a third church named after the monk Sergius Radonezhsky, in gratitude
in all probability, for providing a safe haven in the monastery of the Trinity
when Peter's life was threatened. Peter the Great defeated the Streltsi and
compelled his half-sister Sophia to take the veil. As for the streltsi, Peter
ordered the decapitation of several thousand, and the legend says that he
marched them over the Red square in chains and force them to carry their blocks
on which their heads were to be chopped off. The first ten he decapitated
himself and then forced the horrified princes and boyars from his entourage to
do likewise. The soldiers completed the massacre.
The tsar spared the life of only one strelets, a handsome young man, Ivan,
nicknamed Orlov - the Eagle. When his turn came, with complete composure he
pushed aside with his foot the headless body of his fellow strelets to reach
the headsman"s block. It was this perfect coolness that impressed the tsar
and he spared him his life. Ivan was the grandfather of Count Gregory Orlov,
the famous lover of Catherine the Great.
There is some variance in accounts of the origins of the Vysokopetrovskii
monastery which according to legend was founded by Dmitrii Donskoi following
the victory on the field of Kulikovo to commemorate the icon of the
Bogoliubskoi Mother of the Savior.. In 1514 the church was re-built and then
called for the Saint Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow, and in 1690 the entire
monastery was re-constructed and the church consecrated in the name of the
Apostle Peter. (According to other sources the monastery was founded during
Ivan Kalita's reign, and its name comes from his advisor Metropolitan Peter).
To this period are the construction of: The main monastery church, in humble
devotion to the icon of the Bogoliugskoi Mother of the God, the monks' living
quarters, the church attached to the refractory, the high steepled bell-fry,
erected over three tiered holy-arches. In the 18th century three other churches
were built, the standing living quarters, the sepulcher, service buildings and
part of the walls. At the present time, a museum of literature is located in
the monastery living quarters.
Not all of Russian history was so tragic and cruel, and the Red square
witnessed many happy moments; the main mass festivities and celebrations took
place right there. The popularity of the square was may be seen from the fact
that at one time there were about fifteen churches in and around it. During
week-days the square served as the central Moscow bazaar, with hundreds of
improvised huts, counters, barracks, stalls, or makeshift displays on empty
cases or onto the ground, the sort of a "Rinok" (market place) that
may be seen in today's Moscow. You could buy almost anything there, and the
whole place abounded with sellers of refreshments, tea, blini, pirozhki and all
sorts of gormandizes. Foreigners were impressed by the grouping of specific
kind of goods on one spot, usually a row, which made the shopping very easy,
resembling an open-air department store and supermarket combined in one. Even
the beggars and the "yurodivii," a kind of beggarly devotees and
soothsayers, had their place, not far from the bridge at the entrance to the
Savior's Gate of the Kremlin.
It was on the Red square that Russians saw their first public theater
spectacles. This happened in the very beginning of the 18th century (1703). A
stage was built against the Kremlin's wall and gilded church cupolas served as
the background. Since the stage and the auditorium were made of wood, special
precautions were taken against fire. Because, in the beginning, foreigners
controlled the theater. Its reception was not always favorable, and some of the
clergy even found in it "a devilish intention." At that time the
reputation enjoyed by actors was not very high, primarily because of their
permissiveness, sometimes aggravated by cheating and stealing. Napoleon's
invasion of Moscow and the raging fire that followed destroyed a good part of
the city. A special commission for re-planning was established in 1814 under
the chairmanship of Osip Ivanovich Beauvais (1784-1834), a well known
architect. He conceived of the square primarily as a parade ground and removed
several old buildings. Then in 1818 the monument to Minin and Pozharskii was
put on the center of the square; it was later moved to its present place.
The State Historical Museum( and
here and here) was erected in 1876-1883, a
not quite successful attempt by artist V.O. Sherwood (1833-1897), who was
responsible for its facades and decoration, to recreate old Russian
architectural forms, and make them match Saint Basil's Cathedral and the
Kremlin towers. The old Commercial Rows, built by Beauvais after Napoleon left
Moscow, were removed at the end of the 19th century, and later replaced by the
"Upper Commercial Rows," better known under their present name of Gum
- The Government Department Store. The architect of this three-story building
was A. Pomerantsev, and he too failed to invest the new edifice with old
Russian features, though he and Sherwood borrowed several details from ancient
Russian monasteries.
During the revolution neither the Kremlin nor the Red Square were severely
damaged. When the Soviets consolidated their power they removed several
buildings and chapels from the Red Square, including the famous Chapel of the
Iberian Virgin
(Iverskaya Chasovnia), in order to open another unimpeded approach to the
square from the other side of the Historical Museum. (This chapel has now been
restored along with the Resurection gate into Red Square). Though the
revolution started in Saint Petersburg, the Bolsheviks rushed to the Kremlin,
and many of their top leaders chose to work and live there. It is not
surprising that particular care was taken to restore it quickly and all
buildings have since been under continuous observance and care. Each old brick
is considered precious and no matter how small is the damage, it is immediately
repaired or replaced. Care is taken the new bricks or decorative white stone
look like the old one. Whether of not the Kremlin has ever been a sacred place,
its atheist occupants now definitely want it to look so. A part of the wall
facing the Red square and the space next to it has been turned into Soviet
necropolis, where the top Bolsheviks and those who best served them are buried.
This is known as the "Brothers' Graves" (Bratshie Moghili). There is
no other wall in the world, with the exception of the Wailing wall in
Jerusalem, that is so famous and so revered. In front of the wall is the
Mausoleum where Lenin is buried in a glass sarcophagus. It was designed by the
gifted Russian architect Aleksei Viktorovich Shchusev (1872-1949), built first
in wood, and then rebuilt in 1929-1930, after Shchusev made a very few minor
changes. The rectangular base carries a receding pyramid, ending in rectangular
short pillars that carry the top. In front of the Mausoleum, two staircases,
one on each corner, lead to the platform from where Soviet leaders watch the
parades in Red Square. The mausoleum is of large blocks of highly polished
dark-red granite, divided into two parts by a large band of black labradorite.
As there are no external embellishments, and the mausoleum is executed in a
powerful and rather massive style, relying primarily on elementary geometric
shapes. The mausoleum has been turned into a sacred shrine. Pilgrims from all
parts of the Soviet Union flock there to pay their respect to the mummified
leader. I have visited it several times, mostly to observe the pilgrims and
their actions. I would say that curiosity and obligation mixed with respect
prevail with the majority, since hardly any Soviet citizen would visit Moscow
without pilgrimage to the Mausoleum. There are women who weep and there are men
who are shaken. A dead silence prevails throughout the visit; two motionless
guards stand at the entrance. Theatrically well-arranged scene offers a moving
spectacle that is bound to excite one's emotions. The entire experience hardly
differs from a pilgrimage to a religious place. There has never been any saint,
tsar or ruler whose tomb has been guarded, already over fifty years, day and
night, as has the tomb of Lenin, the man who said that "Religion is the
opium of the people." His mausoleum proves his saying best.
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