Page 43 - All About History - Issue 08-14

Tour Guide

08 Enemy at the gates THE KREMLIN
Throughout the Red Square’s history
no single event is more significant
than the November 1941 parade,
when the German army sat just 40
miles outside Moscow. In an act of Moscow, Russia
defiance, as well as to present a strong
front, the Red Army held its annual As old as Moscow itself, the Kremlin was
parade to commemorate the Bolshevik originally a fortified settlement thought to be
Revolution. This time, however, the from where the city first sprung up. Its walls,
soldiers continued marching to the front now made of stone rather than wood, still
line, which by this stage had reached the completely encircle the complex. Moscow
outskirts of the city. has faced near destruction many times in its
history, but still served as the political centre
of Russia on numerous occasions and to this
07 The broken bell day. Though in competition with St Petersburg,
Weighing over 200 tons, the former Imperial capital, the city still held
the Tsar Bell has the seat of Russian Tsars and emperors, as
never been rung well as the Communist puppet masters of
and a large the Soviet Union. Political giants from across
piece of it the ages, including Peter the Great, Napoleon
actually broke Bonaparte and Josef Stalin, have all made the
End here 08 off during its walk through the gilded halls of the Kremlin’s
casting back
in 1737. palaces and, in modern times, it saw the first
warm words between the East and the West
after decades of the Cold War.

06 CANNON FIT FOR A TSAR
A
in 1586, it’s unclear
Built for Tsar Feodor

not
or
whether
the Tsar Cannon
was intended
for use in
battle, but it
remains the
05
largest cannon
06 in the world.

05 The last Tsar is crowned
07 The Cathedral of the Assumption, or of the
Dormition, is where all Russian monarchs
and emperors were crowned since Ivan
IV, ‘The Terrible’, the country’s fist Tsar,
assumed the throne. It was here, in 1896, that © Corbis; Alamy
04 Nicholas II Romanov was crowned; he was
the last Tsar of Russia,
abdicating during
the February
Revolution
in 1917.

04 In the footsteps of giants
The Red Staircase leads down to Cathedral
Square. It was on these stairs, in 1682, that a
ten-year-old Peter the Great witnessed several
members of his family thrown down onto
the spikes of rebellious Streltsy troopers.
Napoleon Bonaparte also climbed the stairs
shortly after capturing Moscow in 1812, but
could only watch from the palace as the city
was burned to the ground.

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