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.

Ты, какъ мученикъ, горѣла,
Бѣлокаменная!
И рѣка въ тебѣ кипѣла,
Бурнопламенная!
И подъ пепломъ ты лежала,
Полоненною!
И изъ пепла ты возстала,
Неизмѣнною!

Процвѣтай же славой вѣчной,
Город храмовъ и палатъ!
Градъ срединный, градъ сердечный,
Коренной Россіи градъ!
Ѳ. ГЛИНКА

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][A],[B],[C],[D],[E],[F],[G],[H],[I],[J],[K],[L],[M],[N],[O],[P],[Q],[R],[S],[T],[U],[V],[W],[X],[Y],[Z] [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]
Krasnœ 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]