The next tower is over the Tainitski or “Secret” Gate, a postern leading to the river, now practicable for pedestrians only. On this spot there has been a gate ever since the Kremlin was first enclosed; it was at one time used for the procession of January 6, on its way to the river, but “The Blessing of the Water” is now performed from the New Cathedral of our Saviour.
The wall then runs eastward as far as the round tower near the Moskvoretski Bridge, then turns north as far as the Spasski Gate. The corner comprised within this length of the wall and a straight line from the Tainitski to the Spasski Gate is full of story. The first two towers have now no name; the next is that of the Metropolitan Peter; after the corner tower, the first is that of Constantine and Helen, the next the Tsarina’s tower, then comes the small open tower in the wall itself and quite close to the Spasski Tower. It was at this corner, at first within the Kremlin itself, later outside on the Grand Place that the public executions took place. The wall here has prison cells within its vaulted arches, dungeons are beneath the towers, the corner tower once an oubliette, is still supposed to have the remains of the iron blades and spikes, upon which the prisoners fell, projecting from its walls; in the tower of Constantine and Helen were the instruments of torture used to extort confessions, and the church of the same name is that to which the accused were taken to make their oath before being led to the rack or cast into some secret dungeon. The Tsarina’s Tower, now a dwelling and storehouse, has no pleasant history; the small tower in which once hung the great bell brought from Novgorod is popularly believed to have been constructed by Ivan Groznoi to afford him a better view of the executions, but, if authorities may be believed, on such occasions he more often figured as an actor than an onlooker. However this may be, it is undoubtedly the truth that of this portion of the Kremlin much that is interesting will some day be written. Sneguirev and other writers are content to describe it in very general terms; Fabricius, who for eight years was employed in the Kremlin and knows it more thoroughly than most men, in his monumental work on the Kremlin, scamps this section, although giving minute details respecting other towers and portions of the wall. It is not accessible to the public, and special permission from the commandant of the fortress is now required before admission is given to the rampart walk.
The Spasski (Redeemer) Gate, constructed in the reign of Ivan III. (1491), by Peter Antonio Solarius of Milan, was at first known as the Florovski gate from a church dedicated to St Florus in its vicinity. It bears the following inscription:—
“Johannes Vassilii Dei gratia magnus Dux Volodomiræ, Moscoviæ. Novoguardiæ, Iferiæ, Plescoviæ, Veticiæ, Ougariæ, Permiæ, Volgariæ et aliarum totiusque Roxiæ dominus: anno 30 imperii sui has turres condere jussit, et statuit Petrus Solarius Mediolanensis, anno nativitatis Domini 1491.”
When the church of the Holy Trinity was built this gate took the name of the “Jerusalem Gate,” because the Palm Sunday procession passed beneath it. In 1626 during the reign of the Tsar Mikhail Theodorovich, Christopher Galloway, an English clockmaker, constructed the spire and placed therein a striking clock, which, however, was subsequently removed. After various changes, in 1737 the Tsarina Elizabeth Petrovna caused the one now in use to be placed there. The building itself is formed of thick double walls, between which are passages and staircases of wood and stone; brick buttresses connect the walls and support the upper storeys. The second is the clock tower; the third of octagonal form, has eight arches on which the spire is carried. Over the entrance is the miraculous ikon of the Redeemer, brought back from Smolensk by the Tsar Alexis in 1647. It is to this picture that the orthodox attribute the raising of the siege of Moscow by the Tartars under Makhmet-Ghiree in 1526; it is still held in great veneration, and it is customary for all to uncover whilst passing through the gate. Formerly an omission to do so was punished with two score and half compulsory prostrations. The Redeemer Gate is the state entrance to the Kremlin; by it the Tsars entered and left on all important occasions. Ivan III. passed through after quelling the revolt at Nijni Novgorod; Ivan “Groznoi” after taking Kazan; Vasili Shooiski after the delivery of Moscow from the Poles; here the people went to meet the young Tsar Michael Romanof after his election. The remains of Shooiski were brought through this gate, and by it passed the funeral processions of the Tsars Peter II., Alexander I. and Alexander II. Since the eighteenth century the Tsars have made their state entry to the Kremlin for the coronation by the Redeemer Gate. Criminals executed near the Lobnœ Mesto addressed their last prayers to the ikon above its portal; near it the “hundreds” of Streltsi were executed by order of Peter the Great, and in his reign the heterodox who refused to shave their heads paid a fine on passing it. The French tried to blow up the gate with gunpowder, but it was saved by the timely intervention of the Cossacks.
The Nikolski Gate on the north-east was also built by Peter Solarius, but has been several times restored, having suffered by fire and from other disasters. Tokhtamysh entered the Kremlin by this gate; so did the troops of Sigismund III., and it was here that Edigei most strongly assaulted the Kremlin, here that the Krim-Tartars ineffectually tried to gain an entrance in 1551, and here that the battle raged between the Poles and Russians for the possession of Moscow. Like the Spasski Gate it also has its miraculous ikon. It is a mosaic of St Nicholas of Mojaisk. “The dread of perjurers and the comfort of those in pain,” before it litigants made their solemn oaths preliminary to the hearing of the cause. The inscription upon it records how, when the French attempted to blow it up, the ikon escaped destruction.
“In the year 1812, during the time of the invasion by the enemy almost the whole of this strong tower was demolished by the explosion of a mine; but, by the wonderful power of God, the holy image of the greatly favoured by God, here designed, and, not only the image, but the pane of glass covering it, as also the lantern with the candle, remained uninjured.
“Who is greater than God, our God? Thou art the God, the marvellous God, who doest miracles by Thy saints.”
This gate is the most generally used entrance to the Kremlin, and in the tower above the law archives of the town are now stored.
Northward from the Nikolski gate there is an abrupt descent to the corner tower—which is polygonal, not round like the others—for here is the old bed of the river Neglinnaia. Formerly the stream was dammed up near its junction with the Moskva so as to constitute an impassable moat, and thus protect the western side of the Kremlin. Nevertheless the wall is continued at the same height for its whole length. The arsenal, a commonplace building, extends from the corner tower to the Troitski gate, the monotony of its dreary line broken by two characteristic gun-towers on the wall. In the Alexander Gardens, outside the Kremlin, arches and rough masonry may be seen, and possibly mistaken for a part of the foundations of the Kremlin wall; they are only decorations dating from the Exhibition held there in 1872.