Red Square is the main square of Moscow, located between the Moscow
Kremlin (to the west) and Kitai-Gorod (to the east). It goes to the
bank of the Moskva River through the gentle Vasilyevsky Spusk. The
square stretches along the northeastern wall of the Kremlin, from
the Kremlin passage and the Voskresenskiye Gates passage to
Vasilyevsky Spusk, overlooking the Kremlin embankment. Nikolskaya
street, Ilyinka and Varvarka depart to the east from Red Square.
Along the western side of the square is the Moscow Kremlin, along
the eastern side are the Upper Trading Rows and the Middle Trading
Rows. It is part of a single ensemble with the Moscow Kremlin, but
historically it is part of Kitay-Gorod.
On Red Square there
is the Execution Ground, the monument to Minin and Pozharsky, the
Mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin, the necropolis near the Kremlin wall.
In the northern part of the square are the Historical Museum and the
Kazan Cathedral, in the southern part - the Pokrovsky Cathedral. The
architectural ensemble is under the protection of UNESCO as a World
Heritage Site.
Since ancient times, the square served as a
place of bargaining, where temporary and permanent trading rows were
erected for many centuries in a row. In Soviet times, military
parades and demonstrations took place on the square, after the
collapse of the USSR, it began to be used for public events and
concerts.
Total length - 330 meters, width - 75 meters, area
- 24,750 m². Paved with paving stones from the Crimean
gabbro-diabase.
Most recognized destination in Russia, Red Square is
surrounded by buildings and structure from most of Russia's
history. Ironically this World famous landmark has a wrong
translation. A Russian world for for "red" or
krasnaya (красная) in medieval times was
actually used in two meanings: red and beautiful. So the actual
name of this World famous landmark is "Beautiful Square".
Kremlin walls that serve as a backdrop for Red Square were
originally wooden. Only in the 14th century they were replaced by a
white stone structure, but even after red brick walls were erected
in the 15th century the defences were still painted white. So for
much of Russia's history "Red Square" was surrounded by white color.
In fact another nickname for Moscow is "white- stoned" or
belokamennaya (белокаменная).
Few
people who visit Red Square realize that it was designed as a single open
air church modelled after
Church of Holy Sepulchre in
Jerusalem (map of
the church on the left). If you look at the layout of Church of Holy
Sepulchre you can see the similarities between general outline of these
structures. It is no coincidence. Faith in New Jerusalem as a place of
righteousness was particularly strong in a Russian society at the time it
was constructed. Architected simply put these beliefs in stone and brick.
Open space of Red Square served as a place for worshippers,
while the area around Holy Virgin Protection Cathedral (mistakenly known as
Saint Basil Cathedral in the West) served as the altar where Jesus Christ
was buried. In the medieval times Saint Basil's Cathedral stood on a small
round hill that in eyes of Russians represented a round rotunda where the
tomb of the Jesus' burial stands. The church itself is so small that it was
never intended to serve as a major prayer site. Instead its presence on a
location was supposed to represent a chapel of Tomb of Christ on a round
hill. If you have been to Jerusalem you would know that Calvary or Golgotha
stands just few feet from the former burial cave of Jesus. Here on Red
Square medieval artisans constructed their own small version of Golgotha.
Lobnoye Mesto or literally 'Forehead Place' was a reference to Golgotha or
'place of the skull'.
State Historical Museum
Nikolskaya tower
Necropolis near the Kremlin wall
Senate Tower
Lenin's Mausoleum
Spasskaya Tower
Pokrovskiy Sobor
(Holy Virgin Protection) or St. Basil Cathedral
Monument
to Minin and Pozharsky
Middle malls
Lobnoye Mesto - place of
execution
GUM (department store)
Kazan Cathedral
House of
provincial government
Iberian Gate and Chapel aka Resurrection Gate
Since its formation, Red Square has changed several names. The first
chronicle mention of it dates back to the 15th century and is found in
the record of 1434 about the death of the holy fool Maxim, “who was laid
by (buried in the church) Boris and Gleb on Varvarskaya Street behind
the Market”. The current Red Square was called Torgov until the
beginning of the 17th century, although it existed not only as a market,
but also as a venue for solemn ceremonies, religious processions
(Procession on a donkey), executions and executions.
There was
also the name "fire" in the meaning of "an empty, empty place associated
with trade." In 1534, the chronicle indicated the construction site of
the Kitai-Gorod wall as follows: “near the whole fire, where they have
all the trading rows.” This name had nothing to do with fire.
Sources from 1634 cite the verdict of the voivode Mikhail Shein and the
deceitful Artemy Izmailov, who were “cut off in the fire of their heads”
for failures in the Smolensk war. The entry of 1643 reports that “on
October 22, the Sovereign <…> went to the Most Pure Mother of God of
Kazan, which was on fire.” Similar trading "fires" were also in Suzdal,
Veliky Novgorod and Kazan. Occasionally, the square was also called
Bolshoy.
At least from the middle of the 17th century (and
possibly much earlier), the square began to be used for military
ceremonies: when ambassadors and foreign rulers met, troops lined up on
it in parade formation. So, in 1658, on the eve of the arrival of the
Georgian king Teimuraz I in Moscow, the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich
commands: , and the pavement of the old forest and tidy up everything
clean in the cart row, ”that is, prepare the city for the solemn
ceremony. Two days later, when the Georgian king Teimuraz I, who was
seeking an alliance with Russia, arrived in the city, “soldiers stood
along the Fire on both sides with a gun, poking their peaks into a
soldier formation.”
In April 1661, the name Red Square was found
for the first time in documents. For the first time it appears in
documents on April 23, 1661, when, at the meeting of foreign
ambassadors, "tenants and nobles, and solicitors" were standing on both
sides of Red Square.
Local historian and historian Yan Rachinsky
draws attention to the fact that the new name “suspiciously quickly”
replaced the old ones: Pozhar and Bolshaya Ploshchad in all official
documents. In this regard, the local historian suggests that there was a
special decree on renaming the square, which came from Tsar Alexei
Mikhailovich. This decree is unknown to historians, however, there is a
similar decree of the same king dated April 26, 1658, which refers to
the renaming of a number of streets and city gates. It was by this
decree that the Frolovsky Gates of the Moscow Kremlin were renamed
Spassky. According to Rachinsky, thanks to numerous references in the
documents, the renaming of the square can be dated quite accurately:
“between October 22, 1659, when the square was still called Pozhar, and
April 23, 1661, when the new name already appears.”
Regarding the
origin of the name, the most traditional version is that the adjective
"red" was used in the meaning of "beautiful" (in Russian these are words
with the same root). The suggestion by some authors that the word "red"
meant "chief" is etymologically unclear. Rachinsky's assumption that Red
Square was so named because the route to the Kremlin to the Red Porch of
the complex of buildings of the royal palace ran through it, seems to be
an unreasonable complication. Instead, it is plausible to assume that
the renaming of the square was due to the "raising of its status" from a
lowly market to the site of military parades in honor of the meetings of
foreign ambassadors.
An analysis of the most ancient cultural layers on Red
Square showed that already in the second half of the 11th - early 12th
centuries, the forest in its place was cut down, and the land was used
for arable land. By this time, presumably, large settlements had formed
on Borovitsky Hill, and on the right bank of the Neglinnaya, on the
Kuchkov field, the first "bargaining" - a market square - had developed.
Over the years, Moscow grew, developing from the wooden Kremlin of Ivan
Kalita to the white stone fortress of Dmitry Donskoy. By the second half
of the 14th century, the border of the northeastern part of the Kremlin
walls was finally formed. Borovitsky bargaining was divided into two
parts - Zaneglimenskaya (or Arbatskaya) and Podkremlevskaya, which
subsequently took shape in Red Square.
Historians offer different
versions about the formation of Red Square. For example, according to
the Moscow historian Pyotr Sytin, it appeared at the end of the 15th
century, when, according to the decree of Ivan III, “houses, shops and
churches of the settlement were removed from its modern territory” and
space was vacated for shopping arcades. In further studies, the texts of
these decrees from the Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles were
identified as referring to the territories in the west beyond the
Neglinka River and the southern land beyond the Moscow River. Another
version says that the creation of Red Square did not require artificial
measures, it spontaneously formed in a convenient empty space near the
fortress walls, behind which it was easy to hide in the event of an
unexpected attack on the city.
During this period, Red Square from the north was
bounded by the Kitaigorod wall (on the site of the modern Historical
Museum), from the south it passed into Vasilyevsky Square and descended
to the Moscow River. From the west, Red Square was limited by the
Alevizov moat, created in 1508. The territory of the present square
actually consisted of three independent parts.
This division of
the area into three parts remained until the first half of the 17th
century. Several small areas also had separate names: for example, the
site near the Kazan Cathedral was called “Vshivaya”, because it was
almost constantly covered with a thick layer of hair: according to the
testimony of the German traveler Adam Olearius, on Maundy Thursday,
Muscovites came to Red Square to get their hair cut, “then <... > the
ground near the Embassy Court was covered with hair, like soft
mattresses.” Trinity Square was formed around the wooden church of the
Trinity on the moat, this name was used for almost a century. At the
beginning of the 16th century, there were thirteen more churches on Red
Square.
Kitay-gorod and the Kremlin were opposed to each other
primarily because of their inhabitants: the first was inhabited by
ordinary people and merchants, the second - by the boyars and the royal
family. Red Square, as stylistically closer to the people, became the
material embodiment of this difference: the motley Intercession
Cathedral was opposed to the restrained design of the Kremlin churches,
the bustle of the bazaar was opposed to the calm atmosphere of the
fortress. The place of execution as a platform for the announcement of
royal decrees was not needed in the Kremlin, where those in power lived,
but it was necessary in the suburb, where the people gathered. Behind
Ilyinka, Nikolskaya and Varvarka, wooden buildings began - small
churches and two-story merchant houses, usually the second floor was
reserved for housing, and shops were located on the first.
Moscow of the 16th century already occupied a vast
area, there were many markets and bazaars in it. Kitay-gorod was the
most important place of trade, the second was occupied by Red
Square. On it, the most lively was the section between the Nikolsky
and Spassky gates.
The rules of sale were regulated: "draft"
merchants had an established place in the general row and paid
taxes. Their goods differed in groups and each was given its own
bench, it was forbidden to move to others. In separate rows stood
out: Cake, Kalachny, Buckwheat, Honey, Dairy, Butter, Ham, Sugar,
Walnut, Rag, Crystal and others, separate for each group of goods.
In total, there were up to 150 such rows, many of them gave names to
Moscow streets and lanes, which subsequently formed on this
territory. Rows of books and engravings stretched along the Spassky
Bridge. Near the St. Basil's Cathedral, "streltsy wives and girls"
traded - they sold rouge, whitewash and toilet items. Streltsy used
their privileged position and did not obey the rules that the
"draft" traders were obliged to follow: they did not pay taxes,
underestimated prices and did not adhere to established places.
Peddlers and hawkers did the same, despite the prohibitions and
decrees not to trade, there were always a lot of them on Red Square.
From stalls they sold kvass, pies, vobla, vegetables and berries.
In the Middle Ages, Moscow burned at least eight times a year.
After a particularly strong fire in 1595, almost all the buildings
on Red Square were destroyed, the financial damage was very
significant. In order to protect merchants and goods from new
destruction, in 1596-1598, on the site of wooden rows, one- and
two-story shops were built - “stone merchants' chambers”. They
outlined the eastern border of the existing area and formed three
quarters, which later received the names of the Upper, Middle and
Lower trading rows. At the same time, the first analogue of the
pavement was laid between the rows: thick boards were nailed across
the bottom layer of logs. The architectural appearance of the new
shopping malls in the form of identical cells united by arcades
became a model of shopping facilities in Russia and was used for a
long time in the construction of Gostiny Dvor, shops, merchant
houses and estates.
The functions of the Red Square of this
period were not limited to trade, it was possible to find and offer
any possible services, work or help, and each was given a separate
space. In the warm season, barbers worked right under the open sky,
a labor exchange formed near the Lobnoye Mesto, where peasants from
the suburbs gathered in search of work, often with their wives and
children. For each specialty - masons, blacksmiths, roofers - a
certain parking lot was intended. Nearby, dray and passenger cab
drivers were on duty, in the 16th-17th centuries - up to two hundred
people at the same time. During the parking lot, the driver could
not get off the horse or move away from the cart, and the platform
had to be cleaned. The servicemen of the congress yards monitored
the observance of order. Often there were fights when the cabbies
"beat and robbed the on-duty archers themselves." At the Spassky
Gates, defrocked priests and “merchants in the word of God”
gathered, who performed rituals and prayers for a fee. Everywhere
there were holy fools and beggars, begging for alms, buffoons and
goosemen appeared. Closer to the Moscow River were warehouses and
yards of building materials, carpenters, joiners and loaders worked.
In the 17th century, a tradition was born to hold a solemn
church procession on the Red Square on the week of Vay. The festival
and festivities were repeated every spring until 1700.
By the middle of the 17th century, the malls of
Kitay-gorod and Red Square numbered 680 points, which were divided into
three types:
"Shops, half-shops and quarter-shops were
distinguished - permanent covered places of trade. The size of the shop
was set as follows: 2 fathoms wide and 2 ½ fathoms deep; half-shops and
quarter-shops were respectively smaller. In addition to shops, there
were wine cellars, tents and "kadi" - kadyu was the name of the place of
a fermenter or a merchant of some other drink, located with his goods in
the open air "
In 1635, under Mikhail Fedorovich, a stone Gostiny
Dvor was built on Red Square. Contemporaries described it as “wonderful
and very embellished”: the bricks for the building were made according
to the German model at the factory of the Dutch master Ruderik Martys,
the facades were decorated with tiles and stone carvings. The main gate
was decorated with a golden double-headed eagle. Funds for the
construction were provided not only by the treasury - a significant part
was also contributed by merchants, owners of permanent outlets. Later,
in 1664, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich ordered the construction of a new
Gostiny Dvor next to the building of his father and issued a number of
decrees regulating the procedure for trading on the square. Then the
townspeople were forbidden to build near the Kremlin wall, and hawkers
and peddlers were transferred to other markets:
"And from the
Gostiny Dvor - a leather and vinegar row and gophers, and fermenters ...
and buckwheat, and pea farmers, and thrush women <...> from Bolshaya
Street and from the square to exile. With such concerns, the Moscow
government tried to improve the center of Moscow trade, but it
stubbornly continued to maintain his everyday features, which so struck
all Western travelers"
In front of the shops on Red Square,
cannons made in the local yard were placed, some in the open, some in a
stone tent. All the guns were turned vents to the east - in the
direction of the appearance of a possible enemy. Nearby was "the most
riotous tavern in the city, called" Under the guns ".
The end of
the 17th century was the heyday of the architectural ensemble of Red
Square. In 1681, the royal decree banned wooden construction, so it
became almost completely decorated with stone buildings and received a
new main entrance: the updated Resurrection Gate with a decorative
hipped finial and double-headed eagles. In 1697, the Mint was erected,
the walls of the Kremlin were whitewashed, and two new front porches
were added to the Intercession Cathedral.
Under Peter I in 1698,
Red Square was finally cleared of temporary counters and small
buildings, a significant part of the trade was transferred to other
parts of Kitay-Gorod. Only peddlers were allowed to stay, selling goods
"by delivery". In 1699, in the northern part of the square, instead of
the old wooden one, a new stone building of the Zemsky Prikaz was built.
It was decorated in the style of a European town hall, the facades are
decorated with tiles and white stone carvings.
In the 16th-18th
centuries, Red Square was the center of political life: people flocked
to it, news was discussed, unrest and riots took place, and royal
decrees were read from the Execution Ground, in some cases demonstrative
executions were carried out nearby. On July 25, 1570, the most massive
of them took place, when, at the height of the “oprichny terror”, on
suspicion of conspiracy, Ivan the Terrible ordered the execution of more
than a hundred boyars. In 1671, Stepan Razin's head was beheaded near
the Execution Ground, and after both streltsy riots, gallows stood on
Red Square for several years. In 1768, Daria Saltykova served a
“reproachful spectacle” on the scaffold: chained to a pole, she stood
under the sign “tormentor and murderer”.
After the transfer of the capital to St. Petersburg,
the Kremlin and Red Square lost their role as the political center of
the state. In 1704, on the orders of Peter I, the first public theater
was created on Red Square - the “comedy temple”. A small wooden building
20 fathoms in length was built for him between the Spassky and Nikolsky
gates. The German Johann Kunst was invited as a leader from Danzig, who
made up a troupe of clerks of the Ambassadorial order. Historical plays
about the life of Alexander the Great, Scipio Africanus, Tamerlane were
staged on the stage.
In 1786, by decree of Catherine II, it was
decided to clear Ilyinka, Varvarka and the space near the Execution
Ground: most of the shops were demolished, and their owners were given a
place for construction near the Kremlin wall. The former trading rows
"represented an even more fantastic variety, having been made up of
shops with opposite goods, one next to the other lined up, according to
the taste and methods of the owner." Researchers agree that this
reconstruction was not successful. Thus, Professor Zelenetsky notes:
In 1784 <...> they built a row of stone shops, two stories high,
facing the square. Some of them traded small goods; all others were
empty; no one hired them, because in winter they were covered with snow,
and in spring, summer and autumn, in wet weather, it was difficult to
approach them from mud: the square was not yet paved"
In 1796,
for the first time, a large section of the square was paved with wood -
a parade ground, the rest of the territory remained covered with earth.
The period of the end of the 18th century became the least significant
in the history of the square, it was in disrepair:
"Around the
Kremlin, and perhaps in all of Moscow, the most weedy and unclean place
was precisely the space from Beklemishevskaya to the Spasskaya Tower"
In the 19th century, the period of a new heyday of Red
Square began. In 1804, the first stone pavement was laid throughout the
territory, and new shopping arcades were erected on both sides of it.
The former ones, which ran along the Kremlin wall from the Spassky Gate
to the Nikolsky Gate, were dismantled in 1812. At the same time, the
shops on the Spassky Bridge and near the Pokrovsky Cathedral were
demolished. The new rows were badly damaged in the fire of 1812. Three
years later, the city authorities decided to reconstruct them, and the
architect Osip Bove was appointed the head. They demolished the row
closest to the square, which blocked the view of the Kremlin, filled up
the Alevizov moat and laid paving stones. So Red Square regained its
boundaries of the 17th century, but it ceased to play the role of a
market and took shape in a harmonious architectural ensemble. In 1818, a
monument to Minin and Pozharsky by architect Ivan Martos was erected
near the Upper Trading Rows.
The empire-style trading row by
Beauvais stood until the 1880s, when a new stage of reconstruction and
renovation of Red Square began. By that time, the building of the
shopping arcade had become very dilapidated and the city government
demanded that it be closed. The tenants of the premises decided to build
a modern replacement and for this they created a joint-stock company,
the total capital of which amounted to five million rubles. At a closed
architectural competition, the winner was the project of Alexander
Pomerantsev, the glass ceilings of which are attributed to Vladimir
Shukhov. Under their leadership, the new Upper Trading Rows, opened in
1894, were erected. The three-story building with towers at the central
entrances received an unusual glass roof with spans of 16 meters. The
facades were finished with ocher marble and sandstone, and samples of
medieval Russian churches served as a prototype for decorative elements.
The historian and founder of Russian archeology Ivan Zabelin called them
"not just an arbitrary set of forms, but a very thoughtful and heartfelt
grouping." The new building received rave reviews from contemporaries
and subsequently had a significant impact on the architecture of
shopping arcades in Russia. Due to construction work, the monument to
Minin and Pozharsky was decided to be moved to the center of Red Square.
In 1874, the Zemsky Prikaz building was demolished: the Russian
style was in vogue, and this example of the architecture of the Petrine
era seemed “too European”. The vacated plot was given to the State
Historical Museum. Since 1892, electric lighting was carried out on Red
Square, the first lanterns were installed at the monument to Minin and
Pozharsky.
In the summer of 1909, a tram was launched along Red
Square: the first line of rails was laid in the form of a loop from
Zabelinsky passage to the Upper Trading Rows, then to the monument to
Minin and Pozharsky in the center of the square and St. Basil's
Cathedral. Then the route followed along Vasilyevsky Spusk to the
Moskvoretsky Bridge. The photographs of the beginning of the century
already show thin asphalt paths laid directly on the cobblestone
pavement. Since 1938, traffic has been allowed on the square.
The
launch of the tram across the square caused a public outcry, among the
critics were, for example, the architect Fyodor Shekhtel and the artist
Viktor Vasnetsov. The protest campaign was led by Countess Praskovya
Uvarova. Under her leadership, on behalf of the Imperial Archaeological
Society, the following complaint was sent to the Moscow Council and
personally to Emperor Nicholas II and the Chairman of the Council of
Ministers:
"At present, Red Square is cut in different directions
by electric tram lines with poles and wires for them in such a way that
the view of the monument to Minin and Pozharsky, St. Basil's Cathedral,
the Spassky Gates and the Kremlin is cut through by crooked lines of
wires and obstructed by poles."
In defense of the new transport,
for example, the mayor Nikolai Guchkov and Professor Ivan Tsvetaev, who
at that time was working on the creation of the Pushkin Museum, spoke
out. The professor believed that "the era requires concessions" and in
the interests of the townspeople a tram on the square is necessary, but
the pillars should be moved closer to the Kremlin wall. This compromise
solution was quickly implemented, already in the autumn of 1909 the
rails were moved:
“The carriages now go sideways, not traveling
along Red Square, as was established by the former direction of the
tracks, and stop at the Kremlin wall, opposite the monument to Minin and
Pozharsky. The public does not experience much inconvenience from
stopping a few steps from the monument, and Red Square benefits a lot in
its form from the fact that the cars pass along it sideways. (Newspaper
"Moskovskie Vedomosti", November 10, 1909) "
The tram line
existed on the square until August 1930.
Red Square became one of the main sites of the
revolutionary events of 1917: the Kremlin was shelled from it. Later,
Vladimir Lenin addressed the people with speeches on it. The Bolsheviks
and the Soviet authorities assigned a new status to Red Square: it
became the main place for all solemn parades and processions, a memorial
to revolutionary heroes, and later to its leader. In 1919, torn shackles
were placed at the Execution Ground as a symbol of liberation from the
"shackles of tsarism." In 1924, the first wooden mausoleum of Lenin was
erected on the square.
In 1930, in preparation for the grand
opening of the stone Mausoleum, the former cobblestone pavement was
replaced with gabbrodolite paving stones. The stones were brought from
the Ropruchey deposit in Karelia. The blocks were mined in a split way,
so each tile had a unique surface pattern. Especially for Red Square,
tiles of a unique size were made - 10 × 20 centimeters long and 20
centimeters thick, which allows them to withstand a load of up to 30
tons. The predicted service life is a thousand years. The same paving
stones were laid on Barrikadnaya Street and Troitsky Bridge.
In
the 1930s, the appearance of the square changed again: the monument to
Minin and Pozharsky was moved to the Intercession Cathedral, and the
Kazan Cathedral and the Resurrection Gate were demolished. The master
plan of the authorities for the reconstruction of Moscow included the
demolition of the entire outer line of the buildings of Red Square in
order to build the building of the People's Commissariat for Heavy
Industry of the USSR (NKTP). After the death of the chief leader of the
NKTP, Grigory Ordzhonikidze, the project was curtailed. In 1938,
Vasilyevsky Spusk was included in its structure, and traffic was allowed
along the facade of the Upper Trading Rows.
On November 7, 1941, a military parade was held on Red
Square, officially timed to coincide with the anniversary of the October
Revolution, but in fact it was held to raise morale in the army and the
whole country. Advanced equipment and representatives of all military
units passed in front of the Kremlin, the marshals of the USSR and
Commander-in-Chief Joseph Stalin watched the march.
During the
Great Patriotic War, Moscow was under constant attacks by German
aircraft. In order to disguise the appearance of Red Square, the
appearance of Red Square was completely changed: with the help of wooden
structures, a whole network of streets was created on it, the Mausoleum
was closed with a “cap”, covers were put on the domes of the
Intercession Cathedral and the tiles were repainted in gray-black.
Nevertheless, from September 30, 1941 to April 20, 1942, during the
first year and a half of the war, the Kremlin was repeatedly bombed: 18
land mines and more than 150 lighters were dropped on Red Square.
On June 24, 1945, the historic Victory Parade took place on the
square, which marked the victory of the USSR over Nazi Germany. All
front-line regiments, the Moscow defense garrison, representatives of
military schools and academies took part in it.
Since 1963, the
square has become a pedestrian area. In 1972-1974, work was underway to
reconstruct the Mausoleum and the Necropolis, the pavement was
dismantled, and a foundation pit was dug 15 meters from the Kremlin
wall. For excavation, tunneling shields were used. Then part of the
Alevizov moat was opened:
“The bottom of the moat, when reaching
the design level of the pit (−10 meters), was not reached. The inner
wall of the moat turned out to be similar to the Kremlin one. One facade
of the wall, facing the inside of the moat, was smooth and inclined
towards the Kremlin by 1.1 meters by 10 meters in height. The other
facade of the wall, facing the Kremlin, consisted of arches and was
vertical. The Kremlin walls are arranged in a similar way. "
After completion of work on the square, the gabbrodolerite paving stones
were sorted out and laid on a concrete base.
Under Soviet rule,
Red Square became the main ideological symbol and the center of the
country's political life. Since May 1, 1918, numerous parades and
demonstrations have been held on it. At first, their character was
serious and mournful, aimed at honoring the memory of "those who died
for the cause of the revolution." Over time, the rhetoric of the
ceremonies changed: they became more solemn and sought to showcase the
successes and achievements of the new regime. In 1919, the first parade
of athletes was held, it was received personally by Vladimir Lenin.
Later, the march became an annual event, the number of participants
reached several thousand people, the main one of them was Joseph Stalin.
In 1990, UNESCO awarded the ensemble of the Moscow
Kremlin and Red Square the status of a World Heritage Site. The
following year, the process of restoring historical buildings began: the
Resurrection Gates, the Iverskaya Chapel and the Kazan Cathedral were
rebuilt. Since 1989, there has been a public discussion about the
transfer of the Mausoleum and the Necropolis from the Kremlin wall.
Since 1992, concerts and festive events have been held on the
square. In December 2000, the ice rink was flooded for the first time.
The gabbrodolerite deposit, from where the stone was brought for the
first paving in 1930, is still functioning. The city authorities
annually carry out spot repairs of paving stones. In early 2008, the
government decided to renovate Red Square. According to Vladimir Kozhin,
managing director of the president's affairs, she needed "a major
overhaul, which has never been carried out." The project was planned to
include the reconstruction of the complex of the Middle Trade Rows. Due
to financial difficulties, the implementation was delayed, as of 2018, a
phased partial replacement of the coating continues.
In 1987, Matthias Rust, a German amateur pilot, who at
that time was only 18 years old, landed on Vasilyevsky Spusk. On the Day
of the Border Troops of the USSR, on a Cessna-172 Skyhawk aircraft, he
flew from Helsinki towards Moscow, covered several thousand kilometers
across the territory of the USSR and landed at St. Basil's Cathedral.
This incident received a wide response in the press and served as an
impetus for the military reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev and significant
personnel restructuring in the Ministry of Defense.
In 2013, the
GUM trading house held a series of events dedicated to its 120th
anniversary. In mid-November, a pavilion of the Louis Vuitton brand was
installed on Red Square in the form of a suitcase measuring 9 × 13
meters. Inside, exhibitions and video installations were to take place,
and the proceeds from the sale of entrance tickets were going to be
transferred to a charitable foundation. The installation of an
advertising object of such an impressive size caused a resonance in
society and the media. Opponents of the project argued that the
installation was carried out illegally, and the construction itself
grossly violated the integrity of the historical ensemble. The Federal
Antimonopoly Service did not recognize the pavilion as advertising, and
GUM representatives said that "a large circle of approvals was passed
before the installation of the chest."
Already on November 27,
2013, the dismantling of the pavilion began, Louis Vuitton received a
fine of 10 thousand rubles for "unauthorized restriction of access to
public land."
At the end of 2013, a new regulation was published
for holding any events on Red Square, approved personally by Russian
President Vladimir Putin. The allowed list includes:
Victory Parade
(May 9);
Day of Slavic Literature and Culture (May 25);
Russia Day
(June 12);
Oath of military universities;
Historical parade
(November 7);
Festival of military bands "Spasskaya Tower";
New
Year's skating rink
According to the presidential administration,
this decision was dictated primarily by the desire to “open” the square
for citizens and tourists. Government representatives referred to
statistics, according to which access to Red Square was limited or
completely prohibited for almost 200 days a year. After the approval of
the new resolution, any actions and events outside the main list must go
through the established approval procedure and have federal
significance.