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Lobnoye Mesto stands on the Red Square near Moscow Kremlin. In the medieval times its was used for public executions of criminals as well as proclamation of important laws that were signed by a monarch. Lobnoye Mesto can be translated as a 'forehead place'. It is a clear reference to Golgotha or 'place of the skull' in Jerusalem, where Jesus Christ was said to be Crucified. Saint Basil Cathedral was often referred simply as a 'Jerusalem' as a reference to the Holy City near Golgotha.
History of the Lobnoye Mesto
Time of troubles
The importance of the Lobnoye Mesto in the political life of Russia
changed dramatically during the time of Troubles. With the death of
Fyodor Ioannovich, the last king of the Rurik dynasty, various
parties used the place to organize crowds. In a large area of the
square, thousands of citizens could be gathered to direct them
directly to the Royal chambers.
The first major event of the
Troubles that took place in Lobnoye mesto was the appeal of false
Dmitry I. on June 1, 1605, it was read by Gavrila Pushkin and Naum
Pleshcheyev. In his letter, the impostor accused Boris Godunov of
attempting to assassinate Tsarevich Dmitry, and declared the heir to
the throne, Fyodor II, a traitor. False Dmitry I promised to grant
new fiefdoms to voivodes, to show Royal favor to nobles, to provide
tax benefits to Moscow merchants, and to "all Orthodox Christianity"
guaranteed a peaceful life. When the envoys finished reading the
address, the Muscovites " rejoiced with great joy, sending glory to
God, and there was a great noise and cry in them, and it was
impossible to make out who was saying what." After that, the exalted
crowd rushed to the Kremlin. Fyodor Godunov, his mother and closest
associates were arrested. On the same day, looting began in Moscow
in the homes of political associates of the deposed Tsar.
On
June 20, 1606, false Dmitry I approached Moscow. He was met on the
outskirts of the city by representatives of the city's aristocracy,
and the townspeople were waiting for the "saved Tsar" at the Frontal
place. Approaching the crowd, the impostor "got off his horse and
came to the crosses, and ordered them to start singing prayers, and
those Latin Lithuania sat and blew trumpets and beat tambourines."
Then the new "Tsar" went to the Kremlin, and Bogdan Belsky,
accompanied by the princes and boyars, went to the crowd standing on
the square. From the Front seat, he delivered a solemn speech in
which he thanked God for the miraculous salvation of the king.
Less than a year later, a mob of angry Muscovites killed false
Dmitry I, after which the extermination of his associates, primarily
from among the Polish — Lithuanian aristocracy, began. On may 28,
1606, the day after the coup and the massacres, the bodies of the
torn-up foreigners were dumped on the Lobnoye Mesto. According to
the memoirs of a Polish contemporary, the corpses lay for three
days.
Soon Vasily Shuisky was "elected" as the Tsar. To
legitimize his power, he also addressed the people gathered on red
square from the Front seat. The new government has made efforts to
debunk the cult of the impostor. The plan failed because it was
found the archive of the false Dmitry I, including letters in the
Polish language, written by Yury Mniszek. The documents were
urgently translated into Russian, and then publicly read from the
Front seat.
In the following years, the economic and
political situation in the country worsened, which led to the
appearance of false Dmitry II. Even with a large army, the new
impostor could not enter Moscow, although he tried to storm the
city. At the height of the military confrontation in 1608, a group
of Moscow conspirators, including Prince Roman Gagarin, tried to
overthrow Vasily Shuisky. They also tried to use the place of the
forehead, bringing Patriarch Hermogenes there and hoping to receive
his blessing. But the Bishop did not cooperate with them. The boyars
also showed no sympathy for the rebels. Gagarin and his followers
went to the Tsar, but their forces were not enough to break into the
Palace. The coup attempt failed and the conspirators left for
Tushino, where the headquarters of false Dmitry II was located.
On July 27, 1610, Zachary Lyapunov, having conspired with Prince
Golitsyn to overthrow Vasily Shuisky, went to Red square accompanied
by Ivan Saltykov and a certain nobleman Khomutov. They went up to
the place of the head and demanded the arrival of the Patriarch and
the Duma boyars, "and as the confluence of the people was so great
that they could not fit on this square, the aforementioned Lyapunov,
Khomutov and Saltykov shouted that everyone should go to the field
outside the city, and, having left the Outpost, there dismissed
Shuisky from power."
The last stage of the Troubles shows the
importance of the Lobnoye Mesto in the popular consciousness. In
November 1612, after a long siege, the Novgorod militia liberated
the Moscow Kremlin from the poles. On November 27, two processions
led by Minin and Pozharsky moved from different directions to
Kitay-Gorod. Both marches United at the Frontal place, where the
Trinity Archimandrite Dionysius held a prayer service. From there,
the procession went to the Kremlin's Cathedral square.
On
February 21, 1613, the Zemsky Sobor decided to choose a new Tsar. On
this day, the frontal place was used for the last time when
receiving popular approval. Archbishop Theodoret and boyar Vasily
Morozov asked the people gathered on red square who should be Tsar.
The crowd expressed support for Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov. A few
days later, the cross-kissing ceremony was also held there: so the
boyars and Cossacks swore an oath to the new monarch, who at that
time was in Kostroma.
Streltsy riot of 1682
The main
events of the Streletsky riot of 1682 unfolded in the Kremlin, but
the bodies of aristocrats close to the Naryshkins were dragged by
the rebels to Red square on may 15 and thrown near the Frontal
place. A few months later, the Streltsy, wanting to justify the
crime, obtained permission to install a civil monument (the first in
Russia) near the Frontal place. It was a wooden quadrangular pillar,
on top of which were placed copper tablets with the names of the
killed boyars and a description of their injustices towards the
Streltsy. By autumn, the government of Princess Sophia decided to
get rid of both the instigators of the rebellion and the reminder of
the bloody events, so on November 2, 1682, the pillar was
dismantled.
During the riot, an attempt was also made to use
the frontal place to consolidate the forces of the Moscow
dissenters. After the end of the military revolt, old believers
preachers appeared among the Streltsy, calling for an open
theological dispute with the official Church. They chose Red square
as the venue for the discussion, but in the end, the meeting of
representatives of the "new" and " old " faith took place on July 5,
1682 in the faceted chamber of the Kremlin. The only result of the
dispute was mutual accusations of heresy. Immediately after the
meeting, the old believers addressed the gathered citizens from the
Front seat and announced their victory in the dispute. The
government of Princess Sophia was not going to put up with
dissenters, and over the next few days, the Streltsy, on her orders,
arrested the most active preachers-old believers.
Penalty to
Peter the great's time
For most of the 17th century, no death
sentences were carried out on red square, but in popular memory, any
significant events were associated with the Kremlin. This may
explain the appearance of the legend that Stepan Razin was executed
on the place of execution, although in reality the sentence was
carried out on Bolotnaya square. In his memoirs, the urban legend
was retold by the Hanoverian resident at the Russian court,
Friedrich Christian Weber, who visited Russia at the beginning of
the XVIII century.
Acts of intimidation of political
opponents were repeatedly held on Red square during the reign of
Peter I. on March 4, 1697, he ordered the remains of Ivan Tsikler,
Alexey Sokovnin and three other conspirators executed in
Preobrazhenskoye village after an attempt on the life of the Tsar to
be put on public display. A new wooden pillar with five spokes, on
which the severed heads were strung, was installed near the Lobnoye
Mesto. Metal boards with the text of the guilty verdict were fixed
on the pillar.
After the Streltsy riot of 1698, 799 Streltsy
were sentenced to death. The main executions took place in
Preobrazhenskoye, but some of the conspirators were executed on red
square. On one day alone, February 13, 1699, 30 death sentences were
carried out on a scaffold set up near the place of execution. The
heads of the executed and the signs describing the crime were again
left on the square. Executions were carried out only in the southern
part of red square, which is probably why eyewitnesses named the
frontal place as a reference point. This explains the formation of a
stereotype about using the site as a scaffold.