History The early period Foundation and medieval growth

The first documentary reference to Moscow is found in the early monastic chronicles under the year 1147, when on April 4 Yury Vladimirovich Dolgoruky, prince of Suzdal, was host at a “great banquet” for his ally the Prince of Novgorod-Seversky “in Moscow.” This is the traditional date of Moscow's foundation, although archaeological evidence shows that a settlement had existed on the site since Neolithic times. Archaeological work has also revealed the remains of corduroy roads and evidence of iron and leather working dating from the 11th century. The disturbed times made defense essential, and in 1156 Prince Dolgoruky built the first fortifications—ditches and earthen ramparts topped by a wooden wall with blockhouses. This was the Kremlin. The origin of the word kremlin is disputed; some authorities suggest Greek words for “citadel” or “steepness,” others the early Russian word krem, meaning a conifer providing timber suitable for building. The Kremlin was sited on the relatively high spit of land between the Moskva River and a small tributary, the Neglinnaya. The triangular piece of land between the rivers was protected on the eastern side by a moat joining them. The Neglinnaya now flows through an underground conduit, but part of its course is traced by a street of the same name.

Moscow soon developed as one of the more important towns of the principality of Vladimir-Suzdal. A trading settlement, or posad, grew up to the east of the Kremlin, along the Moskva in the area known as Zaradye. Like most other Russian towns, Moscow was captured and burned by the Mongols in their great invasion of 1236–40, and its princes had to accept Mongol suzerainty. It soon recovered, though the Mongols sacked it once again in 1293. Three years later the Kremlin was strengthened with a new earthen wall and oak palisade. Thereafter Moscow grew in importance, in trading and artisan activity, and in size, overtaking the older and previously more important centres of Suzdal and Vladimir. The town was fairly centrally placed in the system of rivers and portages that formed the trade routes across European Russia. The area east of Moscow between the Oka and Volga rivers moreover had rather better soils than most of northern Russia and formed a region of more developed agriculture and prosperous towns. Moscow's authority was greatly enhanced when in 1326 the metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church transferred his seat from Vladimir to Moscow. Thereafter the town was to remain the centre of Russian Orthodoxy, and after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks (1453) it claimed the title of the Third Rome. Under Ivan I Kalita the principality of Vladimir was incorporated into that of Moscow. Gradually the princes of Moscow extended their rule over the other surrounding Russian princedoms, and the town became the leader in the long struggle against Mongol hegemony.

The struggle at first fluctuated. In 1378 a Muscovite army repulsed a Mongol attack on the Vozha River south of the town, and in 1380 Prince Dmitry of Moscow inflicted a crushing defeat on the Mongols under the great khan Mamai at Kulikovo on the Don River, for which victory he was thereafter known as Dmitry Donskoy (“of the Don”). The Kremlin had been enlarged and given walls and towers of white limestone in 1367, but the new fortifications were unable to withstand a renewed Mongol attack in 1382, when, despite a heroic defense, the khan Tokhtamysh captured and plundered Moscow. Yet another attack in 1408 under Khan Yedigei, however, was beaten off. Moscow grew steadily in size and importance as it continued to absorb the surrounding princedoms. Within the Kremlin the first stone cathedral, the Assumption, was built in 1326. Palaces for the prince and leading boyars, monasteries, and churches were erected. Outside the Kremlin walls, the trading and artisan quarter to the east grew in size and became known as the Kitay-gorod; this name, which originated in the 16th century, probably derives from the word kita, a binding of poles used in the fortifications before stone walls were built, and does not mean “Chinese City” as it is sometimes translated.