Capital of the USSR and of the Moskva region,
on the Moskva river 640 km/400 mi SE of
Leningrad; population (1987) 8,815,000. Its
industries include machinery, electrical
equipment, textiles, chemicals, and many food
products. features The 12th-century Kremlin
(Citadel), at the centre of the city, is a
walled enclosure containing a number of
historic buildings, including three
cathedrals, one of them the burial place of
the tsars; the Ivan Veliki tower 90 m/300 ft,
a famine-relief work commissioned by Boris
Godunov 1600; various palaces, including the
former imperial palace, museums, and the Tsar
Kolokol, the world's largest bell (200
tonnes) 1735. The walls of the Kremlin are
crowned by 18 towers and have five gates. Red
Square, used for political demonstrations and
processions, contains St Basil's Cathedral,
the state department store GUM, and Lenin's
tomb. The headquarters of the KGB, with
Lubyanka Prison behind it, is in Dzerzhinsky
Square; the underground railway was opened
1935. Institutions include Moscow University
1755 and People's Friendship University (for
foreign students) 1953; the Academy of
Sciences, which moved from Leningrad 1934;
Tretyakov Gallery of Russian Art 1856;
Bolshoi Theatre 1780 for opera and ballet;
Moscow Art Theatre 1898; Moscow State Circus.
Moscow is the seat of the patriarch of the
Russian Orthodox Church. On the city
outskirts is Star City (Zvezdnoy Gorodok),
the Soviet space centre. Moscow is the
largest industrial centre of the USSR, linked
with Stavropol by oil pipeline 480 km/300 mi,
built 1957. history Moscow, founded as the
city-state of Muscovy 1127, was destroyed by
the Mongols during the 13th century, but
rebuilt 1294 by Prince Daniel (died 1303) as
the capital of his principality. During the
14th century, it was under the rule of
Alexander Nevski, Ivan I (1304-41), and
Dmitri Donskai (1350-89), and became the
foremost political power in Russia, and its
religious capital. It was burned in 1571 by
the khan of the Crimea, and ravaged by fire
in 1739, 1748, and 1753; in 1812 it was
burned by its own citizens to save it from
Napoleon's troops, or perhaps by accident. It
became capital of the Russian Soviet
Federated Social Republic (RSFSR) 1918, and
of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(USSR) 1922. In World War II Hitler's troops
were within 30 km/20 mi of Moscow on the
northwest by Nov 1941, but the stubborn
Russian defence and severe winter weather
forced their withdrawal in Dec.