Why were the Kremlin walls painted white? The color of the walls of the Moscow Kremlin: historical facts The Kremlin is made of white brick

The Kremlin of Dolgoruky was tiny: it fit between the modern Tainitskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers. It was surrounded by a wooden wall 1,200 meters long.

At first, this fortress was called a city, and the lands around it were called a settlement. When it appeared, the fortress was renamed the Old Town. And only after construction in 1331, the fortress was called the Kremlin, which meant "fortress in the center of the city."

The word "comes from the Old Russian "krom" or "kremnos" (solid) - this was the name of the central part of the ancient cities. The Kremlin walls and towers were usually placed on the highest place.

The word "Kremlin" could also come from the so-called "kremlin" (strong) tree, from which the city walls were built. And in 1873, researcher A.M. Kubarev suggested that this toponym could come from the Greek language, where "kremnos" means "steepness, a steep mountain above the shore or ravine." The Moscow Kremlin really stands on a mountain on a steep bank of the river, and the words “flint” and “kremnos” could get into Russian speech with the Greek clergy who arrived in Moscow in the late 1320s with Metropolitan Theognost.

Guide to Architectural Styles

The Moscow Kremlin stands on Borovitsky Hill, at the confluence of the Moscow River and. Behind the walls of the fortress with an area of ​​9 hectares, the inhabitants of the surrounding settlements could hide from danger.

Over time, the plantations grew. The fortress grew with them. In the 14th century, under Ivan Kalita, new walls of the Moscow Kremlin were built: outside, wooden, covered with clay, inside - stone. Since 1240, Russia was under the Tatar-Mongol yoke, and the Moscow princes managed to build new fortresses in the center of the occupied country!

The Kremlin under Dmitry Donskoy (after the fire of 1365) was built from white stone. Then the walls had a length of almost 2 kilometers - 200 meters shorter than the current ones.

Fires and an earthquake in 1446 damaged the fortress, and under Ivan III at the end of the 15th century, the Moscow Kremlin was rebuilt. For this, Italian architects were invited - experts in fortification - Aristotle Fiorovanti, Pietro Antonio Solari, Marco Ruffo. They built not just a fortress, but a holy city. The legendary Tsargrad was laid at three corners on all sides of seven miles, so the Italian masters on each side of the Moscow Kremlin put 7 red-brick towers (along with the corner ones) and tried to keep the same distance from the center -. In this form and within such boundaries, the Moscow Kremlin has survived to this day.

The walls of the Kremlin turned out so good that no one has ever taken possession of them.

How to Read Facades: A Cheat Sheet on Architectural Elements

Two water lines and the slopes of Borovitsky Hill already gave the fortress a strategic advantage, and in the 16th century the Kremlin turned into an island: a canal was dug along the northeastern wall, which connected the Neglinnaya and Moscow rivers. The southern wall of the fortress was built before everyone else, since it went to the river and was of great strategic importance - merchant ships that arrived along the Moscow River moored here. Therefore, Ivan III ordered to remove all buildings south of the Kremlin walls - since that time nothing has been built here, except for earthen ramparts and bastions.

In plan, the walls of the Kremlin form an irregular triangle with an area of ​​about 28 hectares. Outside, they are built of red brick, but inside they are built from the white stone of the old walls of the Kremlin of Dmitry Donskoy, and for greater strength they are filled with lime. They were built from half a pood brick (weighing 8 kg). In proportion, it resembled a large loaf of black bread. It was also called two-handed, because it was possible to lift it with only two hands. At the same time, brick in Russia was an innovation at that time: they used to build it from white stone and plinths (something in between brick and tile).

The height of the Kremlin walls ranges from 5 to 19 meters (depending on the terrain), and in some places reaches the height of a six-story building. Along the perimeter of the walls there is a continuous passage 2 meters wide, but outside it is hidden by 1,045 merlon teeth. These M-shaped battlements are a typical feature of Italian fortification architecture (the supporters of the imperial power in Italy marked fortresses with them). In everyday life they are called "dovetail". From below, the teeth seem small, but their height reaches 2.5 meters, and the thickness is 65-70 centimeters. Each prong is made of 600 half-pood bricks, and almost all prongs have loopholes. During the battle, archers closed the gaps between the battlements with wooden shields and fired through the cracks. Whatever the tooth, then the archer, - they said among the people.

The walls of the Moscow Kremlin were surrounded by rumors for underground wars. They protected the fortress from undermining. Also under the walls was a system of secret underground passages. In 1894 archaeologist N.S. Shcherbatov found them under almost all the towers. But his photographs disappeared in the 1920s.

Dungeons and secret passages of Moscow

The Moscow Kremlin has 20 towers. They played a key role in monitoring the approaches to the fortress and in defense. Many of the towers were travel, with gates. But now three are open to the Kremlin: Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya.

The corner towers are round or polyhedral in shape and contain secret passages and wells inside to supply the fortress with water, while the rest of the towers are quadrangular. This is understandable: the corner towers had to "look" in all external directions, and the rest - forward, since the neighboring towers covered them from the sides. Also, travel towers were additionally protected by diversion towers-shooters. Of these, only Kutafya has survived.

In general, in the Middle Ages, the towers of the Moscow Kremlin looked different - they did not have hipped roofs, but there were wooden watchtowers. Then the fortress had a more severe and impregnable character. Now the walls and towers have lost their defensive value. The gable roof has not been preserved either: it burned down in the 18th century.

By the 16th century, the Kremlin in Moscow acquired the appearance of a formidable and impregnable fortress. Foreigners called it the "castle" on Borovitsky Hill.

The Kremlin has been at the center of political and historical events many times. Here Russian tsars were crowned and foreign ambassadors were received. Here the Polish interventionists and the boyars who opened the gates took refuge. The Kremlin tried to blow up Napoleon, who was fleeing Moscow. The Kremlin was going to be rebuilt according to the grandiose project of Bazhenov ...

What can be compared with this Kremlin, which, surrounded by battlements, flaunting the golden domes of cathedrals, reclining on a high mountain, like a sovereign crown on the forehead of a formidable lord? .. It is the altar of Russia, many sacrifices worthy of the fatherland should be and are already being made on it .. No, neither the Kremlin, nor its jagged walls, nor its dark passages, nor its magnificent palaces can be described... One must see, see... one must feel everything that they say to the heart and imagination!...

In Soviet times, the government was located in the Moscow Kremlin. Access to the territory was closed, and the dissatisfied were "calmed down" by the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Ya. Sverdlov.

Undoubtedly, the bourgeoisie and the philistines will raise a howl - the Bolsheviks, they say, desecrate the shrines, but this should not worry us the least. The interests of the proletarian revolution are above prejudice.

During the reign of Soviet power, the architectural ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin suffered more than in its entire history. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 54 buildings inside the Kremlin walls. Less than half survived. For example, in 1918, on the personal instructions of V.I. Lenin demolished the monument to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (he was killed in February 1905), at the same time they destroyed the monument to Alexander II (then a monument to Lenin was erected on its pedestal). And in 1922, more than 300 pounds of silver and 2 pounds of gold, more than 1,000 precious stones, and even the shrine of Patriarch Hermogenes were taken out of the cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin.

Congresses of Soviets were held, a kitchen was set up in the Golden Chamber, and a dining room in the Faceted Chamber. The Small Nikolaevsky Palace turned into a club for workers of Soviet institutions, a sports hall was opened in the Catherine's Church of the Ascension Monastery, and a Kremlin hospital was opened in the Miracle Monastery. In the 1930s, the monasteries and the Small Nikolaevsky Palace were demolished, and the entire eastern part of the Kremlin turned into ruins.

Kremlin: mini-guide to the territory

During the Great Patriotic War, the Kremlin was one of the main targets of aerial bombardment of Moscow. But thanks to the disguise, the fortress "disappeared".

The red-brick walls were repainted, and windows and doors painted on them to mimic individual buildings. The battlements on top of the walls and the stars of the Kremlin towers were covered with plywood roofs, and the green roofs were painted to look like rust.

The camouflage made it difficult for German pilots to find the Kremlin, but did not save them from bombing. In Soviet times, they said that not a single bomb fell on the Kremlin. In fact, 15 high-explosive and 150 small incendiary ones fell. And a bomb weighing a ton hit it, and part of the building collapsed. British Prime Minister Churchill, who arrived later in the Kremlin, even stopped and took off his hat as he passed the gap.

In 1955, the Moscow Kremlin was partially opened to the public - it turned into an open-air museum. At the same time, the Kremlin banned residence (the last residents were discharged in 1961).

In 1990, the Kremlin ensemble was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. At the same time, the Kremlin became a government residence, but retained museum functions. Therefore, uniformed employees are present on the territory, quickly instructing the lost tourists "on the right path." But every year more and more corners of the Kremlin become open for walking.

And the Kremlin is often filmed for cinema. And in the film "Third Meshchanskaya" you can even see the Moscow Kremlin before the demolition of the Chudov and Ascension monasteries.

Mini guide to the Kremlin walls and towers

They say that......The Kremlin walls were built by Ivan the Terrible (Ivan III was also called "The Terrible"). He summoned 20,000 village peasants and ordered:
- To be ready in a month!
They paid little - 15 kopecks a day. Therefore, many died of starvation. Many were beaten to death. New employees were brought in to take their place. And a month later the Kremlin walls were completed. Therefore, they say that the Kremlin is on the bones.
...the shadow of Ivan IV often wanders in the lower tiers of the bell tower. Even the memoirs of Nicholas II have been preserved, how on the eve of the coronation, the spirit of Grozny appeared to him and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
And when False Dmitry was killed in the Moscow Kremlin, Muscovites sometimes began to see the outlines of the figure of the Pretender, flashing in the twilight between the battlements of the walls. They also saw him on the August night of 1991 - before the attempted coup d'état.
And one evening, the watchman who was on duty in the building next to the Patriarch's Chambers raised the alarm (under Stalin there was housing). One of the apartments on the second floor was occupied by the People's Commissar of the NKVD Yezhov, and the duty officer was in the hallway of the former Yezhov apartments. Around midnight, the watchman heard footsteps on the stairs, then the jingle of a key in the lock, the creak of a door opening and closing. He realized that someone had left the building and tried to detain the intruder. The duty officer jumped out onto the porch and saw, a few meters from the house, a small figure in a long overcoat and cap, well known from old photographs. But the ghost of the Chekist melted into the air. We saw Yezhov a few more times.
The spirit of Stalin did not appear in the Moscow Kremlin, but the ghost of Lenin is a frequent visitor. The spirit of the leader made the first visit during his lifetime - on October 18, 1923. According to eyewitnesses, the terminally ill Lenin unexpectedly arrived from Gorki to the Kremlin. Alone, without guards, he went to his office and walked around the Kremlin, where he was greeted by a detachment of cadets of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. The head of the guard was at first dumbfounded, and then rushed to call Gorki to find out why Vladimir Ilyich was unaccompanied. It was then that he learned that Lenin had not traveled anywhere. After this incident, real devilry began in the leader’s Kremlin apartment: the sounds of moving furniture, the crackle of a telephone, the creak of floorboards and even voices were heard. This continued until Ilyich's apartment with all his belongings was transferred to Gorki. But until now, the guards and employees of the Kremlin sometimes see frosty January evenings on

On November 25, 1339, Ivan Kalita erected the oak walls of the Moscow fortress. It was during this period that the Kremlin became the political center of the feudal state, the residence of the grand dukes and metropolitans.

Today the Moscow Kremlin is one of the brightest cultural assets of the Russian capital. "RG" has collected five little-known and curious facts about him.

1. The Moscow Kremlin is the largest fortress in the entire territory of Russia, as well as the largest active fortress in Europe today.

In world history, there were buildings and more, but only it has been preserved quite well and still performs its functions.

The total length of the Kremlin walls is 2235 meters, they form an irregular triangle. There are 20 towers along them, of which the highest is Troitskaya, together with the star, it has a height of 80 m.

2. The secret of the absolutely accurate time of the Kremlin chimes now lies underground: the chimes are connected by cable to the control clock of the Sternberg Moscow Astronomical Institute.

In the middle of the 19th century, chimes were installed on the Spasskaya Tower, performing the "March of the Preobrazhensky Regiment" by Dmitry Bortnyansky. This melody sounded until 1917. In 1920, the music of the Internationale was picked up on the chimes.

Under Yeltsin, the chimes played Glinka, and now they play Alexandrov - the anthem of the Russian Federation.

3. During the Great Patriotic War, or rather, in 1941, the Kremlin began to be disguised: all the old buildings were stylized as ordinary houses, green roofs were painted over, dark paint was applied to gilded domes, crosses were removed, stars were sheathed on the towers. Windows and doors were painted on the Kremlin walls, and the battlements were covered with plywood, imitating the roofs of houses.

Interestingly, during the Great Patriotic War, the Kremlin was practically not damaged, despite the massive bombardments that hit Moscow in 1941 and 1942. The authorities evacuated the treasures of the Armory, and in the event of the surrender of the capital to the German troops, a plan was provided for mining the main buildings of the complex.

4. In 1935, the Kremlin lost its double-headed eagles, and it was decided to install Soviet symbols in their place. In 1937, luminous ruby ​​stars were installed on the Spasskaya, Borovitskaya, Nikolskaya, Troitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers.

Kremlin stars withstand the maximum pressure of a hurricane wind, each up to about 1200 kg. The weight of each star reaches one ton. During windy days, the stars rotate, changing their position so that they face the wind with their sides.

5. Almost until the end of the 19th century, Moscow was "white-stone". Following the established tradition, the Kremlin's red-brick walls were whitewashed for almost four centuries. At the same time, they were worried not only about the memory of the white-stone Kremlin of Dmitry Donskoy, but also about the safety of the brick. This can be confirmed by numerous descriptions and images.

Today, the walls of the Kremlin are regularly tinted so that the red-brick color is always saturated.

State Duma deputy from the Liberal Democratic Party Mikhail Degtyarev (known primarily as a candidate for mayor of Moscow in the 2013 elections) sent an appeal to the Secretary of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation with a request to bring the issue of returning the Moscow Kremlin to its original white color for public discussion.

Degtyarev believes that the process of discussing this issue should end with the preparation of draft laws on the historical complex of the Moscow Kremlin or the formation of an initiative group to hold an all-Russian referendum.

“In 2017, it will be 650 years since the construction of the stone walls and towers of the Moscow Kremlin began,” the politician notes in his letter. “The revival of the white appearance of the Kremlin will become one of the symbols of the beginning of the restoration of a single Eurasian space, just as earlier the construction of the White Stone Kremlin in Moscow marked the beginning of the unification of the fragmented principalities and the expansion of Russia to the South and East.”

“For many centuries, the White Sovereign served Russia, the people and God in the White Kremlin. Until now, people call Moscow Belokamennaya. Despite the fact that baked bricks were used during subsequent reconstructions of the Moscow Kremlin, to give the Moscow Kremlin its original - snow-white - appearance of the surface of its walls and towers, they annually whitewashed until the end of the 19th century,” recalled Mikhail Degtyarev.

“The image of the white-stone Kremlin, as in ancient times, will symbolize the priority of morality and morality in the daily life of our citizens and rulers, as opposed to moral decline in the countries of Western civilization,” Mikhail Degtyarev substantiates the idea.

Only after 1947 did the ancient brick walls of the Moscow Kremlin, on the contrary, begin to be tinted with red paint, which was more in line with the color style of the then political system. At the same time, the parliamentarian proposes to carry out repainting gradually, without additional budget expenditures, because even today the Kremlin is regularly tinted with red paint.

For over 200 years, the walls of the Moscow Kremlin were made of wood. Indirect data on other wooden fortresses, for example, the Tver one, indicate that the Moscow one was probably smeared with clay and whitewashed.

In 1367 Dmitry Donskoy ordered the construction of stone walls and towers. The only stone available was limestone. So, in a record time for that time, in just two years, the White Stone Kremlin arose.

Already in the next century, in 1485-1495, on the orders of Ivan III and under the guidance of the Italian master Pietro Antonio Solari, new, red-brick walls and towers of the Kremlin were erected. The master took the castle of the Dukes of Sforza in Milan as a model.

Then, for either 200 or 300 years, the Kremlin remained red, gradually turning into a dirty brown. But, firstly, it is ugly, and secondly, the brick needs protection. In the Time of Troubles, there was no time for this, but as the state strengthened, the problem had to be solved. It is not known exactly when the walls and towers of the Kremlin were whitewashed for the first time. Usually only the century is called - XVIII, when it was whitewashed in the fashion of that time, along with all the other Russian Kremlins - in Kazan, Zaraysk, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov Veliky, etc.

Nevertheless, according to some reports, the Kremlin was whitewashed even under Princess Sophia, i.e. at the end of the 17th century. According to other sources, the first (or the first after a long break) was whitewashing under Alexander I, started in 1800, i.e. at the turn of the 19th century, when all the walls and towers were whitewashed, except Spasskaya.

From LJ blogger mgsupgs: “The White Kremlin also appeared before Napoleon’s army in 1812, and a few years later, already washed from the soot of warm Moscow, it again blinded travelers with snow-white walls and tents. The famous French playwright Jacques-Francois Anselot, who visited Moscow in 1826, described the Kremlin in his memoirs Six mois en Russie: “This is where we leave the Kremlin, my dear Xavier; but, looking again at this ancient citadel, we will regret that, while repairing the destruction caused by the explosion, the builders removed from the walls the age-old patina that gave them so much grandeur. The white paint that hides the cracks gives the Kremlin an air of youth that does not match its shape and erases its past.”

The Kremlin greeted the beginning of the 20th century like a real old fortress, covered, in the words of the writer Pavel Ettinger, with a “noble urban patina”: it was sometimes whitewashed for important events, and the rest of the time it stood as it should be - smudged and shabby. The Bolsheviks, who made the Kremlin a symbol and citadel of all state power, were not at all embarrassed by the white color of the fortress walls and towers. Blogger mgsupgs also cites a photograph from the parade in 1932, which clearly shows the walls of the Kremlin freshly whitewashed for the holiday.

Then the war began, and the commandant of the Kremlin, Major General Nikolai Spiridonov, suggested repainting the walls and towers of the Kremlin for camouflage. A fantastic project for that time was developed by a group of Academician Boris Iofan: walls of houses, black holes of windows were painted on white walls, artificial streets were built on Red Square, and the empty Mausoleum (Lenin's body had already been evacuated from Moscow on July 3, 1941) was covered with a plywood cap representing a house. And the Kremlin naturally disappeared - the disguise confused all the cards for the fascist pilots.

And only during the restoration of the Kremlin walls and towers in 1947 - for the celebration of the 800th anniversary of Moscow, did Stalin have the idea to repaint the Kremlin in red: a red flag on the red Kremlin on Red Square - so that everything sounds in unison and ideologically correct. This instruction of Comrade Stalin is being carried out to this day.

On the illustration: Pyotr Vereshchagin, “View of the Moscow Kremlin. 1879"

Even in kindergarten, children hear about white stone Moscow. This name is a traditional epithet of the capital. But then the children get older and in history lessons they learn that the city got its name because of its main fortress - the Kremlin. And they have legitimate questions about where such a strange color blindness came from? The Kremlin is red, not white!

In fact, there is no error. Just a beautiful epithet appeared a long time ago, when the Kremlin was really bright.

What is the Kremlin?

This word in medieval Russia was called the central fortress of the city, the last and main stronghold of defense. On its territory there was usually the main (or only) city temple, the ruler of the city (prince or governor) lived.

In the event of an attack (and they happened very often in those days), not only the population of an unprotected or poorly protected urban settlement, but also the peasants of the nearest villages were hiding behind the walls of the Kremlin. Strong walls gave hope to repulse an attack or wait for help, withstanding a siege.

Not first

For a very long time, stone fortifications were not built in Russia. They built it from wood - it was faster and easier. Therefore, the white-stone Kremlin in Moscow was not really the first - there was a wooden fortress before it. There is chronicle evidence of the construction of a wooden fortress in the city by the founder of Moscow, Prince Yuri Dolgoruky (by the way, a war lover). This fact dates back 9 years after the first mention of Moscow in a written source.

Later, the wooden Kremlin was repeatedly restored and rebuilt. The reason is clear - the wooden walls protected well from the direct attack of enemies, but were powerless against fire. And Russia had just entered turbulent times - it all started with princely strife, and then the Tatars came. The last time the wooden fortress was rebuilt was the famous Ivan Kalita. He built it from oak and significantly increased the area. But it still didn't help.

All Saints Fire

Not even a Tatar attack was required - the Kremlin of Ivan Kalita was destroyed by a household fire. It was a terrible scourge of wooden medieval cities - in any fire they could burn out completely. This time, the Church of All Saints was the first to catch fire (hence the name of the fire). It happened in 1365.

At this time, young Dmitry Ivanovich (then not yet Donskoy) reigned in Moscow. He sought to pursue an independent policy, but he understood that with a "naked" capital, this would be a lost cause. Therefore, he hastened to begin the construction of a new fortress and, at the same time, made sure that it burned worse.

White stone

Russia already knew stone construction. But in many regions, strictly speaking, it was not stone, but brick - clay plinth was used. But in the Vladimir-Suzdal principality, even before the invasion of the Mongols, a tradition of building from limestone arose. For its light color, it was called "white stone". It was necessary to be able to work with him, but in principle, limestone was easy to process. Blocks of the desired size could be cut from it.

There was a limestone deposit not far from Moscow in the village of Myachkovo, 30 km from the capital. This variety is now called so - Myachkovsky limestone. The historian and writer I. E. Zabelin suggested that it was this stone that the builders of the Kremlin of Dmitry Ivanovich should have used.

The big problem was the delivery of stone, and the prince did not want to start construction until all the necessary material was at hand. Transportation was carried out along the Moscow River, partly by water, but for the most part - in winter on ice.

Unseen Kremlin

The construction of the white-stone Kremlin in Moscow took two years (1367-68). He is often mentioned in sources, but our contemporaries do not know exactly what he looked like. There are no accurate images, and one has to rely on descriptions and archaeological data.

The Kremlin Square under Prince Dmitry was approaching the current one - he ordered the construction of new walls at a decent distance from the old ones. The walls were theoretically up to 3 m thick and had numerous loopholes, which were closed during an attack with wooden shields for better protection of the soldiers. A significant part of the walls stretched along the Moscow River and Neglinnaya (they served as additional protection). In the same place, where such protection was not enough, a ditch was dug (its traces were found by archaeologists). A stone bridge was thrown over the Neglinnaya - the first in Moscow (now there is the Trinity Bridge).

Historian M.I. Tikhomirov believes that initially the walls were thick, but rather low. They were built up gradually. This was a common practice in medieval towns and castles. There is a version that initially not the entire Kremlin was made of stone - less dangerous from the point of view of a possible assault remained wooden. Over time, this omission was also eliminated.

The white-stone Kremlin in Moscow (the year construction began - 1367) stood for 150 years. Prince Ivan III, known for putting an end to the Mongol yoke, decided to build a new fortress. The white walls were gradually dismantled, others were built in their place. The material this time is red brick. This is how the modern Kremlin appeared.

Some limestone blocks were left in the new wall as a bottle. Scientists later discovered them and thus made sure that the first stone Kremlin in Moscow was indeed white.

Miracles of Belokamennaya

In an effort to unite and strengthen Russia, Dmitry Ivanovich sought to make the Kremlin not only a fortress, but also a kind of center of attraction, which would symbolize Russian greatness. Therefore, the prince built not only walls, but also stone churches in the Kremlin monasteries. As a result, Moscow became one of the most “stone” Russian cities, and the Kremlin itself became the most powerful European fortress.

Dmitry's heirs sought to continue his undertaking and increase the number of miracles in the Kremlin. So, at the turn of the XIV-XV centuries, the first tower clock in Russia appeared in the Kremlin. White stone began to be used not only for construction, but also for decoration. In the middle of the 15th century, a Russian sculptor made two bas-reliefs from limestone. One of them depicted the coat of arms of Moscow (with George the Victorious), the second - St. Demetrius of Thessalonica (heavenly patron of Dmitry Ivanovich). They were fixed on the Frolovskaya (today - Spasskaya) tower: the first in 1446 from the outside above the gate, the second - in 1466 in the same way, but from the inside.

Fortress Adventures

Despite its relatively short life, the first white-stone Kremlin in Moscow managed to serve the Motherland well. As soon as its construction was completed, in 1368, the army of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerd appeared under the walls of Moscow. The Lithuanians got away without salty slurping - the fortress survived. In 1370 Olgerd tried again - with the same result.

But the white Kremlin unexpectedly “came out sideways” exactly the event that glorified its builder for centuries. In 1380, Dmitry Ivanovich led the army of the united Russian principalities against the Golden Horde, and for the first time inflicted a crushing defeat on the enemy on the Kulikovo field near the Don. For this victory, the prince was awarded the honorary nickname Donskoy. But the angry Mongols had not yet been defeated at all. In 1382, Khan Tokhtamysh, who replaced the temnik Mamai defeated by Dmitry, took advantage of Dmitry's absence and attacked Moscow. The city fell and was burned clean.

It was then that Dmitry's foresight manifested itself - the white-stone Kremlin in Moscow (completion date - 1368) survived! It had only to be repaired, but not rebuilt.

The power of tradition

Although Prince Ivan used a different material for construction, he clearly had respect for the fortress built by his famous grandfather. The Kremlin remained white until the end of the 19th century! Although it was repeatedly completed and restored. Including after the "Time of Troubles" and the Patriotic War of 1812, the walls stubbornly continued to whitewash!

That is why the epithet "white stone" is so firmly attached to Moscow - it was formed far from 150 years, but much longer! The walls were painted white first of all to show respect for Dmitry Donskoy, and then out of habit.

You can see that St. Basil's Cathedral, which is in the immediate vicinity of the Kremlin, is mostly red. One might guess that this was a striking contrast. In addition, there was a tradition in the architecture of Russia - to build temples from plinth, and it resembles a modern red brick in color. Russian churches began to be whitewashed much later. And far from everywhere (by visiting the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, you can be sure that its walls were not originally white - masonry fragments were deliberately left unpainted on the walls of the buildings). Thanks to this, the churches were strikingly different from secular buildings (at that time the houses were wooden or resembled Ukrainian huts). White churches were built in the Vladimir-Suzdal principality (for example, Intercession on the Nerl), but this was not an immutable rule.

Creations of the masters

Although none of the figures of the new time saw the first Kremlin, it aroused their interest. Some tried to "invent" the Kremlin of Dmitry Donskoy and depict the results of their reflections on the canvas. The most interesting version belongs to the artist A. Vasnetsov. The whitewashed Kremlin of later eras was often painted and described. It can be suspected that not all witnesses knew that the fortress used to be different - really white.

Back to white

Nowadays, the red walls of the Kremlin are tinted for showiness with red paint in the same way as they used to be whitewashed. But in recent years, there have been more and more proposals to repaint the Kremlin white. Say, it will be more in line with the historical spirit of Moscow.

In addition to thinking about how much paint is needed for this and what the work will cost, you need to remember two more things. Firstly, the current Kremlin was not born of white stone. Repainting will not restore the real fortress of Dmitry Donskoy. And secondly, the Kremlin and Red Square are a monument of world importance and are under the protection of UNESCO.

The Moscow Kremlin has always been red since its construction (II millennium BC). In the 18th century, its walls were whitewashed. It was the trend of the then fashion. Entering Moscow in 1812, Napoleon also saw the Kremlin as white.

White color

White paint has long hidden the cracks in the Kremlin walls. They were whitewashed before big holidays. Under the influence of precipitation, the whitewash was quickly washed off, and the walls became an incomprehensibly dirty color. Muscovites called it a noble patina.

Foreign guests of the capital saw the fortress differently. Jacques-Francois Anselot, who visited Moscow in 1826, described it as a sad sight that did not correspond to its historical content. He believed that in trying to give the fortress walls the appearance of youth, Muscovites "cross out their past."

Kremlin during the war

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, it was decided that the Kremlin walls should be repainted in order to camouflage. The development and implementation of the project was entrusted to Academician Boris Iofan. Both Red Square and fortifications were disguised as ordinary residential buildings. “Streets” were built outside the Kremlin walls, and black squares of windows were painted on the walls of buildings. From the air, the mausoleum looked like an ordinary residential building with a gable roof. Strategically, this decision was the wisest. But it shows that already in 1941, Stalin was ready for enemy aircraft circling over Moscow.

Red color

The walls of the ancient building became red after the end of the war. In 1947, Stalin ordered to change their color to the favorite of the communists. The leader's logic was simple and understandable. Red blood - red flag - red Kremlin.