Kremlin

Geography and Topography

The Moscow Kremlin occupies an area of 27.5 hectares on Borovitsky Hill, a hill about 25 metres high on the left bank of the Moskva River.^[1][2] The hill represents one of the traditional seven hills upon which Moscow was established.^[1][3] The name Borovitsky derives from the Old Russian term bor, denoting a coniferous pine forest that originally covered the elevation.^[1] Before the construction of drainage and diversion canals at the end of the eighteenth century, the high embankment offered natural security against floods from the Moskva River.^[3][4]

The layout of the fortress roughly forms an irregular triangle.^[2] Its southern perimeter faces the Moskva River, while the north-western side borders Alexander Garden.^[2] The Neglinnaya River previously flowed openly along this north-western perimeter into the Moskva River, creating a natural water barrier on two sides of the hill.^[1][3] Since the early nineteenth century, the Neglinnaya has been enclosed within an underground vaulted canal.^[1][3] To the east, the walls face Red Square.^[2]

The fortress forms the nucleus of Moscow's radial-ring street plan. The main radial roads of the capital begin just outside its walls, including Tverskaya Street starting at Red Square, Vozdvizhenka Street starting immediately west of the Kremlin, and the M3 road to Kaluga, Bryansk and Kyiv starting at the south-western corner of the walls. Multiple central stations of the Moscow Metro surround the complex, including Okhotny Ryad, Biblioteka Imeni Lenina, Teatralnaya, Ploshchad Revolyutsii, Arbatskaya, Aleksandrovsky Sad, and Borovitskaya.

Etymology and Political Metonym

In the Russian language, the common noun kreml denotes a fortified urban citadel, and numerous historic Russian towns possess their own kremlins, such as Novgorod, Pskov, Kazan, and Nizhny Novgorod.^[5][6][7] Linguistic hypotheses trace the term to Old Russian and Common Slavic roots such as krom, krem, or kremnik, while alternative proposals link it to the Greek kremnos, meaning a steep river cliff.^[6][8] In early chronicles, fortified city centres were typically designated detinets or simply grad.^[9][10] The word kreml in reference to Moscow was first recorded in 1331, though the etymologist Max Vasmer noted a citation from 1320.^[11][12][13]

The Moscow Kremlin serves internationally as a metonym for the government of the Russian Federation, in the same manner as the White House represents the executive branch of the United States.^[7] During the Cold War from 1947 to 1991, the Kremlin denoted the government of the Soviet Union, including the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Council of Ministers, and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.^[7][14] This usage gave rise to the field of kremlinology, which analyzed political alignments, leadership access, and policy debates within the Soviet regime.^[7][15]

History

Archaeological excavations confirm human presence on Borovitsky Hill dating back to the Bronze Age Fatyanovo culture in the second millennium BCE.^[16] In the second half of the first millennium BCE, during the Early Iron Age, a Dyakovo-culture settlement inhabited by Finno-Ugric Meryan populations occupied the upper terrace near the site of the modern Cathedral of the Archangel.^[17][18] This settlement was defended by natural ravines leading to the Neglinnaya and Moskva rivers.^[19] Slavic Vyatichi groups settled the crest of the hill during the tenth century, incorporating existing ravines into ditch fortifications up to 9 metres deep and 3.8 metres wide.^[20][21][22] A hanging seal found during excavations on the tip of the hill was first taken to be that of a Kiev metropolitan of the late eleventh century, but it proved to be later, most likely from Vladimir; a political and administrative centre is presumed to have stood there.^[21]

Early Fortifications

The earliest written mention of Moscow occurs under the year 1147 in the Ipatiev Chronicle, recording a banquet hosted by Prince Yuri Dolgorukiy of Vladimir-Suzdal for his ally Prince Svyatoslav Olgovich of Novgorod-Seversky.^[23][24] According to seventeenth-century copies of the Tver Chronicle, Dolgorukiy constructed a wooden fortress on the south-western crest of the hill in 1156.^[21][23][25] This fortification consisted of an earthen rampart 14.5 metres wide and 7 metres high, reinforced with interlinked oak frameworks and surrounded by a moat 16 to 18 metres wide and at least 5 metres deep.^[21] Radiocarbon testing of the wooden hooks in the rampart confirms construction in the first half of the twelfth century.^[21]

Ryazan forces under Prince Gleb Rostislavich burned the settlement in the autumn of 1176, but it was rebuilt shortly thereafter. During the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus in January 1238, Mongol forces besieged Moscow for five days.^[26][27] The garrison, led by Yuri's younger son Vladimir and the military commander Filipp Nyanka, was defeated, the defenders were killed, the fortress and monasteries were burned, and Prince Vladimir was captured.^[26][27]

Seat of the Grand Dukes

From 1264, the Kremlin served as the seat of the Princes of Moscow.^[28] In 1272, Prince Daniil Aleksandrovich established the Church of the Transfiguration on the hill.^[28][29] During the reign of Ivan I Kalita (1325–1340), Metropolitan Peter moved his episcopal see from Vladimir to Moscow, establishing the city as the religious center of the Russian lands.^[30] Kalita erected the first stone churches inside the citadel, including the original Cathedral of the Dormition in 1327, the Church of Saint John Climacus in 1329, the Cathedral of the Saviour in the Wood in 1330, and the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael in 1333.^[28][30][31] In the winter of 1339–1340, Kalita replaced the old perimeter with heavy oak walls and towers coated with clay for fire protection, extending the perimeter to 1,670 metres.^[30]

In 1365, a great fire badly damaged the Kremlin and burned its wooden palisade.^[32][33] In the winter of 1366–1367, Grand Duke Dmitri Donskoi began quarrying local white limestone to build Moscow's first masonry fortress.^[30][34] Completed in 1367–1368, the white-stone walls stretched nearly two kilometres and featured eight or nine towers, providing Moscow with its enduring epithet of the White-Stone City.^[30][34] The citadel withstood sieges by Grand Duke Algirdas of Lithuania in 1368 and 1370.^[35] In 1382, Khan Tokhtamysh captured the fortress by deception, killing thousands of residents and burning the interiors, although the limestone walls remained largely intact and were repaired.^[35]

During the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, new religious structures were built within the limestone perimeter. Metropolitan Alexis founded the Chudov (Miracles) Monastery in 1365, and Donskoi's widow, Princess Eudoxia, founded the Ascension Convent in 1397.^[5][36][37] In 1404, the Serbian monk Lazar installed the first mechanical public clock in Russia near the Cathedral of the Annunciation on the court of Prince Vasily I.^[37][38] In 1406, Theophanes the Greek, Andrei Rublev, and Prokhor of Gorodets painted murals inside the Annunciation Cathedral.^[5] Over the fifteenth century, the soft limestone deteriorated, requiring frequent masonry repairs by builders such as Vasily Yermolin in 1462.^[39][40]

Renaissance Reconstruction under Ivan III

Grand Prince Ivan III consolidated the Russian principalities, ended tribute payments to the Golden Horde at the Ugra River in 1480, and married the Byzantine princess Sophia Palaiologina in 1472. Seeking to establish Moscow as an imperial capital and the Third Rome, Ivan III commissioned Italian Renaissance architects and engineers to reconstruct the Kremlin.^[41][42] In 1475, Aristotele Fioravanti from Bologna arrived in Moscow following the collapse of a vaulting attempt by Russian builders at the Dormition Cathedral.^[43] Fioravanti cleared the rubble, laid deeper foundations, erected brickworks, and completed the new Cathedral of the Dormition in 1479.^[43] Pskov craftsmen completed the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in 1486 and the Cathedral of the Annunciation in 1489.^[39]

Italian architects Marco Ruffo and Pietro Antonio Solari constructed the Palace of Facets between 1487 and 1491 to serve as the throne room and official reception hall for foreign ambassadors.^[44] Between 1505 and 1508, Aloisio the New erected the new Cathedral of the Archangel, while Bon Fryazin constructed the Ivan the Great Bell Tower.^[39] Between 1485 and 1495, Italian engineers dismantled the deteriorating white limestone walls and built the extant red-brick perimeter, drawing defensive inspiration from northern Italian castles such as the Castello Sforzesco in Milan and the Scaliger fortress in Verona.^[45][46][47] To prevent fires, Ivan III issued a decree in 1493 banning timber constructions within 240 metres of the fortress walls.^[41][48]

In 1508, Grand Prince Vasily III ordered the construction of a moat along the eastern wall facing Red Square, designed by Aloisio the New or Aloisio da Milano.^[48][49] Known as the Alevizov Moat, it was 32 to 34 metres wide and 10 to 12 metres deep, fed with water from the Neglinnaya River and lined with brick walls, effectively turning the citadel into an island accessible only across drawbridges.^[48][49] In 1589, during the reign of Feodor I, son of Ivan IV, the Russian Patriarchate was founded in the Kremlin, and as a result the metropolitan's property there was enlarged with new stone residences and churches.^[50] Following the conquest of the Kazan Khanate, Saint Basil's Cathedral was constructed immediately outside the eastern wall between 1555 and 1561.

Seventeenth Century Developments

During the reign of Boris Godunov, the Ivan the Great Bell Tower was raised in 1600 to a height of 81 metres by adding an upper tier and a gilded dome.^[50] In the Time of Troubles, Polish-Lithuanian garrisons occupied the Kremlin from September 1610 until October 1612, when they surrendered to a volunteer army led by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin.^[51] Buildings were damaged in the fighting, the royal treasury and the churches were looted, and the wooden buildings were torn down and used as firewood. The election of Mikhail Romanov as tsar in 1613 initiated a major rebuilding phase.

Under the early Romanov tsars, the defensive character of the fortress evolved into ceremonial and administrative splendour.^[52][53] Master builders constructed the five-storey Terem Palace in 1635–1636, and Patriarch Nikon expanded the Patriarchal Palace and Church of the Twelve Apostles between 1652 and 1655.^[54][55] In 1624–1625, English architect Christopher Galloway and Russian builder Bazhen Ogurtsov added tiered superstructures and a clock tower to the Spasskaya Tower. During the 1680s, ornamental brick pyramidal tents clad in glazed decorative tiles were added to almost all defensive towers.^[53] On 7 July 1680, Tsar Feodor III decreed that the brick walls be whitewashed with lime, a practice that defined the Kremlin's white appearance until the late nineteenth century.^[53][56]

Imperial Period (1703–1917)

Following the Moscow Uprising of 1682, Peter the Great developed an aversion to the Kremlin and relocated the capital to Saint Petersburg in 1712, stripping the citadel of its status as the regular monarchical residence.^[57][58] After a severe fire in 1701 destroyed wooden buildings in the north-western sector, Peter ordered the construction of a large military Arsenal in 1702, completed in 1736.^[57][58] In anticipation of King Charles XII's invasion during the Great Northern War, bastions were added around the walls and moats were refilled with water.^[57] Under Empress Elizabeth, old halls of the palace were demolished between 1743 and the 1750s and replaced by a Winter Palace designed by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli.^[2][59]

In 1768, Catherine the Great established the Expedition of Kremlin Construction and commissioned architect Vasily Bazhenov to design a massive Neoclassical imperial residence.^[60][61][62] Bazhenov proposed demolishing major historic buildings and replacing the southern perimeter with a monumental palace complex.^[61][63] In preparation, portions of the southern wall, along with the Taynitskaya and First Nameless towers, were torn down in 1770–1771.^[61][62][63] The project was cancelled in 1775. The official reason given was the subsidence of the Archangel Cathedral, and the enormous cost of the rebuilding also contributed to the decision.^[64] The dismantled wall sections and towers were soon rebuilt in their earlier form.^[64] Between 1776 and 1787, architect Matvey Kazakov constructed the Neoclassical Senate building, which eliminated the last private estates within the fortress grounds.^[65][66][67]

During the French invasion of Russia, the French army entered the Kremlin on 2 September 1812, and Napoleon himself entered on 3 September.^[68] Upon retreating, Napoleon ordered his forces to detonate the entire complex.^[69] Mines severely damaged the Arsenal, the Vodovzvodnaya, Petrovskaya, and First Nameless towers, while the Nikolskaya and Corner Arsenal towers and the Ivan the Great Bell Tower extensions sustained heavy damage.^[69][70] Torrential rain extinguished multiple fuses, mitigating total destruction.^[70] Restoration works between 1816 and 1819 were overseen by Osip Bove, who gave the Nikolskaya Tower a Gothic Revival appearance, landscaped the Alexander Garden over the enclosed Neglinnaya River, and filled in the Alevizov Moat along Red Square.^[70]

Between 1838 and 1849, Tsar Nicholas I commissioned architect Konstantin Thon to construct the Grand Kremlin Palace on the site of Rastrelli's demolished palace and the ancient church of Saint John the Baptist.^[71] Thon integrated the surviving Palace of Facets, Terem Palace and Small Golden Chamber into the new complex.^[71][72] Thon also designed the new Kremlin Armoury building, completed in 1851.^[72] In 1898, a large bronze monument to Emperor Alexander II, designed by Alexander Opekushin, Pyotr Zhukovsky, and Nikolai Sultanov, was inaugurated on the southern hillside slope overlooking the river.^[73] In 1908, a memorial cross was erected near the Nikolskaya Tower marking the site where Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was assassinated by Ivan Kalyayev in 1905.^[74]

Soviet Period

Following the Bolshevik Revolution, the Soviet government moved from Petrograd to Moscow on 12 March 1918, selecting the Kremlin as its administrative headquarters.^[75] Vladimir Lenin established his personal residence and office in the Senate building.^[76] In 1918, monuments to Alexander II and Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich were dismantled. The complex was closed to the general public in 1927.^[77] In 1922, during the state campaign for the confiscation of church valuables, the Soviet authorities removed over 300 poods of silver, more than two poods of gold, thousands of gemstones, and the silver shrine of Patriarch Hermogenes from the cathedrals.

Large-scale demolitions of historical and religious architecture occurred under Joseph Stalin. In 1929–1930, the Chudov Monastery, the Ascension Convent, and the Small Nicholas Palace were razed to make way for the Red Commanders Military School (Building 14), built between 1932 and 1934 in a Neoclassical style designed by Ivan Rerberg.^[77] In 1933, the fourteenth-century Church of the Saviour in the Wood, the oldest church in Moscow, was demolished within the inner courtyard of the Grand Kremlin Palace.^[31] Between 1917 and 1991, 28 of the 54 historical buildings standing inside the fortress were destroyed, including 17 churches.^[78]

Between 1935 and 1937, the imperial gilded double-headed eagles atop the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Troitskaya, and Borovitskaya towers were removed and replaced with illuminated ruby-glass stars; a fifth star was added to the Vodovzvodnaya Tower in 1937.^[2][79] During World War II, architect Boris Iofan supervised camouflage measures to disguise the citadel from aerial bombardment: wall towers were camouflaged, building roofs were repainted brown, cobblestone plazas were covered with sand, and false facades and canvas streets were stretched over open squares.^[80][81][82] Despite 18 high-explosive bombs dropping on the Kremlin and Red Square during the war, damage was limited.^[81]

The Kremlin reopened to tourists in 1955, and private residential quarters for government officials were discontinued by 1961.^[83][84] Between 1959 and 1961, Nikita Khrushchev commissioned the State Kremlin Palace (originally the Kremlin Palace of Congresses) as a modern auditorium for Communist Party congresses, replacing the old nineteenth-century State Armoury building and auxiliary structures.^[85] The Moscow Kremlin Museums were established in 1961.^[86] In 1990, the Kremlin and Red Square were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List under cultural criteria i, ii, iv, and vi.^[86][87]

Post-Soviet and Contemporary Era

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the Kremlin became the official working residence of the President of the Russian Federation.^[5] In 1994, the historic Red Staircase of the Palace of Facets was reconstructed, and between 1994 and 1998, the Saint Andrew and Saint Alexander reception halls in the Grand Kremlin Palace were restored to their pre-Soviet imperial design.^[79][88] In 1995, the 1967 statue of Lenin in the Taynitsky Garden was relocated.^[88] The Senate Palace underwent an extensive renovation from 1992 to 1996 to accommodate the presidential executive offices.^[88][89]

In May 2013, an official helipad covering 4,162 square metres was completed in the southern portion of the complex near Taynitsky Garden, enabling presidential transit via Mil Mi-8 helicopters to alleviate motorcade congestion in central Moscow.^[90][91] Vibration-monitoring sensors were placed on nearby historic towers, and flight-control equipment was positioned in the Saint Peter Tower.^[91]

In 2014, Russian authorities decided against restoring Building 14, and the structure was completely demolished in the spring of 2016.^[92][93][94] Archaeologists from the Russian Academy of Sciences excavated the exposed foundations of the Chudov Monastery, the Ascension Convent, and the Small Nicholas Palace.^[93][94] The cleared site was transformed into a public park featuring glass-covered underground archaeological viewing windows on Ivanovskaya Square.^[94][95] On the night of 3 May 2023, two unmanned aerial vehicles were detected above the Kremlin, and one of them exploded above the dome of the Senate Palace.^[96][97][98]

Walls and Towers

The existing defensive wall and towers were built of fired red brick between 1485 and 1516 by Italian architects Anton Fryazin, Marco Fryazin, Pietro Antonio Solari, and Aloisio da Milano.^{[41][99][100]} The wall encloses an irregular triangle with a total length of 2,235 metres.^[99][100] Wall height varies between 5 and 19 metres depending on topography, and thickness ranges from 3.5 to 6.5 metres.^[99][100] The exterior facades are smooth, while the interior faces feature vaulted niches supporting an open wall-walk up to 4.5 metres wide.^[99] The battlements are crowned with 1,045 swallowtail merlons, derived from Italian Ghibelline military architecture, measuring over two metres in height and pierced with narrow arrow slits.^[40][99]

There are 20 towers along the walls, including the Kutafya Tower; 18 of them were built together with the walls between 1485 and 1499.^{[5][100][101]} Three corner towers have circular cross-sections, while the remaining seventeen are rectangular. Four towers feature drive-through entrance gates: Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Troitskaya, and Borovitskaya.^[102] In the seventeenth century, decorative octagonal and pyramidal brick tent roofs covered in coloured ceramic tiles were added to the tops of the towers.^[53][100]

Individual Towers

The Spasskaya Tower (Savior Tower) faces Red Square and serves as the main ceremonial entrance.^[103] Built in 1491 by Pietro Antonio Solari, it was originally named Frolovskaya after the nearby Church of Saints Frol and Laurus.^[103] It received its present name in 1658 by decree of Tsar Alexis after the icon of the Savior placed above the portal.^[103] Its tiered tent roof was added in 1624–1625 by Christopher Galloway and Bazhen Ogurtsov. A Dutch chiming clock was installed in 1707, and the current chimes were installed in 1851.^[103] The tower measures 67.3 metres, and 71 metres including its revolving ruby-glass star.^[103]

The Nikolskaya Tower (Saint Nicholas Tower) stands on the eastern wall near the State Historical Museum.^[104] Erected by Solari in 1491, it is named after the nearby Greek Monastery of Saint Nicholas and the icon of Saint Nicholas over its gate.^[104] In 1806, Luigi Rusca rebuilt the superstructure in a Gothic Revival style.^[104] Following explosion damage in 1812, it was restored by Osip Bove between 1816 and 1819, and was repaired again by Nikolai Markovnikov after Bolshevik artillery shelling in 1917.^[104][105] Its height is 67.1 metres, and 70.4 metres with its ruby star.^[104]

The Troitskaya Tower (Trinity Tower) is situated in the centre of the north-western wall overlooking Alexander Garden and serves as the main tourist entrance.^[100][106] Completed in 1499 by Aloisio da Milano, it was previously known as Rizopolozhenskaya, Znamenskaya, and Karetnaya, before receiving its current name in 1658 from the Trinity metochion.^[106] Its multi-level base housed a prison during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and court archives from 1870 to 1895.^[106] It is the tallest tower in the fortress, measuring 76.4 metres from the exterior ditch and 80.0 metres including its star.^[100][106]

The Kutafya Tower is the sole surviving detached bridgehead tower (barbican) situated outside the fortress perimeter.^[101] Built in 1516 under Aloisio da Milano to protect the bridge over the Neglinnaya River leading to the Troitskaya Tower, it was originally surrounded by a moat. The stone bridge over the Neglinnaya that led to the Kutafya Tower was also built in 1516. A decorative crown in the Moscow Baroque style was added to the tower in 1685. Its current height is 13.5 metres.

The Borovitskaya Tower stands on the south-western slope near the Kremlin Armoury.^[107] Built by Solari in 1490, it features stepped tiers constructed in the late seventeenth century and serves as the vehicle entrance for government officials.^[107] In 1658, Tsar Alexis renamed it Predtechenskaya after the Church of John the Baptist, though the original name persisted.^[107] Its height is 50.7 metres, and 54.0 metres with its star.^[107]

Because of their position, the three corner towers played an important part in the defence of the fortress, and their round bases have embrasures for artillery. The Vodovzvodnaya Tower (Water-Lifting Tower) stands at the south-western corner overlooking the Moskva River. It is also known as the Sviblova Tower, after the aristocratic Sviblov family who lived nearby. It was built in 1488 by the Italian architect Antonio Fryazin.^[108] It received its present name in 1633, after a machine for pumping water from the Moskva River into the Kremlin was installed inside it. Blown up in 1812, it was reconstructed by Osip Bove in 1817–1819.^[107] Its height, including the star, is 61.25 metres. The Uglovaya Arsenalnaya Tower (Corner Arsenal Tower, formerly Sobakina) occupies the northernmost corner of the perimeter. Built in 1492 by Pietro Antonio Solari, it still contains a secret well. The Beklemishevskaya Tower (also known as the Moskvoretskaya Tower) stands at the south-eastern corner by the Moskva River bridge. Built in 1487 by Marco Ruffo, it was equipped with an underground listening vault to detect subterranean sapping. Its height is 46 metres.

The remaining perimeter towers include the Taynitskaya Tower, the first of the towers to be built, in 1485.^[109] It was built by Antonio Gilardi and had a well and a secret passage to the river. The Tsarskaya Tower, the smallest tower, was added directly onto the eastern wall in 1680 as a decorative stone pavilion 14.5 metres high.^[100][110] Other towers along the wall include the Nabatnaya (Alarm) Tower, which housed the main public alarm bell until the late eighteenth century; the Konstantino-Eleninskaya Tower; the Petrovskaya Tower; the First and Second Nameless towers; the Blagoveshchenskaya Tower; the Srednyaya Arsenalnaya Tower; the Komendantskaya Tower; and the Oruzheynaya Tower.^[99]

Cathedral Square and Churches

Cathedral Square (Sobornaya Square) forms the architectural and ceremonial centre of the Kremlin, located on the summit of Borovitsky Hill.^[111][112] The square is framed by the Dormition Cathedral, the Cathedral of the Archangel, the Cathedral of the Annunciation, the Church of the Deposition of the Robe, the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, and the Palace of Facets.^[5][111] Since the fifteenth century, it has functioned as the site of coronations, ecclesiastical synods, state ceremonies, and public processions.^[111]

Dormition Cathedral

The Cathedral of the Dormition (Uspensky Cathedral) is the oldest fully preserved building in Moscow.^[113][114] Commissioned by Grand Prince Ivan III, it was designed and built between 1475 and 1479 by the Bolognese architect Aristotele Fioravanti to replace an earlier 1327 stone church that had collapsed during construction in 1474.^{[113][114][115]} At the metropolitan's instruction, Fioravanti modelled the building on the Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir, with which it shares a simple square plan and five domes, and he added elements of Renaissance architecture..^[114]

. It also functioned as the burial vault for the heads of the Russian Orthodox Church, housing the tombs of almost all Moscow metropolitans and patriarchs from the fourteenth century until the suppression of the patriarchate in 1721.^[116] Interior furnishings include fifteenth- to seventeenth-century wall frescoes, a 1547 iconostasis displaying twelfth-century icons, and the Monomakh Throne, an elaborately carved wooden prayer stall executed in 1551 for Ivan the Terrible.^[116]

Cathedral of the Archangel

. The Cathedral of the Archangel was built between 1505 and 1508 by the Italian architect Aloisio the New on the site of an earlier Christian building dating from 1333..^{[2][39][45][117]} Its walls show the influence of the Italian Renaissance..^[115][117]

The cathedral functioned as the dynastic necropolis of the Grand Dukes of Moscow and the early tsars.^[116] Several Russian tsars and princes were buried here until the seventeenth century, among them Ivan I, Dmitry Donskoy, Ivan III and Ivan the Terrible; Peter II was also buried here..^[117] The walls are covered with seventeenth-century murals painted by masters including Yakov Kazansky and Iosif Vladimirov.^[117]

Cathedral of the Annunciation

The Cathedral of the Annunciation (Blagoveshchensky Cathedral) was constructed between 1484 and 1489 by master builders from Pskov on the site of a fourteenth-century predecessor.^[118] Positioned at the south-western corner of Cathedral Square adjacent to the Grand Kremlin Palace, it served as the private domestic chapel of the grand dukes and tsars, who entered the church via a private covered elevated gallery.^[118] It was originally built with three domes.^[119] In the mid-sixteenth century it was considerably enlarged on the orders of Ivan the Terrible.^[118] Between 1563 and 1566 two domes and four chapels with domes were added.^[50] In the sixteenth century it became nine-domed, and its domes were covered with gold..^{[49][120][121]}

The church interior contains murals executed in 1508 by painter Theodosius, as well as an iconostasis displaying icons traditionally attributed to Theophanes the Greek and Andrei Rublev, which were uncovered beneath later layers of overpainting during restoration in 1918.^[119][122] The floor of the central nave is paved with slabs of reddish-brown jasper brought from Rostov in the sixteenth century.^[119]

Church of the Deposition of the Robe

The Church of the Deposition of the Virgin's Robe is a single-domed church located on the western boundary of the square between the Palace of Facets and the Patriarchal Palace.^[5] By the mid-fifteenth century a church later named for the Deposition of the Robe stood on the Metropolitan's Court.^[38] A new Church of the Deposition of the Robe was built by master craftsmen from Pskov between 1484 and 1486..^[44][123] The interior features frescoes depicting the Virgin Mary and an iconostasis painted in 1627 and 1644, and currently displays an exhibition of fifteenth- to seventeenth-century Russian religious woodcarvings.^[124]

Ivan the Great Bell Tower

The Ivan the Great Bell Tower is the tallest building on Cathedral Square and separates it from Ivanovskaya Square..^[112][125] Erected between 1505 and 1508 by Bon Fryazin on the site of the 1329 Church of Saint John Climacus, the white-brick octagonal tower originally stood 60 metres high.^[112][126] In 1600, Tsar Boris Godunov ordered the addition of an upper tier and golden dome, bringing the tower to its present height of 81 metres.^[50] Until the completion of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in 1883, it was the tallest structure in Moscow, as edicts prohibited the erection of any building exceeding its height.^[50]

Adjacent to the main shaft stand two extensions: the Dormition Belfry, built as a church between 1531 and 1543, and the Philaret Annex, added in 1624 by Patriarch Philaret.^[126] Both annexes were seriously damaged in 1812, when the retreating French army blew up Kremlin buildings..^[69] The bell ensemble comprises 22 historic bronze bells dating from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, the largest being the Dormition Bell, weighing 65.5 tonnes, and the Reut Bell, weighing 19.6 tonnes.^[126]

Patriarchal Palace and Church of the Twelve Apostles

The Patriarchal Palace and Church of the Twelve Apostles forms a combined civil and ecclesiastical building closing the northern side of Cathedral Square.^[55] Built between 1653 and 1656 by Russian craftsmen for Patriarch Nikon, the complex housed administrative chambers, the patriarchal library, and the five-domed domestic Church of the Twelve Apostles (originally dedicated to Saint Philip).^[55] The palace remained the seat of the Patriarchs of Moscow until the patriarchate was abolished and replaced by the Holy Synod..^[55]

The palace's primary reception room is the Chamber of the Cross, which covers 280 square metres and was engineered without central supporting pillars, making it the largest pillarless vaulted hall in seventeenth-century Russia.^[127] From 1763, the room was used for the preparation and storage of holy chrism (myrrh), and the historic silver-gilt cauldrons and stoves remain preserved there.^[127] The palace was reopened as a museum of seventeenth-century applied arts in 1955, and features a seventeenth-century carved iconostasis salvaged from the demolished Ascension Convent.^[127]

Palaces and Administrative Edifices

The secular structures within the Kremlin represent multiple architectural eras from the late fifteenth century through the mid-twentieth century, serving successively as princely and tsarist royal residences, imperial administrative offices, Soviet government bureaus, and contemporary executive workspaces.^[2][5]

Grand Kremlin Palace Complex

The Grand Kremlin Palace is a massive building constructed along the southern brow of Borovitsky Hill between 1838 and 1849 by architect Konstantin Thon for Tsar Nicholas I.^[71] The palace has about 700 rooms, and the complex also takes in the Terem Palace, the Palace of Facets, the Golden Tsarina's Chamber and the palace churches.^[89] When it was built, the older palace buildings were dismantled except the Terem Palace, the Palace of Facets and the Small Golden Chamber, which were incorporated into the new palace..^[71][72]

The second floor features five state reception halls named after the highest military and civilian orders of the Russian Empire: Saint George, Saint Vladimir, Saint Alexander Nevsky, Saint Andrew, and Saint Catherine. The Saint George Hall is the largest, measuring 61 metres long, 20.5 metres wide, and 17 metres high, decorated with six gilded bronze chandeliers weighing 1.3 tonnes each and parquet flooring composed of over twenty varieties of wood. In the 1930s, the Saint Andrew and Saint Alexander halls were demolished and combined into a 2,500-seat plenary hall for the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, but both were reconstructed to their original imperial designs between 1994 and 1998.^[79][88] The ground floor contains the private apartments of the imperial family. Today, the palace complex is the main official residence of the President of Russia, and state ceremonies and diplomatic receptions are held there..^[89]

Palace of Facets

The Palace of Facets (Granovitaya Palata) is the oldest preserved secular building in the Kremlin. The Palace of Facets (Granovitaya Palata) was built between 1487 and 1491, during the reign of Ivan III, by Marco Fryazin and Pietro Antonio Solari..^[5][33] The main reception hall on the upper floor covers 495 square metres under a vaulted ceiling 9 metres high supported by a single central stone pillar. For centuries, the hall hosted victory celebrations, coronations, Boyar Duma assemblies, and diplomatic receptions. The Red Staircase leading down from the palace to Cathedral Square, by which Russian monarchs processed to coronations in the Dormition Cathedral, was destroyed in 1934 and reconstructed in 1994.^[88]

Terem Palace and Domestic Churches

The Terem Palace was built between 1635 and 1636 by Russian master builders Antip Konstantinov, Trefil Sharutin, Larion Ushakov, and Bazhen Ogurtsov for Tsar Mikhail Romanov.^[54] Constructed atop the stone undercroft of a sixteenth-century palace, the five-storey brick building served as the private residence of the tsars until the capital moved to Saint Petersburg.^[54] It is distinguished by ornamental carved window surrounds, openwork cornices, and a checkerboard-patterned roof topped by a decorative roof pavilion known as the terem. Together with the palace churches and the Golden Tsarina's Chamber, the Terem Palace forms part of the Grand Kremlin Palace complex..^[54][89] Today, the Terem Palace forms part of the presidential residence.^[54]

Amusement Palace

The Amusement Palace (Poteshny Palace) is the sole preserved example of a boyar residence within the Kremlin.^[128] Built in 1651–1652 for the boyar Ilya Miloslavsky, the father-in-law of Tsar Alexis, the residence was transferred to the crown after Miloslavsky's death.^[128] In 1668, Alexis converted the building into a court theatre for comedies and musical entertainments, giving the palace its name.^[128] The facade is notable for an upper domestic chapel that projects from the wall surface on stone brackets, topped by small cupolas. Restored to its seventeenth-century appearance by Nikolai Shokhin in the 1870s, the palace is currently utilized by the Kremlin commandant and military administration.^[73][128]

Kremlin Senate

The Kremlin Senate is a triangular Neoclassical administrative building constructed between 1776 and 1787 to designs by Matvey Kazakov.^[65][67] Commissioned by Catherine the Great to house branches of the Governing Senate transferred from Saint Petersburg, the three-storey structure features an inner triangular courtyard and an eastern apex terminating in a massive domed rotunda known as the Catherine Hall.^{[65][67][129]} The Catherine Hall, decorated with Corinthian colonnades and Neoclassical bas-reliefs, measures 24.7 metres in diameter and 29 metres in height.^[129]

Following the transfer of the Soviet capital in 1918, Vladimir Lenin lived and worked in the Senate building; his study and residential rooms were preserved as a museum until the 1990s.^[76][130] After Lenin, the building was used by Joseph Stalin until 1953..^[33][131] Since 1991, the Senate has served as the official working headquarters of the President of Russia, containing executive conference halls, the Presidential Library, and private staff offices.^[129]

Arsenal

The Arsenal was built on land between the Troitskaya and Sobakina towers and stands on Nikolskaya Street, opposite the Senate..^{[40][57][132]} Commissioned by Peter the Great in 1701 following a major fire, construction began in 1702 under a consortium of Russian builders, but was halted by financial constraints during the Great Northern War and completed in 1736.^[57][58] Damaged by fires in 1737 and detonated by retreating French forces in 1812, the building was reconstructed between 1815 and 1828 under the supervision of Osip Bove, Alexei Bakarev, and Ivan Mironovsky.^[65][133] Along its exterior base are displayed more than 800 captured historical artillery pieces, including cannons seized from Napoleon's Grand Army during the 1812 campaign.^[133] Today, the building houses the Kremlin garrison, sometimes called the Presidential or Kremlin Regiment..^[134]

State Kremlin Palace

The State Kremlin Palace (originally the Kremlin Palace of Congresses) was built between 1959 and 1961 on the initiative of Nikita Khrushchev..^[89][135] Designed by a team of architects headed by Mikhail Posokhin, the modernist rectangular structure stands 27 metres high, with an exterior faced in white Urals marble, anodised aluminum, and reflective tinted glass.^[85][136] To make space for its construction, the old nineteenth-century building of the State Armoury and several historical ancillary buildings were demolished.^[85] The interior houses a main auditorium with 6,000 seats and an upper banquet hall accommodating 4,500 people.^[136] The building was used for Communist Party congresses, Supreme Soviet assemblies, and performances by the Bolshoi Ballet; it now serves as a concert and public theatrical venue.^[136]

Museums and Treasures

The museum collections within the Kremlin originated in the royal workshops, treasuries, and armories of the grand dukes and tsars.^[137] On 10 March 1806, Emperor Alexander I signed an imperial decree transforming the royal stores and master workshops into a public museum, creating the first public museum institution in Moscow.^[138] In 1961, the State Historical-Cultural Museum Sanctuary was established, administering the Armoury, the cathedrals of Cathedral Square, the Patriarchal Palace, and the Ivan the Great Bell Tower complex.^[139]

State Armoury

The State Armoury (Oruzheynaya Palata) occupies a Neoclassical building constructed between 1844 and 1851 by Konstantin Thon on the south-western perimeter of the grounds.^[140] The museum's holdings encompass over 4,000 exhibits arranged across nine halls on two floors.^[140] The collection includes weapons, horse harnesses, and Russian and European goldsmiths' work..^[137][141] It also holds Russian state regalia, rulers' garments, coronation dress and state carriages..^[141]

Diamond Fund

The Diamond Fund is a separate state exhibition housed in the lower galleries of the Armoury building.^[137] The idea of a state fund came from Peter the Great, who decreed that later tsars and tsarinas should deposit part of the jewels they acquired during their reign in the fund, which thus belonged to the state rather than the imperial family.^[137] At the outbreak of World War I the state treasure was moved to the Kremlin for safety and kept in its cellars for several years.^[137] Administered under the Soviet Gokhran, portions of the imperial jewelry were sold abroad during the 1920s to fund state operations, while the core historic gems remained intact.^[142] The exhibition opened to the public in 1967, featuring imperial insignia, rare mineral specimens, gold nuggets, the 189.62-carat Orlov Diamond mounted in the Imperial Sceptre, and the 88.7-carat Shah Diamond presented to Tsar Nicholas I by the Shah of Persia in 1829.^[142]

Monuments

The Kremlin contains notable free-standing historical monuments commemorating Russian casting technology and military history.^[143]

Tsar Cannon

The Tsar Cannon (Tsar-pushka) is a large bronze artillery piece cast in 1586 by master bronze-caster Andrei Chokhov in Moscow during the reign of Tsar Feodor I.^[143][144] Technically classified as a stone-firing mortar, the barrel measures 5.34 metres in length, with an external diameter of 1,200 mm, a calibre of 890 mm, and a total weight of 39.31 tonnes.^{[144][145][146]} The barrel is adorned with cast relief foliage and an equestrian portrait of Tsar Feodor. The cannon was moved into the Kremlin in the eighteenth century..^[147] The decorative cast-iron carriage and four giant iron cannonballs resting beside the gun were fabricated in 1835; each ornamental ball weighs 1,965 kg.^[143][145] The cannon was never deployed in battle, though chemical analysis indicates at least one test shot was fired.^[143][146]

Tsar Bell

The Tsar Bell (Tsar-kolokol) is the largest surviving bell in the world, displayed on a granite pedestal near the intersection of Ivanovskaya Square and Borovitskaya Street.^[148][149] Commissioned by Empress Anna Ivanovna in 1730, it was cast in a 10-metre casting pit between 1734 and 1735 by foundry masters Ivan Motorin and his son Mikhail Motorin, utilising over 200 tonnes of bronze recycled from an earlier destroyed bell.^[148][149] The finished bell stands 6.14 metres high, measures 6.6 metres in diameter, and weighs approximately 201.9 tonnes.^[150] Its surface carries ornaments and portraits, which were made by the Russian artists B. Kobelev, P. Galkin and P. Koktev..^[149]

In May 1737, before the bell was raised from the casting pit, the Trinity Fire swept through the citadel, igniting the wooden scaffolding supporting the pit.^[148] Cold water thrown over the heated bronze during firefighting caused severe thermal shock, creating multiple fractures and causing an 11.5-tonne piece of metal to crack off from the rim.^[148] The cracked bell lay buried in the pit for 99 years until 1836, when French architect Auguste de Montferrand engineered its excavation and mounted it on its present pedestal with the broken fragment displayed beside it.^[133][148]

Lost and Demolished Structures

Throughout its history, numerous historic complexes inside the Kremlin were damaged by fire, destroyed by foreign invasions, or intentionally dismantled during state redevelopments.^[151] The earliest recorded large-scale administrative clearances occurred in the 1770s under Catherine the Great, when Vasili Bazhenov demolished the sixteenth-century palace of Boris Godunov, the old Treasury, the Prikaz office buildings, and portions of the southern curtain wall.^[61][63] In 1817, the sixteenth-century Church of Saint Nicholas Gostunsky was torn down overnight to create an open parade ground on Ivanovskaya Square.^[133] Before the Grand Kremlin Palace was completed by 1849, the small Church of Saint John the Baptist in the Wood, whose scale did not match the new building, was dismantled..^[71][72]

The most extensive architectural losses occurred under Soviet administration between 1918 and 1935, when 17 consecrated churches, five chapels, and two historic monasteries were destroyed.^[151] The Chudov Monastery, founded in 1365 by Metropolitan Alexis, contained the sixteenth-century Cathedral of the Miracle of Archangel Michael and the burial crypt of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich.^[152] The Ascension Convent was a women's convent in which many princesses, tsaritsas and other noble women were buried..^[36][153] Both monastic complexes, along with the adjacent Small Nicholas Palace, were demolished between 1929 and 1930 to clear space for the Red Commanders Military School.^[151] The Church of the Annunciation on the Zhytny Court was demolished in 1932 to 1933, and the Cathedral of the Saviour in the Wood, which dated from 1330, was demolished in 1933..^[154][155] In 1959, the nineteenth-century building of the Old Armoury was destroyed to erect the State Kremlin Palace.^[85][154]

Current Operations and Security

The Kremlin serves two main purposes at the same time: it is the official seat of the President of Russia, and it is an open-air museum and tourist attraction..^[156][157] The building complex around the Senate Palace forms part of the official seat of the President of the Russian Federation..^[158] The Russian Orthodox Church maintains concurrent rights to celebrate divine liturgies on major liturgical feast days in the Dormition, Archangel, and Annunciation cathedrals and the Church of the Deposition of the Robe.

Physical security and maintenance are directed by the Kremlin Commandant Service, an agency of the Federal Protection Service (FSO).^[159] The Kremlin Presidential Regiment, garrisoned in the Arsenal, provides guards for government buildings, maintains the ceremonial guard of honour at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Alexander Garden, and conducts horse-and-foot ceremonial guard mountings in Cathedral Square during summer months.^[134][159] Visitors enter through the two entrances at the Kutafya and Borovitskaya towers and must pass a security check, and the Borovitskaya Tower is also the passage for members of the government..^{[107][156][157]} Large bags and rucksacks may not be taken into the Kremlin.^[156][157] Several areas are generally closed to the public, above all the President's building complex around the Senate Palace, and the Senate Palace, the Arsenal and all the Kremlin towers can only be viewed from outside..^[158]

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67. Επίσημη ιστοσελίδα Κρεμλίνου: Κέντρο της μοσχοβίτικης πρωτοκαθεδρίας; αναγνώστηκε στις 15.11.2017 (ρωσικά)
68. Васькин А. А. Москва 1812 года глазами русских и французов. — М., 2012. — 528 с.
69. Памятники архитектуры, 1983, с. 296. (Либсон В. Я., Домшлак М. И., Аренкова Ю. И. и др. Кремль. Китай-город. Центральные площади // Памятники архитектуры Москвы. — М.: Искусство, 1983. — С. 257—345. — 504 с. — 25 000 экз.)
70. Geschichte des Kremls (Memento vom 11. September 2012 im Webarchiv archive.today); überprüft am 21. August 2015.
71. Памятники архитектуры, 1983, с. 297—298. (Либсон В. Я., Домшлак М. И., Аренкова Ю. И. и др. Кремль. Китай-город. Центральные площади // Памятники архитектуры Москвы. — М.: Искусство, 1983. — С. 257—345. — 504 с. — 25 000 экз.)
72. Иконников, 1978, с. 76. (Иконников А. В. Каменная летопись Москвы: Путеводитель. — М.: Московский рабочий, 1978. — С. 26. — 352 с.)
73. Памятники архитектуры, 1983, с. 298. (Либсон В. Я., Домшлак М. И., Аренкова Ю. И. и др. Кремль. Китай-город. Центральные площади // Памятники архитектуры Москвы. — М.: Искусство, 1983. — С. 257—345. — 504 с. — 25 000 экз.)
74. Источник . Дата обращения: 10 декабря 2021. Архивировано 26 октября 2021 года.
75. Georgi Michailowitsch Drosdow (Hrsg.): Lenin-Gedenkstätten in und bei Moskau. Bildreiseführer. Verlag Planeta, Moskau 1983, S. 26.
76. Georgi Michailowitsch Drosdow (Hrsg.): Lenin-Gedenkstätten in und bei Moskau. Bildreiseführer. Verlag Planeta, Moskau 1983, S. 30.
77. Igorʹ Elkov: Citadelʹ, Rossijskaja gaseta, 18. Dezember 2008.
78. "Константин Михайлов: Уничтоженный Кремль". Archived from the original on 21 August 2023. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
79. Επίσημη ιστοσελίδα Κρεμλίνου: Ο εικοστός αιώνας; αναγνώστηκε στις 16.11.2017 (ρωσικά)
80. MANAEV, GEORGY (9 May 2019). "How the Russians made the Kremlin 'disappear' during". Russia Beyond. Archived from the original on 16 January 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
81. Девятов С. В., Жиляев В. И., Кайкова О. К. Московский Кремль в годы Великой Отечественной войны. — М.: Кучково поле, 2010. — С. 90—91.
82. "Артемий Лебедев. Белый Кремль". 21 oktyabr 2014 tarixində arxivləşdirilib. İstifadə tarixi: 3 dekabr 2019.
83. Siehe dazu Sheila Fitzpatrick: Stalins Mannschaft. Teamarbeit und Tyrannei im Kreml. Schöningh, Paderborn 2017, ISBN 978-3-506784-32-2, S. 221.
84. Vladimir Snegirëv: Za stenoj, Rossijskaja gaseta, 21. Juli 2005.
85. Памятники архитектуры, 1983, с. 299. (Либсон В. Я., Домшлак М. И., Аренкова Ю. И. и др. Кремль. Китай-город. Центральные площади // Памятники архитектуры Москвы. — М.: Искусство, 1983. — С. 257—345. — 504 с. — 25 000 экз.)
86. Centre, UNESCO World Heritage. "Kremlin and Red Square, Moscow". UNESCO World Heritage Centre (bl-Ingliż). Miġbur 2021-04-11.
87. ICOMOS-Bericht vom 24. Oktober 1989 (PDF; 739 kB); überprüft am 25. März 2009.
88. Век двадцатый . Музеи Московского Кремля. Дата обращения: 12 января 2014. Архивировано 12 января 2014 года.
89. "Здания на территории Кремля" (Rusça). Moskova Kremlini Müzeleri. 2 Eylül 2026 tarihinde kaynağından arşivlendi. Erişim tarihi: 2 Eylül 2026.
90. Rosenberg, Steve (27 May 2013). "Vladimir Putin gets Kremlin helipad to ease congestion" (Embedded video). BBC News. Archived from the original on 13 March 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
91. Μαρίνα Ομπράζκοβα: Η Μόσχα κατασκεύασε ελικοδρόμια; Σελίδα πληροφόρησης La Russie d'Aujourd'hui, 16.07.2013 (γαλλικά)
92. В Кремле будет восстановлен ряд объектов культурного наследия . kremlin.ru. Дата обращения: 28 июля 2017. Архивировано 29 июля 2017 года.
93. Изучение и музеефикация древностей Московского Кремля: «археологические окна» на Ивановской площади . archaeolog.ru. Дата обращения: 28 июля 2017. Архивировано 29 июля 2017 года.
94. Σελίδα πληροφόρησης Lenta.ru, 29.01.2017 (ρωσικά)
95. Археологические исследования в восточной части Московского Кремля в 2014-2016 гг. academia.edu. Дата обращения: 9 января 2021. Архивировано 12 декабря 2018 года.
96. «What do we know about Russian accusations that Ukraine attacked Putin residence?». Reuters. 2025-12-30. Skatīts: 2026-09-05.
97. “「プーチン氏暗殺未遂」と主張 ウクライナがドローン攻撃か―ロシア：時事ドットコム”. www.jiji.com. 2023年5月3日時点のオリジナルよりアーカイブ。2023年5月3日閲覧。
98. Україна спробувала завдати удару дронами по резиденції Путіна
99. Памятники архитектуры, 1983, с. 300. (Либсон В. Я., Домшлак М. И., Аренкова Ю. И. и др. Кремль. Китай-город. Центральные площади // Памятники архитектуры Москвы. — М.: Искусство, 1983. — С. 257—345. — 504 с. — 25 000 экз.)
100. Alle Höhen-, Längen-, Breiten- bzw. Flächenangaben hier und im Folgenden, soweit nicht anders angegeben, aus Romanjuk, 2004 bzw. Kiselëv, 2006 (siehe unter Literatur).
101. Επίσημη ιστοσελίδα Κρεμλίνου: Πύργοι του Κρεμλίνου; αναγνώστηκε στις 20.11.2017 (ρωσικά)
102. Επίσημη ιστοσελίδα Κρεμλίνου: Επίσκεψη Κρεμλίνου; αναγνώστηκε στις 14.11.2017 (ρωσικά)
103. Επίσημη ιστοσελίδα Κρεμλίνου: Πύργος του Σωτήρος; αναγνώστηκε στις 20.11.2017 (ρωσικά)
104. Επίσημη ιστοσελίδα Κρεμλίνου: Πύργος του Αγίου Νικολάου; αναγνώστηκε στις 20.11.2017 (ρωσικά)
105. Архитектура Москвы 1910—1935 гг. / Комеч А. И., Броновицкая А. Ю., Броновицкая Н. Н.. — М.: Искусство — XXI век, 2012. — С. 255—260. — 356 с. — (Памятники архитектуры Москвы). — 2500 экз. — ISBN 978-5-98051-101-2.
106. Επίσημη ιστοσελίδα Κρεμλίνου: Πύργος της Αγίας Τριάδας; αναγνώστηκε στις 20.11.2017 (ρωσικά)
107. Επίσημη ιστοσελίδα Κρεμλίνου: Πύργος του Μποροβίτσκι; αναγνώστηκε στις 20.11.2017 (ρωσικά)
108. „www.kreml.ru“. Архивирано од изворникот на 2010-09-14. Посетено на 2010-11-15.
109. "Башни Кремля" (Rusça). Moskova Kremlini Müzeleri. 2 Eylül 2026 tarihinde kaynağından arşivlendi. Erişim tarihi: 2 Eylül 2026.
110. Επίσημη ιστοσελίδα Κρεμλίνου: Πύργος του Τσάρου; αναγνώστηκε στις 20.11.2017 (ρωσικά)
111. Makarevič et al., S. 315 (siehe unter Literatur).
112. Επίσημη ιστοσελίδα του Καμπαναριού Ιβάν ο Μέγας: Ιστορία; αναγνώστηκε στις 05.08.2013 (αγγλικά)
113. Als ältestes erhaltenes Kremlbauwerk wird manchmal stattdessen eine der Hauskirchen des Terem-Palastes, die Gottesmutter-Geburts-Kirche aus den Jahren 1393/94, bezeichnet; vgl. Beschreibung unter kremlin.museum.ru (Memento vom 12. Oktober 2006 im Internet Archive). Von ihr ist jedoch nur der untere Bereich der Grundmauern einschließlich des ehemaligen Eingangsportals erhalten. Auf diese Reste wurde Anfang des 16. Jahrhunderts die heutige Kirche herangebaut.
114. Επίσημη ιστοσελίδα Κρεμλίνου: Ο Καθεδρικός Ναός της Κοίμησης; αναγνώστηκε στις 21.11.2017 (ρωσικά)
115. B.M. Kloss, V.D. Nazarov: Letopisnye istočniki XV veka o stroitel'stve moskovskogo Uspenskogo sobora. Istorija i restavracija pamjatnikov Moskovskogo Kremlja, Band VI, Moskau 1989, S. 27.
116. Irina Rodimzewa, Nikolai Rachmanow, Alfons Raimann: Der Kreml und seine Kunstschätze; Hirmer, Μόναχο 1989; σελ. 78–92 (γερμανικά)
117. www.patriarchia.ru
118. russiancity.ru: Verkündigungskathedrale des Moskauer Kremls; überprüft am 15. März 2009.
119. „sites.google.com“. Архивирано од изворникот на 2016-09-22. Посетено на 2010-11-15.
120. Памятники архитектуры, 1983, с. 269. (Либсон В. Я., Домшлак М. И., Аренкова Ю. И. и др. Кремль. Китай-город. Центральные площади // Памятники архитектуры Москвы. — М.: Искусство, 1983. — С. 257—345. — 504 с. — 25 000 экз.)
121. Памятники архитектуры, 1983, с. 270, 272. (Либсон В. Я., Домшлак М. И., Аренкова Ю. И. и др. Кремль. Китай-город. Центральные площади // Памятники архитектуры Москвы. — М.: Искусство, 1983. — С. 257—345. — 504 с. — 25 000 экз.)
122. Irina Rodimzewa, Nikolai Rachmanow, Alfons Raimann: Der Kreml und seine Kunstschätze; Hirmer, Μόναχο 1989; σελ. 98-114 (γερμανικά)
123. Иконников, 1978, с. 68—71. (Иконников А. В. Каменная летопись Москвы: Путеводитель. — М.: Московский рабочий, 1978. — С. 26. — 352 с.)
124. "Exposition of Russian wooden sculpture and carvings". www.kreml.ru (bl-Ingliż). Arkivjat minn l-oriġinal fl-2022-11-26. Miġbur 2021-04-11.
125. „архивски примерок“. Архивирано од изворникот на 2009-12-01. Посетено на 2010-11-15.
126. Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts hatte Iwan der Große insgesamt 33 Glocken; vgl. Kiselëv, 2006.
127. Moskau, από τη σειρά Club Reiseführer; Falk-Verlag, Μόναχο 1999; σελ. 57 (γερμανικά)
128. Offizielle Kreml-Webseite: Der Lustpalast; überprüft am 29. März 2009.
129. kremlin.ru: Senatspalast (Memento vom 24. März 2009 im Internet Archive); überprüft am 29. März 2009.
130. Музей „Кабинет и квартира В.И. Ленина в Кремле“. In: nasledie.ru. Archiviert vom Original am 4. März 2016; abgerufen am 21. August 2015 (russisch).
131. Богомолов А. Как расселяли Кремль . Комсомольская правда в Украине (14 июня 2011). Дата обращения: 1 февраля 2014. Архивировано 3 февраля 2014 года.
132. I.K.Kondratʹev: Sedaja starina Moskvy. Ploščadi; Moskau 1893.
133. Памятники архитектуры, 1983, с. 297. (Либсон В. Я., Домшлак М. И., Аренкова Ю. И. и др. Кремль. Китай-город. Центральные площади // Памятники архитектуры Москвы. — М.: Искусство, 1983. — С. 257—345. — 504 с. — 25 000 экз.)
134. Siehe auch: Beschreibung des Präsidentenregiments auf der offiziellen Webseite der Kremlbehörden (Memento vom 26. März 2009 im Internet Archive); überprüft am 25. März 2009.
135. Кремлёвский дворец съездов. Лопатин В. В. Прописная или строчная? Орфографический словарь / В. В. Лопатин, И. В. Нечаева, Л. К. Чельцова. — М.: Эксмо, 2009. — 512 с., стр. 234
136. Vgl. offizielle Webseite des Staatlichen Kremlpalastes (Memento vom 29. Januar 2009 im Internet Archive); überprüft am 25. Januar 2009.
137. Βλαντίμιρ Μπορίσοβιτς Ρίμπκιν: Ταμείο Διαμαντιών Ρωσίας Αρχειοθετήθηκε 2016-03-04 στο Wayback Machine.; Федеральный справочник Том № 21, αναγνώστηκε στις 09.08.2013 (ρωσικά)
138. Επίσημη ιστοσελίδα Κρεμλίνου: Η παλιά πόλη του Κρεμλίνου; αναγνώστηκε στις 15.11.2017 (ρωσικά)
139. "Архитектурный ансамбль Московского Кремля" (Rusça). Moskova Kremlini Müzeleri. 3 Eylül 2026 tarihinde kaynağından arşivlendi. Erişim tarihi: 2 Eylül 2026.
140. Moskva. Vse kulturnye i istoričeskie pamjatniki. Ėnciklopedija. Algoritm, Moskau 2009, ISBN 978-5-699-31434-8, S. 311.
141. "Оружейная палата" (Rusça). Moskova Kremlini Müzeleri. 2 Eylül 2026 tarihinde kaynağından arşivlendi. Erişim tarihi: 2 Eylül 2026.
142. Ματίας Σέππ: Η κατάρα των διαμαντιών; Περιοδικό Der Spiegel, 14.07.2008 (γερμανικά)
143. Vgl. zu den technischen Daten: M.E.Portnov: Carʹ-Puška i Carʹ-Kolokol. Moskovskij Rabočij, Moskau 1990, ISBN 5-239-00778-0; S. 9–33.
144. Portnov 1990, p. 19
145. Portnov 1990, p. 20
146. «Tsar-Cannon».
147. Super-weapons in the history of mankind Архивирано на 31 јули 2014 г. (руски)
148. M.E.Portnov: Carʹ-Puška i Carʹ-Kolokol. Moskovskij Rabočij, Moskau 1990, ISBN 5-239-00778-0; S. 40 f.
149. Slobodskoy, Archpriest Seraphim (1996), „Bells and Russian Orthodox Peals“, The Law of God, Jordanville, N.Y.: Holy Trinity Monastery, стр. 624, ISBN 0-88465-044-8
150. «Guinness World Records, Tsar Bell».
151. Kiselëv 2006, S. 149.
152. "Крепость итальянского происхождения". 29 iyun 2016 tarixində arxivləşdirilib. İstifadə tarixi: 7 dekabr 2019.
153. www.liveinternet.ru
154. 10 утраченных памятников Кремля.
155. «Потрясенные музейщики увидели лишь груду камней» Почему при Сталине уничтожили древнейшие святыни Кремля.
156. Offizielle Kreml-Webseite: Besucherinformationen; überprüft am 7. August 2025.
157. Επίσημη ιστοσελίδα Κρεμλίνου: Εισιτήρια - Όροι επίσκεψης; αναγνώστηκε στις 14.11.2017 (ρωσικά)
158. Siehe auch: Der Kreml mit doppeltem Boden aus izvestia.ru, 29. September 2006; überprüft am 21. August 2015.
159. Offizielle FSO-Webseite; überprüft am 29. März 2009.