When was the Kremlin red and when white? Why were the Kremlin walls painted white?
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 most striking cultural assets of the Russian capital. RG has collected five little-known and interesting 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.
There have been larger structures in world history, but only this one 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. Along them there are 20 towers, 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 mid-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 International was selected for 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, more precisely, in 1941, the Kremlin began to be camouflaged: all the ancient buildings were stylized as ordinary houses, the green roofs were painted over, dark paint was applied to the gilded domes, the crosses were removed, and the stars on the towers were covered up. Windows and doors were painted on the Kremlin walls, and the battlements were covered with plywood, simulating the roofs of houses.
Interestingly, during the Great Patriotic War the Kremlin was virtually undamaged, despite the massive bombings that hit Moscow in 1941 and 1942. The authorities evacuated the treasures of the Armory Chamber, and in the event of the surrender of the capital to German troops, a plan was envisaged for mining the main buildings of the complex.
4. In 1935, the Kremlin lost its double-headed eagles, and in their place it was decided to install soviet symbols. In 1937, luminous ruby stars were installed on the Spasskaya, Borovitskaya, Nikolskaya, Troitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers.
The Kremlin stars can withstand the maximum pressure of hurricane winds, each up to approximately 1200 kg. The weight of each star reaches one ton. During windy days, the stars rotate, changing their position so that their side faces the wind.
5. Almost until the end of the 19th century, Moscow was “white stone”. Following the established tradition, the Kremlin 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.
The Moscow Kremlin is the center of Russia and the citadel of power. For more than 5 centuries, these walls have reliably hidden state secrets and protected their main bearers. The Kremlin is shown on Russian and world channels several times a day. This medieval fortress, unlike anything else, has long become a symbol of Russia.
Only the footage we are provided with is basically the same. The Kremlin is the strictly guarded active residence of the president of our country. There are no trifles in security, which is why all Kremlin filming is so strictly regulated. By the way, don’t forget to take a tour of the Kremlin.
To see a different Kremlin, try to imagine its towers without tents, limit the height to only the wide, non-tapering part and you will immediately see a completely different Moscow Kremlin - a powerful, squat, medieval, European fortress.
This is how it was built at the end of the 15th century on the site of the old white-stone Kremlin by the Italians Pietro Fryazin, Anton Fryazin and Alois Fryazin. They all received the same surname, although they were not relatives. “Fryazin” means foreigner in Old Church Slavonic.
They built the fortress in accordance with all the latest achievements of fortification and military science that time. Along the battlements of the walls there is a battle platform with a width of 2 to 4.5 meters.
Each tooth has a loophole, which can only be reached by standing on something else. The view from here is limited. The height of each battlement is 2-2.5 meters; the distance between them was covered with wooden shields during the battle. There are a total of 1145 battlements on the walls of the Moscow Kremlin.
The Moscow Kremlin is a great fortress located near the Moscow River, in the heart of Russia - in Moscow. The citadel is equipped with 20 towers, each with its own unique appearance and 5 passage gates. The Kremlin is like a ray of light carried through rich history formation of Russia.
These ancient walls are witnesses to all the numerous events that happened to the state, starting from the moment of its construction. The fortress began its journey in 1331, although the word “Kremlin” was mentioned earlier.
Moscow Kremlin, infographics. Source: www.culture.rf. For a detailed view, open the image in a new browser tab.
Moscow Kremlin under different rulers
Moscow Kremlin under Ivan Kalita
In 1339-1340 Moscow Prince Ivan Danilovich, nicknamed Kalita (“money bag”), built an impressive oak citadel on Borovitsky Hill, with walls ranging from 2 to 6 m thick and no less than 7 m high. Ivan Kalita built a powerful fortress with a formidable appearance, but it stood less three decades and burned down during a terrible fire in the summer of 1365.
Moscow Kremlin under Dmitry Donskoy
The tasks of defending Moscow urgently required the creation of a more reliable fortress: the Moscow principality was in danger from the Golden Horde, Lithuania and the rival Russian principalities of Tver and Ryazan. The then reigning 16-year-old grandson of Ivan Kalita, Dmitry (aka Dmitry Donskoy), decided to build a fortress of stone - the Kremlin.
Construction of the stone fortress began in 1367, and the stone was mined nearby, in the village of Myachkovo. The construction was completed in a short time - in just one year. Dmitry Donskoy made the Kremlin a white-stone fortress, which enemies tried to storm more than once, but were never able to.
What does the word "Kremlin" mean?
One of the first mentions of the word “Kremlin” appears in the Resurrection Chronicle in a report about a fire in 1331. According to historians, it could have arisen from the ancient Russian word “kremnik,” which meant a fortress built of oak. According to another point of view, it is based on the word “krom” or “krom”, which means boundary, border.
The first victory of the Moscow Kremlin
Almost immediately after the construction of the Moscow Kremlin, Moscow was besieged by the Lithuanian prince Olgerd in 1368, and then in 1370. The Lithuanians stood at the white stone walls for three days and three nights, but the fortifications turned out to be impregnable. This instilled confidence in the young Moscow ruler and allowed him to later challenge the powerful Golden Horde Khan Mamai.
In 1380, feeling reliable rears behind them, the Russian army under the leadership of Prince Dmitry ventured on a decisive operation. Leaving from hometown far to the south, in the upper reaches of the Don, they met with the army of Mamai and defeated it on the Kulikovo field.
Thus, for the first time, Krom became a stronghold not only of the Moscow principality, but of all of Rus'. And Dmitry received the nickname Donskoy. For 100 years after the Battle of Kulikovo, the white-stone citadel united the Russian lands, becoming the main center of Rus'.
Moscow Kremlin under Ivan 3
The current dark red appearance of the Moscow Kremlin owes its birth to Prince Ivan III Vasilyevich. Started by him in 1485-1495. the grandiose construction was not a simple reconstruction of the dilapidated defensive fortifications of Dmitry Donskoy. The white stone fortress is being replaced by a red brick fortress.
The towers are pushed outward in order to fire along the walls. To quickly move the defenders, a system of secret underground passages was created. Completing the system of impregnable defense, the Kremlin was made into an island. On both sides it already had natural barriers - the Moscow and Neglinnaya rivers.
They also dug a ditch on the third side, where Red Square is now, approximately 30-35 meters wide and 12 m deep. Contemporaries called the Moscow Kremlin an outstanding military engineering structure. Moreover, the Kremlin is the only European fortress that has never been taken by storm.
The special role of the Moscow Kremlin as a new grand-ducal residence and the main fortress of the state determined the nature of its engineering and technical appearance. Built from red brick, it retained the layout features of the ancient Russian detinets, and in its outlines the already established shape of an irregular triangle.
At the same time, the Italians made it extremely functional and very similar to many fortresses in Europe. What Muscovites came up with in the 17th century turned the Kremlin into a unique architectural monument. The Russians just built on stone tents, which turned the fortress into a light, skyward structure, which has no equal in the world, and the corner towers took on the appearance as if our ancestors knew that it was Russia that would send the first man into space.
Architects of the Moscow Kremlin
The construction was supervised by Italian architects. Memorial plaques installed on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin indicate that it was built in the “30th summer” of the reign of Ivan Vasilyevich. He celebrated the construction of the most powerful entrance front tower Grand Duke anniversary of its state activities. In particular, Spasskaya and Borovitskaya were designed by Pietro Solari.
In 1485, under the leadership of Antonio Gilardi, the powerful Taynitskaya Tower was built. In 1487, another Italian architect, Marco Ruffo, began to build Beklemishevskaya, and later Sviblova (Vodovzvodnaya) appeared on the opposite side. These three structures set the direction and rhythm for all subsequent construction.
The Italian origin of the main architects of the Moscow Kremlin is not accidental. At that time, it was Italy that came to the fore in the theory and practice of fortification construction. Design features indicate that its creators were familiar with the engineering ideas of such outstanding representatives of the Italian Renaissance as Leonardo da Vinci, Leon Battista Alberti, and Filippo Brunelleschi. In addition, it was the Italian architectural school that “gave” Stalin’s skyscrapers in Moscow.
By the beginning of the 1490s, four more blind towers appeared (Blagoveshchenskaya, 1st and 2nd Nameless and Petrovskaya). All of them, as a rule, repeated the line of the old fortifications. The work was carried out gradually, in such a way that there were no open areas in the fortress through which the enemy could suddenly attack.
In the 1490s, the construction was curated by the Italian Pietro Solari (aka Peter Fryazin), with whom his compatriots Antonio Gilardi (aka Anton Fryazin) and Aloisio da Carcano (Aleviz Fryazin) worked. 1490-1495 The Moscow Kremlin was replenished with the following towers: Konstantino-Eleninskaya, Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Senate, Corner Arsenalnaya and Nabatnaya.
Secret passages in the Moscow Kremlin
In case of danger, the Kremlin defenders had the opportunity to quickly move through secret underground passages. In addition, internal passages were built in the walls, connecting all the towers. The Kremlin defenders could thus concentrate as necessary on a dangerous section of the front or retreat if the enemy forces outnumbered them.
Long underground tunnels were also dug, thanks to which it was possible to observe the enemy in the event of a siege, as well as to make surprise attacks on the enemy. Several underground tunnels went beyond the Kremlin.
Some towers had more than just a defensive function. For example, Tainitskaya hid a secret passage from the fortress to the Moscow River. Wells were made in Beklemishevskaya, Vodovzvodnaya and Arsenalnaya, with the help of which water could be delivered if the city was under siege. The well in Arsenalnaya has survived to this day.
Within two years, Kolymazhnaya (Komendantskaya) and Granenaya (Srednyaya Arsenalnaya) fortresses rose in orderly ranks, and in 1495 the construction of Trinity began. The construction was led by Aleviz Fryazin.
Chronology of events
| Of the year | Event |
| 1156 | The first wooden citadel was erected on Borovitsky Hill |
| 1238 | The troops of Khan Batu marched through Moscow, as a result most of buildings were burned. In 1293, the city was once again ravaged by the Mongol-Tatar troops of Duden |
| 1339-1340 | Ivan Kalita built mighty oak walls around the Kremlin. From 2 to 6 m in thickness and up to 7 m in height |
| 1367-1368 | Dmitry Donskoy built a white stone fortress. The white stone Kremlin shone for more than 100 years. Since then, Moscow began to be called “white stone” |
| 1485-1495 | Ivan III the Great built a red brick citadel. The Moscow Kremlin is equipped with 17 towers, the height of the walls is 5-19 m, and the thickness is 3.5-6.5 m |
| 1534-1538 | A new ring of fortress defensive walls was built, called Kitay-Gorod. From the south, the walls of Kitai-Gorod adjoined the walls of the Kremlin at the Beklemishevskaya Tower, from the north – to the Corner Arsenalnaya |
| 1586-1587 | Boris Godunov surrounded Moscow with two more rows of fortress walls, called the Tsar City, and later the White City. They covered the area between modern central squares and the Boulevard Ring |
| 1591 | Another ring of fortifications, 14 miles long, was built around Moscow, covering the territory between the Boulevard and Garden Rings. Construction was completed within one year. The new fortress was named Skorodoma. So Moscow was enclosed in four rings of walls, which had a total of 120 towers |
All towers of the Moscow Kremlin
Everyone has already heard that the Kremlin was white. Many articles have already been written about this, but people still manage to argue. But when did they start whitewashing it, and when did they stop? On this issue, statements in all articles diverge, as do the thoughts in people’s heads. Some write that whitewashing began in the 18th century, others that at the beginning of the 17th century, and still others are trying to provide evidence that the Kremlin walls were not whitewashed at all. The phrase is widely circulated that the Kremlin was white until 1947, and then suddenly Stalin ordered it to be repainted red. Was it so? Let's finally dot the i's, fortunately there are enough sources, both picturesque and photographic.
Let's understand the colors of the Kremlin: red, white, when and why —>
So, the current Kremlin was built by the Italians at the end of the 15th century, and, of course, they did not whitewash it. The fortress retained the natural color of red brick; there are several similar ones in Italy; the closest analogue is the Sforza Castle in Milan. And whitewashing fortifications in those days was dangerous: when a cannonball hits a wall, the brick is damaged, the whitewash crumbles, and a vulnerable spot is clearly visible, where you should aim again to quickly destroy the wall.
So, one of the first images of the Kremlin, where its color is clearly visible, is the icon of Simon Ushakov “Praise to the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. Tree of the Russian State. It was written in 1668, and the Kremlin is red.
The whitewashing of the Kremlin was first mentioned in written sources in 1680.
The historian Bartenev, in the book “The Moscow Kremlin in the Old Time and Now” writes: “In a memorandum submitted on July 7, 1680 to the Tsar, it is said that the Kremlin fortifications “were not whitewashed”, and the Spassky Gate “were painted in ink and white in brick". The note asked: should the Kremlin walls be whitewashed, left as is, or painted “in brick” like the Spassky Gate? The Tsar ordered the Kremlin to be whitewashed with lime..."
So, at least since the 1680s, our main fortress has been whitewashed.
1766 Painting by P. Balabin based on an engraving by M. Makhaev. The Kremlin here is clearly white.
1797, Gerard Delabarte.
1819, artist Maxim Vorobyov.
In 1826, the French writer and playwright Francois Anselot came to Moscow; in his memoirs he described the white Kremlin: “With this we will leave the Kremlin, my dear Xavier; but, looking back at this ancient citadel again, we will regret that, while correcting the destruction caused by the explosion, the builders removed from the walls the centuries-old patina that gave them so much grandeur. The white paint that hides the cracks gives the Kremlin an appearance of youth that belies its shape and obliterates its past.”
1830s, artist Rauch.
1842, daguerreotype of Lerebourg, the first documentary image of the Kremlin.
1850, Joseph Andreas Weiss.
1852, one of the very first photographs of Moscow, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is under construction, and the walls of the Kremlin are whitewashed.
1856, preparations for the coronation of Alexander II. For this event, the whitewash was renewed in some places, and the structures on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower were given a frame for illumination.
The same year, 1856, view in the opposite direction, the one closest to us is the Taynitskaya tower with the archery facing the embankment.
Photo from 1860.
Photo from 1866.
1866-67.
1879, artist Pyotr Vereshchagin.
1880, painting English school painting. The Kremlin is still white. Based on all the previous images, we conclude that the Kremlin wall along the river was whitewashed in the 18th century, and remained white until the 1880s.
1880s, Konstantin-Eleninskaya tower of the Kremlin from the inside. The whitewash is gradually crumbling, revealing the red brick walls.
1884, wall along the Alexander Garden. The whitewash was very crumbling, only the teeth were renewed.
1897, artist Nesterov. The walls are already closer to red than to white.
1909, peeling walls with remains of whitewash.
The same year, 1909, the whitewash on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower is still holding up well. Most likely it was whitewashed in last time later than the rest of the walls. From several previous photographs it is clear that the walls and most of the towers were last whitewashed in the 1880s.
1911 Grotto in the Alexander Garden and the Middle Arsenal Tower.
S. Vinogradov. Moscow Kremlin 1910s. 
1911, artist Yuon. In reality, the walls were, of course, a dirtier shade, the whitewash stains more obvious than in the picture, but the overall color scheme was already red.
1914, Konstantin Korovin.
The colorful and shabby Kremlin in a photograph from the 1920s.
Kremlin. Chromolithograph from the collection of the US Library of Congress, 1890.
And the whitewash on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower was still in place, mid-1930s.
But then the war began, and in June 1941, the commandant of the Kremlin, Major General Nikolai Spiridonov, proposed repainting all the walls and towers of the Kremlin - for camouflage. A fantastic project for that time was developed by the group of academician Boris Iofan: walls of houses and black holes in windows were painted on white walls, artificial streets were built on Red Square, and the empty Mausoleum (Lenin’s body was evacuated from Moscow on July 3, 1941) was covered with a plywood cap , depicting a house. And the Kremlin naturally disappeared - the disguise confused all the cards for the fascist pilots.
“Disguised” Red Square: instead of the Mausoleum, a cozy house appeared. 1941-1942.
"Disguised" Kremlin: houses and windows are painted on the walls. 1942
During the restoration of the Kremlin walls and towers in 1947 - for the celebration of the 800th anniversary of Moscow. Then the idea arose in Stalin’s head to repaint the Kremlin red: A red flag on the red Kremlin on Red Square - so that everything would sound in unison and ideologically correct.
Kremlin workers carry out this instruction of Comrade Stalin to this day.
Late 1940s, the Kremlin after restoration for the 800th anniversary of Moscow. Here the tower is clearly red, with white details.
And two more color photographs from the 1950s. Somewhere they touched up the paint, somewhere they left peeling walls. There was no total repainting in red.
1950s These two photos are taken from here: http://humus.livejournal.com/4115131.html
Spasskaya Tower
But on the other hand, everything turned out to be not so simple. Some towers stand out from the general chronology of whitewashing.
1778, Red Square in a painting by Friedrich Hilferding. The Spasskaya Tower is red with white details, but the walls of the Kremlin are whitewashed.
1801, watercolor by Fyodor Alekseev. Even with all the diversity of the picturesque range, it is clear that the Spasskaya Tower was still whitewashed at the end of the 18th century.
And after the fire of 1812, the color red was returned again. This is a painting by English masters, 1823. The walls are invariably white.
1855, artist Shukhvostov. If you look closely, you can see that the colors of the wall and the tower are different, the tower is darker and redder.
View of the Kremlin from Zamoskvorechye, painting by an unknown artist, mid-19th century. Here the Spasskaya Tower is whitewashed again, most likely for the celebrations of the coronation of Alexander II in 1856.
Photograph from the early 1860s. The tower is white.
Another photograph from the early to mid 1860s. The whitewash of the tower is crumbling in some places.
Late 1860s. And then suddenly the tower was painted red again.
1870s. The tower is red.
1880s. The red paint is peeling off, and here and there you can see newly painted areas and patches. After 1856, the Spasskaya Tower was never whitewashed again.
Nikolskaya Tower
1780s, Friedrich Hilferding. The Nikolskaya Tower is still without a Gothic top, decorated with early classical decor, red, with white details. In 1806-07, the tower was built on, in 1812 it was undermined by the French, almost half destroyed, and restored at the end of the 1810s.
1823, fresh Nikolskaya Tower after restoration, red.
1883, white tower. Perhaps they whitewashed it together with Spasskaya for the coronation of Alexander II. And the whitewash was renewed for the coronation of Alexander III in 1883.
1912 The White Tower remained until the revolution.
1925 The tower is already red with white details. It became red as a result of restoration in 1918, after revolutionary damage.
Red Square, Parade of athletes, 1932. Pay attention to the Kremlin walls, freshly whitewashed for the holiday
Trinity Tower
1860s. The tower is white.
In the watercolor of the English school of painting from 1880, the tower is gray, the color given by spoiled whitewash.
And in 1883 the tower was already red. Painted or cleaned of whitewash, most likely for the coronation of Alexander III.
Let's summarize. According to documentary sources, the Kremlin was first whitewashed in 1680; in the 18th and 19th centuries it was white, with the exception of the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya and Trinity towers in certain periods. The walls were last whitewashed in the early 1880s; at the beginning of the 20th century, the whitewash was updated only on the Nikolskaya Tower, and possibly also on Vodovzvodnaya. Since then, the whitewash gradually crumbled and was washed away, and by 1947 the Kremlin naturally took on the ideologically correct red color; in some places it was tinted during restoration.
Kremlin walls today
Today, in some places the Kremlin retains the natural color of red brick, perhaps with light tinting. These are bricks from the 19th century, the result of another restoration.
Wall from the river side. Here you can clearly see that the bricks are painted red. Photo from Ilya Varlamov's blog
All old photos, unless otherwise noted, are taken from https://pastvu.com/
Alexander Ivanov worked on the publication.
And this is what the Kremlin would look like now if it were still whitewashed
In fact, illustrations white Kremlin a lot more than was in the original post - I added something, and that's not all.
65 years ago, Stalin ordered the Moscow Kremlin to be repainted red. Or rather, the Kremlin was originally red-brick - the Italians, who in 1485-1495 built a new fortress for the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III Vasilyevich on the site of the old white-stone fortifications, erected walls and towers from ordinary brick - like, for example, the Milanese Castello Sforzesco castle. The Kremlin became white only in the 18th century, when the fortress walls were whitewashed according to the fashion of that time (like the walls of all other Russian Kremlins - in Kazan, Zaraysk, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov the Great, etc.).
J. Delabart. View of Moscow from the balcony of the Kremlin Palace towards the Moskvoretsky Bridge. 1797
The White Kremlin appeared before Napoleon's army in 1812, and a few years later, already washed from the soot of warming Moscow, it again blinded travelers with its snow-white walls and tents. The famous French playwright Jacques-François Anselot, who visited Moscow in 1826, described the Kremlin in his memoirs “Six mois en Russie”: “With this we will leave the Kremlin, my dear Xavier; but, looking back at this ancient citadel again, we will regret that, while correcting the destruction caused by the explosion, the builders removed from the walls the centuries-old patina that gave them so much grandeur. The white paint that hides the cracks gives the Kremlin an appearance of youth that belies its shape and obliterates its past.”
S. M. Shukhvostov. View of Red Square. 1855 (?) year
P. Vereshchagin. View of the Moscow Kremlin. 1879
Kremlin. Chromolithograph from the collection of the US Library of Congress, 1890.
White Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin, 1883
White Nikolskaya Tower, 1883
Moscow and the Moscow River. Photo by Murray Howe (USA), 1909
In the photo of Murray Howe: shabby walls and towers covered with a “noble urban patina.” 1909
The Kremlin met the beginning of the 20th century as a real ancient 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 - with smudges and shabby. The Bolsheviks, who made the Kremlin a symbol and citadel of the entire state power, the white color of the fortress walls and towers did not bother me at all.
Red Square, Parade of athletes, 1932. Pay attention to the Kremlin walls, freshly whitewashed for the holiday
Moscow, 1934-35 (?)
But then the war began, and in June 1941, the commandant of the Kremlin, Major General Nikolai Spiridonov, proposed repainting all the walls and towers of the Kremlin - for camouflage. A fantastic project for that time was developed by the group of academician Boris Iofan: walls of houses and black holes in windows were painted on white walls, artificial streets were built on Red Square, and the empty Mausoleum (Lenin’s body was evacuated from Moscow on July 3, 1941) was covered with a plywood cap , depicting a house. And the Kremlin naturally disappeared - the disguise confused all the cards for the fascist pilots.
“Disguised” Red Square: instead of the Mausoleum, a cozy house appeared. 1941-1942.
“Disguised” Kremlin: houses and windows are painted on the walls. 1942
During the restoration of the Kremlin walls and towers in 1947 - for the celebration of the 800th anniversary of Moscow. Then the idea arose in Stalin’s head to repaint the Kremlin red: A red flag on the red Kremlin on Red Square - so that everything would sound in unison and ideologically correct.
Kremlin workers carry out this instruction of Comrade Stalin to this day.
