MOSCOW

Prince Yuri Dolgoruki.

"Priidi brat'e ko mne na Moskov, l'udi, brat'ya ko mne na Moskvu," (come brothers to me on the Moskov, come one come all to me, to Moscow), thus the chronicle mentions Moscow for the first time in 1147; the message sent by the first builder of the ancient Suzdal land, first because heretofore, the Suzdal land was as it were without a ruler. And thus prince of Suzdal, Rostov and Vladimir and son of Vladimir Monomakh, Yuri (Georghi) Vladimirovich Dolgoruky, invited his ally, prince Svyatoslav Ol'govich Seversky of Chernigov, "Posyval zvat' na sebya nachisnye pev," ( come and join me in a celebration at Moscow ) to a meeting there. He was taken by the natural beauty of the hills and the village which dominates the confluence of the two rivers, Moskva and Neglinaya, and found it suitable for his new town of Moscow. The town is named for the river Moskva, which in turn got its name from the old Slavic (Mordavian) root "mosk" which means "moisture," or "marches." The legend says that the entire area was a domain (several settlements) of a wealthy boyar, Stepan Ivanovich Kuchko, who obviously resented the visit of the powerful prince. The potent Yuri on the other hand was displeased with Kuchko for not showing him the proper respect, and ordered that the refractory (village tavern) owner be executed and all his property confiscated and annexed to the Suzdal principality. Another account says that the main reason for the elimination of Kuchko was a brief love affair between his wife and Yurii. The historical fact, however, is that Kuchko died, and that his sons and beautiful but evil daughter Ulita were sent to Vladimir. There Yuri's son Andrey fell in love with Ulita and married her in 1156. Irked by the unresponsiveness of her husband and vengeful for the loss of her father, Ulita plotted with her brothers a conspiracy that ended in the assassination of Prince Andrey, one of Vladimir's most prominent rulers.
In acknowledgment of his founding of the future Russian capital, Moscow erected an impressive equestrian monument to Prince Yurii Dolgoruky. It is located just opposite the city Hall on Tverskaya street. The legacy of Boyar Kuchko if anyone cares to remember is that before Yurii, he established the first settlement, which was named Kuchkovo, a name that was used for centuries to refer to the "Pasage" of a great meadow across the river, where large cow herds grazed, and mustangs roamed. The surrounding meadows, fields, and clearings, this blessed land where farmers tilled the soil, where gardens grew plenty, and fruit groves flourished is how the name Kuchkova polya, meaning huge bales of hay, came to be irrevocably tied to the land; that field that ran from the Kremlin hill, that is now Lyubyanka square. In all probability the area was populated before Kuchko. The spot was indeed beautiful. When in 1847, the Kremlin' Armory was being built, close to the first in antiquity church of Ioan the Precursor, several artifacts of the pagan era where found. These were two large silver plated bronze hoops, heavy and tightly wound garlands, with pendants, ear-rings, and rings. These are generally present in ancient burial mounds. In another village of the same era in the place where in the last century the cathedral of Christ Our Savior was built, at the source of the river Chertoryiya, when the foundation for the enormous cathedral was excavated, amongst other items were two silver Arabian coins. It was determined that these were dirgem, one of which was stamped in 862 in the city of Merve (on the territory of present Turkestan), the other in 866 in the city of Armenge (Armenia). We know that at that time and before, Viatichi, one of the Slavic tribes, populated the Moscow region. To the north of the Viatichi lived the Krivichi, another Slavic tribe. Both tribes established themselves in the area of the rivers Oka, Moskva and where the Volga begins, before history records their existence. Obviously the presence of rivers has always been important detail in the life of any people, and Moscow itself owes to a large extent its prosperity to its three rivers: Moskva, Neglinaya and Yauza. Later it was discovered that Moscow has not only three rivers but rises on seven hills, exactly the same as Rome and Constantinople; destiny was thought to have decreed it the tsar's capital city after the successful unification of all the people and their lands. The names of the seven hills are: Borovitski, Sretenski, Tverskoi, Trekhgorye (on presna), Vorobyevy Gori, Vagankievsky and Lefortovo. Moscow was considered to be a "Third Rome." During Stalin's time Moscow was often called "the Capital of the World," a term that has not been forgotten in communist times. Moscow's importance has considerably risen after the second World War, mainly due to the ever-increasing role that the Soviet Union continues to play in international policy and trade. Its face is rapidly changing and so is the composition of its population. It is acquiring cosmopolitan traits as have most other metropolises, though not so rapidly as New York, Paris, London and others. With the exception of the Kremlin and a few other spots, old Muscovy is gone and Karamzin's words: "He who wants to know Russia, should visit Moscow," are hardly valid any longer.

The Kremlin.

Before he left his new little village for Suzdal, Yurii ordered that wooden walls be built around it. This marked the beginning of the Kremlin's existence on the Borovitski Hill. The hill was an ideal natural spot for defense, located right at the juncture of the two rivers. It is bounded on the north and west by the Neglinaya and on the south by the Moskva. A deep moat dug on the east side and flooded by water diverted from the Neglinaya closed the triangle and completed the protection of the hill from all sides. A high and strong palisade of strong oak was the additional protection that surrounded the village.
The origins of the word "Kremlin" (kreml') remain unclear. One story says that it comes from a Tatar word, pronounced similarly, which means "stronghold," the other more patriotic version is that it derives from the old Slavic word "kremen" which means primarily "flint," but also "strong," or "strong as flint' and , consequently, could describe a 'stronghold." It is of interest to note that the early chronicles used the words "grad' and "detinets" instead of "kremlin." Both mean "village," "settlement" and also "fortified place." Almost all Russian Kremlin followed the same pattern of construction, and in most cases they were built close to a river, preferably a bifurcation of two, a brook or lake, for better protection and insure water supply in case of a prolonged siege. Until the 14th century oak tree trunks were used in most cases to build the walls around the Kremlin, but there were also a few that were made of stone, such as the one in Novgorod, which got its first stone "detinets" in the 11th century. When the early Russian grand dukes and tsars started to build a series of stone Kremlins in major outpost towns along the borders to better defend the country from foreign invasions, the use of stone for any other purpose was forbidden because of its scarcity and a capital punishment was imposed on those who broke the tsar' ukaz.
Moscow became an appanage (udel) of Yurii's descendants and nobody before Vladimir Vsevoldovich, son of Vsevolod III Yuryevich, or "Big Nest," agreed to go there to live. Neither did Vladimir stay there a long time; his brother Yurii chased him out. The Russia of that time was divided into numerous small independent principalities, usually inherited as appanages or taken from a brother or a cousin in a continuous internecine struggles. It is not surprising that they became easy prey for the Tatars, who just at that time started their invasions. In 1238 Moscow too shared the fate of other Russian cities and towns and was pillaged and burned to the ground by the horsemen of Chingis Khan's grandson, Batu (Batia) Khan. This marked the beginning of the Tatar yoke for the Russian nation, but the princes continued their internal struggles under foreign tutelage.

Daniil Aleksandrovich.

Thus, when in 1272 the sons of Alexander Nevsky, Grand Duke of Vladimir, partitioned among themselves the territories that their father controlled, the youngest, Daniel, (Daniil) 1272-1303 received Moscow as his appanage. He went there and soon realized the possibility that Moscow could play an important role in preventing further dissolution of the country and eventually emerge as a new capital city in the subsequent struggles against the Tartars and in the fulfillment of the national aspirations of the entire people. In 1296 he proclaimed Moscow a principality and officially made himself the first prince of Moscow. His importance among Russian princes considerably increased, when in 1302 he took under his control the ancient principality of Pereiaslavl-Zalessky and a few regions around Moscow including Kolomna. Daniel enlarged his capital and laid foundations for its rapid growth. Its convenient geographical position offered many advantage for political expansion and for the development of local and foreign trade. With this came increased cultural relations with other principalities and neighboring countries. Daniel organized an army, built new fortifications around the Kremlin, and established several strategic forts around Moscow, including the Danilov monastery, which he founded. The Chronicle mentions that he built two wooden churches in the Kremlin: The Church of the Transfiguration and the Church of Archangel Michael. Daniel was canonized by the Church and history recognized him as the founder of the dynasty of Moscow princes.
Yurii (1303-1325) succeeded his father in 1303. When the grand duke of Vladimir, Andrey III Alexandrovich, died in 1304, Yurii claimed the vacant throne of his uncle for himself as the only direct descendant of Alexander Nevsky. However, after prolonged conflicts and undignified conduct by both contenders at the Golden Horde, Khan Tokhty gave the "yarlyk" (a written decree issued by khans designating a prince to hold a certain title) to the nephew of Nevsky, Prince Michael Yaroslavich of Tver, (1305-1318) because he offered more tribute money than Yurii; he was the first to assume the title of "The Grand Duke of All Rus" (Russia). In the beginning the boyars and the Orthodox Church gave full support to Michael. In 1299 Kiev Metropolitan Maxim moved to Vladimir, where he assumed for the first time the title of "Metropolitan of All Russia." The Orthodox Church's cooperation with Michael was cut short when at the end of 1304 Maxim died. To replace Maxim, Michael had his own candidate, but the Patriarch of Constantinople appointed metropolitan Peter (1305-1306) to the Russian see. When Peter reached Vladimir in 1309, Michael showed open hostility towards the new head of he Orthodox Church. Yuri, of course, did just the opposite, making Peter one of his most ardent supporters. After a while, Peter even moved his see to Moscow. Michael blundered even more when Novgorod invited Yuri to become its prince. To impose his rule over the free city Michael needed the help of Tatar troops; he then imposed ruthless repression, and finally lost the war when Tatar support was withheld. At this time changes took place at the Golden Horde too; Khan Uzbek replaced Kahn Tokhti, who died. Yuri rushed to pay respect to the new khan and stayed at his court for two years. After marrying the khan's sister there and promising to collect even higher tribute for the khan from his subjects, he was appointed grand duke of Vladimir (1318-1322).
Michael organized resistance, and not far from Tver, at Bortenovo in 1317, inflicted on Yuri a humiliating defeat and even took his Tatar wife prisoner. Both Russian dukes were ordered to come to the Horde. A run of bad luck continued for Michael. The sudden death of Yuri's wife in captivity, and an accusation of insubordination to the khan, carried the death penalty, and Michael was beheaded in 1318. Considering him a martyr, the Orthodox Church canonized him too. Internecine struggles continued, and Yuri's luck did not last long. Implicated of improprieties in the collection of tribute for the Tatars, he was deprived of the grand ducal yarlyk, which went to Michael's son Dimitri (1322-1324. Again both dukes were summoned to the Horde where, after heated incrimination, Dimitri assassinated Yurii. Avenging the death of this father. He was himself executed by the Tatars. Both were succeeded by their brothers: Dimitri by Alexander of Tver and Yurii by Ivan. When in 1327 the Khan's first cousin Chol-Khan was assassinated in Tver and a rebellion erupted there, Alexander fled to Pskov to escape a punitive Tatar expedition, which was headed by none other than his cousin Ivan I. Tver, was pillaged and many of its citizens massacred, and Ivan became the Grand Duke of Vladimir.

Ivan I Kalita.

Ivan I (1325-1340) was nicknamed "Kalita" by the people (Moneybag) for the bag he always carried with him. He was clever and rich, and a skilled collector both of taxes from the people and of duties from domestic and foreign merchants, who increasingly used Moscow as a transit city and later as a trade center. The process of unification of the country becomes visible from the end of the 13th century. In the beginning of the 14th there are only two rival principalities, almost of equal strength vying for domination: Moscow and Tver. They fought also for inheritance of the principality of Vladimir. Although Tver was favored by the Golden Horde, Ivan Kalita proved to be very capable diplomat and stubborn leader. He became the Khan's trusted agent for collecting tribute, which he extracted pitilessly from his own people. A persistent and canny man, Kalita managed, in most cases, to get what he wanted from the Golden Horde. Helped by the Khan, he got rid of his local enemies, or forced them to accept his rule. Slowly but steadily the importance of Moscow kept growing. Kalita made an important move to strengthen Moscow's primacy when he induced the archbishop Peter to move his see from Vladimir to Moscow. This coincides with the appearance of the new title for the archbishop as the primate of :All Russia." Kalita also held the title of "Grand Duke of All Rus' (the name of ancient Russia), and chose Moscow to be capital city, thus marking its beginning as the capital of all Russia.
To replace Metropolitan Peter, who died in Moscow in 1325, as the head of the Russian see, the Patriarch of Constantinople sent Theognostus (Geognost), a Greek prelate. Since Kalita was already Grand Duke, Theognostus went directly to Moscow which thus became the official ecclesiastical capital of "All Rus'." The humiliated Russian people who suffered morally and physically more than anybody else, saw in this a new spark of freedom and were primed to rise up and fight the invaders.
During his reign Kalita enlarged the size of the Kremlin and built a new wooden wall around it. A thrifty ruler, he spent little money on stone constructions, which were very expensive at that time. He, as well as other grand dukes, preferred to use more inexpensive wood, which in turn burned very easily; this is why no architectural monument belonging to Moscow's early history has survived. In 1325, on the insistence of Metropolitan Peter, an icon painter himself, who was greatly interested in the cultural development of Moscow, Kalita laid the foundations for the first stone church in the Kremlin, the Cathedral of the Assumption, but it collapsed before it was finished. He had better luck when construction resumed in 1336, but by that time the Kremlin already had its first stone church, the Cathedral of Archangel Michael, built in 1333. The churches of Vladimir, Suzdal and Novgorod from which the young Moscow drew all that was best for its cultural development, served as models for the two cathedrals. By 1343 the interior of the Archangel Michael cathedral was covered with frescoes, painted by the Russian iconographers Zakhari, Denisei, Nicholas and others. In the same year Metropolitan Theognostus commissioned Greek artists to cover the Church of the Virgin with frescoes. Soon after this Moscow started using its own builders and painters for some works. When a lime stone quarry was discovered near the village of Myachkovo, some twelve miles from Moscow, it was an incentive for stone construction within the Kremlin. The stone, though relatively soft, proved resistant to the severe Russian winters because it is very porous and permits water to run out easily before it freezes. Its whiteness gave rise to the name "white stone Moscow" for the Kremlin and the area around it, where gradually stone construction prevailed. This term also originally indicated the tsar's part of the city, as distinguished from the rest, where wood remained for many years the only building material. Later, hundreds of churches throughout Russia were built with lime stone for it served just as well for ornamentation of brick constructions. Some of them are over five centuries old, and still in very good shape.

Dmitrii Ivanovich (Donskoi)

When Dimitri Ivanovich Donskoi (1359-1389) succeeded his father to the Moscow throne he was still a minor. Fortunately his regent, who governed the country for a while during very difficult times, was the very patriotic, capable and unselfish Metropolitan Alexis (Alexei, 1354-1378). Later canonized by the Orthodox Church, he became one of the most venerated Russian saints. He was known for his close identification of the interests of the Orthodox Church with those of the Moscow secular power, and probably this contributed to the success of Moscow in the struggle against Tatar domination and in its endeavor to bring all Russian lands under the leadership of the new grand duchy. Saint Alexei himself came from an old boyar family named Biakont, from Moscow, and this detail helped him rally the support of the boyars in his policy of strengthening the position of Dimitri Donskoi. His influence over the Tatars was also considerable, particularly after he, as the legend says, miraculously healed the wife of Khan Chanibek.
After the devastating fire of 1365 that almost wiped out Moscow and the Kremlin, Dimitri Donskoi decided in 1367 to replace the wooden fence around the Kremlin with stone walls and towers, with iron gates at the entrances, to strengthen the defenses of his capital. Russians often use the term "stone" in construction terminology as opposed to "wood," and also for an object made of bricks or bricks and stone, which is usually called stone. This applies to the Kremlin's first "stone wall" of 1367. The stones used for building it must have been of a poor quality because the wall started to crumble not even a century after its construction. Used to wood construction, Russian builders lacked experience in stone building; several objects in the Kremlin later had to be rebuilt.
Dimitri Donskoi's primary aim was the emancipation of Russian lands from the Golden Horde, and his endeavors in this direction were at times partly successful in their unification under Moscow leadership. To bolster his personal prestige Dimitri abolished the title and the function of "Tisatskii,". This was the leader of the 'thousand' in other words the city militia. They were chosen by the people to prevent rulers from taking much power into their hands. Ivan Veliaminov was the last Moscow Tisatskii. His opposition to Dimitri cost him his life in 1378.

Kulikovo Battle.

The battle of 1380 at the Kulikovo field, marked an important victory by the Russians over the Tatars, and was one of the most decisive moments in Russian history, bringing confidence to the people and helping them to regain their independence. It also marked the beginning of a renaissance in the arts and a revival in all aspects of life.
Dimitri Donskoi showed interest in monumental architecture. During his reign several monasteries were built, among which the most important were Chudov, Spaso-Androniev, Nikolougreshsky, Simonov and the Voznesensky and the (Ascension) convent, founded by his wife Yevdokia in 1387 in the Kremlin. Yevdokia was a daughter of Suzdal's Prince Dimitri Constantinovich, himself also a very religious man. The Ascension convent had its own cathedral of the same name. Here Yevdokia took the veil in 1407, and was buried when she died. The cathedral has since become the burial place for grand duchesses and, later, for tsarinas. The Ascension convent was demolished in 1928 and some royal remains moved to the basement of the building next to the Archangel's cathedral. During the transfer of the body of Martha Sobakina, the third wife of Ivan the Terrible, the workers noticed that she was excellently preserved and almost looked to be merely sleeping. Martha, an exceptionally beautiful girl, was chosen by the tsar from among some two thousand contestants who were brought to Alexandrovo, where the tsar moved at the height of the oprichnina in 1571. Martha mysteriously died after being married to Ivan only fifteen days. Only through the carelessness of the archaeologists was Martha's body not preserved or even photographed.

Church of the Raising of Lazarus.

The oldest architectural monument in Moscow that has reached us is the Church of the raising of Lazarus in the Kremlin, located under the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin. It was built by Yevdokia in 1397 but was later sealed on all sides by stone walls and for centuries completely forgotten. The chronicles are silent about the church for the duration of 200 years. It was discovered by workers in 1842 when the ground floor of the Terem Palace was under repair, a wall was torn down and to their surprise there was the darkened arches of the Church of the raising of Lazarus supported by two thick pillars, the apse where the altar was, with three narrow windows (v' polukruzhii gornyago mesta, s prestolom I chetvernnikom,) made from heavy bricks. At the behest of his highness Emperor Nicholas Pavlovich, the church was restored to its past glory to which it had been constructed 450 years before. In the church on the wall of the arch, there is an ancient depiction of God's Angel with the inscription: "The Lord's angel heralds the earthly dwellers." In one of the pillars of this church there is a nook in the shape of a niche for a prince's privacy. During construction of the emperors palace, under the church in the ground, human bones were found which proves that this church, prior to the construction of the Ascension monastery was a burial place for princesses; and adjacent to the Terem.

Church of the Nativity of the Virgin.

To commemorate the victory of her husband over the Tatars at the Kulikovo field, Yevdokia built in the Kremlin on the spot of the old wooden Church the Raising of Lazarus, the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, (chto na Senyakh), in 1393. Two years later Theophan the Greek was invited to Moscow to paint the icons for its iconostasis and to decorate the church. He has already gained fame and it was not surprising that Moscow wanted him to decorate or repaint the old Kremlin's churches. It should be noted that it existed at that time not on the second floor as the Terem ( upper living quarters of the tsar' family) as it is today, but down below. The Church of the Nativity burned to the ground in 1473, together with the icons painted by Theophan, and the vaults collapsed. At the time of the reign of Ivan III the Terem buildings were re-built and raised one story higher, and in 1514 grand duke Vassili III ordered Alevis' Friazin (the Russian name given to Italians), to erect the presently standing church of the Nativity of the Virgin but now on the upper level. The Chronicle also records that in 1399 Theophan repainted the frescoes of the old cathedral of the Archangel Michael, also in the Kremlin, built by Ivan Kalita. First damaged by lightning and whirlwind in later Theophan's frescoes perished in the fire that swept through the cathedral in 1475. A new cathedral was built by Alevis' Novi in 1505-1509.
Increased concern for the churches was not limited to Moscow. It was under Dimitri that the old cathedral of the Assumption in Vladimir was also restored, probably for the first time since its reconstruction by Vsyevolod in 1183.

Vasilii I

The interest in preservation and restoration of ancient churches was even greater under Vasilii I (1389-1425). His mother, as we have seen, was also greatly interested in the restorations. Religious fervor also was on the increase; in fact, when in 1395, the Mongol conqueror Tamerlane invaded Russia, church dignitaries hurriedly brought from Vladimir to Moscow the famous icon, the "virgin of Vladimir." A mass was held at the Kuchkovo field, where the icon was met by the people. A holiday to mark the date, the Meeting of the Virgin (Sretenie), was established; later, on the same spot where the icon was met, a new monastery (Sretenski) was built. We do not know what prompted Tamerlane to turn back, but the Russians believed for centuries that God heard their prayers and stopped the invader before he reached Moscow.
In 1404 Grand Duke Vasilii commissioned a Serbian monk from Mount Athos to build the first striking clock in the Kremlin. According to the Chronicle the clock did not have figures but letters written on the rim, which turned around instead of hands. Lazarus (Lazar) was the name of the inventive monk, who also constructed a bell and a mechanical map for the clock. Each hour on the hour the rim moved one twelfth of the semi-circle and the mechanical man hit the bell with the hammer that he held in his hands. There were daily and night hours, the first beginning with the sunrise, and the hours of sunrise and sunset were reset each fortnight. The clock was a great wonder to Muscovites, who could not understand how the mechanical man could be so precise, and do his job without being told or pushed by anybody. Then it was agreed that the gadget was "somehow the product of man's dexterity and governed by his wits." Before he left Moscow, Lazarus trained a Russian watchmaker to service the clock and twice a month to make the necessary time adjustments.
In 1397 Grand Duke Vasilii Dimitrieveich laid the foundation of the new wooden Church of the Annunciation in the Moscow Kremlin, which he meant to serve as his private family chapel. The chronicle says that in 1405 the following artists took part in painting of the icons for the iconostasis: Theophan, the Greek iconographer, Prokhor, the old man from Gorodets, and the monk (chernets) Andrei Rublev. This was the first time that the name of Rublev was mentioned: Nobody could have guessed, not even Vasilii, that together with Theophan, Prokor and Daniil Chernii, the simple monk was about to start the greatest period of Russian iconography, create the classic form of the iconostasis and become the founder of the Moscow school of painting.

Andrei Rublev

There is very little information about the man who is by now generally accepted as the greatest Russian painter. The mystery obscures his origins, date and place of birth, his family, education, etc. His birth is variously dated between 1360 and 1370, and we only know for sure that he died in 1430 and was buried inside the Andronikov monastery in Moscow. His family name is Russian and quite common, particularly in and around Moscow. There is a village Rublevo to the west of Moscow just behind the outermost highway circle. In all probability Rublev joined the orders at the Andronikov Monastery, where he learned icon painting. According to some sources his teacher was the monk Daniil Chernii. They became close friends and worked together most of the time.

Andronikov Monastery

The monastery was founded by Moscow Metropolitan Saint Alexis in 1360, but received its name from its first abbot, Andronik, a follower and pupil of Saint Sergius. Rublev's popularity grew rapidly and invitations to work came from several places. Grand Duke Vasilii was one of the first to appreciate his way of painting, and when the time came to decorate his private chapel,. Rublev's name was one of the three top painters. The Chronicle mentions his name only twice to say a few words about him in biographies of prominent clergymen who knew him. They say the most about a particular church that he decorated, but with the exception of the "Trinity" icon, they never specified actual works. Since his name is mentioned with other iconographers, they obviously worked as a team; but some Soviet art critics doubtfully ascribe certain icons in the iconostasis of the Cathedral of the Annunciation to Theophan the Greek and certain to Rublev, leaving the elder Prokhor almost completely out.
It is more or less accepted practice to ascribe to Theophan the three most important icons from the Deisus Chin, namely, Christ, the Virgin and Saint John, and to Rublev several icons from the "Holiday" tier, such as the "Annunciation, the Nativity, the Transfiguration, etc. There is no doubt that at that time Theophan was Russia's top artist, and it would be normal for him to have dominated the scene and reserved for himself the most important icons of the Deisus tier. Regardless who painted what, the iconostasis of the cathedral of Annunciation, and particularly its "Deisus Tier," is a superb collection of beautiful icons. Though each one shows only the figure of a saint, as an entity they show a very festive and masterfully done composition.

Cathedral of the Annunciation

Ivan III, already a powerful ruler with vast aspirations, considered the church too modest for him, and in 1484 ordered that it be pulled down and a new Cathedral of the Annunciation built on the same site. Soviet scholars claim that some of the icons from the original iconostasis, painted by Theophan and Rublev, were preserved, and there is no reason to question their assumption. The old church was pulled down, and destroyed by fire in 1548, and traditional Orthodox custom forbids the destruction of icons. On the contrary, the older the icon the more it is venerated, and both Theophan and Rublev were well known that hardly anybody would consciously destroy their works. In similar cases it would be normal to use old icons, repainted or as is, for the new iconostasis or simply to transfer the entire old iconostasis into the new church. In either case it is the icons that count, and not the frame of the iconostasis. The Chronicle for 1547 notes that Rublev's icon "Deisus" was destroyed in the fire. There is no record of any other "Deisus" that could have burned than the one painted by or with Theophan for the old iconostasis. The logical assumption is that old icons were incorporated into the new church iconostasis, and that only "Deisus" burned and not necessarily the other icons. Besides all this, some of the icons that we see today in the Cathedral of the Assumption are such extraordinary examples of Russian iconography that only great masters could have painted them, and at that time there were no masters other than the three that we have named: Theophan, Rublev and Prokhor.
Their three-tiered iconostasis: "Local," "Deisus," and "Holiday" tiers in the Church of the Annunciation, with specifically arranged icons in each tier, is the first known of its kind, and it is possible that this very iconostasis marked the beginning of what has become known as the Russian classic iconostasis.

Cathedral of the Assumption in Vladimir

In May of 1408 the Chronicle records that Monks Daniil and Andrei Rublev started redecorating the interior of the big stone Cathedral of the Assumption in Vladimir; which had recently been ransacked by the Tatars' Khan Edigei who passed through Vladimir on his way to besiege Moscow and exact tribute. We know that the Cathedral was built in the 12th century by Prince Andrei and rebuilt and enlarge by his brother Vsyevolod after a fire destroyed it in 1183. The two iconographers were chosen and commissioned by the Grand Duke Vassilii, who must had been satisfied with their work on his private chapel in the Kremlin, and decided to send them to Vladimir. Fragments of Rublev's frescoes on the western wall of the Cathedral were discovered in 1859. They were part of a large fresco representing the Last Judgement that covered the entire wall.
Art historians and critics seldom mention Daniil, as if he had done nothing. They tend to forget that his name was mentioned first in the Chronicles probably because of his seniority, and the fact is that he must have painted a sizeable portion of the frescoes and icons that are rather hurriedly ascribed to Rublev. Discovered fragments remained more or less intact until 1880 when an untalented iconographer, Safonov, instead of simply cleaning them and protecting them from deterioration, for three years redrew over the originals and covered a large part of the old frescoes with his own colors. Thus beautiful frescoes painted with rich colors and delicate lines, were turned, according to P. Muratov and practically all other critics, into "Dull colors and dry contours." Soviet restorers partially succeeded in remedying the damage done by Safonov. In their work they also discovered and cleaned additional fragments of the old frescoes. What we see today in the Cathedral is as close to the original Rublev's and Daniil's paintings as could be expected under the circumstances.
While in Vladimir Rublev and Daniil also painted another, fourth, tier of icons, the "Prophets," in the Cathedral of the Assumption. The entire iconostasis was removed from the Cathedral in 1773 and replaced with a new gilded one which was offered by Catherine II. According to Soviet sources, Rublev's old iconostasis was found in the church of the nearby village of Vasilevskoe. The icons were cleaned and restored; some of them are now in the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow, and some in the Russian Museum in St Petersburg. The question of their authorship should remain open in the absence of more positive proof. Perhaps they were painted later by some of the many who followed Rublev' style.

Cathedral of the Assumption in Zvenigorod

About fifty miles west of Moscow is the town of Zvenigorod, the ancient capital of Zvenigorod princes. After the death of Dimitri Donskoi this territory went to the youngest of his four sons, Yurii. Here in 1396-1399 on a hill above the river Moskva, which dominates the valley, Yurii built the Cathedral of the Assumption. The entire spot was a outpost fortified by a wall, and the bells of the Cathedral served to warn Moscow of the approach of invaders. Presumably this was the reason that the nearby town was named Zvenigorod - the town of bell ringing.
About a mile from the Cathedral is the Savior in Storozhevski Monastery, founded at the end of the 14th century by Saint Savva, a follower of Saint Sergius, whom Prince Yurii chose as his confessor. The name of the Monastery comes from the founder and the hill, "Strorozha," on which it was built. The Prince helped Saint Savva build his first wooden church, followed in 1405-1407 by the new stone Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin (Rozhdestvo Bogomatery). Both cathedrals are fine examples of Vladimir-Suzdal architecture, with a single cupola that rests on four pillars.
Most probably the same builders constructed them. The fame of the new monastery grew rapidly, primarily because of miracles that were ascribed to its founder. Here also the entire territory of the monastery was fortified by a wall. Several tsars and members of their families visited the Monastery and made large donations. Pious Tsar Alexei was often there, and even built a new stone wall around the Monastery. Around the middle of the 17th century the monastery received its new bell-tower, for which the founder, Alexander Grigoriev, made a thirty-five ton bell, famous for its beautiful tone. Shaliapin went to Zvenigorod to hear it and was delighted.
When the revolution started in 1917, the monks refused to cooperate with the Bolsheviks. The following year the Monastery was first ransacked and pillaged, including the tomb of Saint Savva, made of gold plated silver, then the monks were chased out and finally the cathedral was left to ruin. Both cathedrals were entirely covered with frescoes and until the revolution had five-tiered iconostasis. Presently only a few fragments of the original frescoes remain. When, after the revolution, some artists visited Zvenigorod, they found several beautiful icons not far from the Cathedral under a heap of firewood used to protect them from laying directly on the wet ground. Three icons salvaged from here, the Deisus, Apostle Paul and Archangel Michael, were cleaned and are now in the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow. After being examined by Soviet art students, and without any proof that Rublev made a journey to Zvenigorod, the three icons and the fragments of the frescoes were declared to have been painted by the great Russian iconographer sometime between 1408 and 1412. The icons are now called "Rublev's Zvenigorod Chin." The figure of Christ departs slightly from the traditional way artists paint his face, and slightly resembles a Russian man. These icons too are masterfully executed and their color scheme resembles Rublev's.

Trinity Icon.

There is one detail regarding Rublev on which everybody agrees, that is, that he painted the famous icon "Trinity" (Troitsa), the finest masterpiece of Russian painting. The icon depicts the biblical story of the visit of the three angels to Abraham and Sarah. The Old Testament Trinity was always the symbol of the Church unity and a popular subject in religious painting. The picture shows the three angels sitting around a table, on which we see in the middle the sacrificial chalice. The entire composition is executed with exceptional tenderness and love, portraying the readiness of the angels to offer their lives for man's salvation. Delicate lines gracefully contour the angels. Their bent heads and bodies form a harmonious silhouette, strongly expressing their unity of endeavor. Their faces transmit solemnity and peace. Soft, fresh, almost transparent colors of golden pink, pale green, cherry red, blues, warm grays and straw yellows intermix harmoniously. This is indeed a great painting.
The icon was commissioned by the Abbot of the Trinity and Saint Sergius Monastery, Reverend Nikon, who succeeded Saint Sergius in 1392. Nikon is shown as an art-minded man who wanted Rublev to paint the "Trinity Icon" as a praise to father Sergius and as the best way to show Saint Sergius' ideal of unity among Russian princes as the only way to free themselves from Tatar domination. Rublev, obviously, fulfilled the request with great mastership and love, producing his best work. Rublev's "Trinity" became one of the most venerated icons, and was almost covered with gold, silver and precious stones. Whoever came to the Monastery to see it and pray in front of it, tsar or peasant, left his donation, a flower, half penny or an expensive diamond. This was the custom.
In 1904 Church authorities decided to clean the old icons in the Cathedral of the Monastery. An experienced icon painter, V.P. Gryanov was entrusted for the job. When he removed the golden trappings and jewels from Rublev's "Trinity" he was shocked to see that it differed very little from many icons painted by Palekh iconographers. His disappointment did not last long: The real Rublev was on some parts of the icon under several layers painted over the original. Guryanov cleaned most of the icon but not all of it and, for the first time after five centuries, the real Rublev's painting was visible. Its effect was tremendous, but most of those who saw it were surprised; even among the top art authorities very few expected Rublev to paint the way he did, Guryanov too in the beginning found that his style was "Greek." After the Revolution the icon was taken from the Monastery, cleaned completely where Guryanov had missed and also of his own retouchings; it is now on display in the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow. A copy was made and sent to the Monastery, to fill the empty space left when the original was removed. There is another reproduction, painted in the sixties, in Rublev's Museum in the Andronikov Monastery. It was so perfectly done that if the original was put side by side with the copy it would be difficult to distinguish one from the other.

St. Sergius Radonezh

Saint Sergius (Sergei Radonezhski) (1314-1392) was a young nobleman who renounced his title and wealth to become a simple Russian monk. He dedicated his life to bringing unity among Russian princes and helping Moscow to lead the fight for the liberation of the country from Tatar rule. His father, boyar Kirill (Cyrill), was one of the first to side with Ivan Kalita in his efforts to put an end to internecine struggles. To demonstrate his preferences, he even moved from Rostov to Moscow, sometime around 1330. Ten years later his son, then already monk Sergius, went about forty miles east from Moscow, and there, by himself, built a little wooden church, on a hill in the woods and dedicated it to the Trinity, the symbol of unity. This was the first of many monasteries that Saint Sergius founded or helped establish. He clearly saw that many monasteries, built throughout the country, far from administrative centers, not only could serve as religious centers but also as strongholds in the future battles against Tatars, which he knew were bound to come.
The developments that followed proved him right. Around monasteries mushroomed new settlements and villages, and their population rapidly increased. The monastery that Saint Sergius founded became one of the strongest military fortifications in Russia, and at the same time the most important religious center. Word of the virtues and piety of Saint Sergius spread throughout the country and attracted many monks. His disciples later founded new monasteries and kept his teachings and ideas alive, and the movement indeed became national. The esteem he enjoyed among the people helped him to induce several Russian princes to try to throw off the Tatars' suzerainty. At the same time he raised the hopes of the people and gave them much-needed encouragement to begin the fight. He inspired and convinced the hesitant Grand Duke Dimitri Donskoi to go and face the Tatars. The Chronicle says that Saint Sergius told Dimitri: "The moment has come to show the enemy the strength of your kingdom with the sword." He blessed the Grand Duke and Russian units before they marched south to the Kulikovo field and the river Vozha, where in 1380 they gained their first victory over the Tatars, a battle which played an enormous role in the history of the nation.
Defeated Khan Mamai was soon chased out of the Golden Horde by Khan Tokhtamysh, the ruler of the White Horde, who already, in 1382, on his way to Moscow, had destroyed and burned several Russian towns, as well as Saint Sergius' Monastery. Legend says that when the Tatars left the Monastery, Nikon, who succeeded Saint Sergius as Abbot, found the body of the Saint, who had been dead for several months, almost intact. Nikon decided to build a new stone church where the first wooden church, built by Saint Sergius had stood, and to bury his remains there.

Trinity Cathedral

The small, modest, single-domed, four-pillared Trinity Cathedral was finished in 1422. Originally it was a fine example of the early Moscow version of the Vladimir-Suzdal architecture. It was later deformed with annexed chapels, Nikon's in 1548 on the south side and a four-sloped roof that covered almost one third of the drum. As the result of the alterations, the silhouette of the church considerably changed. To decorate it, Nikon invited Rublev and Daniil, who covered the inside walls entirely with frescoes. When this happened is not known, but it must have been sometime between 1422 and 1427.
About two centuries later, the original frescoes were in very poor condition, and the Monastery authorities decided to repaint them entirely. The frescoes were renewed again on several occasions and in 1855 painted over with oil colors. There are only a few fragments and contours, of the original Rublev's and Daniil's designs that survive. The icons painted by the two masters and their assistants for the iconostasis of the Trinity Cathedral had better luck. Here also Rublev added a fourth tier, "The Prophets," to the iconostasis. The fifth tier, "The Forefathers," was added not long after by Rublev's followers, making the iconostasis of the Trinity Cathedral the only one which dates from the 15th century that has not been changed since then, with the exception of a few icons that had been replaced with later copies, without change of subject, as with the "Trinity" icon. It is commonly accepted that the "Deisus" tier icons were painted by Rublev and Daniil, others by their pupils, and certain icons by Dionisii, Ushakov and others. In all it is a remarkable collection of beautiful icons, which shows Russian iconography through three centuries, 15th through 17th.
To the right of the iconostasis is a double silver sarcophagus, containing the remains of Saint Sergius. The inside of the sarcophagus was a gift of Tsar Ivan Vasilievich, and the outside a gift of Empress Anna Ivanovna. Prayers at the sarcophagus are offered, continuously, day and night, with a monk on duty who conducts the service.

Trinity, St Sergius Lavra

In 1919 as part of their anti-religious propaganda the Bolsheviks desecrated the remains of Saint Sergius by opening the sarcophagus so that the public could see "The Saint," and filming the entire episode. When he heard about this, Lenin was very pleased and ordered that the film be shown in all movie theaters in Moscow and throughout the country, to show to the people "...What kind of "Saints" have been kept in these rich sarcophaguses which for centuries they venerated...," expecting that it would alienate hundreds of thousands from religion. It is a pity Lenin cannot see himself in his own mausoleum. Another disrespect was shown to Saint Sergius and the Russian people humiliated when in 1930 the name of the town in which the Monastery is located was changed from Serghievo to Zagorsk. V. M. Zagorsk, Bolshevik party propagandist, happened to be in the premisses of the Moscow committee when in 1919 a counter-revolutionary threw a bomb. Twelve people were killed including Zagorsk, but only Zagorsk was remembered. Many Russians with whom I talked felt that out of thousands of towns, Serghievo was purposefully chosen to be renamed after a Jew, to debase the Orthodox Church and humble the Russian people. Zagorsk never had anything to do either with the town or with the Monastery, and to make the story even more ridiculous, his real name was not Zagorsk but Lubotzky.
Throughout its long history, the Monastery played a very important role in the destiny of the Russian nation, and kept alive the tradition that Saint Sergius initiated. When a combined army of Poles and Lithuanians took Moscow, they knew that Russian resistance would continue unless the Monastery was captured and destroyed. An army of 15,000 soldiers was sent to take it, but the Monastery fought back repeated attacks, and endured a siege that lasted sixteen months. The defenders knew that the end of their resistance would mean the end of Russian independence. In January, 1610, the Poles abandoned the siege and two years later were chased out of Moscow.
There is hardly any Russian monarch who did not pay a visit to the monastery, some of them under special circumstances. Thus Vassilii II hid unsuccessfully in the Trinity Cathedral from Dimitri Shemiaka, his cousin and rival for the throne. When captured, Vassilii promised to renounce his claims and remain in the Monastery as a monk, but he was taken to Moscow and blinded. From this came his nickname Vasilii the Dark. Peter the Great was luckier. When streltsi came to the Monastery to search for him, he hid twice in the Cathedral of the Assumption, in 1682 and again in 1689, and both times was not found. When he became Tsar, Peter came back to the Monastery, but this time he was searching for a fugitive, his former brother-in law by his first wife Yevdokia, Prince Lopukhin. When he was told that Lopukhin had died as a monk, Peter ordered that his body be taken out of the tomb and beheaded. The Abbot refused to obey the Tsar's orders, reminded Peter of his own experience and the hospitality he had received in the Monastery and beseeched him not to desecrate the holy soil of the Monastery. A compromise was reached, and instead of chopping off the head of the dead man, the dale that covered his tomb was cut just at the place where his neck was supposed to be.
Though primarily built to propagate Christianity, defend national aspirations and to a certain extent serve as outposts against enemy attacks, many Russian monasteries also became cradles of high intellectual and artistic life. If art and beauty had ever existed in ancient Russia, and to a considerable extent in the present Soviet Union, then they could be primarily found in the churches and monasteries which like jewels dotted the hills and valleys of the country. The Trinity - Saint Sergius Monastery has been the leader most of the time. For its contributions it received over two centuries ago the title of "lavra" - an honorable name for a highly distinguished monastery. There were only four lavras in all Russia out of over a thousand monasteries. Almost from the first days of its existence the Monastery concentrated its efforts on the propagation of literacy and handicrafts. Special attention was paid to the copying of books, and the first manuscripts appeared in the beginning of the 15th century. Some of them were decorated with interesting miniatures. The Monastery also had one of the first libraries and museums, which later became a very rich collection of various religious objects. After so many centuries, and regardless of anti-religious propaganda by the communist party and the government, thousands of Russians from all parts of the country continue to make their pilgrimage to the Monastery and bow to Saint "Sergius's remains.
Before the revolution the Monastery's sacristy and treasury contained hundreds of sacred utensils, vestments and various objects that were donated to the Monastery, some of them of great artistic value. There was hardly any Russian tsar or tsarina who did not contribute something. Boris Godunov was particularly generous. The small Trinity Cathedral contained hundreds of pounds of silver and gold items. Hundreds of various precious stones were used to decorate the icons, the altar and Saint Sergius' sarcophagus. Many are not their any longer, and what was left is now in what is officially called "The Zagorsk State Museum of Art and History." The Museum is still worth seeing, to get at least a notion of what existed there before 1917. Of particular interest are the collections of icons, needlework (which served either as cons or coffin covers and were in most cases made by tsarinas themselves) vestments, robes, miters, crosses and all sorts of religious utensils.
The legend says that Saint Sergius liked woodcarving and that he made toys for the peasant children of the nearby villages. Regardless of who was the first wood-carver, the fact is that many people in the region have since practiced this craft, which gradually turned the villages around the Monastery into the "Center of Russian toy industry." Thousands of toys are produced there of all sorts, shapes and sizes. Very popular are horses that move on wheels, bears, rabbits, geese, scenes from Krilov's fables and many complicated gadgets. In most cases they are naively done, but it is their coloring and originality that makes them attractive, and few of them are of some artistic value.

Cathedral of the Savior

In the last few years of their lives Rublev and Daniil lived in the Andronikov Monastery. They returned to it to decorate the new stone Cathedral of the Savior, presumably built in 1420-1427. The Cathedral is one of the most remarkable monuments of Vladimir-Suzdal architecture of the 12th century. Several rows of "Zakomar," with their pointed arches, arranged in receding and diminishing tiers, form a beautiful pyramid which supports a large, tall, single drum and a Byzantine-type cupola. The builder is unknown. Information about the iconographers who covered the entire inside walls with frescoes exists, though it will need further research and clarification as to the second artist who, together with Rublev, participated in the work. Pakhomii Lagofet, a Serbian monk who went to Russia sometime before the middle of the 15th century and became its first professional writer, speaks of Andrei the iconographer as the man who decorated the cathedral "With his marvelous hands." However, Chety-Miney Chronicle, when it narrates the life of Saint Sergius, mentions that Andrei Rublev and Simeon Chernii painted the frescoes.
The question is: Who is Simeon? Some historians say he was Daniil's brother, the others would like to see that "Simeon" (Semen) is just a mistake made by the chronicler and that we have just one Chernii and not two. But the name Simeon was also mentioned among the painters who decorated the church of the Nativity in the Moscow Kremlin. So there would have to have been not one but two mistakes make by two different historians, and this makes the error look more improbable. Some Soviet authors went even further in complicating the conjectures about Simeon's mystery by simply assuming that the elder Prokhor from Gorodets is nobody else but Daniil Chernii, who changed his name to Daniil when he became a monk. The skeptics profited by the confusion of names to cast some doubts even about Rublev's existence. At any rate, the monk-painters never sought publicity, and probably not even thanks; they voluntarily withdrew from the world and Did not expect history to commemorate them.
We have no idea how the original frescoes in the Cathedral of the Savior looked. First, they were restored several times and completely destroyed during the final "restoration" in the last century. There are just a few very small ornamental fragments in the windows that survived and they are too small to help estimate the overall appearance. The Andronikov monastery was closed after the revolution and neglected for years. The churches of which there were seven prior to 1917, were turned into workshops or used for housing. Some of them were so dilapidated that they had to be torn down. Now most of the remaining buildings house the Museum of Ancient Russian Art, named after Andrei Rublev. The strange thing is that the exhibited icons come from various parts of the country, and none was painted by Rublev. There are a few copies of his works, including the very successful reproduction of his "trinity" icon. Of interest are several icons by unknown artists. Among them is "The Virgin of Tikhvin," salvaged from the dilapidated monastery, which carried the same name and was located near the town of Tiknvin, once famous for its church builders and icon painters. The icon was painted in 1680. Around the Virgin and infant Christ there are twenty four "Kleima" - panels with individual pictures that show the major holidays and events in the history of the Monastery, from the building of the first wooden church to the defeat of the Swedish army which invaded the region in 1613. Rimsky-Korsakov lived for some time opposite the Monastery, which he often visited.
By the end of his life Andrei Rublev had become an esteemed artist and his icons and frescoes were highly praised by everybody. For almost two centuries they served as models to generations of Russian iconographers but Russian artists have never been able to repeat the beauty of his masterpieces. When in the middle of the 16th century the Stoglav Council was convened to denounce pagan tendencies in the old customs and beliefs, it recommended to the icon painters to take Rublev as example for their work. These facts speak strongly about the fine artistic taste that most of the high clergy and boyars had at that time. It is true that Lenin and the Bolsheviks picked Rublev too as a model for their socialist realism in art. In their ukhaz of July, 1918, Rublev was the first on the list of men declared meritorious and deserving of a monument erected in their honor. Since then Rublev has been accepted as painter-realist and advertised very much as such, particularly after the nineteen sixties when the Soviet government decided to let all Russian ancient art take its rightful place in the history of the cultural development of the people. However, its religious meaning has been completely eliminated, and today they speak of icons primarily as products of art. Surprisingly enough, quite often we learn now that another Rublev icon was discovered somewhere. From just a few before the revolution, by now their number has increased to over thirty. Not all precautions were taken in each instance, and if this trend continues, this case may become similar t those of Matisse and Renoir, and many other famous painters, who allegedly painted about five hundred paintings in their life-time, and yet just in the museums throughout the world there are over three thousand of their "Original" canvases.

CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT DURING THE FORMATION OF THE UNIFIED RUSSIAN STATE (1460-1533)

Kiprian's Chronicle

Political unification of Russian lands, under the grand dukes of Moscow, facilitated the establishment of close economic connections between former independent principalities, and made possible the formation of all of Russian literature and art. Hundreds of builders, craftsmen, and artists from all parts of the country came to Moscow to participate in the construction and embellishment of the new capital. Many foreigners came too, some invited, the others on their own. Increased contacts with the western worked and the Slavic peoples considerably influenced the new all-Russian cultural trend. Their literature, which consisted largely of translations, depended in the beginning on texts received from the South Slavs. The number of Russian educated men with some knowledge of western culture kept increasing, and the people as a whole, realizing that they spoke one language, began thinking of themselves as one nation. A new Russian culture started to appear. It continued to have its roots and to draw its sources from Kiev, Novgorod, Vladimir-Suzdal but, for the first time, it was conceived of on an all-Russian scale. The new unifying trend manifested itself even earlier, when the first Moscow Chronicle was written. It was initiated by Metropolitan Kiprian, who gathered most of the material for it. Under his direction the existing ancient chronicles and documents were compiled into a unified work which, could be considered the first written history of the entire Russian nation. It was completed in the first decade of the 15th century, already after the death of the Metropolitan. It became known also as Kiprian's Chronicle. Out of this intensive cultural activity came new literature and the Moscow School of Arts, the first to represent the entire Russian nation. All this could hardly have been possible if not for the interest and support given by the Moscow Grand Duke Ivan III. He liked power and splendor, and realized that by turning Moscow from an oversized wooden Russian village into an interesting town, and the Kremlin into a magnificent fortified city, he could enhance his prestige both at home and abroad. To become an absolute ruler of a great country was his aim, and he knew the value of power to achieve its. He was severe with his own brothers and merciless with all others, particularly with the boyars. The encounter with the Tatars came soon after he became Moscow Grand Duke ....

Ivan III (1462-1505)

The second half of the 15th century was the turning point for any military, cultural and political activities undertaken in Russia by its capable and ruthless ruler Ivan III (1462-1505). His success was facilitated by the intestinal fights between Mongol khans which resulted that once powerful Golden Horde was now broken into several independent Khanate. Ivan III even had his Mongol vassal, the khan of Kasimov who entered his services and helped him repeatedly keep the reduced Golden Horde divided from the other khanates. The coalition of the khan of the Golden Horde, Ahmad, and the Polish and Lithuanian King, Casimir, aimed to force Ivan III to recognize Ahmad's suzerainty never materialized because Casimir had to rush his troops to the part of Ukraine which he controlled and which had been attacked by Ivan's ally the Crimean khan, Mengly-Geray. The two armies, Ivan's and Ahmad's never went into action. On the contrary they both hastily retreated from the two sides of Ugra river where they faced each other after Ivan's cavalry detachment raided Ahmad's harem near Saray. This rather curious, uncharacteristic event, which happened in 1480, represents historically the end of the Mongol yoke domination.
When Tatar Khan sent a mission to Ivan III to collect tribute and, as was the custom, to invite the new Grand Duke to the Horde to receive the "Yarlik," instead of complying with the Khan's wish, Ivan tore the "Basma," (written credentials of the Khan's delegation) into pieces, and ordered all members killed with the exception of one, whom he let go back to tell the Khan what had happened and that "The hen which used to lay golden eggs for the Tatars has died." In 1480 Tatars' domination was thrown off; Russia became an independent and powerful state with Moscow as its center.
The Mongol invasion of Russia, amongst other things, brought an end to the existence of "Veche" - the only democratic Russian form of government, in all central and southern principalities. However in Novgorod and Pskov and some other northern and western localities, Veche survived the Tatar invasion and functioned until these provinces were annexed forcefully to his realm . Ivan III, grand duke of Moscow, took advantage of the internal fights between various parties and of Novgorod's dependance on imported bread from the southern Russian provinces If appears that the unification of Russian principalities was possible only if imposed by a strong central hand. The representative of this new force was Ivan III and the system he introduced resembled the one which the Golden Horde practiced. The majority of Russian scholars call it Moscow autocracy. Under his rule the voice of the people was less and less heard and it disappeared completely when people acquired the habit to be governed without rasing its head and without questioning anything or anybody. It is also true that the primitive democracy, as practiced by the Veche could not last for ever.. New time need new forms of government preferably better, for the people but neither Ivan III nor his son made a great effort to find it, and Russians had to wait until "Zemskii sobor" came into existence.
On the local front Ivan III did very much to speed up the process of unification of the country. His expeditions, some of them punitive, put the end to Novgorod and Tver independence and both were annexed to Moscow. Many Novgorod boyars and rich merchants were simply executed and many more together with middle class families were deported to eastern parts of Russia and replaced by Muscovites. Their confiscated lands were turned over to new settlers conditionally, depending on the services they would render to the Grand Duke which, of course, further increased his authority. Speaking about the "unification" of Russian lands, both Lenin and Stalin praised Ivan for not delaying his actions. Ivan III also neglected the boyars. Most of Ivan's counselors and members of his government belonged to faithful to him families or individuals, the class which is known in Russia under the name of "Dvorianstvo," which will continue to play an ever increasing role in the Russian history. In order to reward them for their services, Ivan III introduced a new system of military fiefs (pomestie). Of course many boyars also volunteered and took part in the government, but the majority became the first Russian opposition in the broad sense of the word.
Ivan III was married for the first time when he was only twelve. His bride Maria Borisovna, was the nine-year old daughter of the Prince of Tver. This political marriage, arranged by the parents, was intended to bring together the two powerful and important principalities. When the young couple grew-up they had one son who was also baptized Ivan Ivanovich. Maria died suddenly in 1467. To make sure that the son, tsarevich Ivan, would succeed to the Moscow throne, and thus that the principle of primogeniture would be preserved, Ivan III named his son Grand Duke and ordered that in all official documents both names appear, one next to the other. This did not last long, for in 1490? The son also died and left an infant child Dimitri. The father, Ivan III was already married to his second wife Princess Zoe Paleologue, daughter of the brother of the last Byzantine Emperor. Her family moved to Rome after the fall of Constantinople, where the former Byzantine princess, a contemporary of Leonardo Da Vinci and Bramante, received an excellent education. In Italy the Renaissance was already in full swing. Ivan III and Zoe married in 1472, and she officially became Grand Duchess Sophia Fominichna. This marriage with one of the Paleologues marked the beginning of Moscow's ambition to replace the defunct Byzantine empire.
The Pope blessed their union, in the hope that it would help the Catholic Church to establish some religious and eventually, political influence, in Russia. It did not work this way, though, and Sophia, though educated in Catholic schools, returned to her Orthodox faith. Ivan, however, took his new role seriously, and adopted the Byzantine coat of arms - the double headed black eagle as Russia's new emblem. Then he introduced the coronation ceremony for Grand Dukes. It was similar to the Byzantine ceremony, and was used later for the coronation of Russian tsars up to Peter the Great.
The crown of Vladimir Monomakh, (Shapka Monomakha), meaning cap allegedly received from Emperor Constantine, but actually looking very much like the caps of Tatar Khans, served to crown the head of each new ruler. The entire ceremony was performed for the first time in 1498, in the newly built cathedral of the Assumption in the Moscow Kremlin, after which Ivan III decided to "crown" his grandson Dimitri as his rightful successor. Fortune would soon abandon the tsarevich, when the grandfather started forgetting about the right of inheritance which he wanted so much to preserve before. In 1502 both Dimitri and his mother Helen were put under house arrest. This change of heart was not without Sophia's's back-stage interference. She found that her eldest son by Ivan, Gabriel (Gavril), had more right to succeed the father than the grand-son Dimitri. Despite the opposition of several influential boyars, some of whom were liquidated or forced to enter monasteries, Gabriel, the future Vasili III, was proclaimed heir to Moscow's throne. Dimitri and his mother died in prison in 1509.
The complete insecurity and exasperation of occupation by Tatars, prompted many to look for "Uteshenie" in the monastical life where one worked and meditated. In the 14th and the 15th centuries many new monasteries were opened and they became the only source of knowledge for all those who cherished literacy and books. Many chronicles and lives of the recent saints and prominent persons were recorded, and old chronicles compiled and many important books rewritten. Thanks to these monasteries some old books and chronicles were saved. Within their walls some rich people found shelter and offered all their fortunes to the monastery. This negatively reflected on the intellectual level of the monks, some of them spoiled by the rich life in the monastery. Later heated discussions took place regarding moral and judicial qualifications of the monasteries to possess big estates, fortunes and serfs. Amongst those who entered monasteries was boyar Vasili Ivanovich Patrikeev, better known as monk Vasian Kosoy, one of the leading Russian intellectuals of the time.

Language and Literature.

Within some of the most prominent Greek and South Slav monasteries in Byzantium and at Mount Athos, a new mystic theory started to be shaped. Known under the name of "Isikhiya," it propagated moral self-perfection which, if thoroughly and sincerely practiced, could bring the man during his life-time to total perfection, in other words it would enable him to become divine (bozhestvo), to achieve sainthood.)?) The followers of this new trend insisted that monks must not possess any valuable item or property, that they must work to feed themselves and not live from the work of somebody else, and that their prayers should not follow the ceremonial pattern but consecrate heir time to meditation and individual internal prayers. Most of them were too intellectuals within their monastery and as such they developed a very high literary style, especially when writing biographies of the saints. While the new approach to monastic life was debated chiefly between the two ardent and able opponents: The abbot Iosif of the famous Volokolamski Monastery, defending the official position of the church that monasteries are the main pillars of the state and as such must be assisted to survive, and Nil Sorski the head of ascetic monks, who left Kirillo-Beloserskii monastery, and went to Mount Athos where he learned about the mystic theory of :isikhiya" and became its fervent supporter and propagator. A new style of writing was soon introduced to Russia and abundantly used in their literature until the end of the 16 The century. Cultural relations, and particularly literary exchanges, between the South Slavs and the Russians considerably expanded between the 11 The and the 16 The centuries. At the end of the 14 The century starts again a long period of particularly strong literary influence exercised by south Slavs, and especially by the Serbs, over the Russian literary life. Under Tsar Dushan Serbia got rid of Byzantine tutelage, became powerful country, spread its influence to the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas and got in touch with the western countries and their civilizations. Very progressive, as we would say today, Dushan did very much for the Serbian literature to achieve its golden age (renaissance). The greater part of newly translated books are of Serbian origin or retranslated from Serbian. The Russian authors or translators copy even the agyographic style, so typical of the Serbian 14th century literary works. The emerging new Russian center, Moscow, was particularly receptive to the Serbian influence. At that time all Orthodox Slavs and the Bulgarians shared just one literary language - the old church Slavic and just one alphabet, the Cyrillic. The ancient authors, Serbian or Russian, once they had written their work or had made a translation form a foreign non-Slavic language, it could be read in Kiev, Moscow or Serbia. It is not surprising the most of the literature of that time, was written in The same language over the entire Slavic Orthodox world. Two prominent men who played an important role in spreading Serbian influence and the new Style in Russia, and also whose works were amongst the most important Russian literary products of that period, were Kiprian and Logofet, both of Serbian origin.
Kiprian managed to become Russian archbishop as we have seen, but is better known as an author of dealing with the devastating consequences of the invasion by the Tatar and for writing the biography of the famous archbishop Peter, and for initiating and writing the first Moscow Chronicle which included also for the first time, all Russian lands. The latter gives the survey of all major events during the last hundred years from an outsiders and not the all-Russian point of view, and as such represents the history of Russia during that period. In the same chronicle archbishop Kiprian deals with some moral characteristics which adorn Russian rulers and recommends them to refrain from drinking alcoholic beverages.
Things began to change when in the 16th century a national literary language appeared in Russia developing gradually from spoken dialects. With time the difference increased, and if we take into consideration the changes in the alphabets that also occurred during this period, we can speak today of different languages, Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, etc. The flow of literature and art was mainly from the Balkans to Russia, but there were also a few instances in which Russian manuscripts found readers among the South Slavs. Some Russian biographies (zhitia) and stories about the life and work of saints, the chronicles, "The Be' - a collection of sayings of proverbial nature, and some other works were recorded in the South Slavs' documents.
The writing of chronicles, as we know, was highly developed in ancient Russia and usually interestingly presented. The common ancestry, language and religion were sufficient to make them worthy of and pleasing for any Slavic reader. The invasion of the Balkans by the Turks, which threatened to completely annihilate the local population, resulted in migration of entire population of the provinces. The Serbs were hit hardest; their monasteries were ransacked or burned. Some Serbs went to Russia in search for new work and homes. In many instances they were learned monks, considered at that time to be highly educated, who specialized as writers, chroniclers, iconographers, miniaturists, craftsmen, etc. In the 15th century the writers brought to Russia changes in orthography and style which were enthusiastically accepted and introduced into the Russian written language, known as "Poluustav," (Half-ustav). The ancient Russian chronicles were hand written with vertical and rather square letters, which looked much like printing. This manner of writing was called "Ustav," the same word presently means regulations, or statutes, and the original "Ustav" was a set of regulations that governed the writing.

Pakhomii Logofet

The man who did the most to give Russian literature a new style was Pakhomii Logofet, also known a Pakhomii the Serb. Logofet was not his family name. It is most probably a nickname given to him because of his talents. In Byzantium "Logofet" was the name for the prime minister. He quit his native land and went to Russia around 1430, where he lived for over fifty years. During this long. this long and fruitful period Pakhomii produced over forty works, mostly "Zhitia," in which he narrated the life and deeds of Russian saints, church or state dignitaries, among them Saints Sergius, Aleksei and Cyril (Belozersky), Prince Michael Chernigovskii, and others. Pakhomii traveled extensively through Russia, and lived in various localities, collecting documentation or interviewing those whom he was to write about or who lived or knew something about these personalities. Not everything in his works corresponded to historical fact, but Pakhomii should neither be blamed for these lapses, nor for his sometimes exaggerated poetic and panegyric style which delighted the Russians so much. They did not wait long to embrace Pakhomii's style which, despite so many "Serbisms," had tremendously influenced the development of Russian literature.
The very first contacts with the west European literature were made when the novel about Alexander the Great was translated into Russian. The novel appeared under the name of "Serbian Alexandria" just because it was translated from the Serbian text. Although the original was written in Greek and in the typical Byzantine style, the translation was softened by stressing the love affairs between Alexander and Roxanna and by showing Alexander more as a western "Ritsar') knight, a Christianized and ideal type of leader. Serbian Alexandria was what we would call the best seller for many years and remained one of the most popular books to be read even in the 17th century.
Another two popular translations which also reached Russia via Serbia were the oriental stories: The Tale of an Indian Kingdom and The Twelve Dreams of Cha-Hai-Shi. The fact that the Twelve Dreams which talks much about the disappearance and destruction of a country, reached Russia at the time when she was devastated and enslaved by the Mongols, made this book very popular. Ordinary people took it as granted that it was actually written about Russia and this new version reached orally the remotest villages. Its impact was tremendous and many later popular Russian tales were modeled on the Twelve dreams of Cha-Hai-Shi.
Despite all these efforts the Russians were not a peoples to be so easily influenced. Most of the acts and official correspondence that sultans sent to Moscow"s grand dukes were written in Serbian, which became for over a century the second most important language in the Turkish Empire, pushing Greek to third place despite a very large Greek minority.

"The Legend Of The Princes Of Vladimir."

Towards the end of his life Pakhomii wrote his most important work, entitled "The Legend of the Princes of Vladimir," in which he reviewed the life and genealogy of the world's greatest emperors and rulers, pharaohs included. Pakhomii found that Russian grand dukes were directly related to the first Roman emperor Augustus, and that as such they qualified to become a possible successors. Then, to make the entire picture more suitable for the occasion, he wrote that Byzantine Emperor Constantine had sent his crown of laurel and cape to the Grand Duke of Kiev, Vladimir Monomakh. In the Orthodox world, including Russia, Constantinople was considered to be "New Rome." When the Turks ransacked the city and put an end to the existence of the Byzantine Empire, the temptation of power became great, and the grand dukes began to dream of the world-wide role that they eventually could play. The image Pakhomii constructed was intended to show, as he put it, the "Future unbounded splendor of Moscow" - the "Third Rome." In his works Pakhomii called the Moscow Grand Duke "Tsar and autocrat," and the Metropolitan Zosima regarded Ivan III the "Sovereign and autocrat of all Russia," "A new Tsar Constantine."
Pakhomii's discoveries found several practical applications during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. His tent-shaped throne for the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Kremlin was made in 1551 of finely carved walnut. Several receding tiers of kokoshniki and steep gables form the octagonal canopy (khatior) above the throne. It was named after Vladimir Monomakh because engraved reliefs depicted major events of this life. One of them shows how Monomakh's crown (Shapka Monomakha) reached Kiev from Constantinople, a detail clearly inspired by Pakhomii's "Legend." Then in some official documents and letters sent to foreign kings Ivan IV found it necessary o remind them of this imperial ancestry by beginning them with: "We , descendant of Augustus Caesar ..."

Reconstruction of the Kremlin.

Considerably influenced by his western-educated wife Sophia, Ivan III decided to bring his country out of the "Shades of dusk," as Karamzin put it and move it closer to European culture. Moscow opened its doors, and many Italians and Greeks, masters of various professions came to Russia with Sophia. Special attention was paid to The embellishment of the Kremlin, and construction begun on a series of magnificent churches and palaces and, of course, he new Kremlin walls, making it one of he most fortified cities in the world. With time the Kremlin turned into a superb architectural ensemble, destined to become the center not only of a large city but also of a vast empire. Ivan obviously wanted to make Moscow a beautiful capital, and probably harbored thoughts that it might one day become" new Constantinople, " and match the importance of his new, powerful state.

The Cathedral of the Assumption.

Ivan III was present when in 1472 two Russian builders from Pskov, Krivtsov and Mishkin laid down the first stones for the new cathedral of the Assumption, to re place the old one built in 1327. They worked for two years and had almost finished the job when, suddenly, the walls crumbled down. Some Soviet architects now blame the disaster on an earthquake, and on the poor quality of the mortar, which also had not had time to completely dry out and harden. The furious grand duke ordered that foreign architects be brought to Moscow to rebuild the cathedral. Italians were chosen, not without Sophia's suggestion, as the most suitable to finish the work. In Russia, Italy already had the reputation of being land of talented architects, painters and sculptors. A special mission headed by Boyar Tolbuzin went to Italy to search for the best architect.

Ridolfo Fiorvanti

The choice fell on Ridolfo Fioravanti, (1415-1486), an architect from Bologna, who agreed to go to the mysterious country for a salary of ten Rubles per month, equivalent at that time to the price of two pounds of silver. He arrived in Moscow in 1475 and was advised to visit first the city of Vladimir and several other places, including the charming little church on the Nerli, to familiarize himself with the best examples of Russian church architecture. He finished the new Kremlin cathedral in 1479, and left no doubt that he had instantly caught the Russian spirit and that the cathedral in Vladimir served as this main inspiration. The two cathedrals do resemble each other very much,, and at the consecration, Ivan III, the boyars, the church prelates and the people were delighted. The first "Crowning" ceremony that was held in the cathedral was when in 1498 Ivan III invested his grandson Dimitri as his crown prince. Later Ivan the Terrible chose to be crowned there as Russian tsar, establishing a custom for those to come. Some architects consider its plan and its basic features a harmonious combination of Renaissance and Russian traditional styles. The cathedral was built of white stone; it has high round pillars, cross shaped arches that carry five cupolas and by Russian standards, plenty of open space inside. The windows are narrow and placed relatively high. The walls are bare and decorated only with high pilasters and a band of blind ornamental arcatures. This rather laconic exterior sharply contrasts with the ostentatious interior with all walls covered entirely with frescoes. The cathedral was completely embellished for the first time in 1514, presumably by painters trained by Dionisii. With the exception of a few fragments in the chapel of the Virgin, all the original frescoes perished in the flames that so often swept though Moscow. Its first iconostasis, with icons painted, as the Chronicle says, by Dionisii the priest, Timophey Yarets and Konia, who probably did some wall painting too also disappeared.
There are several contradictory reports concerning the year they worked in the cathedral. When the vaults started cracking, tsar Mikhail Romanov ordered that all frescoes be repainted during the restoration. The best painters from all parts of the country were called to Moscow to participate in the work. Among them were two brothers from Pskov, Ivan and Boris Paisiin, Sidor Pospeev, Bazhen Savin and others, in all almost a hundred painters and assistants. It took them two years, 1642-1643, to repaint everything and cover almost fifty thousand square feet with pictures and gold background. They worked under the control of a special commission, headed by Boyar Boris Repnin, which took care that the new frescoes be as close to the originals as possible. But some forty rears later they were already damaged by fire, and damaged again when Napoleon took Moscow. In the last century they were repainted with oil colors. The first attempts to restore he original frescoes were made in the beginning of our century. This process of cleaning, refreshing and retouching was finished in 1950, and today they give us an idea how he empty cathedral originally looked. We say empty because the valuable things, and there were hundreds of them, were taken out during and after the revolution. The walls are covered with hundreds of silent and staring figures. Legend says that even Napoleon became frightened when he entered the cathedral in 1812. The very intricate composition of the last Judgement covers the entire west wall. The north wall shows scenes from the life of the Virgin, and the south, the seven councils of the Orthodox Church. In the window embrasures are the figures of Saint Vladimir and Saint Olga. Martyrs, angels, saints and other personages are painted on the round columns, each divided into five tiers. In the central cupola is a large image of God, in the other four we see Jesus, The Virgin Sabaoth and Emmanuel. .The iconostasis is one of the tallest in Russia. It has five tiers of icons and a silver royal door and was last renovated in the eighteen eighties. There was hardly any Moscow grand duke or tsar who did not contribute to it an icon. They were brought from Vladimir, Novgorod, Pskov and other cities; and some supposedly came from Constantinople. The most famous among them were the Virgin of Vladimir and "Tsar Tsarem," allegedly painted by the first Russian iconographer Saint Alimpii. Many of the icons were framed in gold and adorned with precious stones. The most valuable were taken out and put into museums. The entire look of the iconostasis and the altar offered a fabulous, and in a way also barbaric, picture of hundreds of glistening diamonds, rubies, sapphires etc. There was said to be over five tons of gold in various items, decorations, frames etc in the cathedral. The disposition of icons in the iconostasis follows a certain order aimed to elucidate the idea of the universal church, namely the union of the Old and New Testaments. The icons in the first, top, tier shows God in the middle and the forefathers and patriarchs on his sides; in the second are prophets, from Moses to Christ, each holding in his hand a scroll containing his prophecy, and in the middle is the Virgin with the child Jesus, on her lap; the third, with usually the smallest icons, shows major church holidays and events; the fourth, illustrates the Christian church with Christ sitting on the throne in the center and the Virgin, Saint John and the apostles on his sides. The bottom row had the most venerated, and usually the most precious icons. The first, to the left of the Royal doors, was the Virgin of Vladimir, followed by the image of the Savior and the icon "Tsar Tsarem." To the right, another Savior, sitting in his throne, the Assumption of the Virgin, allegedly painted by Metropolitan Peter, the Annunciation of the Virgin, and Saint Dimitri (Demetrius of Saloniki). There were several other old icons in the Cathedral, including the one depicting Emperor Constantine as Saint George. The legend says that it was given by the Pope to a Russian prince at the time when union with Rome was considered possible. As we know, Moscow Metropolitan Isidor was of Greek origin, and after attending the Eight church council at Florence in 1438 he had ordered that in the liturgy a short prayer be said for the life of the Pope and his name be mentioned. When in 1440 a papal bulletin was read in the cathedral of the Assumption in the presence of Vasili II, the grand duke jumped from his seat and accused Isidor of heresy and put him under house arrest in the nearby Chudov monastery. A few years later in 1488, the council of Russian prelates, independently from the Patriarch of Constantinople, chose the Bishop of Riazan Iona as the new Metropolitan of all Russia. Not long afterwards the Ukrainian Metropolitan of Kiev in his turn declared the Ukrainian Orthodox Church independent from Moscow.
The Cathedral of the Assumption in the Kremlin soon became the main sanctuary of Russia. Its architectural features, style, cupolas, iconostasis, practically everything, served as a model for hundreds of churches throughout the country. The square in front of it was named Cathedral square and became the heart of the Kremlin. Surrounded by two more cathedrals, a palace, a belfry and churches, it was there that coronations, processions and most of the festivities took place.
Ridolfo "Aristotle" Fioravanti was indeed a very gifted and versatile man. Besides teaching Russians how to make better bricks, how to use lime in construction and how to build solid stone churches, he taught them several other until then not well-known skills, such as how to cast big bells and cannons in molds. Amazed by Fioravanti's knowledge and obtrusiveness, the Russians nicknamed him Aristotle, after the famous Greek, considered to be the highest compliment that could be made to a scholar. Not only the people were pleased with Fioravanti; Ivan III liked him too and often consulted him. The ingenious Italian particularly impressed him with his masterly knowledge of how to cast big cannons, which Ivan needed so much both against the Tatars, Lithuanians and Swedes, and to put the still-independent Russian provinces under his rule. By 1479, Moscow already had its first artillery foundry, jokingly named "cannon's izba," which produced the cannons to defeat Novgorod and other principalities, and the bells to greet the Moscow grand duke upon his return from his military campaigns. Before coming to Moscow, according to some sources, Fioravanti was involved in some affair with counterfeited papal money. The fact is that he knew how to mint coins and he helped Ivan's minters to improve their primitive methods and make better "denga," at that time considered an important prerequisite to increasing and improving trade.

Cathedral of the Annunciation.

The construction of the cathedral of the Assumption was only the beginning of an unprecedented era of building and embellishment of the Kremlin that was launched by Ivan III. a new cathedral of the Annunciation was begun in 1484, to replace t he old one, built in 1397. Ivan gave the two Pskov builders, Krivtsov and Mishkin another chance; this time they were indeed successful. Instead of using semicircular "Zakomari" for the roof superstructure, they introduced (for the first time in Moscow architecture), corbeled arches arranged in receding tiers. The arches carry the drums and the cupolas, and the entire superstructure had an impressive pyramidal silhouette. The ogee-shaped arch became popular throughout Russia and found extensive use in decorative art. It became known in Russia as "kokoshnik," a name primarily given to a woman's headdress, which is very similar in form to the kokoshnik that we often see in church architecture. Originally the cathedral had only three cupolas and an open gallery with a parvis around its three sides. A fire seriously damaged it in 1547. Under Ivan the Terrible it was reconstructed in 1562-1564; the cathedral received two more cupolas on the western side, the galleries were rebuilt and restored, and each corner was turned into a chapel with a cupola on it, to commemorate the four main Christian holidays. From the first days the cathedral served as a private family chapel for the grand dukes and later the tsars. Many members of the royal family were married or baptized in it. Without galleries, the cathedral is indeed small, just the size of an average chapel. The four square pillars that carry the superstructure are disproportionately large and take up quite a lot of space, much reducing the view of the iconostasis. The cathedral is connected to the palace through a special passage in its western side, leading to the gallery. Ivan the Terrible often attended services there and legend says that in 1584 he saw through the window a large comet which formed an enormous cross. He became frightened and exclaimed: "This is the sign of my death."
In 1508 Feodosii, son of the well-known iconographer Dionisii, helped by several assistants, covered the entire cathedral with wall paintings. The question of who painted the frescoes in the four chapels and the galleries that were rebuilt in the time of Ivan the Terrible remains open. According to some art historians they were painted by Feodosii; others argue that they were the work of an unknown artist who painted them in 1547 after the fire. The main frescoes depict several subjects from the Apocalypse, and also Byzantine emperors and Russian princes, but together with saints on the walls of the galleries we see the figures of Aristotle, Ptomomei, Anaharis, Menandre, Senon, Plutarch and others. It is hard to accept that Feodosii or any other Russian iconographer would venture to introduce Greek philosophers so boldly in to the tsar's private chapel. Nevertheless, it did happen, and though the frescoes were renovated and repainted several times, the Greeks remained on the walls. This was an unusually liberal stand, taken by the Russian Church hierarchy.
Each time a service is held in an Orthodox church a great many candles are lighted, while icon-lamps are supposed to burn continuously. The smoke they produce in a century or two is sufficient to cover the icons and the frescoes with soot and make them look dark. This is why at least cleaning if not renovation was necessary. We know that the cathedral of the Annunciation was entirely renovated in 1697 and 1770, and its frescoes have since been renewed in 1835 and 1882. An academic painter, V.D. Fartusov, was commissioned in 1882 to renew the frescoes in the parvis; his work soon stirred a controversy, followed by his dismissal and the apparent total loss of the original frescoes, and a mystery that may never be clarified. From the description that was published in 1909 by A.I. Uspensky we learn that after cleaning the sealing of the central cupola and the walls of the parvis, Fartusov found that they were covered with fine frescos of exceptional beauty and mastership. He reported his findings to the commission for protection of monuments. The members of the commission went to the cathedral to examine the old frescoes and to the astonishment of Fartusov and some other art students, reported to the president of the commission that the "discovered frescoes did not at all resemble the accepted type of old Russian church wall paintings, and accused the restorer of altering them with his own drawings. Though Fartusov pleaded innocent and maintained that it would be impossible for him to produce such marvelous work, he was dismissed in 1885. However, before he left the cathedral he made some fifty photos of the discovered frescoes, which clearly show that only an experienced master familiar with western art, or else a foreigner, could have painted them. There are several details that speak for this conclusion, particularly the faces of the persons painted and the Roman noses which are especially visible on the fresco"In Thee Rejoiceth." In the absence of specific information, some critics tend to assume that these particular frescoes were painted by a foreigner; there were many who came to Moscow after Fioraventi. They base their assumption on the fact that the great incendiary that ravaged Moscow and the Kremlin in 1547 also damaged the Cathedral of the Annunciation, and they conclude that many frescoes painted by Feodosiii perished at that time. Consequently, the frescoes that Fartusov discovered were painted after 1547. In support of this they add that here is clear indication that the impressive portals were built by an unknown Italian at the time of the construction of the galleries and the chapels. To "restore the damage" made by Fartusov, the commission picked Safonov, an awkward restorer who had already mishandled other master-pieces, and instructed him to replace the old with his own. He did it, fortunately, without destroying the old. In 1947 former Palekh iconographers cleaned and restored some of the frescoes. Additional work was done in 1961 and today we are assured that the frescoes we see in the cathedral of the Annunciation are those painted by Feodosii and his assistants. Needless to say, this cathedral also had many beautiful old icons, richly decorated with gold and precious tones; an exceptional collection of crosses that once hung around the necks of princes, grand dukes and tsars, including two gold crosses that allegedly belonged to Vladimir Monomakh; several extraordinary chasubles, real masterpieces of gold, silver and pearl embroidery, one of which had over forty pounds of pearls alone; and many religious objects. Of interest also is the floor of the cathedral, which was paved with slabs of jasper, agate and other colorful and semi-precious stones sent by the Shah of Persia as a gift to Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich; and the beautiful crosses on the tip of each cupola in the form of a fine wrought iron tracery. As another mark of his victory over the Tatars, Ivan the Terrible ordered that a defeated crescent be put at the bottom of each cross. They are still there. Under Vassili III in 1508 not only the icons were covered with silver and fold repousse plates, but all the cupolas and the entire roof of the cathedral were gold plated. The work was done by the well-known silversmith Fyodor Yedikeev and his assistants. In 1963 the Soviet government ordered that the cupolas and the roof be regilded, so that now, indeed, they shine perhaps too much.

The Kremlin Walls and Towers.

To adequately protect the Kremlin against foreign invaders Ivan III needed, besides the cannons that Fioraventi made for him, new walls and fortifications to replace the old dilapidated ones which Dimitri Donskoy had built over a century before. Muscovites knew something about bricks before the arrival of Fioraventi. Their bricks were called "Plinfa;" they were of poor quality and crumbled easily. They were thin and their size was not suitable for solid constructions. Fioraventi found a good clay for bricks not far from the Andronikov monastery; the Russians readily followed his advice about how to mold them and harden them by fire, but refused to change their dimensions. This came considerably later. Fioraventi used his new bricks for the vaults of the cathedral of the Assumption, and this was the first time that real bricks were used in Moscow. Being cheaper and stronger than the deficient Russian lime-stone, bricks became by the end of the 15th century, the principal construction material for the major edifices, and the lime-stone was used primarily for decorations. With the exception of the Kremlin, and a very few houses around it and the churches, Moscow would continue for a long time to use wood for its construction, including most of the boyars' mansions. For erecting any privately owned stone building, the prospective owner needed a special permission from the grand duke to get stones or bricks, so scarce was this material at that time. By the middle of the following century, Saint Basil's cathedral was built - the masterpiece of the Russian brick architecture.

Antonio Solari and Marco Ruffo

To proceed with his ambitious plans of rebuilding and embellishing his capital, Ivan needed more foreign architects, artists and craftsmen of all sorts. Several missions were sent to Italy to recruit them. Good salaries and the experience that Fioraventi already had encouraged many to come. Among them was Pietro Antonio Solari, a native of Milan, who became one of the chief architects of he new Kremlin. Between 1485 and 1485 he erected the present Kremlin walls, a triangle that surrounds almost seventy acres of land. Solari was followed by Antonio Friazin, ( Italians were called Friazin), Marco Ruffo, Alevis' Novi and several others. They were helped by hundreds of Russian builders, craftsmen and artists, in the rapid growth and cultural development of Moscow. Large masses of the people were in favor of the strong Moscow central government as the only force capable of defending the country from foreign invaders. There were also many who say a great future for their country and their people in the artistic and cultural activity that started in the last quarter of the 15th century and lasted through most of the 16th century. This was what we would today call in a way, a "cultural revolution," aimed to catch up with the rest of Europe as much as possible. Though most of the architects were Italians, contributions made by the Russians were equally important. We can even say that Russians only decorated what the Italians had erected, and many reconstructions and embellishments have since made the Kremlin one of the world's most picturesque architectural ensembles, which continues to astonish visitors with its beauty. Without the Russian sense of colors and ornamentation, and especially of the picturesque, the Kremlin would have remained an impressive fortress, similar to so many that existed or still exist in Europe, and which usually leave the visitor more grievous than delighted. Instead, the Kremlin became an extraordinary mosaic of Russian architecture and decorative art. The new edifices built by Italians were mixed with Russian wooden constructions. Particularly numerous were wooden churches with their gilded cupolas. During the reign of Fedor Ivanovich there were over thirty of them, and when Mikhail Fedorovich became tsar the number reached almost fifty. During the reign of Mikhail and Alexei Romanov there were in the Kremlin not only the stone palaces belonging to the Romanov, but those of well-known princes and boyars such as Trubetskoy, Odoevsky, Golitsin, Miloslavsky, Morozov, Sheremetiev, Cherkasky, Streshniev and others, though most palaces were still wooden. It was Peter the Great who cleaned the Kremlin of most of its wooden palaces and private houses. The majestic look of the Kremlin ensemble brought about imitations in many Russian cities. Some of them met military challenges but they all considerably enriched the rather monotonous landscape of this country with its predominant feature of rolling valleys. For generations of Russians the Moscow Kremlin remained a sacred place. Today many consider it the heart of their country. Russian tsars lived there, and Lenin and Stalin too. Tsars were crowned and invested there, as are the present rulers. It was here in the Kremlin, that, in the 16th century, Ivan the Terrible saluted Russian victories with cannon fire, a tradition that was renewed in August 1943 by Stalin. For centuries the Kremlin was the see of the Metropolitan of all Russia. Even today visiting foreign heads of state consider it a special privilege if they are permitted to spend a night or so within its walls. A Russian proverb says: "Above Moscow there is nothing but the Kremlin, and above the Kremlin nothing but the sky."
The walls that Solari and Marco Ruffo built around the Moscow Kremlin are 7332 feet long; their height ranges from 16 to 62 feet, depending on the configuration of the ground. There are over a thousand scalinger battlements on the outer rim of the walls, paired with lime-stone on the top. The battlements are from six to eight feet high and from 25 to 27 inches wide. At the corners of the walls strong circular towers control all approaches to the Kremlin, and in the old days the Kremlin was surrounded on all sides by the two rivers, Moskva and Neglinnaya, and the deep moat along the foot of which was the borders the Red square. High fortified gate-towers serve as entrances to the Kremlin. The gates had strong oak frames studded with iron rivets. In front of the were barbicans with chain drawbridges that spanned the rivers and the moat; their outer entrances were protected by portcullises. It was a highly dependable fortification. Most of the present Kremlin towers look differently now than they did when they were built. During the 17th and later they received their big steeples with conical tops on which imperial double-headed eagles spread their wings. After the revolution the eagles were taken down and replaced with ruby stars. One of the first towers to be built was the Tainitskaya (Secret) gate, located on the southern side and facing the Moskva river. It received its name from the secret well designed to supply water in case of a siege. If was demolished in 1770 to make room for a palace which was designed by Vasili Bazhenov but never built. Further up the river, at the south-west corner of the Kremlin, is the Vodozvodnaya (Water) tower, also known as Sviblova after the boyar who lived in the nearby village of Timofeyevskoe and who took an active part in the construction of the first stone wall around the Kremlin in 1367. When in 1633 a pumping device was installed in the tower, which brought water to the Kremlin palaces, kitchens and even gardens from the river Moskva, the tower became known also as the Water tower. The pumping device was installed by Christopher Galloway, an English clock maker, after some Moscow merchants, who traveled through western Europe, told the tsar about a strange machine that brought water up to the palaces and mansions they had visited. Until then the water for the Kremlin had been carried in barrels. Gallway came to Moscow in 1621 and was employed by the tsar. His yearly salary was 60 Rubles plus some money and food allowance. In 1812 the tower was blown up by the French troops, and in 1817-1819 it was rebuilt by O.I. Bove, predominantly in the classical style. The Water tower is one of the five towers that have a ruby star on the top; the others are the Borovitskaya, Nikolskaya, Troitskaya and Spaskaya.

The Spaskaya Gate Tower

The Spaskaya (Savior) gate tower is undoubtedly the most impressive and has the richest history of all the five. An inscription over the entry portals tells us that it was built by Solari in 1491, at which time it was known as the Frolovskaya tower, the name it received from the nearby church of Saints Frol and Lavr. Ivan III ordered this church and about ten more, as well as several other buildings demolished to open the approaches to the new gate and clear space for a new square - the present Red Square. The name of the tower was changed in 1658 when an icon of the Savior was put just above the gate, facing the Red square. A tsar's ukaz ordered that nobody should pass through the gates unless he went bareheaded. Men caught with hats on their heads were ordered to bow fifty times in front of the icon, each time touching the ground with their hand; in some rare cases they were flogged as well. The people regarded the gate and the icon as a sacred place, as any Christian would regard his church, and nobody would intentionally keep his head covered, while inside. For centuries the Spaskaya Gate was used for most important religious and state ceremonies and processions. A large part of he history of the Moscow state and of Russia passed through this gate.
Galloway, assisted by the Russian builder Bazhen Ogurtsov, replaced the wooden, tent-shaped roof of the Savior gate with a high brick steeple. Instead of the old hour bell Hallway put in it his new clock. The entire tower now almost doubled in height and was richly decorated with two rows of arches, pyramids, statues, gargoyles etc., all done in white stone. The statues stood naked in the niches which now are empty. Legend says that the priggishly modest tsar Mikhail Fedorovich ordered that they be properly dressed, and a special cloth was brought from England for this purpose, All the dresses perished in the fire of 1654 and many statues were seriously damaged. sporadic fires in Moscow often reached the Savior's gate, and each time the tower and the clock had to be repaired. The present clock was installed in 1851- 1852 by the Butenop brothers. The fighting during the revolution again damaged the tower. The clock was repaired by Kremlin locksmith N. V. Behrens, and an artist and later academician, N.M. Cheremnikh, set its chimes to play the International. The tower is 220 feet high, without its ruby star.
The present tsar's tower was built in 1680. Set on the top of the wall not far from the Savior's tower, it looks much like a canopy or one of those small chapels, along the main roads and around monasteries, that existed before the revolution. Four thick melon-shaped pillars carry the octagonal, tent-shaped roof. Kokoshniks, pendants, white stone embossments, small pyramids at each corner, and girdles decorate this cute little tower. Though detailed information is not available, there must have existed another tsar's tower before this one. The legend ways that Ivan the Terrible often went there to watch ceremonies and other amusements that took place on the out-of -door stage (lobnoe Mesto), sometimes erroneously called the Scaffold, or on the Red square. He was particularly amused by watching the fisticuffs that took place in front of the tower.

The Palace of the Facets

The Palace of the Facets (Granovitaya Palata) is located on the western side of the cathedral square, in between the cathedrals of the Assumption and of the Annunciation.. Ivan III was pleased with the Italian architect Marco Ruffo's work when constructing the Kremlin's walls and towers, and commissioned him to erect one of the first smooth stone edifices in the Kremlin. The work started in 1487 but was finished by Solari in 1491. The palace was intended to serve as the throne-room reception chamber, but it was also used as a conference hall and for celebration of major events that were attended by tsars. The diamond rustication in the white stone of the facade gave the palace its name. The entire main floor of the palace is just one hall about seventy feet wide and 77 feet long, with just one massive pier 28 feet high in the middle, carrying four cross shaped vaults that span the entire edifice. The single-peered hall looks more spacious than it actually is. Ruffo's idea became popular and many refectories in the monasteries had ceilings supported by just one central pier.
In the old days the entrance to the Granovitaya Palata was through the Beautiful "Krasnoe Kriltso," stairway, the "Perron," (porch) and the richly decorated Holy Vestibule, (Sviatiya Seni). The perron, which no longer exists, had two doors, the right leading to the Vestibule and the left to the tsar's living quarters, the present Teremnoy palace. It was on the perron that grand dukes and tsars used to stop for a while to greet the people in the evening or chat with boyars and church dignitaries before returning to the palace. On rare occasions and as a special gesture they waited there to meet foreign dignitaries.
Granovitaya Palata witnessed many celebrations and receptions at which foreign and Russian dignitaries were received by tsars and entertained at official parties and dinners. Since the custom was for women to be excluded from participation in men's festivities, the tsarina and tsarevnas could satisfy their curiosity and look through a secret window in a small room that The Italian architects had added just for this purpose. In 1552 Ivan the Terrible here celebrated his victory over the Tatars at Kazan. The festivities lasted three days, and the chronicle says that he distributed to his military commanders and heroes gifts of silver weighing almost seven tons. However, the palace looked the most barbarously luxurious under Boris Godunov. His Tatar origins added to his preference for gold and precious stones. The chronicle describes the fabulous richness and Asiatic luxury of the occasion of the reception of the Danish prince whom Boris wanted to marry his daughter Ksenia. The robes that the tsar, his family and the boyars put on were embroidered with gold and precious stones. The chairs for the tsar and his family were made of gold, and the long table of silver with gilded legs. In 1709 Peter the Great celebrated here his victory over the Swedes at Poltava. The hall (Palata) was not used only for celebrations. Thus in 1682 heated discussions took place there between Protopop Avaakum and the leaders of the official Orthodox Church. In 1761 the commission to draft the new code (Ulozhenie) met there, after Catherine the Great opened the first session. In Soviet times too a few reception have been held there, and the decorations remained the same; elders of the Central Committee and the Supreme Soviet play the role of boyars.
Granovitaya Palata was decorated by unknown painters in the second half of the 16th century. Entire walls were covered with frescos depicting scenes from the Old Testament, with the intention to symbolize the virtues of Moscow rulers. About a century later the well-known Moscow iconographer Simon Ushakov restored the same frescoes and left detailed descriptions of how the originals looked. According to him, the allegorical figures, the episodes from the Testament and particularly the scenes from Russia's past were emphasized even more, to conduce the prestige of the tsars than the frescoes n the Teremnoy Palace which Ushakov also restored and could compare them. The frescoes that Ushakov repainted survived until the time of Peter the Great. During his time and later they were neglected, and several fires damaged them seriously. Unqualified restorations did the rest. In 1880 an attempt was made to clean Ushakov's frescoes of all latter additions, but almost nothing was found that had survived. Instead, iconographers from the village of Palekh, headed by the brothers Bielousov, repainted them again. In 1949 they were restored for the last time.

Cathedral of the Archangel Michael.

The Cathedral of the Archangel Michael was built by The Italian architect Alevis' Novi in 1505-1508. It stands on the southern side of the cathedral square, where there had stood a church which was erected by Ivan Kalita in 1333. From early times the Archangel was considered the protector of Moscow's princes, and a church dedicated to him had to exist in the Kremlin. It was chosen to serve as the burial place for Moscow grand dukes and tsars. Almost all (before Peter the Great) of them were buried there in addition to other princes. When Ivan III decided to replace the old church, it already contained 24 tombs. He found it small and not representative of his dynasty. With its six pillars and five cupolas the cathedral of the Archangel greatly resembles the cathedral of the Assumption, though smaller in size. It is not really a copy, and is different, because Novi embellished its exterior and put slimmer and taller drums beneath the cupolas, which accentuated the vertical lines and changed the entire silhouette of the edifice. He divided the cathedral horizontally into two parts with a double string-course. The lower part is decorated with archatures and the upper with rectangular profile panels; both have small windows. The pilasters are crowned with Corinthian capitals. Above them are cornices and then, just under the roof a row of purely decorative "kokoshniki" in the form of radially ribbed shells. In all the cathedral was a considerable departure from existing forms, and the first introduction in Moscow of some Italian decorative details. The interior walls of the cathedral were covered with frescoes depicting the Last Judgement, Saints and martyrs and portraits of those buried there. Though there are no indications who painted the first frescoes, some Soviet historians think they were executed by Dionisii (?) Or his followers. The frescoes all perished in flames that swept through the cathedral, or were seriously damaged by dampness, and had to be renovated. The cathedral of the archangel Michael was decorated with frescoes for the second time in 1652 by the Kremlin's artists Ya. Kazanets and S. Riazanets and later renewed by Dorofey Yermolayev; in 1680-1681 and again on two more occasions. Of modest artistic value, the frescoes that we see today are of interest because of their content. Besides saints they include and actually represent a portrait gallery of Russian princes and tsars beginning with Kalita. The last who was buried in the cathedral was Peter II. Boris Godunov was also buried here, but his remains were thrown out by Dimitrii the False, who ordered that a special hole be made in the wall to take them out without religious rites, of course, and later taken to Saint Sergius' Lavra. Soon after he first church was built a new custom came into existence, according to which anybody could bring a complaint to the church and lay it down on the tombs of The tsars, and be sure that the reigning tsar would read it. This custom was abolished by Peter the great. On the western wall of the cathedral; is the Last Judgement. The cathedral's iconostasis was executed in 1680-1681 by unknown masters in the so-called "Moscow baroque" style that was to be used often for interior decorating.
The cathedral was erected on the same spot where the stone church of Saint Michael had existed before, which was built in 1333 by Ivan Kalita. Russian painters originally frescoed the church in 1344-1346. Theophan Grek redecorated it with new frescoes in 1399. They perished in flames in 1475. The church was repainted, and it remained until 1505 when Ivan III decided to replace it with a new, more dignified, and larger cathedral. By that time 24 royal persons were already buried there and space was running short. The Milanese architect Alevis' Novi was commissioned to do the work. The new edifice was consecrated in 1509 in the presence of the new Grand Prince of Moscow, Vasili Ivanovich. First in 1652 two tsar's iconographers, Yakov Kazanets and Stepan Riazanets, repainted several frescoes; then, in 1660 and 1666, Ivan Filatiev, Fyodor Kozlov and Fyodor Zubov continued the work. In 1680 and 1681 the iconographer Dorofeey Yermolaev worked in the cathedral for almost two years. More painters came later ( in 1772, 1826, 1853 and as late as 1893) to repaint or restore this unique gallery of portraits of Russian grand dukes and tsars. Soviet artists cleaned them for the last time in 1953-1955. The most valuable icon in the iconostasis is that of Saint Michael, allegedly painted by Rublev or one of this pupils. There were more old icons in the cathedral. Several of those that we see now were painted by A. Zolotarev, and a few by Yermolaev and Mikhail Maliutin. In all there are now 46 sarcophaguses, quite modest indeed. Before the revolution the sarcophaguses were covered with tapis, with the exception of the one that contains the body of Ivan the Terrible, which was a simple black cloth to indicate that he died as an ordinary monk (brother Jonas).

The Monastery of Saint Therapont.

About eleven miles north of Kirillov, deep in the woods, between lakes and completely secure from Tatar incursions, a member of a Moscow boyar family, Reverend Therapont (Ferapont), took monastic vows and in 1389 founded a monastery which later was named after him. With time the monastery earned its reputation as an important new cultural center. The hard work of its brethren contributed much.
When the Serbian biographer Pakhomii Lagophet visited the monastery in around 1468 he noted that the monks were busy reading and rewriting books. Pakhomii had undertaken the trip to study materials for the biography of reverend, Cyrill (Kirill) Belozerski, which he was getting ready to write at the time. A year before Therapont, Cyrill founded the nearby monastery which received his name. He was a pupil of Saint Sergius, and during his long life contributed much to the prestige of Moscow's grand dukes. Later in the second half of the 15th century both monasteries experienced a period of ideological struggle concerning the right of the Church, and the monasteries in particular, to possess lands and wealth. The chief proponent of the idea that monks should live be their work and lead an ascetic life was Nil Sorskii (1433-1508). A member of the maikov boyar family and an outstanding figure among Russian scholars, philosophers, theologians, to put his teachings into practice, Nil left the Kirillo-Belozerski Monastery and not far from it founded a hermitage in the desert land along the river Sora, which gave him the nickname Sorskii. Opposed to him was Iosif Volotskii, (Ivan Sanin) (Volokolamskii) (1439-1515), abbot and founder of the Volokolamskii Monastery, who defended the right of the monasteries to own large estates and though he supported the autocracy of Moscow rulers and the theory of "Moscow the Third Rome," he raised his voice against the attempts of Ivan III to confiscate the estates. For Iosif the tsar was something like a god on earth, and he asked the boyars to consider him "Sovereign of all Russian Princes." On the other hand, if the tsar does not fulfill his obligations towards the Church, he would serve the devil, but even in this case he would have to account only to God. Iosif's ideas about divine origin of tsar's power and the role that the Church should play within the state served as the basis for future relationships between them. Strangely enough, the Church later beatified Nil and not Iosif. Nil's ideas were propagated by his followers and, after his departure from the Kirillo-Belozerski Monastery, most building and decorative activity stopped for a while. Later "Nestyazhateli," (non-grabbers), the name Nil's disciples called themselves, felt that icons should be painted to reflect events and personages authentically and not to show "Delicate effeminate faces." The movement acquired a political taint under the leadership of Prince Vassili Ivanovich Patrikeev. Together with his father he was, first, forced to become a monk by Ivan III, because they were on the side of tsarevich Dimitri when his grand-father wanted to eliminate his right to succeed to the Moscow throne, then. Then under Vassili III he was brought to Moscow where he continued to advocate the liquidation of monastery lands. Better known under his new monastic name of Vassian Kosoy (Vassian Squint-eye), he often defended dispossessed peasants, but without criticizing his fellow boyars, among whom he was quite popular. Vassian died in 1531 under mysterious circumstances.
There were several other prominent Russian literati and clergymen who lived and worked in the Monastery of Saint Therapont. One of them was the Archbishop of Kiev Spiridon, who, at the end of the 15th century, joined the Monastery after he and the Patriarch of Constantinople fell in disgrace and he was forced to quit his see (diocese). Another was the Archbishop of Novgorod, Ghennadii (Gennadius), who advocated better education for the Russian clergy and demanded drastic measures to put an end to the heresy of Judaizers, including the right to "Burn them at the stake and hang them; some of them were indeed burned alive. This heresy was brought to Novgorod in 1471 by the Lithuanian Jews Skharia, Samuel and Moses, and through two priests, who were transferred to serve in the cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin, found many sympathizers, including the Metropolitan Zosima, who, in 1494, was declared morally unfit for his duties. The famous Patriarch Nikon was exiled to Therapont Monastery for ten years, 1666-1676.

Dionisii.

The followers of Theophane's and Rublev's traditions did not simply copy the works of the two great masters, but tried to introduce some novelties in their art. The independent course taken by some of them may be considered an improvement. Some talented disciples enlarged their palettes and their colors became more rich. They paid increased attention to the picturesque side of the icon, sometimes at the expense of its purely religious characters. They preferred to paint chivalrous saints who distinguished themselves by brave acts, defending not only the faith and the Church, but the people too. Saint George became particularly popular. The icons they painted bear witness to an increasingly accomplished style, in some cases quite individual and mature. But again, unfortunately, very few of the icons were dated and none of them signed, making difficult to trace a pattern in their development. Some of them are fine examples of superb art, that made the 15th century the golden age of Russian iconography. Certain students of Russian art find reason in this artistic independence to presume that Russian non-religious painting must have started at about the same time, and Novgorod is given as its place of origin. However, there is much uncertainty in their theory, and a decline in religious fervor of the grand dukes or of the people at that time can hardly be seen. The man who best exemplified the new trend and who gave his icons and frescoes a delicate, festive and joyful look was the painter Dionisii. This is his Christian name, and the only personal detail that we know with certainty.
The first churches in the Saint Therapont's Monastery were wooden as were most other monasteries. In 1488, fire destroyed the relatively new wooden Church of the Nativity of the Virgin erected in 1466 and many other buildings. Fortunately, at just about that time the Archbishop of Rostov Ioasaf was exiled there. He quarreled with Ivan III and, though a member of the princely family Obolensky, he had to go back to the place where he had embraced monasticism as a young man. Ioasaf gave the money for a new brick Church of the Nativity of the Virgin to be erected around 1490. It is a square and a rather small church with four pillars and a single cupola. The fact that it was built on a high basement gave the church an elongated silhouette. The Church was built in the late Novgorod style, most probably by Rostov builders. The inscription on the northern wall indicates that the Church was decorated with frescoes by the "Icon-painter Dionisii and his sons" in 1500-1502. Most of Russian art historians tend to believe that Ioasaf, through his connections with the high clergy, must have heard that Dionisii was one of the best iconographers and invited him to paint the frescoes in his newly built church. As is the case with Rublev and most other icon painters, the birth and life history of Dionisii remain unknown. The Chronicle mentions his name for the first time around 1470, when Dionisii and another painter, Mitrofan, were invited by the Rostov Archbishop Vassian to decorate a church in his eparchy. Since Mitrofan's name is listed first, art students presume that Dionisii learned from him how to paint icons and frescoes. 1440 is most often given as the year of his birth, and with uncertainty, 1508 is used as the year of his death, because that year he did not take part in the decoration of the Cathedral of the Annunciation in the Moscow Kremlin, in which his son Feodosii (Theodosius) participated. The Chronicle for 1482 records that Ivan III invited "Icon painters Dionisii, priest Timofey (Timothy), Yarets and Konia" to paint the icons for the iconostasis of the Cathedral of the Assumption that Fioravanti had finished a few years before. Two years later we see Dionisii, his sons Feodosii and Vladimir, and the icon painter Paisii the Elder, painting the icons for the Isosifo-Volokolamskii Monastery founded in 1479 by Iosif Volotskii. The 1545 description of the Monastery says that they painted over a hundred icons there, but hardly any have survived until the present times. In view of their high reputation as good painters, it would be normal to assume that they painted many more elsewhere. Of course, many icons have perished since and, in the absence of precise information; those presumed to be by Dionisii are thought to be so primarily because some details resemble much that of his frescoes in the Monastery of Saint Therapont. To properly evaluate Dionisii's talent and importance in the Russian art, we must go back to this frescoes in the Monastery of Saint Therapont. They rate, undoubtedly, among the best that Russian iconography had produced and they are the culmination of his artistic creativity. They are also authentic and well preserved.
Dionisii and his sons covered the entire interior of the Church of the Nativity with frescoes, including the vaults, the pillars and the outside western wall around the main portal. Inside, the frescoes were painted in three tiers; several of them depict scenes from the life of the Virgin. Even before we enter the church we are greeted with a beautiful composition of the Nativity of the Virgin above the portal, and archangels on its sides recording all those that enter and leave the Church." Dionisii balanced his frescoes masterfully with the architectural lines of the Church and achieved an almost perfect harmony of proportions found only in the works of great masters. Though he dealt with a variety of themes, his frescoes appear to be a series of narrative compositions that flow one after the other. Stories depicting the Virgin's life or Christ's miracles abound, and are presented so vividly that hardly anybody leaves without realizing their moral admonition. To obtain visionary effects and underline the gracefulness of the personages, Dionisii elongated their figures, arms and faces, similarly to what El Greco's style a century later. But, more than anything else, it is the richness of Dionisii's palette, particularly visible on the garments, that produces the happy and festive feeling in the Church. His transparent and delicate greens, yellows, roses, turquoises, predominantly on pale blue background, rank him with Rublev. Obviously, Dionisii was not affected at all by the teaching of his contemporaries "Nestyazhateli" who, not far from the Monastery of Saint Therapont, denied beauty its necessary role in religious life. Hardly anyone could believe Dionisii found the whole range of his rich colors just around the Church, mostly on the lake and river shores, which abound in soft, naturally-colored pebbles. All he had to do was to grind them and mix them with egg-yolk, adding "Kvas" - the traditional Russian drink made of twice baked and then fermented rye bread - to achieve the desired thickness.. By applying several thin coats of different shades Dionisii obtained the desired transparency and gave his frescoes the softness and delicacy that became so characteristic of this painting.
During their long lives, all the buildings in the Monastery of Saint Therapont underwent several restorations and changes. The Church of the Nativity, among other changes, received in the 18th century a larger drum to carry the new baroque cupola, and in the 19th century acquired the present four-sloped roof. No information has come to light to prove that its frescoes were restored or repainted.
In the 19th century the Monastery was dismembered and the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin turned into a parochial church for the nearby villages. In the very beginning of the 20th century, the Monastery was reestablished as a cloister. Together with the general cleaning done by the nuns, a thorough restoration was conducted from 1908-1915 by two qualified archaeologists, P.P. Pokrishkin and K.K. Romanov. In 1911 V.T. Gheorgievskii published a book entitled "Frescoes of Therapont Monastery," Illustrated with many photos. The book caused considerable interest and even surprise among the public, that such a great work should have remained unnoticed, but this did not last long. The revolution closed the cloister, its churches were pillaged and then abandoned for decades. Only since the nineteen-sixties has the Soviet government shown an increased interest in ancient art and architecture, but with the exception of the Kremlin and other selected places, which are permitted to be visited by foreign tourists and when important and careful restoration had been done, most of the ancient art works received just enough care to prevent total destruction. Unfortunately the Monastery of Saint Therapont belongs to the second group, and its churches remain quite dilapidated, with many cracks in the walls, rotten cupolas and, what is most frightening, the total inside emptiness that is characteristic of most of the churches that are "Protected by the government."

The Novodevichii Convent.

Many art students consider the old frescoes inside the cathedral of the Virgin of Smolensk to be the best examples of Moscow iconography. Particularly remarkable are those painted on the pillars. The cathedral is The oldest building of the Novodevichii Convent in Moscow, founded in 1524 by Vasili III to commemorate the reannexation of the city of Smolensk to his realm. Though it is nowhere specifically stated, it is generally assumed that its architect was the same Italian Alevis' Novi, who earlier had built the cathedral of the Archangel Michael in the Kremlin. The new cathedral repeats the main features of the Kremlin's cathedral of the Assumption, though to make it slightly different, Novi raised it on a basement and put the cupolas closer to each other, which gave the new edifice a slimmer look. There is no information about the painters who decorated the cathedral after it's completion, nor about those who repainted them Boris Godunov restored the cathedral in 1598 and ordered new icons for its iconostasis. Before that, Boris had lived for a while in the Monastery, and it was here that Patriarch Job asked his consent to become tsar of all Russia after the Zemskii Sobor, an assembly of representatives of various social groups, had offered him the throne a few days earlier. These frescoes were cleaned in 1900 and some of them "renovated," a bad habit that some restorers cannot help. The cathedral was damaged during the revolution, then pillaged and neglected for many years and , of course the monastery was closed. The convent is currently part of the museum of History. Until the revolution the convent had many old icons that tsars and members of their families donated to its churches. Those that we see today in the iconostasis of the cathedral were mostly painted by 17 The century artists, and the iconostasis itself, made of gilded carved wood, is one of the most remarkable examples of Russian decorative art. It was designed by K. Mikhailov, the same architect who built the famous wooden palace in the town of Kolomenskoye for tsar Alexei.
According to legend the Novodevichii Convent received its name form the "Devichee Pole" - Girls' Field - on which it was built. The field got its name from the Russian girls who were brought there during the Tatar regime, to be taken to the Golden Horde as live tribute for the khan's harems. A more sober version says that the convent got its name "Novo" because it was "new" and "Devichii" because it was for the "Girls." At any rate, not all the "Girls" entered the monastery voluntarily. Yulianiya, sister in law of Ivan the Terrible, and his daughter-in-law tsarina Irina Fedorovna, then Yevdokia Fedorovna, wife of Peter the Great, to mention just a few of the most important, were forcefully sent there. So was Peter 's sister, Tsarina Sophia, after she failed to eliminate her brother and send him to a monastery. Sophia, while ruling the country for seven years in the name of her two minor brothers, contributed much to the erection of several new edifices and the embellishment of the convent, as if she sensed that she would end her life there. After she entered the convent and became sister Susanna, an improbable story says that Peter ordered about three hundred of her supporters, Streltsi, to be hanged in front of her windows; a hand of her chief supporter, Prince Khovanskii, remained suspended in front of her window in the Novodevichii monastery for a long time.

"Moscow the Third Rome."

The downfall of Byzantium and the collapse of the Golden Horde enhanced the prestige of Moscow and for the first time opened the way to its eventual role as a world power. In the minds of most Russian leaders, and particularly of the church hierarchy, Constantinople was considered the "New Rome" that replaced the "Decrepit" first Rome, which betrayed true Christianity. They learned this from their Greek teachers and the literature they brought to Russia with them, which supported the theory of succession, according to which historic circumstances and conditions gave Constantinople the right to succeed to the old Rome. With the disappearance of Constantinople the mantle, had to pass to some body else. After defeating the Tatars, liquidating the remaining independent principalities and becoming the capital of a considerably enlarged and unified all-Russian state, it became natural for Moscow to aspire to succeed Constantinople as a new political and spiritual center of the Orthodox world. All that Moscow's leaders needed, after the unfaithful Ottoman empire had established itself firmly in Constantinople, was for somebody to further elaborate the theory of historic succession between the dominant empires. The first contribution to his effort had been already made by Pakhomii Logofet. In his book "The Legend of Princes of Vladimir," which appeared around 1480, he linked Vladimir's Princes and the Moscow dynasty to the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus. According to legend, Augustus had governors throughout his huge empire, one of whom was his brother Pruss, who governed the area around the river Visla. Rurik, the founder of the first Russian dynasty, was supposedly Pruss' fourteenth-generation direct descendant. Thus alleged blood relations between Moscow grand dukes and Caesar Augustus, the "Sovereign of the Universe" became established. Then in the beginning of the 16 The century Filofey (Filotheus), the Abbot of the Yeleazarov monastery in Pskov, drew conclusions, and in an epistle addressed to the Grand Duke Vasili III expounded the famous doctrine "Moscow - the Third Rome." His basic idea was that the entire life of men and of peoples is determined by the will of God. There is nothing fortuitous that guides their destinies; on the contrary, everything unfolds in accordance with divine plan. According to Filofey, both the first and the second Rome fell because they did not live up to the true Christian religion. With their disappearance, the only truly Christian kingdom left was Moscow, the third and last Rome, which divine grace had destined to live for ever. Presumably dynastic ties with the Roman Caesar Augustus and the fact that Vasili III was a child of Sophie Paleologue, niece of the last Byzantine emperor, provided Filofey with necessary elements to declare the Moscow grand duke "the only living tsar of the universe." Filofey's scheme was not a novelty, and he had borrowed some ideas from similar theories that already existed in Byzantine literature concerning the divine origin of the secular power, or even from the Scriptures. The size of the new Russian state and its large population made the theory seem feasible. Under Ivan the Terrible it was officially accepted as the political doctrine of the autocratic state.

New Trends in Arts.

Not all theories about Moscow of this time were unrestrained fantasy. Liberated from Tatar vassalage and the menace from the East, Russians felt free to turn their eyes towards the civilized West. It was under Ivan III that Russia began considering herself a part of Europe, and as such wanting to participate, though modestly and cautiously, in inter-European cultural, economic and political relations, and profit from the progress that Western Europe had already achieved in all these fields. We see an increased movement of European ambassadors, educators, artists etc., to visit Moscow, more often and Russian emissaries traveling through-out Europe. It happened that most of the visiting intellectuals came from Italy, a choice that was made not without the influence of Sophie Paleologue, who lived in Italy before marrying Ivan III and becoming Grand Duchess of Moscow. From the moment the political unification of the country was achieved, cultural manifestations gradually lost their provincial character and became all-Russian, with Moscow as their new center. The tremendously increased power of Moscow's rulers made this possible. With the exception of some old boyar families, who feared that the grand duke might reduce their traditional rights, practically everybody, including the Church, was in favor of a strong central government as the only force capable of defending the country from foreign invaders and assuring a great future for the nation.
Literature, the arts and crafts flourished and grew, together with the rising political importance of Moscow. Masters from all over Russia, together with Italians, helped Moscow improve the style of its masonry constructions that three centuries before had made their remarkable appearance in Vladimir. Daring searches met with success, and after the liberation from Byzantine traditions came a surge of sudden creative force among the people to express themselves their own way and, if possible, to put an end to the already rampant practice of "Russifying" imported styles and trends. Foreign knowledge and experience would continue to flow to Moscow, though on a reduced scale and merely in the form of technical assistance that would not much interfere with the arising indigenous artistic forms.
Novgorod, more than any other province would continue for a while to cultivate a Muscovite taste for iconography, similarly to what Pskov builders did for the architecture of the new Russian capital. The chronicles mention several names of prominent painters who worked during the first half of the 16 The century. Many of their icons were taken to Moscow after the cities lost their independence, and the painters themselves found more interesting and better working conditions when painting for the grand dukes. Their style, if not their colors, clearly differ from Dionissi's. They gave the elongated figures more natural proportions, they changed the backgrounds by showing on their icons the facades of contemporary churches and , sometimes, they enlarged the subject beyond purely religious themes. A tendency towards an independent approach to art was visible, giving the impression that they were looking to reality for inspiration. In most cases this was achieved at the expense of the previous monumental forms and graceful lines so characteristic of Rublev's and Dionisii's great religious scenes.
The 16th century began with an increased impulse for splendor and the desire of the grand dukes to leave to posterity an image of their greatness. Along with this came a determination that Russian artistic aspirations be nourished to a larger extent by their own ingenuity and efforts. Russians approached this goal more successfully in architecture than in any other art. Along with this came a determination that Russian artistic aspirations be nourished to a larger extent by their own ingenuity and efforts. They turned their backs on Byzantine forms, which until then in various degrees and shapes had prevailed in Kiev, Novgorod, Vladimir and even Moscow (the later primarily marked by Italian architects), and returned for inspiration to their native source - the traditional wooden church construction - daringly adapting many of its forms and elements to the newly erected stone and brick churches. Stress as put on vertical lines of the structure, usually by combining a square or cross-shaped base with pointed arches and two or more tiers of recessive decorative semi-circular or ogee-shaped kokoshniki with an octagonal superstructure, and all crowned with a high tent-shaped roof ending in a small drum and cupola, or a small tower with a cross on the top of it. This type of construction required no piers inside. The entire central part of the church looked like an enormous pillar (or tower), whence came its name "Stolpo-obraznii khram" - the pillar-shaped church. Sometimes there were several smaller pillars joined together around the central one. Added porches and external galleries around the edifice further accentuated the height of the central structure, giving to it an impressive pyramidal silhouette, meant to express a heavenward impulse. Various decorative elements, borrowed from popular decorative art, add much to the beauty of these rather small but fascinating Russian churches of the 16 The century.
The first known stone church of this type was the Church of the Ascension in the village of Kolomenskoye, built in 1532 by Vasilii III to commemorate the birth of his son Ivan, who would be named the "Terrible." Again the builder choose a beautiful spot on a high slope of the Moskva river which dominates the entire region for the church. The village is now a suburb of Moscow located some ten miles south of the Kremlin, considered at that time quite a distance. It served as a summer residence for the grand dukes, and Vasilii III often used the wooden palace, located close to the church, as his hunting lodge. Around them were several fruit and berry gardens for the duke's household. Ivan IV liked the place too, but mostly to satisfy his cruel sense of humor. He enjoyed attending fist-fighting competitions there, the precursors of our boxing matches, which were especially arranged for him and during the winter time he arranged horrifying spectacles such as pouring water from the river over a live man at sub-zero temperatures, until he froze into a solid ice monument.
It is hard to explain why, but the name of the builder of this unique church has remained unknown. Soviet historians insist that he was a Russian and that the church was built without foreign help, and indeed its style is both original and Russian. The builder erected the church on a high cross-shaped basement and mainly followed the features of wooden architecture, that is, the so-called "Octagon on a square." The Chronicle mentions this detail clearly when it says that the church was built "In accordance with wooden forms." Three rows of "Kokoshniki" form the transition from the square to the octagon, as well as a single row of smaller double kokoshniki between the octagon and the tent-shaped roof, which ends in another small band of kokoshniki and an octagonal drum covered with a tiny low cupola which carries a large cross. Most of the outside decoration were inspired by the Italians and apparently borrowed from the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael in the Kremlin. There are also Gothic cornices added by the builder as part of the upward drive, but there is no trace of traditional Byzantine forms. The church has no pillars or apses; an iconostasis on the eastern side separates the altar from the rest of the church. Large external galleries surround the church on three sides. Offering a beautiful view of the Moskva river valley. In the gallery there is a stone seat, allegedly built for Ivan IV, from where he watched the spectacles. High above it, just beneath the cross, in old times there was another seat for the watchman who kept an eye on movements of enemy armies towards Moscow. Smoke of wet wood gave the alarm during the daytime, and high flames at night. The church of the Ascension attracted the eyes of many architects and served as model to many stone tent-shaped churches. When Berlioz came to Moscow in the eighteen-forties to give a concert, he visited Kolomenskoye too, and was much impressed by the church's architecture, calling it (rather exaggeratedly) a "Marvel of marvels." The church was renovated in 1880, and after the revolution of 1917 was pillaged and neglected. Currently it is part of a state museum of Russian architecture sharing this fate with some other buildings that were bought there from the northern Russia. Thus the log cabin of Peter the Great can be seen there, as well as a gate tower of a monastery and some other items.
Some researchers consider that foreigners participated in the construction of the Ascension church, including Petrok Malyi, who was to gain later notoriety for erecting the kitai gorod wall. In affirmation of this version is that in restorations conducted in 1977, the dated 1533 was found on the capital of one of the pilasters.

The Secrets of the Convent of the Intercession of the Virgin at Suzdal.

The decision of Vasilii III to divorce this childless wife Solomonia Saburov stirred the minds of many Muscovites and threatened to provoke a serious controversy within the Church. At that time even an autocrat could not easily separate himself from his wife as is the case today. An influential group of boyars and clergymen, mostly followers of Nil Sorskii, opposed the Grand Duke's decision in the name of human dignity and as contrary to the Church dogmas. Among the leaders of the opposition were Vasian Patrikeev, Bersen Beklemishev and a foreigner, Maxim the Greek. Maxim was a Greek monk, whom Vasilii invited to Moscow in 1518 to translate certain religious books and correct some of the earlier translations. Before going to Mount Athos, Maxim studied and lived in Paris, Venice and Florence, where one of his teachers was Savanarola, whose he enthusiastically embraced. It was not surprising that Maxim soon sided with his future good friend Vasian in the struggle against monastic estates, and the luxurious lives of the monks and, later, in a rather risky adventure when they joined hands to prevent Vasilii from divorcing Solomonia. For a long time the Grand Duke faced the choice between continuing to live with childless Solomonia, whom he loved very much and whom he had chosen from among 1500 women; and, after a divorce, trying his lick with some other woman to get an heir. During the twenty years of their married life, Vasilii and Solomonia tried all sorts of medical and magical assistance, visited many holy places, built several churches and gave fabulous gifts to many others in the hope that Solomonia would become pregnant. In 1518 they founded the Convent of the Intercession of the Virgin in Suzdal and built three churches there. Destiny had it that, after Solomonia was forced to take the veil, she was sent to this Convent to end her life. When all efforts failed to show results Vassilii decided to divorce Solomonia. Most of the boyars acquiesced but he Church resisted, and without its approval Vasilii could neither divorce his wife nor marry another woman. Things rapidly changed in his favor when, in 1522, Vasilii forced the Metropolitan of Moscow, Varlaam, to enter a monastery, becoming the first Metropolitan to be removed by order of secular authority. Daniil (1522-1539), the former Abbot of the Monastery of Volokolamsk, and a staunch disciple of Joseph Volotskii, replaced Varlaam. Though easily malleable, the Metropolitan Daniil was himself thrown out of the office in 1539 by a small group of boyars who ruled the country in the name of the minor Ivan IV, as was his successor the Metropolitan Yoasaph, two years later. But before all this happened Daniil had plenty of time to bring Vasian and Maxim to trial by a Church council, as a result of which both were found guilty and sent "To repent and (atone) for their (sins) at the Volokolamsk Monastery, where they were kept under house arrest. But even there, among his sworn enemies, Maxim continued to plead that monks should make their living from contributions only. His continuous opposition to ownership of large estates by the monasteries later brought him before the council of bishops a second time. The verdict was "Guilty," and he was transferred to the Otrock Monastery near the city of Tver, presently Kalinin, where he remained confined until 1551. During his long solitude Maxim wrote some of his best works, in all over a hundred essays and translations, which made him one of he most prominent literary figures of the Russian middle ages. He died an old man in 1556. In the supposedly barbarous Russia, heretic Maxim fared much better than his teacher, heretic Savanarola, who in civilized Italy was first hanged and then burned at the stake by order of Pope Alexander VI.
The opposition was broken, and in 1525 Vasilii and Solomonia were divorced. She was taken first to the Convent of the Nativity in Moscow and forced to take the veil there. The chronicle notes that during the solemn ceremony when the nuns were putting the black veil on Solomonia's head, in tears he whispered: "God is witnessing this moment and will punish my persecutor." Soon after, under her new ecclesiastical name of Sophia, Solomonia was transferred to the Convent of the Intercession of the Virgin at Suzdal, the same one that when, as the Grand Duchess, she helped to reconstruct a few years earlier. The following year rumors spread through Moscow that Solomonia (sister Sophia) had become pregnant and secretly given birth to a boy named George. The news must have astounded the still childless Grand Duke and the Muscovites, many of whom considered Solomonia as a very intelligent and determined woman. The episode was recorded by Baron von Herberstein, Ambassador from Vienna, who was in Moscow that same year (1560). In his "Commentaries on Moscow Affairs," he says that Solomonia refused to show the child to all those who came from Moscow to investigate. Convent or monastery territory was usually regarded as sacred and, obviously, the Grand Duke hesitated to blaspheme and use force to learn the truth. At that time Vasilii was already married to Helen Glinsky, and all we know from the chronicle is that the same year he bestowed "The village of Vishneslavskoe and some other localities around it on Mother Sophia," (Solomonia). Solomonia died in 1542, nine years after Vasilii, and was buried in the convent's Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin. She was beatified in 1650; her grave attracted many pilgrims. After the revolution the convent was closed, some buildings used for housing, and its churches left to deteriorate for many years. When in 1934 Soviet archaeologists started digging in the convent, they found next to Solomonia's tomb the small grave of a baby child. At the moment it appeared that the mystery of Solomonia's pregnancy was resolved. However, she had prepared another surprise for the curious. The grave contained only a baby doll dressed in a silk robe that undoubtedly dates from the early 16th century. Hardly anybody in the Convent would have dared to play with dolls, and it could be that the clever Solomonia decided to declare the baby dead and buried and then sent him out of the Convent, if she felt his life was in danger. If this assumption is correct, the question remains then what happened to the baby; or was all this just the attempt of a bitterly exasperated woman to avenge herself? In either case Solomonia"s intrigue was perfectly planned and the mystery has remained unsolved. Popular poems and legends preserved the memory of her son George, sometimes painting him as a bandit but more often as a sort of Robin Hood, who even saved the life of his half-brother Ivan several times.
After the divorce Vasilii III did not wait long to remarry. The honor fell on the young and handsome Helen Glinsky, daughter of Ukrainian Prince Vasilii Glinsky and Serbian Princes, Anna born Yakshich. The marriage was celebrated with great display of splendor in the Kremlin Cathedral of the Assumption, followed by three days' festivities in the Palace of the Facets. The Grand Duke was deeply in love with his young wife and to please her, some gossips of the time say, he even shaved off his beard, considered almost as sacrilegious an act as his divorce. the Glinsky family was of Russo-Lithuanian descent. Her epicurean uncle, Michael Glinsky, was a Lithuanian prince who had transferred his allegiance to Moscow. It was he who arranged the marriage between Vassilii and Helen in the hope that he would be lavishly rewarded. When his failed to materialize, Mikhail attempted to help Lithuania regain Smolensk, which Moscow got in 1514 partly though his assistance. He was caught and put in jail, where he died in 1534.
Helen and Vassilii had their first son Ivan in 1530, followed two years later by another who, strangely enough, was also baptized George, the same as Solomonia's would-be son. During a hunting trip Vassili took ill and died in 1533, leaving two infant sons and two surviving brothers, both jealously looking at the throne of the baby nephew. With young Helen acing as Regent ancient feuds between princely and boyar families were rekindled. The struggles continued with increased cruelty after Helen suddenly died in 1538. Von Herberstein was persuaded that she was poisoned, and indeed many lost their lives mysteriously. It was under these unhealthy conditions that he young Ivan IV came to this world and grew up.

The Reign of Ivan the Terrible (1533-1584)

According to the Rostov Chronicle, the moment Ivan the Terrible was born the entire sky was lit uninterruptedly by lighting, accompanied by tremendous thunder that shook the entire country. Most probably this was, if true, a coincidence, but the fact is that during his very long reign the country was shaken more than once and many of its citizens would have preferred to b hit by lightning than to face the unpredictable and often cruel fits of the tsar. From his early days Ivan lived in the entourage of the unscrupulous and ruthless princes Ovchina-Telepnev-Obolenskii, Glinsky, Shuiskii and Belskii and had seen around him a series of arrests, deportations, tortures and bloody conflicts. In a way this was part of his "Normal" life and must be considered at least partly responsible for the formation of his character. We also know that Ivan was for a long time under the evil influence of Gregory Maliuta-Skuratov, his henchman, who fed the tsar's mania of persecution, insinuated against many boyars and provided the tsar with new "Traitors." Maliuta was Boris Godunov"s father-in-law and undoubtedly helped his political ascendancy, making him one of the most influential personages at the Kremlin's court. The rest of the responsibility for Ivan's character was due to his unusual, maybe pathological, nature, full of contradictions and especially of almost continuous internal fights between pride and remorse. We know from the Chronicle that several days after he terrorized seventy decent delegates from Pskov in the village of Ostrov, Ivan took the sacraments and repented for this sin. He summoned a large crowd of Muscovites and delegates from all over the country to Red Square, and promised to put an end to arbitrary floggings, tortures and executions. This was to no avail for later his cruelty reached its worst during the punitive expedition against the Novgorodians. Ivan was present at the Red Square when two hundred of them were hanged, burned on the stakes or beheaded. For the Archbishop of Novgorod Leonid, Ivan reserved a special punishment: The Archbishop was sewn into afresh bear's skin and thrown to the dogs, after which the terrible tsar ordered a mass to be celebrated for the soul of the unfortunate prelate. All this points out that, at moments, Ivan must have enjoyed the tortures of his victims, and only a while later prayed and cried for them, and in public called himself a damned soul, a"Stinker" and the like. Almost at the end of his life he murdered his own son, Tsarevich Ivan, hitting him on the head with his staff, and then did everything possible to save his son's life. Ivan's sexual behavior bordered on what we should call extreme permissiveness, and undoubtedly he was over bearing in this respect. He married seven times and had who knows how many mistresses. At one time he seriously considered proposing marriage to Queen Elisabeth of England.
Russian historians differ very much in their evaluation of Ivan as a man and even in the judgements they pass upon his reign and achievements. While no one condones his crimes, there are those who do not blame Ivan but emphasize the conditions under which he was brought up and, later, under which he had to fight against ruthless boyars to put an end to feudal fragmentation of the country. N.M. Karamzin saw in Ivan almost an "Angel" when young and the "Villain" and "Blood-sucker" later. For S.M. Soloviev the fight that Ivan waged against boyars was a natural phenomenon in the transition from the patrimonial to the centralized form of government. V.O. Kliuchevskii put the blame on bad education of the orphan and the conditions under which he was brought up. His argument is that the "Oprichina" (the destruction of the old landed aristocracy) was directed against certain persons and not against the system itself. For S.F. Platonov Ivan as a man is an enigma, though concerned to defend the autocracy. Lenin and Stalin consider Ivan a determined ruler for whom a powerful centralized state was the only way to protect the country from foreign aggression. They care even less for the victims than Ivan did, and it is not surprising that both followed a similar pattern in liquidating the opposition. For them and the present rulers Ivan remains an ideal autocrat, tough, sometimes transported with rage, who destroyed the boyars as a class, unified the country, delivered the final blow to the Tatars, tried to slightly open a window to Europe by attempting incursions to the Baltic Sea. Begun the conquest of Siberia and laid the foundation for a multi-national state. It is not surprising that the Great Soviet Encyclopedia characterized Ivan the Terrible as "One of the most remarkable statesmen." In their legends, songs and poems Ivan's simple subjects and their descendants considered him "Defender of Christianity" and their own "People's Tsar," who rightfully punished the boyars and made Russia a great power. Both his father and grand-father were referred to on certain occasions as tsars, though officially they were grand dukes. Ivan IV was the first to be solemnly crowned tsar of all the Russias. The ceremony took place in the Kremlin's Cathedral of the Assumption in 1547, establishing the tradition that was followed by all Moscow rulers.
The changes in the arts that began during the reign of his father continued with greater strength during the reign of Ivan IV. There was an increased taste for splendor often achieved by weakening of Byzantine traditions. In architecture the picture is clear: The traditional features of wooden construction were preserved in new stone churches, as was strikingly demonstrated by the Church of the Ascension in the village of Kolomenskoye, the first to be built of the kind known as "Kamennaya Shatrovaya," stone agee type term to denote a superstructure in the form of a high pyramid of four or multi-layers. Obviously Ivan IV did not care much for the style that Gioranvanti and Novi had brought to Moscow. The tsar wanted something that would match his imagination; the answer was found in the intricate and often decorative Russian wooden church. The iconography continued to rely mainly on certain Novgorod traditions and then, after literature had had its impact, slowly and very gradually became exposed to Western influences. Maxim the Greek played an important role in the transition, which was considerably facilitated by the great fire of 1547 that destroyed a good part of Moscow and severely damaged many buildings within the Kremlin. The tsar's palace had to be restored and redecorated and it was mainly there that the influence of Italian painting became visible. Russians called these influences in literature, miniatures, painting and architecture "Friazhskie," an adjective used for everything that came from Genoa, meaning "Of Latin origin." The tendency towards realism in painting, most probably brought to Moscow by "Friazi," was perceptible in the famous frescoes of the Cathedral of the Annunciation in the Kremlin, painted after the fire of 1547, which we have already described. From the photos that reached us we clearly see that the artists who painted them had a sense of proportion and were very well acquainted with the anatomy of man. As for Novgorod, Ivan the Terrible devastated the city in 1570, seized most of its icons and treasures and put an end to its artistic life for many years. The fall of Novgorod further weakened the Byzantine traditions, and reduced the opposition to Western influence that had already started penetrating into Russia through the doors that Maxim the Greek had opened slightly by his daring remarks about new icon and fresco paintings.

Metropolitan Makarii

The art historian P. Muratov says that the Moscow school of painting began its existence in the middle of the 16th century and that the man who did the most to inaugurate it was the Metropolitan Makarii (Macarius, 1542-1563), himself a good painter, whom M.N. Shchepkin rightfully called "The codifier of Russian national culture." Makarii was particularly prominent as a literary man, though he himself wrote very little. As Archbishop of Novgorod he had the idea to unit in several volumes the huge collection of all church books that existed in Russia. He invited the best writers to do the writing and sometimes rewriting when Makarii found that the original lacked adequate splendor, as was the case with the works of Pakhomii Logofet, and some other authors. After twenty years of work there appeared the so-called "Cheti-Minei," containing the lives of the saints arranged by month and day, descriptions of holy days and precepts to be taught to the faithful. During Makarii"s time as a head of the Russian Church twice as many Russians were canonized than during the entire period since their conversion to Christianity, and these books gave the reader additional information regarding Church history and the lives of its saints. Makarii is also credited with preparing the so-called "Stepennaya Kniga," (the Book of Steps), written in the form of a genealogical ladder, with Vladimir I at the bottom as the first "Step' and then going up the "Steps," one for each grand duke, ending with Ivan (the terrible) IV as the top step. However, Makarii's major importance to the arts, besides his direct interest and patronage, was the role he played at the "Stoglav" council of the Orthodox Church, convened in the beginning of 1551 by the tsar.

"Stoglav" Church Council - 1551.

The name "Stoglav"means "Hundred chapters;" it was given to the council because its decisions were divided into one hundred chapters. The council had o answer questions that Ivan put to it in writing. His questions and his speech at the council have some literary value. Both were written in Ivan's peculiar style that would later be better shown in his correspondence with his adversary Prince Kurbskii. The major aims of the council were t unify the service and Church ritual, revise and correct books, establish schools, fight superstition and heresies, put an end to abuses of power by the clergy, drunkenness, corruption and debauchery. The later sanctions were aimed primarily at the monasteries, where many monks and abbots were formerly princes and boyars and were used to an entirely different life. Ivan spoke also of breakdowns in customs and traditions and asked for strengthening of "True Orthodoxy" in accordance with divine scriptures. Obviously, western influences greatly disturbed the tsar and the council. Stoglav noted that holy rules forbid orthodox believers to follow alien customs and that "Each country has its own laws and habits, which should not move from one people to the other, but each should preserve its own tradition; we the orthodox received the true law from God, which we profaned by turning to various countries, and accepted their vicious customs." How little the attitude of the Soviets in foreign has changed since! To remedy the abuses, Stoglav considered the main duty of the state to give proper religious education to its citizens. As a result a number of measures were undertaken, among which were the revision and correction of books and a return to orthodoxy in art. Icon painters were told to be humble and live piously, not quarrel or drink and , above all, to follow strictly the icon-painting manual. The Church, not the artist, was to decide how an icon should be painted and what a saint should look like. The high clergy was told to insist that ancient icons should serve as models and not let painters get involved in their own inventions, disregarding the letter of the manual. Rublev was pointed to as a good example to follow. However, the new generation of iconographers was unable to each the artistic level of Rublev and Dionisii, despite the more favorable conditions that prevailed during most of the 16th century. Many of Stoglav's decisions remained on paper, or were only partially put into effect, and it could not have been otherwise. There would be no school of iconography if the painters had had strictly copied Greek originals and neither would Russia have Rublev, Dionissi or others. Contrary to council directives, a good part of Russian painting underwent several changes and became very productive. Instead of the wide-ranging artistic creativeness, rhythmic lines and soft coloring that prevailed in Rublev's style, we see in the 16th century the tendency to go into more detail, use darker shades and produce a sort of a jewelry work. Indeed the use of silver and gold considerably increased. A great many rather miniature designs overburdened the icon and left little room for powerful and free expression by the artist. The composition of the icon became more complicated but, also , more versatile and more Russian. There were clear indications of national folklore becoming more influential on iconography. For centuries it had lived side by side with official Church art or, rather, outside of it. Icon painters now more often depicted contemporary scenes, dressed their personages in contemporary garments and put in the background the Russian church with its onion-shaped cupolas. Then came increased use of gold, which originally served to paint the nimbus around the saint's head, or intermixed with other colors, usually in the form of thin lines, for painting garments, beard or hair. But its application indeed became exaggerated when gold or gold-plated or silver sheets were used for making trappings that were simply nailed on the icon. It all started with a tiny engraved metal frame around the icon which rapidly grew into a setting that entirely covered the icon, leaving only the head or one or two hands uncovered. The icon became an ornament mad of metal that was engraved and embossed, reproducing the painted image underneath it which was no longer visible. The new taste for shiny metal considerably hurt the further development of iconography as a par of artistic painting. The door was open to a partial distancing from true art form into a handicraft.
On the insistence of Ivan the Terrible the "Stoglav" council reluctantly legalized the until then tacitly accepted practice that icons could include no saintly persons. Thus the tsar himself became the first to initiate changes. Maxim the Greek was among the first to raise his voice against the stenciled pattern in icon painting and fervently defended the introduction of new more liberal subjects. The entire matter was discussed, sometimes very heatedly at the Stoglav Council. This continued at the Church council of 1554, convened to hear complaints against new trends in iconography.

Ivan M. Viskovatii

Among those who opposed it, besides a group of bishops, was Ivan's capable and diplomatic secretary os State Ivan Mikhailovich Viskovatii. Openly and in strong words he questioned the moral value of some new icons and frescoes that decorated the Tsar's private residence, the Golden palace, (Zolotaya Palata). The Golden Palace was rebuilt in 1635-1636 by tsar Mikhail Romanov, and has since become better known as the Terem Palace. The original frescoes have disappeared since, but they were described by the painter Simeon Ushkov who restored them in the sixteen eighties. What roused Viskovatii's indignation was the fact that the presentation of some religious events was drawn from the tsar's own experience, as was the case with the icon "Militant Church," which depicts a victory of Jesus (Navin). This large icon, some fifteen feet long, which was painted in 1552, after Ivan IV defeated the Tatars at Kazan, actually shows the young tsar at the head of the victorious army. This icon is presently in the Tretiakov Gallery. Obviously Viscovatii did not like the tsar's ever-increasing desire to use iconography for idealization of his personality and for strengthening his already almost unlimited authority. It appears that it was Silvester"s conception. Viskovatii also resented the undue influence that Silvester exercised over the tsar in all matters including decoration of his private residence. In 1547 the Metropolitan Makarii brought Silvester from Novgorod to Moscow, where he soon became dean of he Cathedral of the Annunciation, mentor of the tsar Ivan IV, one of this intimate councilors and a dominant figure in many state affairs. His opposition to the Livonian war cost him the tsar's favor and in 1553 he was exiled to the Solovetskii Monastery, where he died in 1566. Viskovatii labeled as profane the icons and frescoes where Jesus appeared together with naked women or those with allegorical themes. Actually pictures like this were not icons in the purely religious sense of the word but simply new paintings in which artists regained freedom to express themselves. It was not surprising that Maxim the Greek commented that such icons "have not been painted anywhere but in Russia." Viscovatii's protest was in vain; he was excommunicated, accused of treason and he ended his life in exile. Ivan IV, fully supported by Makarii, the leader of the new trend in Moscow iconography, easily defeated the opposition, and new paintings on historical and allegorical themes continued to multiply. The first such icons-tableaux (French for art picture), were often multi figured compositions showing Ivan's army units, particularly his cavalry with Russian churches or landscapes in the background. The Russification of the icon continued to outrun ecclesiastical limitations. After first decorating the palace of Ivan the Terrible, these "Semi" icons entered the homes of boyars, rich merchants etc. It was the national Russian element that penetrated the icon, more than the style or colors, that typified what was to become known as Moscow School of Art. The artistic value of the new paintings decreased. The colors darkened and the composition became rather crowded and clumsy. New subjects, complex compositions, gold ornaments, and richly decorated garments of the subjects would not match the poetic style of Rublev or Dionissi or the monumental style of the Novgorod School. Makarii's imprint was felt in Moscow's entire cultural life. After bringing the painting in line with literature, he brought both under control of the government, often using them to promote political interests.

The Armory Chamber (Oruzheinaya Palata)

The Armory Chamber began its existence in the 14th century. At that time it was known as The Grand Treasury (Bolshaya Kazna), a name given to a building which housed all sorts of valuable items belonging to Moscow grand dukes. With the increase of their power came increased wealth, partly from the gifts they received from foreign rulers and potentates, partly from those who had to prostrate themselves before grand dukes and tsars, "Bit' Chelom gosudaryu," and from the items produced in the Kremlin workshops. An important inpouring occurred during the reign of the two Ivans, the third and fourth, due to the annexation of Novgorod and Pskov and in part due to conquests led by Ivan IV. At that time the Grand Treasury was located between the two cathedrals of the Annunciation and of the Archangel Michael and with all its appurtenances, it was known as "Kazennii Dvor' - The Treasury. The Treasury was organized by Ivan III in 1494, headed by a "boyar-kaznachey" - the Treasurer. He controlled the Armory, the Koniushenii Prikiaz and the Zapasnoi Dvor. The Armory contained the tsar's regalia, his vestments, uniforms, arms, jewelry, icons, standards, etc., and was directed by the "Boyar-oruzhnichii," a sort of a chief armorer. All workshops were also part of the Armory, and it was here that most of the fire arms, jewelry, robes, icons, crosses, cups, and vessels, etc., were made. The Kniushnii Prikaz housed the tsar's carriages and harnesses and was managed by the "Boyar-koniushii," the Equerry. The Zpasnoi Dvor - a storehouse - contained all the rest, spare or reserve items, mostly arms and armor. Originally the workshops that made items for the Kazennii Dvor were divided into two sections: one that worked for the tsar's and tsarevich's needs and the other for the tsarina and tsarevnas. Vassili III established Oruzheinii Prikaz, the Armory Department, headed by "Oruzheinichii," the chief armorer. Tsar Aleksei changed the name to "Bronnii Prikaz," though the meaning was the same - the Armory Department, which produced arms and all sorts of armor, helmets, shields etc. Russian sabers were very popular among the Tatars who believed they could cut steel.
The workshops of the Armory Chamber experienced the same growth as the Moscow state. Extensive activity began after the Metropolitan Makarii brought to Moscow most of Novgorod's and Pskov's icon painters and artisans. Good salaries and living conditions continued to attract others from Vladimir, Suzdal, Rostov and other art centers including a good number of foreign countries. By the middle of the 17th century the tsar's workshops had reached their golden period, with several top painters, architects, miniaturists, engravers, jewelers etc., working in them. Hundreds of young men were trained there, and the Armory Chamber should be considered as the first all-Russian Academy of Arts. Most of the artists and craftsmen brought their individual talents and taste, often strongly colored with local traditions, and their knowledge of vestments, uniforms, arms, jewelry, icons, standards, etc., and they all contributed their own share to the formation of Moscow School of Arts.
It was in architecture, more than anywhere else, that Moscow found its best expression. It started with the Church of the Ascension in the village of Kolomenskoye, when the unknown builders turned their backs on Byzantine tradition and were attracted by the indigenous forms of wooden church architecture. The sensation must have been fascinating when wooden features were first copied in stone. The new style appealed at once to almost everybody; it certainly did to Ivan the Terrible and the Metropolitan Makarii. Among many churches that Ivan built or helped erect throughout Russia, the Church of Saint John the Precursor in the village of Diakovo, the church of the Transfiguration in the village of Ostrov and the Cathedral of Basil the Blessed at Moscow's Red Square are the most noticeable examples of the new, truly Russian style. To better appreciate their architectural values, we shall describe them individually.

The Church of Saint John the Precursor at Diakovo

A short distance from Kolomenskoye, further down the river Moskva is the village of Diakovo where the church of Saint John the Precursor, a fine example of a daring attempt to combine Byzantine traditions with forms of wooden church architecture, was built in the fifteen forties. The name of the builder is unknown, nor there are documents that state who commissioned it, a rather surprising lack of information for a monument which, according to some historians, was built to commemorate the coronation of Ivan the Terrible as the first tsar f Russia in 1547. There are some architectural similarities between this church and the Cathedral of Saint Basil the Blessed at the Red Square in Moscow, built a decade later, which some people like to assume that the church in Diakovo was also built by Barma and Posnik Yakovliev, the two leading Russian builders, and that most probably the young tsar ordered its construction. The cross-shaped foundation of Saint John"s church carries at each end a tower-like chapel, joined together by the central chapel which is considerably larger and taller. Thus the traditional five-cupola form was preserved, though in a very original way. We do not know what the first cupolas looked like; those that we see now are of Byzantine type and date from considerably later times, but most of he other features of the church remained the same. All the towers are octagonal with recessive rows of decorative kokoshniki, two rows in the central chapel and three in the side chapels, forming the transition between the base and the towers. The drum of the central tower is constructed of 8 large semi-cylinders and adds to the originality of the entire structure, another curiosity added in the 17th century, is the built-in bell tower that we see on the western side of the church in between the two chapels. Besides the kokoshniki their are several other decorative bands that embellish the church, in addition to the frescoes on its walls.

The Church of the Transfiguration in the Village of Ostrov.

Further down the river Moskva and about twenty miles from the Kremlin is the old village of Ostrov, where Vassili III had another log cabin and more orchards. His son Ivan was a frequent visitor. In 1547 a large delegation from Pskov came their to complain to the young tsar against his viceroy, Prince Turntai Pronskii. The infuriated tsar poured boiling wine on their heads and burned their beards. Then came the news from Moscow that the large bell in the Kremlin had suddenly fallen down. The superstitious tsar rushed to his capital and the life of seventy Pskov delegates was spared. Around the middle of the 16th century the church of the Transfiguration was erected in Ostrov, a very picturesque example of the "The octagon on a square type" with two small chapels, one on each side, northern and southern. Almost two hundred kokoshniki, semicircular and pointed, embellish the church and serve as transition from the square base to the octagonal tower ending in a band of small kokoshniki that are surmounted by a round drum, a cupola and a cross. All three chapels have apses. This church was built entirely of a white stone found near the village of Miachkovo, which supplied the limestone for a long time for many major constructions in Moscow. In the absence of specific information some Soviet architects tend to believe that the church of the Transfiguration was also built by Barma and Posnik.

Cathedral of Basil the Blessed.

The Cathedral of Basil the Blessed (Vassili Blazhenni) was originally named the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Birgin "On the Moat" (Pokrovskii Sobor "Na Rvu.") It was built by Ivan the Terrible to commemorate the capture of Kazan (1552) which happened to surrender on the holy day of the Intercession. The Cathedral is located on the Red Square on the side of the Spasski Gate and the Tsar's tower, "On the moat" which at hat time existed along the Kremlin's wall. The work was begun in 1554 after a small wooden Church of the Trinity was removed where Saint Basil the Blessed had been buried in 1552. Apparently foundations were laid down for the entire Cathedral, but originally only the main central church, was built of stone and brick, and the eight smaller individual chapels around it were first made of wood and later replaced by masonry. The Church insisted at first that there be only seven chapels, but for the sake of balanced proportion and to make the entire ensemble in the form of a cross, the builders proposed eight chapels, which, at the same time, made it possible to dedicate one chapel to each day on which one of the eight victories was won over the Tatars. Though planned as chapels, and often so called, they turned in the process of construction into individual small churches. The Cathedral was consecrated in 1557 by Metropolitan Makarii in the presence of the Tsar, boyars and large crowd. In 1588 another chapel was added, where and in the same year the remains of Basil the Blessed were moved there. Basil was a beggarly devotee, prophet and miracle worker who never separated himself from a large cross and chains that he carried in penance. The tsar and the people regarded Saint Basil as a holy man and later the Church beatified him. When he died in 1552 Ivan IV and Archbishop Makarii attended his funeral. According to some sources, when the Cathedral was consecrated it had only the main church and a few chapels, and tsars Fedor Ivanovich, Mikhail, Alexei and even Fedor Alexeiyevich added a chapel or two. It appears that at one time there were over twenty chapels around it, and that its present silhouette dates from 1679 only. The central church and the four chapels that form a cross are octagonal; the remaining four are square or of irregular shape. The transition from the octagon to the tent-shaped roof of the central church or to the drums of the chapels is accomplished by recessive, interspaced or superimposed tiers of decorative kokoshniki. The drums have very narrow windows, one in each facet. In fact the entire Cathedral is an extraordinary combination of individual towers, place over a high vaulted substructure and dominated by the central tower, which is the largest and the tallest. Its tent-shaped roof had on its top another tier of small kokoshniki, then a drum, and finally an onion-shaped gilded cupola, while the chapels are crowned with great cupolas each different in design, color and shape and substantially larger than the drum, and bearing a large Russian cross on its point. All ten churches (the central plus nine chapels) have their own, cupola, and had their own altar, iconostasis and everything needed for an independent service. They are connected to each other by means of vaulted passages. This strange, fantastic and extremely decorative edifice, in a way simply chaotic, despite contrasts, architectural confusion and interior narrowness and of cavernous outlook, is pleasant to see. To many it looks as if it has come from a fairy tale, and it surely astonishes everybody who sees it for the first time. It is a visual delight that creates an undeniable imprint in the memory, since nothing similar could be seen else-where. While for some people it represents "Music" in architecture," Napoleon simply called it a "Mosaue" and ordered General Lariboisiere to destroy it. Fortunately, the artillery general preferred to use it as a stable for his horses. Theophile Gautier said about it: "Undoubtedly, this is the most original monument in the world; it does not remind us of anything that we have ever seen before and it belongs to no style. An edifice of clouds tinted by the sunset, liable at a breath of wind to change its shape or to vanish." Alexander Dumas astonished his Russian hosts when he said that the Cathedral was "The dream of a sick mind realized by a crazy architect." But to the Marquis de Custine it looked like "A bouquet of varicolored flowers." A legend says that Tsar Ivan the Terrible was delighted when he saw the Cathedral for the first time. He asked to see the architect and when the man, replying to the tsar's question, naively said that he could build the same or an even more beautiful cathedral, Ivan ordered his eyes be pulled out to prevent him from so doing it, that the Cathedral could remain unrivaled. However, Barma and Postnik Yakovlev, the two who were later credited for building it, were safe and sound. A few years later, Ivan commissioned them to build Saint Nicholas church in Sviazhsk, the new stronghold that the tsar established after he took Kazan from the Tatars. The truth is that nothing similar to Saint Basil's Cathedral had been built any place in the Christian world.
There are valid reasons to credit, at least partially, the Moscow Metropolitan Makarii for its existence. He was the most staunch defender of the new tent-shaped style, which considerably departed from the established Byzantine traditions. As a close adviser to Ivan the Terrible, and probably the only one who remained so until the end of this life, Makarii initiated many literary, educational and artistic novelties in Moscow, including the form of the future Cathedral of Basil the Blessed. But even more important is the imagination and creativeness of the illiterate but often very gifted Russian muzjiks, who for centuries built their izbas and their wooden churches and who eventually, during Ivan IV's time, got the opportunity to show what they could do in masonry, which had been very seldom used before. The Cathedral is the product of the imagination of the simple man who never heard of scholastic "Laws of proportion and symmetry," or of a plan or blue print, but knew instinctively how to build, and were gifted.
The Cathedral was frescoed for the first time during the reign of Fedor Ivanovich. The frescoes were renewed in 1784 and again in 1813-1817, 1839-1845 and at the end of the last century. The exterior of the Cathedral remained the same for a long time: Red bricks with sparing use of white stone as a decorative element. It was only after Napoleon left Moscow that the exterior walls were covered with stucco and painted with bright colors. Each architectural detail is painted in different shades ranging from bright red to yellow, green, brown etc. Flowers, rosettes and all sorts of designs decorate the panels, which were painted by the same fresco painters who decorated the interior. In all a never ending glitter of colors. The pyramidal belfry, porches, and arched covered galleries that run around a good part of the Cathedral were added in the second half of the 17th century. Contrary to the rules and customs, the belfry was built on the south-east side of the Cathedral instead of the western side, probably in keeping with the practice of the builders that everything in the church must be twisted, different, inharmonious and at moments absurd. After the revolution Saint Basil the Blessed was closed, sacked and pillaged. While the interior also remains empty, the Soviet government now takes good care of its exterior, though sometimes using shiny gold plate and cheap, motley colors.

Sviazhisk

There is an interesting story behind the town of Sviazhsk and how it began its existence. As part of his campaign against the Tatars, Ivan the Terrible ordered that a fortified town be built close to Kazan, the capital of the Tatars. The spot where the river Sviaga joins the Volga, just about twenty miles up from Kazan, was chosen as the location for the new town. To preserve the secrecy of the plan, the entire town, including fortifications and a church, was built of log wood not far from Uglich, some six hundred miles from Kazan. Then in the spring of 1551, as soon as the ice began to move on the rivers, all buildings were disassembled, loaded on barges and carried down the Volga. Hundreds of men worked for four weeks to reassemble what was probably the first town ever to be shipped. Kazan was captured the following year.
A brief review of the reign of Ivan the Terrible shows that he was primarily concerned with the formation of a powerful and highly centralized state, and that he did not hesitate to use cruel means to achieve this goal. Among his contemporaries he qualified as one of the best educated and most literate men. Ivan's correspondence with Prince Kurbskii proves this. His wit was remarkable, though often used for biting remarks. He was very interested in the arts, and particularly in architecture. During his reign hundreds of churches were built throughout the country. Each county and almost each town wanted to imitate the tsar's Moscow. The Kremlin's cathedrals served as models, but so did its pillar less tower-shaped churches, the latter primarily for construction of bell-fries in which the space on the ground floor or on the second tier was often used for a church. Ivan was the fist to partly open a window on the West when, in 1553, English ships reached Arkhangelsk as part of their attempt to discover new trade routes to the far east. In Moscow Ivan openly received the leader of the expedition, Richard Chancellor, and trade privileges were granted to England. By the end of this rule there were several hundreds of foreign craftsmen, architects, painters, teachers and even doctors and pharmacists in Moscow. Special residential quarters were established for them in the outskirts of Moscow, in a neighborhood which became known as Nemetskaya Sloboda (German Suburb); the name was given by the simple Muscovites to whom all foreigners were "Germans." Ivan was very zealous in his acts of worship and seldom missed a daily mass. It did not waiver his sadistic tyrannical bloody rage, at least until the Bolsheviks came to power and showed that they could surpass him and could bring terror to a larger scale. Dumas rather exaggeratedly says that if compared to Ivan, Caligula would appear to be a dove and Nero, a lamb. He had obviously forgotten what happened during the French revolution. There was no historian who condoned Ivan's crimes, and indeed he was cruel, but at least he had the courage often to punish his adversaries himself and not stay in the palace or hide behind executioners, as most rulers and revolutionaries did. Ivan introduced the Oprichina,; the all-powerful security police as historian Kliuchevskii defined it, which primarily terrorized princes, boyars, Church prelates and those who were close tho the tsar. He terrified everybody around him, killed his own son and was married seven times; all this despite the laconic meaning of his name which translated from the Hebrew, means "God's Grace."

The Red Square.

The Russian name for the Red Square is "Krasnaya Ploshchad," meaning the beautiful square. Western "Kremlinologists" have erroneously applied to the square the second meaning of the Russian word "Krasnaya," "Krasnii," meaning beautiful and red, and neglecting the real intention of Muscovites to call the square "Krasnaya" because of its beauty. In all probability the square received its fist shape in the 15th century when new red brick walls were erected around the Kremlin, separating it from the rest of Moscow. At that time the field to the west of the Kremlin was known by various names, such as Trinity square (after the wooden Trinity Church which was later removed to make space for Saint Basil's Cathedral), "pozharishche" (Site after a fire) because wooden buildings that existed there were often swept by fire, "Torg" (market square, etc. The square received its present name in the first half of the 17th century when the new impressive Spasskii (Savior) gate tower was erected. This was the most beautiful of all Kremlin towers, with a high steeple and a clock; its gate was used for ceremonial purposes. The beauty of the new gate-tower prompted the people to rename the square "Krasnaya Ploshchad."
A good part of the Russian history happened to take place on this square. It was here that the people learned about their new tsars, and saw tsarevichs when they reached sixteen years of age. The square was an ideal place for parades, for the tsar to meet his people, but also as his tribunal and for public punishments. Vassili Shuisky was proclaimed tsar there, and later on the same spot forced to abdicate. Ivan the Terrible used it often for his punitive assaults. It was on the Red Square that he aligned the members of that unfortunate delegation from Pskov, and ordered that their beards be first burned and then extinguished with boiling wine. All this happened before a large crowd of people. With the help of the "Streltsi" - a sort of a praetorian guard of Moscow rulers, Sophia became the regent during the minority of her brothers, the diarchy of Ivan and Peter. To make this possible the streltsi wiped out the Narishkin family, and many boyars who sided with them were executed on the Red Square. In the Vysoko-Petrovskii monastery, the most noted church is named after Metropolitan Saint Peter. Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich ordered it renovated to commemorate the birth of his son Peter. Also for his namesake were the so-called Naryshkin palaces, gifts to the family in gratitude for the birth of the future emperor. Later in 1690 when Peter I claimed the throne, he ordered the renovation of the church of Saint Peter, the Metropolitan, and the erection of a new church, replacing the wooden one which served as burial place for his ancestral uncles', Ivan and Aphanasiya Kirillovich Narishkin, brothers of Aleksei Romanov's second wife , and to construct a third church named after the monk Sergius Radonezhsky, in gratitude in all probability, for providing a safe haven in the monastery of the Trinity when Peter's life was threatened. Peter the Great defeated the Streltsi and compelled his half-sister Sophia to take the veil. As for the streltsi, Peter ordered the decapitation of several thousand, and the legend says that he marched them over the Red square in chains and force them to carry their blocks on which their heads were to be chopped off. The first ten he decapitated himself and then forced the horrified princes and boyars from his entourage to do likewise. The Soldiers completed the massacre.
The tsar spared the life of only one strelets, a handsome young man, Ivan, nicknamed Orlov - the Eagle. When his turn came, with complete composure he pushed aside with his foot the headless body of his fellow strelets to reach the headsman"s block. It was this perfect coolness that impressed the tsar and he spared him his life. Ivan was the grandfather of count Gregory Orlov, the famous lover of Catherine the Great.
There is some variance in accounts of the origins of the Vysokopetrovskii monastery which according to legend was founded by Dmitri Donskoi following the victory on the field of Kulikovo to commemorate the icon of the Bogoliubskoi Mother of the Savior.. In 1514 the church was re-built and then called for the Saint Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow, and in 1690 the entire monastery was re-constructed and the church consecrated in the name of the Apostle Peter. (According to other sources the monastery was founded during Ivan Kalita's reign, and its name comes from his advisor Metropolitan Peter). To this period are the construction of: The main monastery church, in humble devotion to the icon of the Bogoliugskoi Mother of the God, the monks' living quarters, the church attached to the refractory, the high steepled bell-fry, erected over three tiered holy-arches. In the 18th century three other churches were built, the standing living quarters, the sepulcher, service buildings and part of the walls. At the present time, a museum of literature is located in the monastery living quarters.
Not all of Russian history was so tragic and cruel, and the Red square witnessed many happy moments; the main mass festivities and celebrations took place right there. The popularity of the square was may be seen from the fact that at one time there were about fifteen churches in and around it. During week-days the square served as the central Moscow bazaar, with hundreds of improvised huts, counters, barracks, stalls, or makeshift displays on empty cases or onto the ground, the sort of a "Rinok" (market place) that may be seen in today's Moscow. You could buy almost anything there, and the whole place abounded with sellers of refreshments, tea, blini, pirozhki and all sorts of gormandizes. Foreigners were impressed by the grouping of specific kind of goods on one spot, usually a row, which made the shopping very easy, resembling an open-air department store and supermarket combined in one. Even the beggars and the "yurodivii," a kind of beggarly devotees and soothsayers, had their place, not far from the bridge at the entrance to the Savior's Gate of the Kremlin.
It was on the Red square that Russians saw their first public theater spectacles. This happened in the very beginning of the 18th century (1703). A stage was built against the Kremlin's wall and gilded church cupolas served as the background. Since the stage and the auditorium were made of wood, special precautions were taken against fire. Because, in the beginning, foreigners controlled the theater. Its reception was not always favorable, and some of the clergy even found in it "a devilish intention." At that time the reputation enjoyed by actors was not very high, primarily because of their permissiveness, sometimes aggravated by cheating and stealing. Napoleon's invasion of Moscow and the raging fire that followed destroyed a good part of the city. A special commission for re-planning was established in 1814 under the chairmanship of Osip Ivanovich Beauvais (1784-1834), a well known architect. He conceived of the square primarily as a parade ground and removed several old buildings. Then in 1818 the monument to Minin and Pozharskii was put on the center of the square; it was later moved to its present place.
The historical Museum was erected in 1876-1883, a not quite successful attempt by artist V.O. Sherwood (1833-1897), who was responsible for its facades and decoration, to recreate old Russian architectural forms, and make them march Saint Basil's Cathedral and the Kremlin towers. The old Commercial Rows, built by Beauvais after Napoleon left Moscow, were removed at the end of the 19th century, and later replaced by the "Upper Commercial Rows," better known under their present name of Gum - The Government Department Store. The architect of this three-story building was A. Pomerantsev, and he too failed to invest the new edifice with old Russian features, though he and Sherwood borrowed several details from ancient Russian monasteries.
During the revolution neither the Kremlin nor the Red Square were severely damaged. When the Soviets consolidated their power they removed several buildings and chapels from the Red Square, including the famous Chapel of the Iberian Virgin (Iverskaya Chasovnia), in order to open another unimpeded approach to the square from he other side of the Historical Museum. Though the revolution started in Saint Petersburg, the Bolsheviks rushed to the Kremlin, and many of their top leaders chose to work and live there. It is not surprising that particular care was taken to restore it quickly and all buildings have since been under continuous observance and care. Each old brick is considered precious and no matter how small is the damage, it is immediately repaired or replaced. Care is taken the new bricks or decorative white stone look like the old one. Whether of not the Kremlin has ever been a sacred place, its atheist occupants now definitely want it to look so. A part of the wall facing the Red square and the space next to it has been turned into Soviet necropolis, where the top Bolsheviks and those who best served them are buried. This is known as the "Brothers' Graves" (Bratshie Moghili). There is no other wall in the world, with the exception of the Wailing wall in Jerusalem, that is so famous and so revered. In front of the wall s the Mausoleum where Lenin is buried in a glass sarcophagus. It was designed by the gifted Russian architect Aleksei Viktorovich Shchusev (1872-1949), built first in wood, and then rebuilt in 1929-1930, after Shchusev made a very few minor changes. The rectangular base carries a receding pyramid, ending in rectangular short pillars that carry the top. In front of the Mausoleum, two staircases, one on each corner, lead to the platform from where Soviet leaders watch the parades a the Red Square. The mausoleum is of large blocks of highly polished dark-red granite, divided into two parts by a large band of black labradorite. As there are no external embellishments, and the mausoleum is executed in a powerful and rather massive style, relying primarily on elementary geometric shapes. The mausoleum has been turned into a sacred shrine. Pilgrims from all parts of the Soviet Union flock there to pay their respect to the mummified leader. I have visited it several times, mostly to observe the pilgrims and their actions. I would say that curiosity and obligation mixed with respect prevail with the majority, since hardly any Soviet citizen would visit Moscow without pilgrimage to eh Mausoleum. Their are women who weep and there are men who are shaken. A dead silence prevails throughout the visit; two motionless guards stand a the entrance. Theatrically well-arranged scene offers a moving spectacle that is bound to excite one's emotions. The entire experience hardly differs from a pilgrimage to a religious place. There has never been any saint, tsar or ruler whose tomb has been guarded, already over fifty years, day and night, as has the tomb of Lenin, the man who said that "Religion is the opium of the people." His mausoleum proves his saying best.

STROGANOV SCHOOL OF ART.

Anika Fedorovich Stroganov (1498-1570) was the founder of one of the most eminent and wealthy Russian families. Around 1470 this father moved from Novgorod to Solvichegodsk where he founded a salt-works. Anika continued in this business and became involved in fishing, and fur trading with local tribesmen and gradually created a vast and versatile commercial empire. Ivan the Terrible granted him the right to mine in all Perm lands, which are very rich in gold, platinum, iron and other minerals. His descendants continued to push east and south and build up an enormous family fortune. The Stroganovs contributed much to the conquest of Siberia, where they built many villages. Towns and cities, together with churches and monasteries. To protect them from indigenous tribes, they had their own army, which often inflicted serious harm on units of the Siberian khan. In 1581 the Stroganovs enlisted the help of the famous Don kozak Vassili Timofeyevich Yermak (Ermak) who, at the head of his army mercenaries, captured Siberian Tatar capital. With Yermak were three hundred of Stroganov's men, led by Anika's two grandsons, Maxim Yakovlevich and Nikita Grigorievich. They even took three priests. A rather easy conquest of western Siberia (1583) encouraged Ivan the Terrible to send his units to consolidate the territories captured by Ermak and prepare them for further expeditions. He drowned in the river Irtish in 1585 when ambushed by hostile tribesmen. In 1586 two important military and trading posts were established, the future cities of Tiume and Tobolsk, the latter in the heart of the former Tatar Siberian kingdom. The Stroganov family gave Russia several prominent men. For their services tot he country they were later raised to the rank of nobility and became known as "Counts Stroganov."
A genuine interest in and love for art particularly distinguished the Stroganovs. Maxim and Nikita were not only generous patrons of art, but painted icons themselves. In their Solvichegodsk they established an icon studio and invited the best painters and craftsmen from all parts of the country to work for them. Unstable conditions in Novgorod prompted many to respond to the invitation. There was plenty of work for everyone since the Stroganovs built so many churches in the vast region over which they spread their business empire. An uncommon practice occurred in Stroganov's studio; often on the back of the icon the name or family seal of the Stroganov who commissioned it and the name of the painter were written. From the names of the painters on these icons we see that several worked in the Kremlin studios, though it is not clear whether these painters first worked for Stroganovs and then moved to Moscow, or were commissioned by the Stroganovs while already in the service of the tsar. Most probably the exchange of painters was two-way. Kafter "The time of troubles" - the period in Moscow after the death of Fedor, the son of Ivan the Terrible, at the turn of the 16th century, in 1613, Mikhail Romanov was elected to the Russian throne. With his reign the country returned to normal life and, at the same time, marked the beginning of a new period of artistic revival. It was at this time that the importance of the Stroganovs began to decline and most of the Stroganovs' painters went to Moscow to work for the new tsar.
We do not know of any Stroganov painter who was a monk, though they built or helped to build several monasteries. Their iconographers were professional painters, who in most cases had learned the trade from their fathers. Among the well known names who worked for Stroganovs, the members of the Savin family deserve to be mentioned first. Istoma Savin had two sons: Nazarii Istomin and Nikifor Savin. Both were as talented as their father, and all three worked first for the Stroganovs and later in the Moscow Kremlin. In 1626, Nazarii was mentioned as painter for the Patriarch Philaret Nikitich Romanov, the tsar's father, and the following year he painted the icons for the Church of the Rizpolozhenia, located in the Kremlin. Then there is Fedor Savin, who decorated the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Solvichegodsk. Other prominent painters were Istoma Gordeev, Stepan Arefiev, Nikita Ivanov Pavlovets, Semenka Borozdin, Ivan Sobololev, Posnik Dermin from Rostov, and several others.
But, the most outstanding painters were Emelian (Yemelian) Moskvitin and Prokopii Ivanovich Chirin. Emelian's nickname "moskvitin" shows that he was from Moscow, and we know that Chirin came to Solvichegodsk from Novgorod. They both distinguished themselves with rich and pure colors, delicate lines, elongated outlines of the persons they painted, and individual approaches to their work. Chirin was the most gifted of all. He won his fame when he moved to Moscow to paint for Mikhail Romanov, the first tsar of the new dynasty. The patterned garments of Saints Dimitri of Salonika and Tsarevich Dimitri which he painted on the icon of the same name, are of extraordinary richness and beauty, and it was here that Chirin indeed excelled. In the Kremlin Chirin, Savins and several other former Stroganov iconographers trained a new generation of painters for the tsar and undoubtedly influenced many of them. Chirin died in the early sixteen-twenties.
The early icons of the Stroganov masters show considerable influence by the Novgorod School, and some of them remind us of Dionisii's frescoes. While elongated and graceful figures, usually with small heads, would continue to appear on later Stroganov icons, most of the rest of their style would be essentially their own. The Stroganov painters could be recognized most easily by the great care that they took in the design, their meticulous execution of details, particularly of vestments, and an exuberant use of gold. They even used gold to design their saints and most of the details of the icon and, of course, for the background, which made the colors even more glowing and gave their icons their captivating appearance. The decorative element became of primary importance in their ar, a clear departure from Byzantine traditions as they had been understood by Novgorod. The treatment of detail in Stroganov icons reminds us of oriental miniatures and sometimes of fine jewelry. It would be normal to assume that the preference of he Stroganovs for this particular style was partly consequence of prolonged commercial contact with their southern and eastern neighbors. The Stroganovs also had a high regard for folding icons (skladen), which became very popular in the second half of the 16th century. These icons were usually painted on three hinged tablets a triptych, or five tablets. On some of them could be seen not only Christ, the Virgin and the major saints but all the icons that usually appeared on a three-or-five-tiered iconostasis, and all on three or five tablets sometimes no bigger than four by six inches. Istoma Gordeev distinguished himself by painting these folding icons for the Stroganovs.
The followers of the Stroganov painters could not duplicate the purity of tone, harmony of colors and originality of composition that had distinguished their teachers, and instead turned to a painstaking miniature-painting in which the ornamentation became the most important par of the work. An abundance of detail could be seen everywhere on the new icons, except in the rather lifeless expressions of the faces, which were crushed by an over abundance of gold, and exceedingly ornate vestments. Animals, vegetation and architecture were often included in the background, primarily for decorative purposes. It was clear that the new icon painters had learned to use rich colors perfectly and to paint the most complicated details, including some of microscopic size, but they were unable to produce a simple and vibrant painting. It was because of this formal and graphic handling of icon painting that some academically minded, 19th century historians cast doubts on the artistic merit of some of the old Stroganov painters and, considered their followers more as craftsmen than as genuine painters. It has always been difficult to draw the line between painter and craftsman. The distinction has become even more arbitrary with the spread of abstract and modern art. If they lived now, these art critics would certainly have an entirely different opinion about the Stroganov masters. Nevertheless, during the 17th and most of the 18th centuries the Stroganov style found followers throughout Russia, mainly in small local art centers, such as Palekh, Mstera, Kholui etc., where iconographers continued to paint icons in privately owned workshops. By the end of the 17th century their technical skill was almost perfect. Even today the Palekh painters paint in the same way as did their ancestors in the 17th century and the Stroganovs' painters before them. Palekh survived even the Bolshevik revolution. It is true that the painters had to alter their subject matter, though not entirely; now, instead of icons, they paint all sorts of papier-mache boxes, and work in the same workshops as their grand-fathers.

"THE TROUBLED TIMES."

Tsar Boris Gudonov

The period from the death of Ivan the Terrible in 1584 to the election of Mikhail Romanov to the tsardom in 1613 is known as the "Troubled Times" (Smutnoe Vremia) or simply the "Upheaval" (Smuta). Actually, the date of Tsar Fedor's death in 1598 is more appropriate to mark the starting point of the deep crisis and dynastic changes that Russia underwent, because with his death came an end to the first Russian dynasty of Riuriks. Fedor was Ivan's son by his first wife, Anastasia Romanovna. The weak-minded, very pious and childless Fedor was not interested in "The secular nuisance," as he called governing the country, and preferred to spend most of his time praying, visiting monasteries and ringing church bells. Palace intrigue resumed, and Boris Godunov managed in the end to eliminate all his opponents and govern the country in the name of his brother-in-law Tsar Fedor. In 1591 the ten-year old Tsarevich Dmitrii, son of Ivan the Terrible by his seventh wife, Maria Nagoi, died under mysterious circumstances. People have believed that Boris was involved in Dimitri's death probably because, in 1598, a few months after the death of Tsar Fedor, he was elected to the throne by the "Zemskii Sobor," an assembly representing most social groups.
Boris Godunov was a descendant of a Tatar family of petty nobility. His patriarch was Murza (Count) Chet, converted to Christianity by the Metropolitan Peter, who left the Golden Horde and moved to Russia to live. Legend has it that on his way to his new country, he was caught in a terrible storm near the Volga river, and only prayer saved his life. It was at this spot that he decided to remain, and where he later established the famous Monastery of Saint Ipatiev. The Godunovs soon prospered, and with prosperity came the title of boyar.

Tsar Fedor Ivanovich

Already as a young man, Fedor Ivanoich showed considerable interest in church architecture and the arts in general. He contributed money for the erection of several churches. The Bell-Tower of Ivan Velikii (Ivan the Great), the dominant edifice of the Kremlin was begun during his reign and the Palace of Facets (Granovitaya Palata) was redecorated with new frescoes. Many of them are of a secular nature, including one which shows Tsar Fedor himself sitting n his throne, his crown on his head and dressed in regal robes. But the name of the melancholy tsar is more closely associated with the Tsar Cannon, (Tsar Pushka) which was formerly known also as the "Fowling Piece," (Drobovik), a monstrous canon cast by Andrei Chokhov in 1586. The bore of this enormous cannon is almost three feet, and it weighs forty tons. It was cast in the Moscow Cannon Foundry, known in the 15th century as the "Cannon Izba." There is a base relief on the canon showing Tsar Fedor and an inscription telling that Chokhov cast it. He was a very capable master of metal-casting who cast many cannon which earned for Russia a reputation for excellence in artillery production, a tradition that they preserved and reinforced in the second world War. The Tsar cannon was intended to serve as an ornament and eventually used as a mortar on special occasions and celebrations. Only in 1967 was an experiment made to explore the ballistic qualities of the cannon. A cast iron ball weighing almost 4000 pounds was projected only about 800 feet. But there were other long cannon - culverins cast by Chokhov during Fedor's time that distinguished themselves in battle. Among them the best known are the "Troilus," weighing about seven tons, and "Aspis," about six tons.

The Tower of Ivan the Great. Tsar Boris Godunov.

From the center of the Kremlin rises the Bell Tower of Ivan Velikii (Ivan the Great), a beautiful white edifice of stone and brick that dominated all of Moscow for centuries. Its construction was begun during the reign of Fedor Ivanovich, but was terminated in 1600 by Boris Godunov. The first three receding stories are octagonal and not highly decorated; then there is a large band of decorative ogee-shaped kokoshniki continuing up into a cylindrical drum, topped by a gilded cupola and a large Russian cross. Just beneath the cupola there are three bands of large old Slavic letters, an inscription that tell us that the Tower 's construction was terminated during the reign of Tsar Boris Godunov. Its first floor houses the Church of Saint John Climacus, while the upper floors were used for the bells. A staircase inside the tower leads to the top gallery just under the cupola. Before the revolution people were permitted to ascend to the gallery, where they could enjoy a magnificent view of the entire city, an extraordinarily colorful picture of endless buildings painted in various pastel colors, over which more than a thousand churches with their multiple cupolas of all shapes and colors were scattered like jewels. Those who saw this splendid sight say the imagination could not surpass it. After seeing the same picture, Madame de Stael exclaimed: "There is the Tatar's Rome!" The location chosen for the tower could not be better. Here once stood the first wooden and then stone Church of Saint John Climacus, built by Ivan Kalita in 1329. Later on the top of this church was built a bell tower, whose bells were intended to serve for the services in the Cathedral of the Assumption, which never had its own tower or bells, the latter being an important part of the orthodox mass. After almost two centuries the church became unsafe and Vassili III decided to build a new one on the same spot. The builder was Italian architect called by the Russians Von (the ) Friazin ("Friazin" a name reserved at that time for all Italians, though originally used for the Genovese). This church was closed in 1508. Then in 1532 another "Friazin," Petrok (Pietro) the Short (malii), was commissioned by Vassili IV to build the Church of the Resurrection next door. It was renamed the Cathedral of the Nativity in 1543. This is the oldest part of the entire ensemble of the present Tower of Ivan the Great, in three parts. In 1624 Patriarch Filatet (Philaret), father of the reigning tsar, Mikhail Romanov, rebuilt the Cathedral, turning it into a four story structure with a belfry in the middle, crowned by a golden cupola and a cross, and added another chapel-tower surmounted by a tent-shaped spire in the middle, which was terminated by a small cupola and a cross, and had four Gothic turrets at teach corner. His intention was to use both structures to house the bells for the nearby Kremlin's three main cathedrals: Of the Assumption, Annunciation and Archangel Mikhail. In 1812, before he retreated, Napoleon blew up the chapel and good part of the Cathedral of the Nativity. They were rebuilt in 1818-1819 by architect Giliardi, who made them taller than they were before and added some Gothic elements. The chapel-tower continued to be known as Philaret's, but the Cathedral was again renamed, and became known as the Church of Saint Nicolas of Gastun. The Church of Saint John Climacus in the Tower of Ivan the Great and the tower itself were spared from destruction because French soldiers had thought the large cross on the top was made of gold, and attempted to take it down. Then came the treat fire which spread throughout Moscow, and they were forced to leave the Kremlin without destroying the tower.
In each of the three towers there were usually thirty-four bells of various sizes, ranging from the two smallest, made of silver, to the largest, which was named Uspenskii (Assumption). The latter was cast in 1819 by Yakov Zvialov and Rusilov (some information says by Bogdanov) and weighs 64 tons, making it the heaviest mounted bell in the world. This colossus was made of broken bells recovered after the great fire and French retreat from Moscow in 1812. A relief on it shows Alexander I, his mother and wife and his two brothers, Constantine and Nicolas. In accordance with tradition, it was rung not more than twelve times a year, usually on the most important holidays. Since the revolution they have all hung motionless and silent, depriving the people of the splendid musical experience that these unique musical instruments could offer to them. The author , historian Segei Vasilievich Maksimov (1831-1901) wrote that the old saying "Kutit' vo vsyu Ivanovskuyu," meant that on special occasions such as Easter, the bells would be heard in joyous harmonious glory. The Bolshevik leaders, who made the Kremlin their new home, could not adjust their ears to the peals of the bells.
Several foreigners who visited Moscow before 1917 were carried away both by the exquisite tone of the Kremlin bells and by the spectacle that Moscow offered on important holidays, particularly on Easter eve. On that day the entire Kremlin was illuminated and Moscow was practically flooded with lights. Hundreds of churches around the Kremlin and as far as the eye could see offered a dazzling spectacle with their vari-colored cupolas. At midnight the gigantic Uspenskii bell pealed forth to announce that "Jesus is Risen," instantly joined by thousands of bells in Moscow and by hundreds of thousands throughout Russia in a most grandiose hymn to God. At this moment a procession came out of each church to make a tour around it. Bishops and priests were dressed in their vestments embroidered with gold and pearls. They carried their crosses, icons and holy books, and were followed by the faithful, each with a lighted candle in his hands, and all singing holy songs. It was in order of their musical performance that he bells were hung in the Towers of Ivan the Great, the same way as with the instruments of a symphony orchestra or singers of a chorus. Their ringing usually started with the deepest bass of the colossus or with the "Treble" voice of the tiniest, and then all were gradually introduced , at precise intervals, blending their chimes into a glorious concert.

The Tsar of Bells

Another bell is worth mentioning: The "Tsar of Bells" (Tsar Kolokol), the largest bell in the world, weighing over two hundred tons. It remains helplessly on the soil, not far from the Tower of Ivan the Great, where the people can contemplate its gigantic dimensions: Twenty six feet high, about two feet thick and sixty-eight feet in circumference at the mouth. The story goes that a supper party was once given inside the bell and that twenty guests were comfortably seated. The bell was cast during the reign of Empress Anna in 1733-1735 by Ivan Fedorov Mtorin and his son Mikhail. The Tsar of Bells was the third in a series of giants, whose casting was initiated by Boris Godunov. They all fell or were damaged by the fires. That so often swept through the Kremlin, but each time they were recast and more metal was added to increase their size and weight. For the last recasting, boyars and church dignitaries threw their silver plates and dishes and in some cases their gold jewels into the molten copper, so that the new Tsar of Bells would have "Silver muscles and golden veins." Simple people contributed more copper and tin ware. The first casting attempt in 1734 failed; father Matorin later died, and only at the end of 1735 did his son Mikhail successfully accomplish the casting. A wooden shed was built to protect the bell in its original pit. Then in 1737 another fire devastated the Kremlin; the shed collapsed in flames and the burning wood threatened to melt the bell. To put the fire out the people rushed to pour cold water over the hot metal. The bell cracked in several places and a piece over eleven tons broke out of its side. The bell remained in the pit for a century until Nicholas I commissioned french architect August Montferrand in 1836 to pull it up and put it on the soil where it has remained since. Besides the impressiveness of its dimensions, the bell is fine piece of metal casting, with figures in relief of Tsar Aleksei and Empress Anna, and a scroll with the Savior, the Virgin and the evangelists. The Tsar of Bells was never hung and never rung, sharing the silence of the Tsar Cannon.
The square where the two "Tsars," Cannon and Bell , are located has been known since olden times as Ivanovskaya (Ivan's). It was on and around this square that most of the state departments (prikazi) were housed. Usually many people were around, boyars and officials mixing with ordinary people, particularly after a mass at the Cathedral of the Assumption. Hardly any Russian at that time failed to carry out this custom. It was here that secretaries (Diaki) read loudly to the people the tsar's proclamations and ukazi, and it was on this square that war prisoners were sold and purchased and criminals and thieves flogged; the floggings were moved to the Red Square after 1685.

Vyazemi.

About twenty five miles west of Moscow on the road to Mozhaisk is the village of Vyazemi, the patrimony of Boris Godunov. He built there his wooden country palace, where he often stayed. The palace was destroyed during the Polish campaign against Moscow. But the stone church (Zhivonachal'noi Troitsy), also built by him, remained unchanged until the present. It is a beautiful example of Russian architecture of the very early 17th century, at moments reminding us of the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael in the Kremlin. The inside of the church was covered with frescoes, which have since been restored several times, but are still of particular importance for students of Russian medieval art. Since the revolution the church has been neglected and its frescoes exposed to serious potential damage. Next to the church is a unique bell-fry unlike any other in or around Moscow, obviously built by Pskov masters.

THE FIRST ROMANOVS. THE NEW DYNASTY.

Tsar Mikhail Romanov (1613-1645)

In 1613 the Zemskii Sobor elected Mikhail Romanov the new Russian tsar. The Romanovs belonged to one of the most eminent boyar families., related to the house of Riurik. The Riurik's last Tsar, Fedor, was the first cousin of Mikhail's father, Fedor Romanov, later better known as Patriarch Filaret, whom Boris Godunov forced to take monastic vows. It took time to find the where abouts of the new tsar, a frail sixteen-year-old man. When the delegation sent by the Sobor to offer him the crown, finally found him in a monastery near Kaluga, Mikhail got frightened and started crying. With the blessing of his mother, Sister Martha, (who was also forced to take the veil), he accepted, and in July of the same year the coronation took place at the Kremlin's Cathedral of the Assumption.
For half of Mikhail's long reign the country was ruled first by his mother and then, from 1619-1633, by his father, who, as Holy Patriarch and "Velikii Gosudar" ("Majesty"), (titles he assumed after returning from Polish captivity) was the actual master in Moscow. Though he was very religious and eager to preserve traditions, the hostile attitudes of their neighbors compelled the first Romanovs to turn to the West European countries for assistance in rebuilding the country. Diplomatic relations were established with several countries; among the first were England and Holland. In 1614 John Meric, a prominent merchant, arrived in Moscow as head of a British diplomatic mission. He was followed by increasing number of foreign artists, craftsmen, merchants and members of various liberal professions, including professional soldiers needed to train the new Russian army. This trend had already begun under Ivan IV and was continued by Godunov, who invited several doctors to Moscow and opened a few pharmacies. He also purchased from the Germans two ships with crews, instituting a Russian navy almost a century before Peter I did so on a larger scale. But it was under the Romanovs hat the most notable expansion of trade and cultural relations took place. Development of natural resources was put into the hands of foreign engineers and technicians; concessions were readily granted to foreigners, and foreign capital offered profitable investment opportunities. Similarly to the Greek masters, who had taught Russian monks how to paint icons, foreign craftsmen now trained young Russians to weave, melt, build, forge cast, and also to appoint new, secular subjects. Russia discovered that there was much to learn from the West. The very conservative and insular Russian government and society had t make concessions to attractive western ides.
It all started with simple though helpful, innocently-looking practical necessities of daily life, which were yet capable of alluring many. The appetite of the Muscovites, particularly of the :Dvoriane," the new social class of service nobility, for western novelties, continued to increase and gradually brought considerable changes. Then came a desire to emancipate most of cultural life from the dogmatic morals and censorship of the Church. Of course this process of cultural evolution took many years, but the fact is that the numbers of those who accepted western civilization as a new and better form of life grew continuously. From a very few Dvoriane acceptance spread first to most members of the aristocracy, and then caught on with the suburban populations, with the merchants, craftsmen and even with the well-to-do peasants. The first to attract attention were house fold items and furniture. Leather armchairs and huge clocks were much appreciated, as were mirrors, contemporary musical instruments and even fancy cages with birds, parrots and canaries, which enjoyed great popularity. The Dvoriane started to hang western engravings and oil canvases representing various subjects including portraits of western royalty on their walls. There were fewer and fewer of those who found "Friazhskii" art sacrilegious. At receptions boyars and Dvoriane used silver and pewter dishes and cups, and the more progressive-minded no longer dressed in the old-fashioned oriental "Feriaz" - a long robe without collar - but in western-looking tunics, called "Caftan" by the Russians. Since not all noblemen switched to the new mode of dress, tsar Fedor Alekseyevich issued an ukaz to compel them to. His more conservative father, Tsar Aleksei had only a decade before reprimanded some of his courtiers for having cut their hair the western way. The material "westernization" of the Russian nobility and the well-to-do was so deep that a Yugoslav scholar, Yuri Krizhanich, accused them of being "Alien-minded maniacs." Krizhanich arrived in Moscow in 1659 in the hope of winning Russians and the Tsar over to the idea of Pan-slavism, but two years later he found himself exiled to Tobolsk, Siberia, where he spent fifteen years writing books about panslavism, education, enlightened absolutism and the necessity for Russia to accept western civilization if she wanted to become great and lead all the Slavs in their fight against the German menace. In 1676 Krizhanich received permission to leave Russia, but his books remained, and could be seen on shelves in the offices of Russian leaders, including Tsar Fedor Alekseyevich and his sister Tsarevna Sophia. Krizhanich's books were not published until the 19th century.
To redecorate and rebuild the Kremlin's churches and palaces, after the Polish invaders were chased out of Moscow, the new Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich chiefly relied on the Stroganov's painters and all those artists and builders who, during the "The Times of Trouble," had left the capital for a safer place to live and work, Nazari Istomin, after working for Patriarch Filaret, together with Prokopii Chirin and others, painted new icons for the restored churches and redecorated the tsar's private quarters. One of the most interesting icons of that period is the "Plozhenie Rizi Spasitelia" (As the Deposition of the Robe of Christ), attributed to Nikifor Savin and painted in 1625. Using the interior of the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Kremlin for the background, the painter has made a collective portrait of the Tsar Mikhail and his father Patriarch Filaret, seen standing in the middle, and the boyars, archbishops, priests and people, behind them. The upper part of the icon shows the roof and the five cupolas of the Cathedral which shelter the rest. The icon is a very fine example of the meticulous and richly decorative style that the former Stroganov painters brought with them to Moscow. There are many copies of this icon; the original is in the old-believers' Cathedral of the Protection of the Virgin in Moscow. In the same Cathedral is another fine icon of the period, painted by an unknown artist, showing Saints Boris and Gleb, dressed in princely robes and with crowns on their heads, riding on horseback. An unusual detail is that the ground is covered with flowers. Also very interesting are the icons that once stood in the iconostasis of the Church of the Archangel Michael in the Kremlin. Most art students agree that they show a blend of the Stroganov and Moscow styles in their earliest stage. The church was located on church square close to the Chudov Monastery (The Monastery of the Miracles). It was rebuilt and redecorated immediately after the fire of 1626 that destroyed the old church. Foreign visitors were particularly impressed by its fine frescoes, mostly showing scenes from all the ecumenical councils that took place before the 17th Century.
The last major artistic enterprise of Mikhail Romanov was the redecoration of the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Kremlin. In 1642 the Tsar ordered that the entire Cathedral be repainted and the background covered with gold leaf. About a hundred painters from all parts f the country were mobilized for the job, headed by Ivan Paisein, a well known painter from Pskov who was brought to Moscow to work for the Tsar. His main assistants were his brother Boris, Bazhen Savin, Sidor Pospeyev, and Marko Matveyev. It took them two years to finish the work, which was supervised by the Tsar's close friend Prince Boris Repnin. According to the Chronicle the painters carefully replaced the gold leaf in the background, and while restoring the frescoes, scrupulously preserved all details of the original murals of 1514, which were painted, according to some art historians, by Dionisii's son, Feodosii. These restored frescoes were repainted several times since and sometimes white-washed. Their cleaning was begun before the revolution and when they were first seen after a few centuries, they failed to live up to expectations. Their colors did not have the gaiety so typical of the Dionissi family. The restoration continued after the revolution and only in 1949-1950 was the cleaning completed, rejuvenating the old frescoes and giving them back most of their original appearance.

Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich, 1645-1676.

During the reign of Mikhail Romanov iconography underwent slight changes. With former Stroganov painters leading the artistic policy in the Kremlin, it became difficult to distinguish their style from the one that came to be considered as typical of Moscow masters. The icons they painted, known as "Tsarskie" (tsar's), in most cases differed from "Stroganov's" only in that the painters used more gold. At the same time the first signs of deviation from Novgorod traditions and from its Moscow variation of the 16th century started to appear. The reason for the change was contact with the West through imported miniatures, engravings, designs etc. Former Stroganov painters were the first to be lured by the features of western art. Their style was the closest to that of foreign artists and craftsmen, who decorated all sorts of household and personal items which reached the Russian market by way of Poland, White Russia and Ukraine, or were directly imported to Moscow from Germany and Holland. Imported engravings particularly impressed Russian painters, who were thrilled with the variety of subjects, colors and new genres. A decorative frenzy swept through Moscow's palaces and mansions, and the Tsar's private quarters were not spared. After he visited a few newly annexed cities in the West, he was finally won over to the "German model" of house decorating. Paintings and decorative designs covered not only the walls, ceilings, doors, windows and cupboards, but also tables and chairs, book-cases, toys, and wooden kitchen utensils, including ladles and spoons.
The middle of the 17th century marked a breaking point in Russian iconography. It coincided with the accession to the Russian throne of Tsar Aleksei in 1645, at the age of sixteen. He received a good education, but became very pious and in certain things very conservative, probably not without the influence of his tutor, the powerful boyar Boris Ivanovich Morozov, who married the young tsar to a daughter of dvorianin Ilia Danilovich Miloslavskii and took her sister for his wife. The Chroniclers called Aleksei "The most silent tsar in the sense of being very gentle," (Tishaishii). Surprisingly it was during the reign of the rigid conservative Tsar Aleksei that western painters, musicians, actors etc., were invited to Moscow in continuously increasing numbers. Russian iconographers, particularly those in Moscow, came under their influence, and history repeated itself. As the Greeks had done centuries before, in Kiev and Novgorod, Western painters were in Moscow not only to paint portraits of the prominent people and landscapes for their palaces, but also to teach young Russian art students how to use oil colors, until then unknown to them, and give them basic lessons in western art. This entire period could be best characterized as very contradictory. Traditions in painting, architecture, literature, religion, education and even the basic concept of the state structure were called into question and had to undergo certain modifications. It was at this time that additional lands were unified with Russia, which became a multinational state. Under the new conditions, in which several creeds and traditions were intermixed, some of them already strongly influenced by the West, the old Moscow was unable to escape the contamination of liberal and progressive ideas that had already penetrated its recently acquired western regions. Soon Russian artists went through for the first time the exciting experience of painting scenes from everyday life, landscapes, narrative subjects taken from literature and finally, portraits.

The Armory Chamber (Orusheinaya Palata)

Strangely enough, it was the Oruzheinaya Palata in the Kremlin that became the center of the new trend in the arts. Here, where the Tsar, the Patriarch and most of the top officials lived and worked, foreign artists painted their canvases, often in the presence of their Russian colleagues and art students, demonstrating the new "Friazhskii" style. The Armory Chamber was re-established soon after Mikhail Romanov became Tsar and the first foreign artists arrived in Moscow during his reign to paint pictures and portraits but not icons. His son Aleksei, himself an art enthusiast, did much to enlarge the workshops, helped the influx of foreign artists and offered better salaries and working conditions to Russian masters. Of course, Alexei did not hesitate to mobilize the latter and force them to come to Moscow whenever he needed them for a major project, as was the case when the Kremlin Cathedrals were redecorated. Aleksei showed sympathetic understanding for the new trend in art almost from the beginning of his reign. In 1654 he appointed as director of the Armory Chamber the boyar Bogdan Matveyevich Hitrovo, a very good organizer and a versatile man who shared Aleksei's artistic ideas. With the new approach to painting as both a secular and a religious art came several other changes in attitudes toward it. Even the attitudes of the painters, unless they were monks, began to change. The rules and regulations of the Stoglav Council were quickly forgotten; the interest of the painters in western art and their eagerness to copy it grew rapidly. The pious and very modest men, who kept themselves in the background and never thought of signing their names to the masterpieces they created grew rarer and rarer. Ambition and prestige, combined with better living conditions, began to appear in the minds of the new generation of painters, who already considered it quite normal to be guided by a "Friaz," (foreigner).The second half of the 17th century saw the appearance of the first "Tsar's painters" - "Tsarshie izpgrafi," which soon became a prestigious title. They painted everything that needed to be decorated; at that time this included furniture, toys, dishes, stoves, and almost nay household item. The painters were divided into two categories; appointed or salaried "Zhalovanikh" and hired "Kormovikh." One could become an appointed painter only after passing an examination, which consisted of painting an icon, and signing a statement that he will "Not drink or revel, always be ready to paint, not leave Moscow without permission,.....," and including several other obligations on his part. In return for this he received 12-15 Rubles a year, about ten bushels of wheat and when he was working , 6-9 koeks; all this was considered a good income for that time. Hired painters were housed free and received about ten kopeks a day. On holidays and special occasions painters received gifts from the tsar's household. Documents show that in 1666 they were each given a total of three gallons of wine, several gallons of beer, several pounds of ham, five smoked tongues, sweets etc. (I is hard to see how they could escape violating their oath not to drink, at least occasionally).

Portrait Painting.

The 17th century brought considerable interest in portrait painting. Though most icons are portraits of saints, some of them painted quite realistically as in the case of local saints, Russians and most of the Orthodox world draw a distinct line between "Iconopis" - (iconography) and "Parsunnoye pismo" - Portrait painting of secular persons. The adjective "Parsunnoye" comes from the (foreign) word "Person," which the Russians erroneously heard and mispronounced as "Parsuna," while the Russian word "Pismo" has several meanings, such as painting, writing or simply letter. Together "Parsunnoye pismo" means portrait painting not of saintly persons. It is true that there were icons painted in the 16th and even in the 15th century that showed individuals or groups of lay persons, usually princes or dignitaries or simple people in praying position, or as participants at a celebration of a religious holiday. Most of the paintings that decorated the walls of the Golden Palace of Ivan the Terrible also depicted scenes of lay and religious ceremonies with the tsar and simple mortals as participants. Some legends say that, to choose those he wanted to see, Ivan IV was provided with painted portraits of all girls he considered as candidates for marriage. He was married seven times and, if the legend is true, he must have had hundreds of portraits, but none have survived to our times. The first known portraits in existence in the sense of "Parsunnoye pismo" are those of Ivan's son, Tsar Fedor Ivanovich, and of the national hero Prince Mikhail Vasilevich Skopin-Shuiskii, dating from the end of the 16th century. These portraits were painted the same way as the icons, namely, on wooden panels and in tempera colors mixed with egg yolks, but the novelty mainly consisted in the technique of execution, for the colors became more bright, and there was more freedom for the artist to paint the way he wanted. The result was that realistic and naturalistic tendencies began to prevail in the new paintings, the entire composition became more liberal and the faces rendered more gay, more rounded and beautiful.

Hans Deterson.

Old documents mention the name of Hans Deterson, a German painter, who was invited to Moscow in 1643 to paint various objects for the tsar and teach Russian apprentices his trade. While it is clear that Deterson was one of the first foreign professional teachers of painting in Russia, uncertainty beclouds the portrait of Patriarch Nikon that some Russian art students ascribe to him. Another thing is also clear, that Deterson died in 1655, leaving no positive proof of his identity on any painting that has survived until the present. When Aleksei became Tsar, the Moscow Kremlin opened its doors to foreign artists. In old documents we come across names such as that of D. Wuchters, most probably a Dutchman, Peter Engels, Hans Walter, G. Grube, Cornelius Bruien, along with Greeks, Armenians, Lithuanians, and particularly many from Poland. Most of them worked in the Ikonaya Palata - the Painting (Icon) Chamber - which was a department of the Armory Chamber, headed by Hitrovo, painting portraits, decorating walls, furniture, flags and emblems, tiles and ceramics, and almost everything, as was the fashion of that time. This created a favorable ground for the development of ornamental art that soon flourished in Russia.

Engraving

Another kind of art that won particular favor among the Russian nobility was engraving. Already at the end of the 16th century western engravings had appeared on the market in Moscow. They were called "Friaz amusing leaves" (sheets). By the middle of the 17th century the demand for them rapidly increased, and later they became a sort of collector's item. Thus some sources say that Patriarch Nikon had a collection of more than two hundred engravings which he kept under lock and key. Later, Tsar Aleksei's sons did not bother showing them to their visitors. Around this time the Russians learned from their foreign teachers to engrave on copper, and it was again in the Kremlin workshops that engraving thrived. A. Trukhmenskii and his pupils V. Andreyev and l. Bunin distinguished themselves illustrating several books. But first foreigners and then Russians started producing engraved icons, which showed Patriarch Ioakim, who succeeded Nikon as head of the Russian Church. Obviously, he feared another, cheap way to spread Latin influences in Russia, the saints being made the western way. He issued a proclamation to the people asking them "Not to print on paper the holy icons or buy those made by heretical Germans." Preoccupied with the schism and the struggle against the "Old-believers," the Church's protest against engravings fell on deaf ears. To the contrary, the popularity of engravings, not in icon form continued to grow, mainly in the form of cheap prints called "Lubok." All sorts of popular pictures and stories, usually with headlines and texts, were printed on these "Lubki," which became the only "Literature" that simple peasants could afford. With the help of "Lubki" thousands of peasants became literate, a side benefit to the enjoyment that these early forms of animated designs could offer to the people.
The printing of the first "Lubki" was done in a very primitive fashion using wooden boards. The engravers who performed the work were often simple peasants, but some of them were quite gifted, sometimes producing very colorful and interesting prints. The name "Lubok" came either from special baskets made of bast fibers - "Lubyanie korobki," in which peddlers carried the engravings; or from the lime tree boards, which in some provinces were called "Lub." Most probably the first "Lubki" were made in one of these provinces, the Vologda region.

"The Bible of Piscator."

In the middle of the 17th century a richly illustrated Bible depicting scenes of the Old and New Testament appeared in Amsterdam. The author was Jan Vissher (Fisher) who remade for this purpose some 277 engravings originally by prominent artists. His Bible soon found its way into Russia where it became known as "The Bible of Piscator," the Latin version of Vissher's name, or "The Facial Bible." Hardly any foreign-made book, had ever influenced painting in Russia more than Vissher's Bible though there were never more than a few copies. On copy must had reached the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, since their a monk, known under the name of Ilya, used it as a model to illustrate his Bible. The Tsar'a artist Bezmin had another copy. Saints and scenes from Vissher's engravings were copied by many Russian painters, though of course they Russified them in order for them not to appear like the "Heretical paintings of Lutherans and Calvinists with faces of their countries." The Russians changed not only the faces but also the clothing and the backgrounds and used more vivid colors. The texts that Vissher provided below each illustration were translated into Russian syllabic verse by one of the most ardent partisans of western education, the famous poet and tutor of Tsar Aleksei's children, Simeon Plotskii (1620-1680, a former monk who spoke Polish and Latin and who was educated at the Kievan Academy. The painters were happy to have a copy of the illustrated Bible, and Tsar Fedor had one too. Russian painting manuals - "Podliniki" - contained examples of scenes and saints from the New Testament and a very few from the Old Testament or from the Apocrypha. It was because of this that illustrated western books and bibles gained considerable interest among Russian painters. They found in western engravings new subjects and new elements for enlarged compositions.
The second half of the 17th century abounded in portraits of Russian dignitaries, almost all done by foreign masters. Interest in portrait painting was spurred by a sudden concern for the man as an individual, particularly after the first descriptions of Russian tsars and princes had appeared in literature. Of high artistic value are quarrel miniatures in the two manuscripts The Titularnik (Book of Genealogy) and the Izbranie (The Book of the Election to the Throne of Tsar Mikhail Geodorovich), painted by Ivan Maksimov and Dimitrii Lvov in 1672-1673. Once accepted by Moscow's high society, foreign artists painted for them pictures with biblical subjects, and later turned even to painting icons. Among the first such paintings known was "Fascination of Jerusalem," painted on canvas in oil colors, and allegedly done by Wuchters. It brought him a tremendous increase in salary, from twenty Rubles a year to thirteen a month, considered a large salary at that time. The subjects of new paintings rapidly multiplied. "Song of Songs," "Our Father," the "Coronation of the Virgin" and many others, though considered "Catholic" and as such alien to the Orthodox Church, became increasingly popular among the upper classes. Painted in the Western manner and showing saints with embellished and rese-colored, realistic faces, very unusual to the Russian eye and varying from the established Orthodox forms, colors and patterns, they could hardly count on acceptance by the Church hierarchy. The appearance of icons painted in the same manner by foreigners, and the fact that many Russian art students followed the western style, provoked a real furor among Orthodox clergymen, such as Patriarch Nikon and Arch-priest Avvakum, who stumbled over themselves to condemn the "Friazhskii" style.

Patriarch Nikon (1605-1681).

The first to sound the alarm against future shaping of iconography and art in general by foreigners was Nikon, a son of a peasant, who happened to occupy for a while the throne of the Russian Patriarch. Though without formal education, Nikon took the monastic vows, and owing to his adamantine will, forceful personality and insatiable ambition managed soon to become first, the Abbot of the Novospaskii Monastery, then Archbishop of Novgorod, and in 1652, the Patriarch of all Russia. Profiting by the great esteem in which, the young Tsar held him in the beginning, Nikon wanted to re-establish the supremacy of the Church over the secular power, and, imitating Patriarch Filaret and his diarchy, also assumed the title of "Velikii Gosudar" (majesty). The number of those who feared this power and ruthlessness grew rapidly, and he invited their opposition. They were joined by many churchmen who refused to follow Nikon's Church reforms, aimed at correcting religious books and bringing certain ceremonial rites into line with existing Greek Church practices. Then he launched his campaign against icons that showed Western influences, and issued regulations condemning all deviations from the official style in icon painting. When this failed to work he excommunicated all those who painted "After the western fashion," and ordered that houses be searched to confiscate and publicly destroy all icons in which religious subjects were treated in un-orthodox way. The Patriarch himself often was present when heretical icons were paraded through Moscow and then cut into pieces or burned. On one occasion, in the Tsar' presence, after the Liturgy Nikon first showed to the congregation some of the confiscated icons and then with all his force threw them on the floor and ordered to them to be taken out and burned. The indignant Tsar could do nothing but propose to Nikon to bury them instead. By 1658 the Tsar had had enough of Nikon"s despotic interference in state affairs. Counting on the Tsar's continuous affection Nikon took a trivial incident at a court reception as reason to leave Moscow and resign as Patriarch in the hope that he would be urged to return. Instead, after prolonged conflicts which lasted several years. The Church council was summoned in 1666, to try Nikon. He was brought to Moscow from his Voskresenskii Monastery, found guilty, deprived of his patriarchal see and exiled to the Ferapont Monastery. He died in 1881 on the way to his Voskresenskii Monastery, after being permitted to return to it.

Archpriest Avvakum (1621-1682).

Nikon's public demonstrations against western influences seemed mild and hardly sincere to the conservative zealots, who already feared his corrections of books and reforms of the Church ritual. Indeed, Nikon often displayed inconsistences in hi condemnations of the new style and was ready to accept part of it if he could adjust it to his reforms. The most vehement attacks came from the "Fanatical Herculean Archpriest" Avvakum, as historian S.M. Soloviev called him, who was ready to die for the preservation of the old rituals. Avaakum was an exceptional man of tremendous energy and determination, whose deep faith eventually enabled him to overcome great suffering. He was very eloquent for his time, and a true master of the Russian language. The writings he left, particularly his auto-biography, earned him a place among the prominent ancient Russian authors. In the late sixteen forties Avvakum, at that time Archpriest in the provincial town of Yuryevets on the Volga river, was a member of a small fraternity of influential men, mostly clergymen, who realized the necessity of reforming certain parts of the Church service, raising the educational level of the clergy and correcting obvious mistakes in sacred texts made when they were re-written or translated from the Greek originals. Other prominent members of the circle were Fedor Mikhailovich Rtishchev, chamberlain and close friend of the young Tsar Aleksei who founded a new school at the Andreyevskii Monastery, near Moscow, where former Kievan monks, educated under western influence, were principal teachers; Nikon, who as Patriarch used these same teachers to propagate his reforms; and Ivan Neronov, a favorite preacher of the Muscovites. At the head of the fraternity was Stefan Vnifantiev, the Archprest of the Cathedral of the Annunciation and confessor of the Tsar. The members of the circle became known as "God-vovers," but the trouble was that each eventually found his own way to love God. One man turned against the other; and Nikon and Avvakum became arch-enemies.
In his letters Avvakum directed his accusations against Nikon, whom he called a dog and a heretic, and all those who followed him. He used the language of the simple people, the "Prostorechie," combined with sarcastic remarks and proverbs. In one of his epistles he scoffed at foreign and domestic painters for "Painting the image of the Savior with a plump face, red lips, golden curls, fat fingers and hands, also fat thighs, and all made to look like a fat-belied German, only forgetting to paint a sword at his hip.. And all this was made by the wolfhound Nikon to look lifelike. But (everything) is contrived in the Friaz and German manner. Nikonians will start to paint a pregnant Virgin at the Annunciation, as the vile Friazhi do. And Christ all swollen on the cross: a well-fattened darling, his legs just like little stools. Oh, Oh, poor Rus! Why for you need German customs?"

Boyarina Morozova.

Avvakum was indefatigable in his defense of Russian Church traditions and in his accusations against "Heretical" innovators. Besides the simple people and the conservative clergy, he had followers among the nobility, many of whom paid with their lives for their fidelity to old rituals. The Tsarina Maria strongly sympathized with Avvakum for a time, but Boyarina Morozova and her younger sister, Princess Urusova, relatives of the Tsarina were the most faithful to him. They were also close relatives of F.M. Rtishchev. The two sisters went through awful tortures and died imprisoned in 1675. The famous painting "Boyarina Morozova" by V.I. Surikov, who shows her chained and taken on a sled across the Red Square, on her way from the Kremlin, where she was interrogated by the Patriarch Ioakim and invited to renounce Avvakum, at the Percheskii Monastery. Tsar Aleksei himself tried unsuccessfully to bring Morozova back to the traditional Church. On the occasion in 1671 of his second marriage with Natalia Kirrilovna Narishkina, the future mother of Peter the Great, hi invited Morozova to his wedding, but she refused. The Tsar knew that the pain in her legs, which she gave as an excuse, was not the real reason.
Morozova's biography was written after her death; she was considered a saintly woman by the traditionalists. Many of them in the northern provinces mourned her death by immolating themselves, and the self-sacrificing reached large numbers after the execution of Avvakum.
Avvakum was exiled to Siberia. He was incarcerated for most of the time in the town of Pustozersk, but he also spent a short time in the jail of the newly founded town of Tarsk, on the river Angara, where the Soviet Union now has one of her most celebrated dams. Bratsk was another name for the local Buriat tribesmen who resisted the Kozaks' conquest of Eastern Siberia. The last attempt to conciliate Avvakum with the official Church was made in 1666-1667 when he was invited to a Church Council which took place in Moscow. He took the opportunity to denounce the contemporary Greek Church and severely chid the present patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, who also represented the patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem, the same who, in Krizhanich's words, "Were ready a thousand times to sell Jesus Christ, whom the Jew Judas sold only once!" Back in Pustozersk, Avvakum continued to write his epistles denouncing Church prelates and defending his ideals. In 1682 he wrote to the Tsar Fedor Alekseyevich, telling him that his father was in Hell, and that he would go there too unless he chased Nikon's followers out of the Church. Almost two centuries after Savonarola, Avvakum was burned alive at the stake for "Slandering the House of the Tsar." Mass suicide by burning followed his death. Then for a time it looked as if the resistance of the traditionalists only increased with the severity of their persecution. As a Regent after the death of her father, Tsar Aleksei, Sofia considered that the ukhaz of 1667 declaring them heretics and excommunicating them was not sufficient, and in 1684 she issued another ukaz decreeing that the traditionalists who did not repent would be burned at the stake. There are no records of how many perished in flames, but the figure at the end of the 17th century was in the thousands. Many of those who survived were exiled to Siberia or the northern provinces. They became known as "Raskoniki" - dissenters, and "Staroobriadtsi" - old-ritualists, and they continued to live and believe their own way. What originally was a petty detail in the Church ritual, whether the sign of the cross should be made with two or three fingers, - became the "Raskol," schism, and caused a strong nationalistic movement primarily among illiterate peasants, which refused to accept anything that was foreign including art and architecture. Cruel repressive measures by the government put an end to the movement, opening the way to the Russians to gradually break with their sacrosanct cultural traditions and imitate western customs, education and art.

Simon Fedorovich Ushakov (1626-1686).

The talented Russian 17th century top court painter (tsar's izograf) Simon Ushakov was not spared the sobriquet "Friaz," though he quite successfully combined traditional icon painting with the western style which spread throughout Russia during his time. The bitter attacks of Archpriest Avvakum against iconographers who painted "The blasphemous Friaz icons" had been addressed to Ushakov too. Regardless of the opposition of the Church and the relentless efforts of Avvakum, the trend of westernization and secularization of iconography, to which Ushakov contributed greatly, forded lay and ecclesiastical opponents gradually to accept it.
Ushakov's Christian name was Pimen, though he changed it to Simon for unknown reasons. As a young man he worked for the Armory Chamber, first as a designer in the Silver Chamber, where silversmiths and goldsmiths made all sorts of decorative items. He attracted the attention of his superiors with his beautifully designed vessels and other times, among which was the miter worn by Patriarch Nikon. At the very early age of 22 he was appointed "Tsar's izograf," with an annual salary of ten Rubles and about twenty bushels of wheat. Continuing to work hard. He earned a great reputation, and in 1664 became head of the Icon Chamber. Later he painted several well-known icons which brought him fame during his life-time; a special house -studio was put at his disposal and he earned a good salary. But even more important was the fact that Ushakov entirely controlled the artistic activity of the Tsar's Icon Painting School and, for a time, imposed his won style on it. Some say that even the Tsar listened to him and accepted his views on all matters of iconography, including Ushakov's determination to turn to the west for inspiration. His influence continued for many years after his death.
The shift from the traditional iconography to more naturalistic and more beautiful presentation of religious art was not an easy one. For pious Russian icon painters it was not simple to turn their backs on "Podliniki" and accept the ideas of the heterodox. Ushakov and most of this fellow painters must have endured many hard moments, and documents show that the matter was thoroughly discussed among them before the final decisions were made. The story goes that a Serbian monk, Ioann Pleshkovich, came to see Ushakov just when he and another izograf, Iosif Vladimirov, were discussing their artistic problems and at the same time, scrutinizing Ushakov's new painting of Maria Magdalene. It appears that when the Serbian monk saw Maria's beautiful face, he spat and was horrified, declaring that people would not accept such icons at home. It was this scene which prompted Vladimirov to address an epistle to Ushakov in which he made his views clear. Vladimirov approached the guide lines for painters that were listed in paragraph 53 of the HUNDRED Chapters with respect, but suggested that the "Podliniki" should be revised occasionally and made to correspond to the faces and figures seen on earth. He was against dark, tortured-looking faces that hardly differed one from another and were far from natural. Obviously, Vladmirov had a delicate taste for beauty, and he denounced the conservative accusation that beautiful faces on men and women saints would provoke carnal feelings in believers. In his opinion the Tsar would object if his portrait was made ugly, and so would the "Tsar of Heaven." He felt that painters should paint real faces and the actual life that surrounds them, and he saw no need to prevent foreign artists from painting icons. Ushakov sided with his colleague and in his reply stressed that the ideal of art was to faithfully reproduce reality, as a mirror should do. He refused to accept the conservative notion that beautiful faces in icons violated divine laws. He underlined the popularity of art in the West and advised his fellow painters to follow foreigners in their presentation of nature. On the Tsar's recommendation the Church Council of 1667 discussed new trends in art, particularly the painting of new icons, as the result of which the Church opposition to it diminished considerably. The edict that was issued jointly by the Patriarchs, of Moscow, Antioch and Alexandria, permitted secular painting and defined its aims. The Archpriest Avvakum and his followers remained the only opponents to what they called "Blasphemous new icons."
There is no question that Ushakov added something new to the art of iconography in Russia, though he did not necessarily make it better. In fact he may be said to have deprived it considerably of its national character. Most art critics agree that his novelties were the result of compromise, and not only artistic but political compromise. The roots of his art were in the Stroganov and Moscow Schools, from which he learned the techniques of precise drawing and decoration with gold, an inclination towards narration and illustration, improved composition, softer coloring etc. To this he added what he had borrowed from foreigners, the desire to paint more realistic and more beautiful faces and figures and give them more life, to dress them in rich vestments and costumes, to add more interesting and updated landscaping and architecture to his backgrounds, and to make his icons and paintings look less flat than before. From tempera colors mixed with egg-yolk and Kvas, he switched to oil colors, a novelty in Russian painting, and Ushakov was the first to paint faces in chiaroscuro, which was indeed an important step Of course, he could not master all these novelties successfully, and a good part of his paintings leave the impression of being unfinished.
Ushakov painted faces very well; they became very popular and were the base of his tremendous success. The foreign influence on Ushakov was most evident in his faces, and it was primarily because of his beautiful faces that Ushakov ranks in popularity immediately after Rublev and Kionisii, and is called by some art students the Russian Raphael. Within Russian boundaries Ushakov not only created his own style, but was also the founder of a new school of art.
With the help of soft colors, chiaroscuro, and delicate lines, Ushakov gave new life to Jesus' face, a new human look that expressed love and suffering and made of Him the incarnation of goodness and mercy. It was not surprising that simple and humble people liked Ushakov's gentle faces. They saw in these faces somebody who loved them, and , they returned that love. It is hard to say if the perfection of the faces he painted forced Ushakov to neglect the rest of his figures, in which mediocrity prevailed, or whether he simply could not handle the many orders he received and had to enlist help to paint the rest. It is now a proven fact that on many icons Ushakov painted only the faces, and possibly just he face of Jesus, which is usually the best. In the best of his icons, The Savior, he proved able to march European painters in technique and subtlety. His collaborators Yakov Kazantsev and Gavrilo Kondratiev, often painted the rest; who favored a baroque style: One of the most popular icons of the three masters is the Annunciation, which they painted in 1659 for the Moscow Church of Our Lady of Georgia, also known as the Church of the Trinity at Nikitnikakh).. The main icon has twelve small panels (akafists) around its edges, the "Kleima," showing scenes from the Virgin's life. Documents record that the faces were painted by Ushakov and the rest by the two other painters. The critics agree on the high quality of the composition of the icon, but they disagree about whom to credit for it, since both Ushakov and Kazanets were at that time famous izpgrafs of the tsar, and sometimes Kazanets name was listed before Ushakov's, which has always been an important detail in Russian hierarchy. Ushakov's icon "The Virgin of Vladimir," attracted particular attention, because of its originality and its political implications. It was painted in 1668. Sushakov put the Virgin in the middle of the icon and surrounded her with the branches of the great "Tree of the State of Moscow." The tree appears to grow out of the Kremlin's Cathedral of the Assumption, with the Grand Duke Ioan Danilovich Kaita planting the tree and Moscow Metropolitan Peter watering it. The reigning Tsar, Alexsei Mikhailovich, is standing behind the Metropolitan and , on the opposite side, behind Kalita, is his first wife, Mariand, and his two sons, Aleksei and Fedor. In front of them is part of the Kremlin wall that faces the Red Square, a valuable detail because it shows how the wall looked in the second half of the 17th century. It is hard to say what prompted Ushakov to paint this icon, whether obedience, flattery or devotion to the regime and the Tsar, or simply the fact that he wanted to be the first Russian artist who could be compared to court painters in the West. His other most important icons are The Savior, The Trinity, and The Versicle. Ushakov was a versatile artist; besides iconography he tried his lick in some other fields. He restored old frescos and icons, redecorated palaces, made engravings and eau fortes, painted maps and even designed new coins. Some critics tend to blame Ushakov for westernizing Russian art, as if this process could have been stopped. They compare the art of Ushakov with the great art of Rublev and Kikonisii and then conclude that Russian art had lost its originality and opened the way to decadence. While part of this is true, it is hard to understand why Ushakov must be considered primarily responsible. Ushakov was an apprentice when western art began to penetrate into Russia, and he made the best he could of it. Only a genius could resist such a historic process, but Ushakov was not a genius. He was a gifted artist who happened to live during a period of great change, and who understood that the time had come to turn to the West. He was successful and he was able to impose his artistic preferences to all around him. They were, most probably, the result of compromises he made, but it would be unfair to rate his achievements, as some ar historians do, as just a little better than the icons painted by the (craftsmen) from Palekh and Mstera. His influence on Russian art was tremendous and was continued through his school. Among his followers the best known were Filatiev, Pavlovets, Zubov, Ulanov, Saltanov, Bexmin, and Poznansky. Saltanov and Tezmin made a few original icons, which they partly painted and partly covered with silk taffeta, thus preceding by over two centuries the "Collage" rediscovered by Picasso and others in the beginning of the 20th century. Poznansky was the first Jew, converted to the Orthodox religion, who became the tsar's "Izugraf" of the Armory Chamber. He painted a few icons for the iconostasis of the Church of the Crucifixion in the Kremlin, which had a small chapel to the left of the altar, where tsar Alexei could , and often did, attend mass without being seen.

Fresco Painting in the Yaroslavl Region

Fresco painting was the last to succumb to western influences, and did so to considerably smaller degree than did literature, architecture or icon painting. During the second half of the 17 century some mural painters tried unsuccessfully to continue the traditions of Rublev and Dionisii, but most of them were taken by the prevalent trend in the other arts, and they too found in western illustrations fresh inspirations and an opportunity to learn more, imitate and enlarge their activity. One more Vissher's Bible as well as other books, became a sort of a manual for a good number of Russian fresco painters. Murals, more than icons, received a new Russian look in composition substituting western features for Russian faces, dress, architecture, and decorative elements, and using their native bright colors o paint them. The frescoes in the churches of the Yaroslavl area are of particular interest. They exemplify the changes that took place in the second half of the 17th century. At the sam time they show "Westernization" of iconography could be limited to the introduction of new scenes and subjects and did not necessarily mean poor imitation of west-European painters, as was frequently the case in icon painting of the same period. The frescoes were painted by teams (arteli) of artists headed by a master painter (znamenshchik), who drew the entire composition and worked on central figures, his assistants then worked under his direction and painted the rest. The chronicles left several names of very gifted native masters, some of whom were invited to Moscow to work in the Kremlin, thereby reaching the top in the artistic world by becoming the tsar's painters (tsarshie izugrafi). What they produced was the best that the Russia of that time could offer. They did not reach the heights of monumental style and simplicity of the Dionisii school, but they were able to cope with complicated compositions that entirely covered all the inside walls of churches, including the chapels, porches and galleries, turning them into art galleries inundated with vivid colors. Their mode of painting was quite simple. After each fresco had been designed on a damp plastered wall, it was filled in with lime colors, and the fresco was done. But this only came after the laborious work of composition.
Not all of the fresco painters had that semi-monumental style. The closer we come to the 18th century the more we see the tendency towards increased ornamental function of the frescoes with florid waves and surly skies and hundreds of details, with all meant to tell about some episode, not necessarily religious. In some scenes saints were brought down from the skies to the earth, and surrounded by people, trees, flowers, animals, birds, houses and household items. Church galleries were the first to experience this novelty.

Gurii Nikitin and Sila Savin.

The most eminent fresco painters were Gurii Nikitin and Sila Savin, both from Kostroma, "The last two masters of the dying great style." Their talents were so highly regarded that they were invited to decorate churches not only in the best monasteries but by the Archbishop of Rostov, Iona Sisoyevich, and the Tsar. In 1662, assisted by the members of their team, or as the chronicler says "With tovarishch," they started decorating the Trinity Cathedral of the Danilov Monastery at Pereaslavl-Zaleskii, built in 1530-1532 by Vasilii III to commemorate the birth of his son Ivan the Terrible. There is no information as to whether the Cathedral was frescoed at that time. The price of the entire work was 300 Rubles. Then suddenly, Moscow invited them to paint the frescoes in the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael in the Kremlin, and they left the Monastery with less than half its frescoes done. They returned only in 1668 but after two months Moscow called again and they had to interrupt the work a second time. The decoration of the Trinity Cathedral was finished the following year by some other painters from Kostroma.
In 1669 and 1671 the two master-painters were in Rostov to fresco the interior of the Cathedral of the assumption. They worked together with another well known tsar's izugraf, Dmitrii Grigoriev, a native of Yaroslavl, and with Vaslii Kuzmin, Sevastian Dimitiev, Iosif Vladimirov, two brothers named Ananin, two brothers named Karpov and others. Their frescoes were restored several times and in 1843 repainted with oil color. Attempts to strip the original frescoes of subsequent layers of paint had failed with the exception of few fragments, making it difficult to ascribe them with certainty to a particular master. Nikitin, Savin and Grigoriev returned to Rostov in 1675 to decorate the Church of the Resurrection. These frescoes were quite well preserved until present times and masterfully executed. They were cleaned and restored in the nineteen sixties. In most cases the compositions are well balanced, and the colors beautiful and delicate, particularly the greens and he blues; the figures and the faces communicate with ease their intentions and feelings. Those in the galleries, which show subjects and scenes taken from the (book of Genesis), are more intimate, and sometimes the subjects are approached more spontaneously , for example the animals in the picture of Noah's Ark and the scenes from the Apocalypse.
In 1672 Nikitin and Savin painted the frescos in the Convent of the Theophany, and in 1685 in the Ipatiev Monastery, both at Kostroma. Their most remarkable work was done when under their guidance, the walls of the Church of Saint Elijah at Yaroslavl were covered with frescoes. On the southern wall of the church there is an inscription which says that in 1680 and 1681 isografs from Kostroma, Gurii Nikitin and Sila Savin, a native of Yaroslavl, Dmitrii Semenov, Vasilli Kuzmin, A. Timofeyev, Peter Averkiev, Mark Nazarov, Vasilii Mironov, Foma Yermilov, Timofei Fedorov, Iva Petrov, Ivan Andryanov, Ivan Ivanov, Filip Andreyanov, and Stepan Pavlov participated in this quite sizeable work which was done in a relatively short time.
The frescoes of the Saint Elijah Church attract particular attention, not so much because of their quality but for their unrestrained execution. More than ever before they show the new approach, and the tendency of the painter to free themselves from traditional forms and treat men and nature in a more realistic way. They are also overcrowded with any details, people, animals etc. The frescoes were painted in five tiers. The first from the top illustrates scenes from Jesus' life after his resurrection; the second tells of his life and ministry; the third shows the apostles and events from their lives; the fourth and the bottom tiers depict scenes from the life of the patron of the Church, Saint Elijah, and his successor and pupil, the prophet Elisha. In the first three tows the painters did not depart much from the traditional canonized schemes and presentations. A daring exception is the "Last supper," which they treated almost as a feast. In the bottom tiers there are several scenes borrowed from the illustrations in Vissher's Bible. Here, obviously, the painters let their imaginations loose and produced some of the most remarkable frescoes of the entire Yaroslavl cycle. Such are the scenes from the life of Elisha, on the southern wall, which Soviet art students now call "Harvest," or "Tillage." Many details look as if they were taken from a nearby Russian village. They are given a prominent place in the frescoes at the expense of the religious trappings. These frescoes are also the most colorful.
Similar tendencies appear in the frescoes in the Church of Saint Nicolas at Yaroslavl (Tserkov Nikoli Mokrogo), which were also borrowed from Vissher. Their execution has prompted some art historians to conclude that they were also painted by Gurii Nikitin and his team, though there is no documentary evidence to confirm this. The composition of the "Last Judgement" is of considerable artistic merit. This theme became very popular in the churches of Yaroslavl area; those entering paradise are often shown with Russian faces and dressed in Russian costumes, while the sinners in hell or heading towards it are obviously foreigners and of non-Orthodox creed.

Dmitrii Grigorievich Plekhanov. Fyodor Ignatiev.

Even more impressive and more representative of the illustrative style that burst into the Yaroslavl region in the second half of the 17th century are the frescoes in the Church of Saint John the Precursor at Tolchokovo, a suburb of Yaroslavl just across the river Kotorosl. One has the impression that beautiful enormous carpets in which green hues dominate, covers all its walls, pillars, arches, even the sides of doors and windows. The frescoes of the main church were painted more or less in accordance with ecclesiastical requirements, though with considerable freedom of composition, color and arrangement. Those in the galleries are crowded with scenes from the Old testament, the Apocalypse, lives of the local saints and from the Church and national history. There are thousands of figures spread over the interior of the Church, the largest number of figures ever painted in Russia. The master painters of this remarkable and very intricate composition were Dmitrii Grigorievich Plekhanov, a native of Pereslavl Zaleskii, and Fedor Ignatiev, who are known to have collaborated with their senior and mentor Gurii Nikitin. Plekhanov and Ignatiev were assisted by another fourteen painters, mostly those that had worked with Nikitin in the Church of Saint Elijah fourteen years earlier. It took them just over a year in 1694-1695 to decorate entirely the walls of Saint John the Precursor, a very short time for such a complicated job. The chapels and the galleries were frescoed in 1700, presumably by the same painters. Contrary to the accepted custom of painting the Last Judgement on the western wall, they moved it to the gallery on the north side, and in its place painted scenes from the "Song of Songs" borrowed from Visshers Bible. Here again all persons are dressed in Russian costume and several other changes were made to make them look Orthodox and Russian. In some cases the reproductions look better than the originals. In the scene "Feast of Herod" the plates, cups, dishes etc., are contemporary Russian; the dance of Salome is quite natural and the guests feasting at their ease. The dame may be said of the d"Baptismal," which looks more like "Bathing," with some people dressing themselves, the others undressing, half-dressed etc. Animals, trees and flowers are panted with the same realistic approach. In all it is a gallery of animated murals, masterfully painted in bright and pure hues.
It took the Russians a few centuries to free themselves from strong Byzantine influence and develop their own style of iconography. Their art reached its golden age between the middle of the 15th and the middle of the 16th centuries. They started to cover their best icons with repousse silver and gold plates "Oklad and all sorts of jewels, so that hardly anything but the face and a hand could be seen, and mediocre and even bad painters painted over their beautiful old frescoes with cheap colors . Deprived of seeing the best they had in painting, they began to forget about it. This period of retrogression in ar became highly controversial when, around the middle of the 17th century, western culture began to penetrate into Russia.
It started with literature and education brought from the already infiltrated Ukraine, which the former students of the Kievan Academy successfully propounded in Moscow. In the absence of Russian instructors, they became teachers at the first Russian theological school, founded by Fedor Rtishchev in 1648-1649 at the Anderevskii Monastery near Moscow. Two more schools that emphasized Latinism were established; one in the Chudov Monastery in 1653 and one in the monastery of the Savior in 1665. The latter two merged in 1686 and one in the Monastery of the Savior in 1665. The latter two merged in 1686 to become the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, which taught Greek, Latin, grammar, rhetoric and the liberal sciences, and soon became a decisive influence on education and religious matters. Strangely enough, the top men around the Tsar, such as Princes Vasilii Golitsin an I.A. Kvhvorostinin, Fedor Rtishchev Simeon Polotskii, Atanasii Ordin-Nashchokin, Artamon Matveyev, Grigorii K. Kotoshikhin and others, were the first to adhere to the Western European way of life and culture. Tsar Alexei himself took great Pleasure in the fist Moscow theater, which was established and directed by foreigners; we have already mentioned how fond his son Fedor was of foreign engravings.
It was not surprising to see the painters, encouraged by their superiors, also turn their eyes towards the West. What astonished many was the speed with which the Moscow school of painting rid itself of old national Novgorod artistic traditions and of the saints themselves as principal subjects. The painters of the second half of the 17th century and after were not monks but professionals, and it was natural for the new variety of themes to have stronger appeal to them. This variety was also western, and this alone had always been considered superior In Russia, as even today despite official propaganda. But most amazing was the fact that, despite new sources of inspiration and the new creative freedom that was offered to the, most Russian painters, including the Kremlin's izpgrafs, lost their feel for the picturesque. Their colors became less transparent, dull and sometimes unpleasant. An illustrative approach to the subject prevailed with most of them; their design often followed a standard pattern that was repeated by one after the other. With the very similar and often dull colors they used, it became impossible to tell one painter from the other. So, with loss of contact with their national sources and tradition on one hand, and the exaggerated imitation of western models on the other, the Russian art of painting reached a dead end. Different from the canonized and stabilized Byzantine art, Western art proved to be a live art, subject to continuous changes. Unable to catch up quickly, as they had with the Byzantine art, Russians had to remain western apprentices most of the time. For the same reasons iconography was turned into a handicraft. Of course, there were exceptions, but they were not many. Practitioners of the old art went deep into the country, almost underground, where the traditional style survived for a while. When Aleksei's son, Peter the Great, took the reins of state into his hands, new, forceful, modernizing, changes swept the country. He was the first to consolidate the various departments of the Armory Chamber, which many art historians proudly call the First Russian Academy of Art, or sometimes The Ministry of Art, into a single establishment, and he renamed it the Workshop of the Armory Chamber (Masterskaya Oruzheynoy Palati) and put it under the control of the Senate. The painters once more had to turn to foreigners; and learned from them how to use easels and new colors and to paint directly from nature.

ARCHITECTURE.

The dull period at the turn of the 16th century, filled with domestic troubles, foreign invasions, famine and destruction, and the changing of dynasties, was followed by a period of revival in cultural life, with architecture playing the major and the most radical role. More than any other medium, it was in architecture that Russians expressed themselves the best. Their source of inspiration was the national heritage of the simple Russian peasant, who had a natural predilection for decoration, vivid colors, ornamentation and the picturesque. The churches built at that time remain major architectural objects, and they show that several details were borrowed from traditional and wooden architecture, the popular forms of ordinary dwellings and from the baroque style of the West. Generally speaking, the architecture of the 17th century could be characterized as belonging to many styles old and new, and displaying individual vagaries, sometimes resulting in original shapes, but always being very decorative either by display of numerous masonry motifs and reliefs or by polychrome effects, or often by both. It was as if the builders wanted to decorate the house of God the same way hey did their izbas, and as if this was the major consideration of their architecture. Many of the new churches looked more delicate and slender, leaving the impression of lightness and airiness. They foretold the changes in non-religious architecture that were to take place during the following century. However, not all builders followed the new trend; many of them looked for and found inspiration in traditional church architecture, some times developing features that had been characteristic of the 16th and even the 15th centuries. Working with the architectural traditions of Novgorod, Pskov, Suzdal, wooden architecture etc., Moscow builders put together anew style that spread throughout the country. It replaced the so-called tent-shaped churches that had been condemned by Patriarch Nikon, who wanted to reinstate the traditional style with five cupolas. With liberal trends gaining momentum, not many readily followed the directives of the Patriarch, who himself did not always practice what he preached. The people, particularly in the north, were fond of tall, ten-shaped churches, and considered them very impressive and beautiful, and wanted to preserve most of their features. A sort of compromise prevailed: The church, of the type known as Moscow style of the mid-seventeenth century, consisted of the main church, usually square in shape and built on a high basement, with a four-sloped roof and five cupolas; the "Trapeznaya" - refectory, -which became the nave of the entire complex, and the tent-shaped bell-tower at the western side. During the reign of the second Romanov, Tsar Aleksei, a period of intensive church construction swept through the country. Not only the Tsar and his luxury-minded Patriarch Nikon, but also many prelates, boyars, landlords and merchants were eager to commemorate themselves by building churches. There was a sort of silent competition as to whose church would be more beautiful and more rich-looking. The eagerness to be different and to embellish one's own church resulted in a great variety of forms and in combinations of Nikon's and Moscow's styles, leading to all sorts of architectural appendices and a great diversity of shapes, decorations and colors. This led in the second half of the 17th century to a new style, known in Russia as the Moscow or Narishkin Baroque, in which carved lime stone ornaments combined with brick patterns or stucco as the most characteristic decorative device. In the 17th century, interesting churches were built and new styles were heralded in Yaroslavl and Rostov as well as Moscow.

Terem Palace.

The major construction work that took place in the Kremlin in the 17th century was the rebuilding of the Terem Palace (Tsarskie Terema). On the foundations of the old palace of 1499, Russian builders Bazhen Ogurtsov, Antipa Konstantinov, Larion Ushakov and Trofim Sharutin in 1635-1636 erected a three-story palace as living quarters for the Tsar and his family. In the absence of experience or a model, the builders constructed the brick palace as if it had been made of wood, that is, with several interconnected rectangular block work units resembling "Srub Kletei," put side by side to make one floor, stacked one on top of the other to form several stories. Rooms of all floors are of the same rather small size and all have three windows, the same as any peasant izba. The exception is the top floor, which has just one large room - the tractional Terem, a feature borrowed from the wooden "Khoromi" - or Russian wooden mansions. This top room was named "The Little Golden Terem," which in turn gave its name to the entire palace. "Terem" is a Tatar word for the upper room, a sort of a belvedere, usually reserved for women, where men, except husbands and close relatives, were not permitted. This rigid isolation of women is one of the customs that Russians inherited from the Tatars and practiced for several centuries. Though renovated several times, the rooms where Tsar Aleksei lived preserve all the basic decorative elements of his time. Portals, window architraves, entablatures, architraves and the edges of the vaults are all of carved white stone, in floral and foliage designs, intermixed with birds, beasts and masks, painted over with bright colors. The exterior sides of the windows were decorated similarly. In each room there is a big beautiful faience stove. The entrance to the Terem Palace is from the Verkhospaskaya Terrace (Verkhospaskaya Ploshchadka), now covered which connects through the Golden Archway (Zolotoe Kryltso) and a staircase to the Hall of Saint Vladimir in eh Grand Kremlin Palace.
The Golden Gate is a very fine piece of craftsmanship. It was hammered by Skilled Russian blacksmiths in 1670 into an object of great artistic value. Because it was finished a few years after the Copper revolt, which occurred when a financial panic caused many to exchange their copper coins for silver, and then the silver again for copper, legend says that the Gate was cast from copper coins. In fact it is made of gold-plated wrought iron.
The Tsar's private quarters contained several rooms. The first was known as Waiting room (Tapesnaya), where boyars seeking audience waited for the Tsar to see them or receive them in the next room. It also served as a dining room. The second became known as the Room of the Cross (Krestovaya or Gostinaya) and served for the Tsar to meet the boyar council and occasionally to receive foreign ambassadors and dignitaries. It was in this room in 1666 that the Church council met to try Nikon. The third was the Throne Room (Prestolnaya or Tronnaya) which served as the Tsar's study, where only the most privileged were permitted t enter. The middle window of this room was known as the"Beautiful" or "The Window of Supplication," (The Chelobitnoe Okno). Indeed the exterior of this window was even more heavily ornamented than the others. With the help of a special device a small chest could be lowered through this window to the ground, where the poor and those with grievances could place their petitions and supplications addressed directly to the Tsar. The fourth room was the Tsar's bedroom (Opochivalnaya), and the fiftieth his private oratory (molelnaya), with a pulpit and two beautiful alcoves decorated with gold, where he kept his icons, crosses and bibles. The private quarters of the Tsar were repainted and renovated in 1836-1849 by Fedor G. Solntsev, assisted by Kisselev and Gherasimov. Though only fragments remain of the paintings and decorations done by Simon Ushakov, the Terem Palace gives us quite a complete picture of the way in which Russian tsars lived in the 17th century.

"Palati" - Boyar Masonry Dwellings.

Another important change that took place in Moscow in the 17th century was the increased use of masonry in the construction of dwellings for the boyars and the well-to-do. Until then, stone and bricks had been used for building churches and fortifications and, as an exception, a palace for the tsars or a mansion (Palati) for the top boyars, replacing the wooden "Khoromi." The first known private brick house in Moscow dates from 1471. It was built by the rich merchant Tarokan; it was soon followed by a mansion for the boyar Dmitrii Hovrin. The boyars Romanov, the future Russian dynasty, received their brick mansion only at the end of the 16th century. It was here that Tsar Mikhail Romanov was born in 1596. In the eighteen-sixties the mansion was restored and turned into a museum. After being neglected for several years after the revolution, it was again cleaned and restored and visitors can see this unique example of the ancient boyar dwelling. Many would be disappointed to see how simple, modest and small were the living quarters of the greatest Russian boyars. The existing mansion, built in 1656-1657 for the "Doumnii Diak" (a sort of a secretary to the tsar) Averkii Kirillov, represents a considerable improvement. This large, two-story building has a long entrance hall in the middle, from which doors on both sides lead to its rooms. In the streets close to and around the Kremlin there were many princely and boyar palati and khoroma, but none has reached the 20th century in its original form and shape. The mansion that Prince Vasilii V. Golitsyn, built at the end of the 17th century was a great luxury for its time. The prince, a convinced supporter of the western way of life and ideas, was Tsarevna Sophie's principal adviser and minister of foreign affairs. He spoke several foreign languages including Latin. Foreign visitors remarked that the Prince was a very handsome and elegant man. Those who saw his home in the Tverskoy Boulevard spoke of its great luxury and taste, which could match that of most of the princely palaces in the west.

Wooden Palace at Kolomenskoe.

The last grandiose "Khoromi," considered by its Russian contemporaries to be the "Eight wonder of this world," was the tsar's wooden summer residence at Kolomenskoe, built by Semen Petrov and Ivan Mikhailov and an army of carpenters. It defied any symmetry and consisted of seven Khoromi with over two hundred rooms, most of them decorated with icons, paintings and wood-carvings. Simon Ushakov was also there to paint several icons and portraits. Among the paintings of Russian grand dukes and tsars, there were also portraits of Darius I, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Augustus etc. The entire ensemble must had been very impressive with all its towers, cupolas, Kokoshniks, ogee-shaped roofs, spires, globes, gilded double headed eagles etc. There was much barbaric splendor in it which undoubtedly amazed many visitors. The young Peter the Great was taken to Kolomenskoe when the streltsi rioted; later, as tsar, he returned several times, even coming once by boat, from the Kremlin, along the river Moskva. Partly because of changes in taste, and because the capital had been moved from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, the palace was neglected and the old wooden structure became unsafe for living. In 1769 Catherine II ordered it to be taken down. There were several models of the palace; the most successful was made by the wood-carver Smirnov in the second half of the last century. The well known art historian I.E.Zabelin did the research and gave Smirnov all the necessary details. This model is exhibited at the Museum at Kolomenskoe.

Kizhi.

The most fascinating example of wooden architecture produced by Russian wood-carvers and carpenters Is the one located on the small isle of Kizhi in the Onega lake. The isle is about five miles long and one mile wide, and rises only a few feet above the water level. Because of the low configuration of the ground one has the impression, approaching the isle by boat, that the churches rise out of the lake. Deep in the forests of the Russian north, simple men continued to build their log izbas and churches the way they had for centuries. The basic unit of all their construction was the "Klet-Sruba," the box-like construction formed by round logs piled one on the top of the other, interlocking at the corners. In early times the church differed from the izba in being higher, larger and having a taller, two-sloped roof with a small cupola and a cross. The church also had another, smaller interlocked klet on its eastern side for the alter, and sometimes another "Klet" on the western side for the shed-like porch "Seni." The oldest and most interesting known example of this three-klets type is the Church of Saint Lazarus, moved to Kizhi in 1960 from the former Murom Monastery located on the eastern shores of the lake Onega. The entire combined length of the three klets is just over 24 feet, and they are less than twelve feet high. The church dates from the 16th century, not from the 14th as most Soviet art historians believed. There I, though, documentary evidence that this "Granary" type of small wooden church was mentioned, along with the "Tent-shaped type in the 14th century. Through centuries of building, and by the ingenuity and fertile imaginations of Russian peasant builders, they evolved into highly complicated structures that became, at the same time, voluptuous and picturesque. First the tiny "Seni' were replaced by a larger klet and turned into refectories (trapeznaya). Then to the refectory ap porch was added. When the entire edifice was raised a few feet above the ground, the builders added galleries, a parvis and single or twin staircases (kriltsa). These annexes were often covered with an ogee-shaped barrel (bochka) roof to make the structure more resistant to heavy snow falls; sometimes the roof was crowned with a small decorative cupola with, of course, a cross on top. Later not one but several bochkas and cupola appeared on the main church structure, replacing the traditional tent-shaped or two-sloped roof with just one cupola. The tent-shaped churches were always taller than the rectangular and in all probability the earliest were built with a rectangular base surmounted by an octagon (vosmeric an chetverike) and a pyramidal roof. Fine examples of his construction are the Cathedral of the Assumption at the village of Kemi and the churches of the Assumption at Kondopoga and of the Intercession at Kizhi, all three dating from the 18th century.
The size of the rectangular churches was limited by the length of the available logs. To overcome this handicap, the builders switched to the octagonal form for the entire frame of the central part of the church. Thus with the same size logs they considerably enlarged the floor space of the new churches. Usually to make the church taller two smaller octagons were superimposed on the larges, and the entire construction terminated with the pyramidal roof. The famous church of the Transfiguration at Kizhi was built in this same way. According to legend, its builder was a man known only by his Christian name of Nestor, and we know that the church was completed in 1714. The longest timber he could find was just over 21 feet long, so this became the length of the sides of the bottom octagon. To make the church even larger and give it a cross-shaped form, Nestor added a rectangular frame to the four main axis of the octagon, with the one at the east serving as the altar. This new form of construction was named "octagon with four annexes (projections)" "Vosmerik s chetirmia prirubami."). There are three octagons, one on the top of the other, with thirteen barrels (bothkas) and cupolas. The four rectangular annexes have one projection each; in all there are eight barrels and cupolas. With the large cupola on the top of the church, there are in all 23 cupolas. It is indeed a masterpiece of wooden architecture, almost 115 feet tall and built without a single nail.

The Church of the Assumption at Uglich

While speaking of tent shaped churches it would be unfair not to mention the Church of the Assumption of the former Alekseyevskii Monastery at Uglich. This very fine and original specimen of ancient Russian architecture was built of bricks, not wood, in 1628 or perhaps before by unknown masters. Nor is there any information concerning who commissioned the Church. It is hard to believe that most of the old-monasteries, former centers of literacy and education, did not preserve data about the talented men who erected their best monuments or about those who offered money for their construction. Unfortunately, during and after the revolution most of the monks were chased out of the monasteries and their books destroyed or burned. One should go to Uglich or to any other monastery that has not been visited by tourists or foreigners to see how dilapidated and miserable they can become.
The same happened to the Alekseyevskii Monastery and its "Marvelous" (Divnaya) Church of the Assumption, an epithet that the simple people gave to their church and which became a part of its official name. The rectangular church with decorative kokoshniki was built on a high basement. Instead of ending in a normal roof the vertical line continues. Two smaller octagons, one on each side, and a larger one in the middle, each carry the eight slopes of a tall pyramid which end in a drum crowned with a cupola and a cross. On the east side of the church there are three apses, decorated with a band of ornamental blind arcades; the second jamb of each ends in a pendant. On the west is the refectory (trapeznaya) with its original single pier in the middle, carrying for cross vaults that span the entire room. After the revolution this unique church was ransacked and left to decay, sharing the destiny of thousands of others. Only in the late fifties did Soviet authorities decide to do something to save it from collapsing.

The Church of the Trinity of Nikitnikah (Church of the Georgian Virgin).

The Church of the Trinity at Nikitnikah in Moscow belongs to the new type of rather small pierless churches which started to appear in Russia during the first half of the 17th century. It was built in 1628-1636 by the rich merchant Grigorii Leontiev Nikitnikov, a native of Yaroslavl, who sometimes helped the tsars during periods of financial difficulty. Rich and ambitious, Nikitnikov wanted his new church to fascinate Muscovites and it was partly because of this that it took so long to finish it completely. After the main church was completed in 1636, he decided to add two chapels, then a porch with a staircase and a belfry which were not finished until 1653. When the plague decimated the population of Moscow, the icon of the Georgian Virgin, which Grigorii's brother Stepan had brought to Russia from Persia, was rushed from the Krasnogorskii Monastery, near the town of Pinega. The icon was kept in the Trinity Church, and legend says that the prayers of the people and he icon saved many in Moscow from the plague and certain death. From that time the church was called the Church of the Georgian Virgin, after the miraculous icon.
The main church was built on a very high basement, partly because of the steep ground on which it rests. Its slim figure was further accentuated by three receding and overlapping (v perebezhku) rows of decorative kokoshniki, ending in five lender drums that carry onion-shaped cupolas. With the exception of the Cathedral of Vasilii the Blessed, the Trinity Church is the most decorated Moscow church. The builders used carved stone ornaments to decorate the brick structure of the church. The window architraves, and portals are covered with carved gegetal ornaments. White stone is also used to decorate the cornices, entablatures, parapets, pilasters, kokoshniki, arch-like friezes etc. The entire interior of the church is covered with frescoes., painted most probably by the best contemporary artists and cleaned by Soviet restorers. On each wall there are four tiers of frescoes that narrate major events and scenes from the Bible, treated by the painters with much freedom. Thus inside the central absid we see for the first time a birch-tree, and in one of the chapels a group portrait of Nikitnikov and his family, dressed in contemporary garments. The iconostasis is one of the most elaborate in existence, and has its tiers of icons. A few of them were painted by Simon Ushakov, and other best "Tsar's izografs." Some of the icons were taken out of the iconstas and moved to various museums.

The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in Putinki.

Very original and asymmetric is the Moscow Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in Putinki, built in 1649-1652 by unknown builders. In ancient times there was a travel terminal near the church, which could be reached from the main roads by going thru small curved streets - "Putinki." ( A descriptive epithet usually accompanied the name of a church whenever where were two or more with the same name in the same town). The Church is composed of several structures: The main church, a large chapel dedicated to the Burning Bush, "Pridel Neopalimoy Kupini," the belfry "Kolokolnia," the porch "Kriltso," and the refectory "Trapeznaya." With the exception of the last, which is just a one-story building with a simple roof, all the structures have octagonal tent roofs and are decorated with one or several rows of ornamental kokoshniki, pediments, cornices, platbands etc. There are three tent-shaped towers on the main church and single ones on the chapel, the belfry and the porch. They are all blind and crowned with onion cupolas and very beautiful tracery crosses. The multiform complexity of this church could be only compared to that of the Cathedral of Saint Basil the Blessed which, undoubtedly, inspired the builders. Devastating fires often swept Moscow, destroying parts of the city and many churches. In 1648 the fire hit the area of Putinki hard. Many homes and the wooden churches were burned to the ground. The new stone church was dedicated to the Virgin, in the hope that she would protect people from new fires, and the name for the chapel was taken from the episode in the Old Testament about the burning bush which, though all in flames,"Was not consumed." The Church was finished the same year Nikon became the Patriarch of all Russia. He soon came out against tent-shaped churches, declared them uncanonical and permitted pyramidal roofs for belfries only.

The Resurrection Monastery (New Jerusalem) at Voskresenskoe (Istra).

The luxury minded Patriarch undertook a large construction program throughout the country, partly in an attempt to prove that his spiritual power was superior to the tsar's temporal power. He built several monasteries and churches, but concentrated particularly on the Monastery of the Resurrection (Voskresenskii Monastir) at the village of Voskresenskoe, located about thirty miles west of Moscow and renamed Istra after the revolution. To commemorate his name with a magnificent church, Nikon mobilized the best builders, stone carvers and artists, and established various workshop on the spot. Special attention was paid to tile works. He organized an important center of tile production there, and invited masters from White Russia to teach Russians how to glaze and color tiles. Colored tiles became the major decorative item of the new Cathedral, both interior and exterior. There, for the first time, use was made of multicolored tiles, and tiles of various forms, reliefs and shapes for ornamentation of cornices, pilasters, entamblatures, portals and even of entire iconostases.
The construction of the main edifice in the Monastery, the Cathedral of the Resurrection, began in 1656. Nikon's idea was to reproduce in Russia the ancient church in Jerusalem where Christ was buried, and a model and plan of the old church were brought to Moscow. Several localities, rivers and hills in the vicinity of the Monastery received new names, borrowed from those in Palestine. Thus the river Istra was renamed Jordan and the nearby grove the garden of Gethsemane. The Monastery itself became known as New Jerusalem (Novo-Yerusalimskii). The Patriarch was so involved in the construction of the Cathedral that he not only supervised the work, but was often seen making or carrying bricks himself. Some art historians assume that the Cathedral was built by Averkii Mokeyev and Ivan Belozer and the members of their team.. They did their best to follow the main features of the original church, but they succeeded in creating only a resemblance. The new Cathedral had 29 chapels instead of 14, and several other architectural changes distinguished one cathedral from the other. Besides lavish luxurious tile ornamentation, the new Cathedral introduced in Russia an entirely unusual style. As such it represented an break in the forced austerity that some zealots wanted to preserve and which Nikon at moments had had to condone.
Before the Cathedral was finished, Nikon was deposed and exiled, and the construction stopped in 1666. It resumed only after the death of Tsar Aleksei, and the Cathedral was completed in 1685. In 1690 Yako Bukhvostov and his team built the monastery walls and the church over the gate. The most interesting part of this complex architectural monument was the rotunda on the western side, with a dome almost 75 feet in diameter, just over half the size of the one in Michelangelo's Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome. The light streamed in through eight windows, and the entire dome collapsed in 1723, and a few years later the Cathedral was ravaged by fire. The restoration was begun only in 1749 when count Bartholomeo Rastrelli designed a new wooden dome with 75 oval dormer windows. Several other changes were made later by other architects, and the Monastery and its Cathedral continued to be one of the most interesting architectural compositions in Russia. The revolution put an end to this; the monks were chased out and their property confiscated. Then came neglect and dilapidation, until in 1941 a German shell hit the Cathedral and knocked down the dome. After the war the Monastery was turned into a museum. Several other personalities besides Nikon were buried there, including the wife of the famous Russian general A.V. Suvorov.

The "Kremlin of Rostov."

Metropolitan Ioana Sisoyevich was another outstanding Russian prelate who, like Nikon, did not spare expense to commemorate himself by building a magnificent complex of churches, belfries, palaces, towers and walls, which later became known as the "Kremlin of Rostov." Iona choose for it a beautiful spot on the hill that overlooks Lake Nero; it took him thirty years to accomplish the work. Iona too was the son of a "Moujik priest" and he too possessed an enormous amount of energy and determination which, combined with his fertile imagination and subtle taste, could produce a charming and very picturesque ensemble to delight the eyes. The work started soon after Iona returned to Rostov in 1664, after spending two years in Moscow as acting Patriarch for the dosed Nikon. He wanted there to be in Rostov a bishopric that would be worthy of a "Prince of the Church," and he got it. He died in 1690 and was succeeded by Metropolitan Iosaf.
As an enthusiastic patron Metropolitan Iona did not limit his activity to the Rostov Kremlin only, but helped build several churches elsewhere. As Abbot of the nearby Avraamiev Monastery (Saint Abraham Monastery), he erected there in 1650 the Church of the Presentation of the Virgin (Vvedenskaya Tserkov), where his father was later buried. Then in 1686 he built in Saint Jcob's Monastery (Yakovlievskii Monastir), also very close to Rostov, the Church of the Trinity, later renamed the Church of the Conception (Zachatievskaya Tserkov). In 1670 he added a second story to the Cathedral of the Resurrection (Voskresenskii Sobor) at Romanov-Borisoglebsk, and also added galleries and a belfry.

CERAMICS.

The art of making tiles and other articles of baked clay had been know to Russians from the pre-Christian era, but in their country where the supply of lumber was virtually unlimited it played a minor role until the 17th century. The first tiles, found in several parts of Russia, were the so-called red tiles "Krasnie izrazts." They were unglazed and were named for their natural brown-radish, baked clay color. Their relief ornamentation was made by molding the clay in special wooden frames. Such tiles were first used to decorate churches built in the middle of the 17th century. They often reflect the moods of the time, and show patriotic or military scenes in connection with the fight against foreign invaders. Only a few decades later the red tiles were seldom used; they gave place to green glazed tiles "Zelenie glazurovanie izraztsi." They were made the same way as the red ones; the front side was then covered, with a thin layer of kaolin and copper oxide, which gave the tiles a green translucent glazing
The art of glazing the tiles and covering them with varicolored enamels very quickly reached its finest period during the construction of Nikon's Resurrection Monastery. The new forms of the tiles permitted the builders to cover the most complicated and elaborate facades, architectural details or ornamental objects with them. Their favorite colors were white, green, yellow and blue and, of course, the natural brown-red. Sometimes a single design was spread over several tiles. When production of tiles at Nikon's Monastery stopped in 1666, Tsar Aleksei issued an ukhaz transferring all masters of architectural ceramics "Mastera tseninnoy khitrosti" to the Kremlin's Armory Chamber. In only a few years everybody who could afford it used varicolored tiles to decorate new buildings. From Moscow the new fashion spread throughout the major cities, primarily to Rostov the Great, Uglich, Vladimir and Yaroslavl. When Peter the Great visited Holland, he grew very fond of Dutch flat tiles, called delftware, which are made of faience with painted blue designs on a white background. Since nobody in Russia knew how to make them at the time, he found two prisoners of the war from Sweden who were familiar with that craft. They were sent to New Jerusalem to reopen the workshops and train Russian apprentices in the new job. Of course the first tiles went to the Kremlin and Saint Petersburg, but soon faience tile factories were opened in several cities, and the homes of boyars, princes and well-to-do people were flooded with big stoves made of tiles that were decorated with "Blue herbage," as the Russians sometimes sarcastically called the foliage designs that they got from Holland.
One of the first batches of varicolored tiles from the Armory Chamber's faience factory, made by the masters brought to Moscow in 1666, was used to decorate the Kremlin's Terem Palace. This was part of an extensive redecoration of the entire complex, done in 1679-1681 under Osip Startsev, a well-known Moscow architect. Two large friezes were entirely covered with polychrome foliage. The ornaments of the Terem Palace have been considered the best examples of the essential characteristics of Russian decorative architectural ar. As such they have often been imitated throughout the country.

Krutitskii Teremok.

Above the northern double-arched gate of the once-famous monastery and later Moscow residence of the archbishops of "Saray and Podonsk," the Krutitiskii Teremok, the summer home of by then Krutitiskii Metropolitan Iona was built in 1681-1684. Overwhelmed with its beauty, the Metropolitan wanted to make of his new homestead a sort of a paradise on earth. He commissioned the same Osip Startsev to build and decorate the Teremok; he covered entirely its walls with beautiful varicolored glazed tiles. Particularly attractive and rich are the window colonnades with their winding garlands of grape vines executed in soft green and yellow colors, an ornament greatly favored in Russia and often found in church portals, colonnades, iconostases etc. The ceramics of the Krutitskii Teremok were among the best that Russian tile-makers had produced.
At the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th centuries the ornamentation of churches was characterized by its opulence. Ceramics and stone carving competed with traditional wood carving. Garlands of weighty grapes with luxuriant leaves, clusters of other berries, pomegranates and other fruits, and also flowers with tulips were the favorite motifs.

Yaroslavl.

When an English expedition, undertaken in the middle of the 16th century, found how to reach Russia around Scandinavia and through the White Sea, and then down the rivers Dvina and Volga to Asia, the importance of Yaroslavl as a commercial transit center grew rapidly. It was at this time that two important kingdoms, Kazan and Astrakhan, were annexed to Russia, linking her directly to Persia and the other Asian states. By 1631 Yaroslavl already had 18 foreign trading posts and its citizens quickly earned a reputation as very capable merchants, and were sometimes sarcastically called "Cuckoo's children." They prospered, and to show their wealth they built churches, as did boyars and church prelates in other parts of the country. Many of Yaroslav's citizens were of Novgorodian origin, but were moved there forcefully by Ivan the Terrible; their influence on the arts should not be neglected. Having enough money, quickly earned they were able to afford the best builders and painters. Unable to ignore completely Moscow's directives and taste, they showed their independence by erecting larger and more richly decorated churches. In the monumental forms of ancient churches, crowned with five )scaly) cupolas, which they adapted for their churches, were decorated with extensive brickwork and varicolored tiles, added galleries and porches and magnificent portals. There were several details that made them original and different from hose built in Moscow.

Church of Saint Elijah at Yaroslavl

The first to be built was the Church of Saint Elijah, 1647-1650, erected by the rich merchants, the Skripin brothers. The main church is surrounded by three chapels, a two-story gallery along its northern and western sides, and a belfry. One has the impression that everything was built spontaneously and with the intention to defy symmetry, an element that often intrigued Russian builders. This made the Church of Saint Elijah look more like a monastery ensemble than the parish church of a merchant family.

Church of Saint John Chrisostom at Yaroslavl.

Only two years later the Nehdanov brothers, also merchants from Yaroslavl, began the construction of their Church of Saint John Chrisostom at Korovniki, a suburb of Yaroslavl on the opposite side of the river Kotorosl. It was finished in 1654. They chose a lovely spot for it and the graceful church looked even more picturesque because of it. The Church of Saint John Chrisostom was the first in the Yaroslavl region to have its exterior walls decorated with terracotta red tiles. Later multicolored tiles embellished its corners, its cornice, the brick insets of its galleries and the very ornamental window architrave of its central apse. The church has, like most others, the five cupolas prescribed by Moscow, but the appeal of tent-shaped forms struck the patrons, and the two attached chapels received high tent-shaped roofs, adding greatly to the gracefulness of this remarkable church which later inspired many builders. A few decades later, to the west of the church, a very slim and tall octagonal tent-shaped belfry, on e of the most beautiful in Russia was built, and became known by the people as "The candle of Yaroslavl."

Church of Saint Nicolas Mokrii at Yaroslavl.

The Church of Saint Nicolas Mokirii was built in 1665-1672 at the expense of several Yaroslavl merchants. Obviously Saint John's church served as a model to the builders, and they repeated most of its architectural features, but at the same time they did more to make of it an outstanding example of fine tile work. A large cornice of multicolored tiles surrounds the entire church. Beneath it, all the exterior walls of he chapels, the main church and the galleries are decorated with brick insets "Shirinki" with green ornamental tiles in the middle. Beautiful floral tiles adorn the window architraves; the most brilliant are those of the windows of the apses. In the western narthex of the church, tile revetment covers almost one third of the entire wall. The delicate green and rose hues of the tiles scintillate on the matte brick background, rivaling the elaborate interior fresco decoration.

Church of Saint John the Precursor at Tolchkovo.

The Church of Saint John the Precursor in the suburb of Tolchkovo is the most distinctive of all Yaroslavl churches. Its construction continued for quite some time, from 1671 to 1687, and though the name of the architect is unknown, documents confirm that many citizens sped its completion with money or labor. The unusual feature of the church is that the central quadrangle is surrounded on three sides by spacious galleries. The fourth, eastern side, has three apses and a chapel with a single apse, one on each side. The main church and the chapels each have five cupolas, making a total of fifteen cupolas and five apses, an unusually decorative and very symmetric composition. Another unusual detail is the diamond rustication of the walls of the apses, very seldom seen in Russian architecture. All other exterior walls are embellished with a very rich ornamental brick network that rivals the finest carved wood patterns, and with predominantly blue tiles that may be seen even on the drums that carry the cupolas. The art of decorating the surfaces of the walls by shaping ordinary carved bricks into very rich and complicated patterns reached its perfection in the Church of Saint John the Precursor. Most of the Yaroslavl churches of the 17th century were not only bigger than those of the same period in the tsar's Moscow, but also better decorated and more impressive.

Church of Grigorii Noekessariickogo Na Bol'shoi Polianke.

The facade of this old church (1669) is covered with "Poias tseninniykh israstsov," produced in 1668 by the Moscow master Stepan "Polubes," Ivanov, repeating the beloved ornament of the end of the 17th century - "Pavlin'ye oko," a sort of garland of vines and herbs. The cost of each of these tiles were on par with that paid for several "Pudov rzhi." The location is to the west of the Repin square formerly known as Bolotnaya where on January 10 The, 1775, Pugachev and Perfil'ev were pulled apart by horses, quartered and beheaded. "Pole, zdes' nakhodivsheesia, dalo nazvanie etoi ulitse," writes Aleksei Alexandrovch Martinov in the book "Nazvaniya Moskovskikh ulits I pereulkov.' He continues; "Eto-drveniaia doroga iz Velikogo Novgoroda v Riazan', odin iz samykh ozhivlennykh torgovykh putei Drevnei Rusi." In old times " chto v debritsakh," meant a dipping in a meadow, from whence the name for this church..

Church of Nikity-Muchenika Za Yauzoi

"This church was built in 1595 at the behest of the merchant Sava Vagin."

This church was built in 1595 at the behest of the merchant Sava Vagin. On the foundation rests a pillar-less cube "kub" which is covered by a vault with a drum with apertures capped with a helmet like dome. In addition it has a chapel and a refectory and a tent-like bell tower. The structure was surrounded in the 17th century by galleries which have colorful panels. The craftsmen decorated the entrance ways with intricate designs.
The Shiva hill will have a monument to prince Dmitrii Donskoi the defender of the Russian lands. It consists of a cross on the church of Nikita Muchenika on the Yauza river.A visitor to the neighborhood will be aware of the remnants of the artisan's suburb. The residents of the artisan's suburb were producing textiles and pottery ware. Written by Ya. M. Belitskii in his book Zabytaia Moskva page 216.

Church Uspen'ia Bozhei Materi, Chto v Goncharah.
Church Nikoly na Balvanovke.

This church on the corner of Uspenskii street was built in the middle of the 17th century. The masters of architectural ceramics created charming "Tseniniye israztsi," as if painting icons on the wall panels with different depictions of which one panel has survived.
The church of Nicole na Balvanovke was erected by Osip Startsev in 1712. This is a two storied edifice, erected in the traditional style of spaciousness. It is topped by decorative shell-like facia over the vaults, placed randomly and in three rows. This composition is capped off by drum and cupolas in a set of five. The area is somewhat curious in its appellation - Balvanovka which is understandable if one knows that the area was once inhabited by artisans who made tassels for headresses. This church was the last known work of Osip Startstev. The church is of the old type of stone Kletskikh churches and is a sort of protest against Peter the Great's new innovations.
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Narishkin of Moscow Baroque.

Embellishment of exterior church wall panels with a combination of rich brick patterns and colored and glazed tiles was in vogue for a relatively short time. The temptation to new changes came when, in the last quarter of the 17th century, the baroque, mixed with some late gothic style, started to penetrate into Russia. The baroque found its way to Moscow sometimes directly from Italy, but more often through the Ukraine and White Russia. Despite the fact that it appeared rather tardily, the Moscow baroque quickly reached its exotic forms in the late rococo phase. As was the case with other elements that the Russians had adapted from outside, their baroque was also refashioned and underwent changes during its period of "Russification." This process of assimilation occurred in Spain, Belgium, Germany and Poland, after Bernini and Borromini in Italy gave the baroque its distinctive forms. In Russia the baroque became a style of church architecture, which primarily followed the principle of piling several decorative stories one on top of the other. Russian builders made the baroque more ornamental than it was in the West. One could say that they neglected construction and paid attention to embellishment. They exalted the ornament and made it sometimes excessively florid; when their tendency toward superabundance lead them to add colors, the Russian variation of the baroque sometimes ended in a curious quaintness of style. With time and more experience the Russians developed their won baroque, which they called Narishkin or Moscow baroque. With it, as was the case with the Vladimir-Suzdal architecture of the 12th and 13th centuries, carved white stone, used in combination with brick patterns, became the principal element. The Russians curved their limestone with the same ease as they did wood, and produce very fine and intricate tracery that reminds one of rich lacework. Though many patterns were borrowed from the West, they were not blindly copied but reworked, modified and brought into accordance with traditional Russian motifs.

Church Voskreseniia v Kadashakh.

The Church of the Ascension at the Kakashakh as built in 1657 and then re-built from 1687 to 1713, by the architect S. Turchaninov, the benefactors of which were the merchant family of Dobrynin and the local inhabitants of the Kadashev sloboda, whose main occupation was the milling of sheet linens and throws. The schematic adopted was typical for Moscow churches of that period. Its particularity was however that instead of the use of traditional pendentive bracketing capping the hall, there was used white stone azure garlands of flowers. Its stonework is not surpassed by another church in Moscow for its rich and ample decor. The edifice is topped by five cupolas on faceted drums. The bell tower built in 1695 is ornamental and imposing.
The traditional Moscow five-cupola design of a ship superstructure, was used with the five-cupola arrangement placed in the middle and between the sides of the basic cross-shaped church. There are however some nuances typical of the end of the 17th. century which are baroque in motive. Instead of the usual ogee-shaped decorative embrasures there are two rows of Cock-like mollusks, facias, set one after the other. The walls and windows received a new treatment. On three sides the upper church was surrounded by an open gallery, gul'bishche Later additions of the 187h. century are in a false-Gothic style which somewhat distracted from the church's appearance. The attractive bell-tower harmonically erected in the same style as the original church. It preserves the ancient tent-shaped bell-tower, being a set of diminishing eight sided drums set upon each other. Some architects see an influence of Ukranian baroque in this tier-level arrangement. This is demonstrated in the open air vistas under the bell's supports. The ensemble is an enchanting spectacle set on the former open spaces of the Beyond the river Moscow bank. The interior is disapointing as it was refurbished several times. Of note in the upper summer church is a golden iconostasis with an intricately gilded portal of superior craftsmanship. From the book by Oleg Volkov, Kazhdyi Kamen V Nei Zhivoi, page 79.

Buildings of the end of the 17th century are characterized by a more simplistic popular signature, with the widespread use of gul'bishcha (galleries, promontories and terraces so loved by the populace of the art of carpentry, ably adopted to brick structures. In the Resurrection church, the Folk style took on a demonstrative mark and expression. The innovative master first made use of the palatial storied composition in a row of similar buildings. The composition is held together by a bold, and somewhat pronounced contrast of the ideal smoothness of a red wall and the brightness of the decorative framework, in particular in the upper stories where the effect is most pronounced. In its luster, the demonstrated architectural technique and masterful presentation, the Kadashev church became an example, a mark for all subsequent architectural designs on up to the Petrine transformations. Buildings were designed on the basis of its advances in design-engineering, which came to be known as the Naryshkin or Moscow baroque. From the book by Ivan Belokon Pamiat I Krasota, pages 139-140.

The Church of the Intercession of the Virgin at Fili.

The mother of Peter the Great came from a prominent boyar family named Narishkin. Hardly anybody today would pay attention to this detail, and yet the Narishkin name remains very well known in Russia, because they first, introduced, a peculiar style of their own, which took their name and became known as "Narishkin Baroque." There is no information on how Peter's uncle, Boyar Lev Kiriloovich Narishkin, put the idea of building the baroque churches around Moscow, nor do we know who the architect was. The first church he erected was the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin, built in 1691-1693 at his estate at the village of Fili (formerly Pokrovskoe). The church is one of the finest of the Narishkin style and, though Napoleon's army turned its basement into a stable and the church itself into a workshop, it remained well preserved. In building the church the architect followed most of the traditional features of Russian wooden churches, adapting them to brick structures. He put the church on an elevated basement and surrounded it with an open gallery (gulbishche) served by three monumental stairway. The main quadrangle of the church has four semi circular projections, one on each side, which gave the church a cross-shaped form: The one on the east serves as the apse, the other on the west as narthex and the remaining two as a sort of transept. Upon the rectangle the builder superimposed three octagons in a series of receding steps. The first which serves as the dome of the church; is the largest , the second serves as the belfry and the highest and smallest as the drum, which carries an octagonal cupola crowned with a cross. This type of tower-shaped church became known as the church under the bells (pod kolokoli). Each projection has an octagonal drum on top and a cupola with a cross.
Everything appears delicate and light in this church; a combination of pale red bricks background and carved white stone used in its window architraves, its many white columns and particularly the wide cornices around each projection of the main square and octagons, gave it an extraordinary airy and playful appearance. The interior is also richly decorated, particularly the iconostasis, a very fine piece of carved wood which dates from the end of the 17th century. Legend says that Peter the Great liked the church and was often seen there singing in the choir. The church was closed after the revolution and has been neglected for many years.

The Church of the Savior at Ubori.

Similar, though not so sublime as the one at Fili, is the Church of the Savior (Spasskaya tserkov') at the village of Ubory, located about twenty miles west of Moscow. It was built by the well-known Russian family, Sheremetev (Petr Vasil'evich Sheremetev), in 1693 -1697, and Yakov C. Bukhvostov (a serf belonging to M. Yu. Tatischev) was the architect. For foreigners living in Moscow the village of Ubori is off limits, but many have seen the church from far away when driving to the nearby village of Uspenskoe - a popular picnic area where hundreds of foreigners spend Sundays on the shore of the Moskva river. Top Soviet officials who live a few miles beyond Uspenskoe, see the church almost daily when driving to their Kremlin offices. This church too was closed after the revolution, and now it is almost ruined by neglect despite a sign which hangs from its wall and which says, "Architectural Monument of 17th century." "Protected by the State." On its white stone window stills are a few flower pots put there by unobserved believers, who have been left without a church for decades.

The Church of the Miracle of the Virgin at Dubravitsi, 1690-1704.

The Church of the Miracle of the Virgin at Dubravitsi, near the town of Pololsk, built in 1690-1704 by Prince Boris Alexeyevich Golitsin is most surprising and peculiar. The prince was a very educated and liberal man, and was for several years tutor to Peter the Great. He sided with the future emperor in his struggle for power against his twin-sister, Princess Sophia. This close relationship with the emperor explains why Golitsin ventured to build on his family estate a truly strange church that must have astonished Russia with its fantastic appearance, so unusual and contrary to Russian architectural tradition. Its cross-shaped base with rounded forms is surmounted by a two-story octagonal tower crowned not by a Russian cupola but by a delicately interlaced and gilded crown with a cross on the top of it. Three monumental stairways lead to the main porches of the church. The entire structure is built of white stone and very richly decorated with carved ornaments that even include statues on the sides of he portals. Most of decorative ideas were borrowed from Italy, and some from France. The interior is as richly ornamented as the exterior. Its striking innovation is an absence of frescoes, which were replaced for the first time by religious reliefs and sculptures, showing the episodes and scenes that we usually see in frescoed churches. Originally the inscriptions under each composition were written in Latin; they were replaced by Russian letters only when the church was renovated in the 19th century.. This unique architectural monument shared the destiny of thousands of others after the revolution, and now weeds grow in several places where blocks of carved stone join together. It is dilapidated even by Soviet standards.