Welcome to Russian History Retold.

Episode 319, The History of Moscow.

Last time, we finished a two-part series on the Metropolitan's and Patriarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Today, we will start another series focusing on three of the most important cities in Russian history,

Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Kiev.

Before we get into the history, let's talk about Moscow as it is today.

Apart from being the most populous city in Europe, with about 13.5 million people residing in it,

it is one of the world's largest cities, covering some 26,000 square kilometers or 10,000 square miles.

It is presently the capital of Russia, something it regained from St. Petersburg in 1918 when the Bolsheviks moved the capital.

It then became the capital of the Soviet Union from 1921 until the dissolution of the USSR in

1991. Moscow has many unique characteristics, including being the world's coldest and northernmost

megacity. It is tied with Hong Kong as having the second most billionaires behind New York City.

It has several UNESCO heritage sites within its boundaries, including Red Square, St. Basil's Cathedral, and the Moscow Kremlin.

It has also been rebuilt numerous times, often because of devastating fires.

Between 1330 and 1453, there were 17 major conflagrations.

In 1812, we have the fire purposely set to refuse sanctuary to Napoleon and his grand army.

Between those two periods, there were so many fires in Moscow that we don't even know how many really occurred.

As one 17th century visitor commented, quote,

To make a conflagration remarkable in this country, there must be at least 7,000 to 8,000 houses

consumed. Moscow's history can be divided into six different time periods.

We begin with the early foundation period, which occurred between the 9th and 13th centuries,

followed by the rise of Moscow as a power center in the 14th and 15th centuries,

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