Yesterday, while discussing the topic, one of the commentators drew attention to the fact that on the chart of 1700 the Moscow Kremlin is red.
Yes, everyone knows that Moscow was “white stone”, but in what years the Kremlin was white, and in what years everyone remembers it as red? Many articles have already been written about this, but people still manage to argue. But when did they start whitening it, and when did they stop? On this issue, statements in all articles diverge, as well as thoughts in people's heads. Some write that they began to whitewash in the 18th century, others that as early as the beginning of the 17th century, others are trying to provide evidence that the Kremlin walls were not whitewashed at all. Everywhere the phrase is replicated that the Kremlin was white until 1947, and then suddenly Stalin ordered it to be repainted red. Was it so?
Let's finally dot all the and, since there are enough sources, both picturesque and photographic.
So, the current Kremlin was built by the Italians at the end of the 15th century, and, of course, they did not whitewash it. The fortress retained the natural color of red brick, there are several similar ones in Italy, the closest analogue is the Sforza Castle in Milan. Yes, and whitewashing fortifications in those days was dangerous: when a cannonball hits a wall, the brick is damaged, the whitewash crumbles, and you can clearly see the weak spot where you should aim again to destroy the wall as soon as possible.
So, one of the first images of the Kremlin, where its color is clearly visible, is the icon of Simon Ushakov “Praise to the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. The tree of the Russian state. It was written in 1668, and the Kremlin is red here.
For the first time, in written sources, the whitewashing of the Kremlin was mentioned in 1680.
The historian Bartenev, in the book “The Moscow Kremlin in Antiquity and Now” writes: “In a memorandum filed on July 7, 1680 in the name of the Tsar, it is said that the Kremlin’s fortifications were “not whitewashed”, and the Spassky Gates “were registered in black and white in brick". The note asked: whitewash the walls of the Kremlin, leave them as they are, or paint them “in brick” like the Spassky Gates? The Tsar ordered the Kremlin to be whitewashed with lime…”
So, at least since the 1680s, our main fortress has been whitewashed.
1766. Painting by P. Balabin after the engraving by M. Makhaev. The Kremlin is clearly white here.
1797, Gerard Delabart.
1819, artist Maxim Vorobyov.
In 1826, the French writer and playwright François Anselot came to Moscow, he described the white Kremlin in his memoirs: “On this we will leave the Kremlin, my dear Xavier; but, looking again at this ancient citadel, we will regret that, while repairing the destruction caused by the explosion, the builders removed from the walls the age-old patina that gave them so much grandeur. The white paint that hides the cracks gives the Kremlin an air of youth that does not match its shape and erases its past.”
1830s, artist Rauch.
1842, Lerebour's daguerreotype, the first documentary depiction of the Kremlin.
1850, Joseph Andreas Weiss.
1852, one of the very first photographs of Moscow, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is under construction, and the walls of the Kremlin are whitewashed.
1856, preparations for the coronation of Alexander II. For this event, the whitewashing was updated in places, the structures on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower were a frame for illumination.
The same 1856, view in the opposite direction, the closest to us is the Taynitskaya tower with an archer overlooking the embankment.
Photo from 1860.
Photo from 1866.
1866-67.
1879, artist Pyotr Vereshchagin.
1880, painting by the English school of painting. The Kremlin is still white. From all previous images, we conclude that the Kremlin wall along the river was whitewashed in the 18th century, and remained white until the 1880s.
1880s, Konstantin-Eleninskaya tower of the Kremlin from the inside. The whitewash is gradually crumbling, and exposes the red-brick walls.
1884, wall along the Alexander Garden. The whitewash was crumbling badly, only the teeth were renewed.
1897, artist Nesterov. The walls are already closer to red than to white.
1909, peeling walls with remains of whitewash.
The same 1909, whitewash is still holding up well on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower. Most likely it was whitewashed for the last time later than the rest of the walls. It is clear from several previous photographs that the walls and most of the towers were last whitewashed in the 1880s.
1911 Grotto in the Alexander Garden and the Middle Arsenal Tower.
1911, artist Yuon. In reality, the walls were, of course, of a dirtier shade, the stains from whitewashing were more pronounced than in the picture, but the overall gamut was already red.
1914, Konstantin Korovin.
The motley and shabby Kremlin in a photograph of the 1920s.
And on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower, the whitewash was still holding on, mid-1930s.
Late 1940s, the Kremlin after restoration for the 800th anniversary of Moscow. Here the tower is already clearly red, with white details.
And two more color photographs from the 1950s. Somewhere they touched up, somewhere they left peeling walls. There was no total repainting in red.
1950s These two photos are taken from here: http://humus.livejournal.com/4115131.html
Spasskaya Tower
But on the other hand, everything was not so simple. Some towers are out of the general chronology of whitewashing.
1778, Red Square by Friedrich Hilferding. The Spasskaya Tower is red with white details, but the walls of the Kremlin are whitewashed.
1801, watercolor by Fyodor Alekseev. Even with all the diversity of the picturesque range, it is clear that the Spasskaya Tower was still whitewashed at the end of the 18th century.
And after the fire of 1812, the red color was returned again. This is a painting by English masters, 1823. The walls are always white.
1855, artist Shukhvostov. If you look closely, you can see that the colors of the wall and the tower are different, the tower is darker and redder.
View of the Kremlin from Zamoskvorechye, painting by an unknown artist, mid-19th century. Here the Spasskaya Tower is again whitewashed, most likely for the celebrations on the occasion of the coronation of Alexander II in 1856.
Photo from the early 1860s. The tower is white.
Another photo of the early - mid-1860s. The whitewashing of the tower is crumbling here and there.
Late 1860s. And then suddenly the tower was painted red again.
1870s The tower is red.
1880s. The red paint is peeling off, in some places you can see the newly painted places, patches. After 1856, the Spasskaya Tower was never whitewashed again.
Nikolskaya tower
1780s, Friedrich Hilferding. The Nikolskaya tower is still without a Gothic top, it is decorated with early classical decor, red, with white details. In 1806-07, the tower was built on, in 1812 it was blown up by the French, almost half destroyed, and restored already at the end of the 1810s.
1823, brand new Nikolskaya tower after restoration, red.
1883, white tower. Perhaps they whitened it together with Spasskaya, for the coronation of Alexander II. And they updated the whitewash for the coronation of Alexander III in 1883.
1912 The White Tower remained until the revolution.
1925 The tower is already red with white details. It became red as a result of the restoration in 1918, after revolutionary damage.
Trinity Tower
1860s. The tower is white.
On the watercolor of the English school of painting in 1880, the tower is gray, this color is given by the spoiled whitewash.
And in 1883 the tower was already red. Painted or cleaned of whitewash, most likely for the coronation of Alexander III.
Let's summarize. According to documentary sources, the Kremlin was first whitewashed in 1680, in the 18th and 19th centuries it was white, with the exception of the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya and Trinity towers in certain periods. The walls were last whitewashed in the early 1880s, at the beginning of the 20th century the whitewashing was renewed only on the Nikolskaya tower, possibly also on Vodovzvodnaya. Since then, the whitewash has gradually crumbled and washed off, and by 1947 the Kremlin naturally adopted the ideologically correct red color, in some places it was tinted during restoration.
Kremlin walls today
photo: Ilya Varlamov
Today, in some places, the Kremlin retains the natural color of red brick, perhaps with a slight tint. These are bricks of the 19th century, the result of another restoration.
Wall from the river. Here you can clearly see that the bricks are painted red. Photo from Ilya Varlamov's blog
All old photos, unless otherwise noted, are taken from https://pastvu.com/
This is a copy of the article located at
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Everyone has already heard that the Kremlin was white. Many articles have already been written about this, but people still manage to argue. But when did they start whitening it, and when did they stop? On this issue, statements in all articles diverge, as well as thoughts in people's heads. Some write that they began to whitewash in the 18th century, others that as early as the beginning of the 17th century, others are trying to provide evidence that the Kremlin walls were not whitewashed at all. Everywhere the phrase is replicated that the Kremlin was white until 1947, and then suddenly Stalin ordered it to be repainted red. Was it so? Let's finally dot all the and, since there are enough sources, both picturesque and photographic.
Dealing with the color of the Kremlin: red, white, when and why —>
So, the current Kremlin was built by the Italians at the end of the 15th century, and, of course, they did not whitewash it. The fortress retained the natural color of red brick, there are several similar ones in Italy, the closest analogue is the Sforza Castle in Milan. Yes, and whitewashing fortifications in those days was dangerous: when a cannonball hits a wall, the brick is damaged, the whitewash crumbles, and you can clearly see the weak spot where you should aim again to destroy the wall as soon as possible.
So, one of the first images of the Kremlin, where its color is clearly visible, is the icon of Simon Ushakov “Praise to the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. The tree of the Russian state. It was written in 1668, and the Kremlin is red here.
For the first time, in written sources, the whitewashing of the Kremlin was mentioned in 1680.
The historian Bartenev, in the book “The Moscow Kremlin in Antiquity and Now” writes: “In a memorandum filed on July 7, 1680 in the name of the Tsar, it is said that the Kremlin’s fortifications were “not whitewashed”, and the Spassky Gates “were registered in black and white in brick". The note asked: whitewash the walls of the Kremlin, leave them as they are, or paint them “in brick” like the Spassky Gates? The Tsar ordered the Kremlin to be whitewashed with lime…”
So, at least since the 1680s, our main fortress has been whitewashed.
1766. Painting by P. Balabin after the engraving by M. Makhaev. The Kremlin is clearly white here.
1797, Gerard Delabart.
1819, artist Maxim Vorobyov.
In 1826, the French writer and playwright François Anselot came to Moscow, he described the white Kremlin in his memoirs: “On this we will leave the Kremlin, my dear Xavier; but, looking again at this ancient citadel, we will regret that, while repairing the destruction caused by the explosion, the builders removed from the walls the age-old patina that gave them so much grandeur. The white paint that hides the cracks gives the Kremlin an air of youth that does not match its shape and erases its past.”
1830s, artist Rauch.
1842, Lerebour's daguerreotype, the first documentary depiction of the Kremlin.
1850, Joseph Andreas Weiss.
1852, one of the very first photographs of Moscow, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is under construction, and the walls of the Kremlin are whitewashed.
1856, preparations for the coronation of Alexander II. For this event, the whitewashing was updated in places, the structures on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower were a frame for illumination.
The same 1856, view in the opposite direction, the closest to us is the Taynitskaya tower with an archer overlooking the embankment.
Photo from 1860.
Photo from 1866.
1866-67.
1879, artist Pyotr Vereshchagin.
1880, painting by the English school of painting. The Kremlin is still white. From all previous images, we conclude that the Kremlin wall along the river was whitewashed in the 18th century, and remained white until the 1880s.
1880s, Konstantin-Eleninskaya tower of the Kremlin from the inside. The whitewash is gradually crumbling, and exposes the red-brick walls.
1884, wall along the Alexander Garden. The whitewash was crumbling badly, only the teeth were renewed.
1897, artist Nesterov. The walls are already closer to red than to white.
1909, peeling walls with remains of whitewash.
The same 1909, whitewash is still holding up well on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower. Most likely it was whitewashed for the last time later than the rest of the walls. It is clear from several previous photographs that the walls and most of the towers were last whitewashed in the 1880s.
1911 Grotto in the Alexander Garden and the Middle Arsenal Tower.
1911, artist Yuon. In reality, the walls were, of course, of a dirtier shade, the stains from whitewashing were more pronounced than in the picture, but the overall gamut was already red.
1914, Konstantin Korovin.
The motley and shabby Kremlin in a photograph of the 1920s.
And on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower, the whitewash was still holding on, mid-1930s.
Late 1940s, the Kremlin after restoration for the 800th anniversary of Moscow. Here the tower is already clearly red, with white details.
And two more color photographs from the 1950s. Somewhere they touched up, somewhere they left peeling walls. There was no total repainting in red.
1950s These two photos are taken from here: http://humus.livejournal.com/4115131.html
Spasskaya Tower
But on the other hand, everything was not so simple. Some towers are out of the general chronology of whitewashing.
1778, Red Square by Friedrich Hilferding. The Spasskaya Tower is red with white details, but the walls of the Kremlin are whitewashed.
1801, watercolor by Fyodor Alekseev. Even with all the diversity of the picturesque range, it is clear that the Spasskaya Tower was still whitewashed at the end of the 18th century.
And after the fire of 1812, the red color was returned again. This is a painting by English masters, 1823. The walls are always white.
1855, artist Shukhvostov. If you look closely, you can see that the colors of the wall and the tower are different, the tower is darker and redder.
View of the Kremlin from Zamoskvorechye, painting by an unknown artist, mid-19th century. Here the Spasskaya Tower is again whitewashed, most likely for the celebrations on the occasion of the coronation of Alexander II in 1856.
Photo from the early 1860s. The tower is white.
Another photo from the early to mid-1860s. The whitewashing of the tower is crumbling here and there.
Late 1860s. And then suddenly the tower was painted red again.
1870s The tower is red.
1880s. The red paint is peeling off, in some places you can see the newly painted places, patches. After 1856, the Spasskaya Tower was never whitewashed again.
Nikolskaya tower
1780s, Friedrich Hilferding. The Nikolskaya tower is still without a Gothic top, it is decorated with early classical decor, red, with white details. In 1806-07, the tower was built on, in 1812 it was blown up by the French, almost half destroyed, and restored already at the end of the 1810s.
1823, brand new Nikolskaya tower after restoration, red.
1883, white tower. Perhaps they whitened it together with Spasskaya, for the coronation of Alexander II. And they updated the whitewash for the coronation of Alexander III in 1883.
1912 The White Tower remained until the revolution.
1925 The tower is already red with white details. It became red as a result of the restoration in 1918, after revolutionary damage.
Trinity Tower
1860s. The tower is white.
On the watercolor of the English school of painting in 1880, the tower is gray, this color is given by the spoiled whitewash.
And in 1883 the tower was already red. Painted or cleaned of whitewash, most likely for the coronation of Alexander III.
Let's summarize. According to documentary sources, the Kremlin was first whitewashed in 1680, in the 18th and 19th centuries it was white, with the exception of the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya and Trinity towers in certain periods. The walls were last whitewashed in the early 1880s, at the beginning of the 20th century the whitewashing was renewed only on the Nikolskaya tower, possibly also on Vodovzvodnaya. Since then, the whitewash has gradually crumbled and washed off, and by 1947 the Kremlin naturally adopted the ideologically correct red color, in some places it was tinted during restoration.
Kremlin walls today
photo: Ilya Varlamov
Today, in some places, the Kremlin retains the natural color of red brick, perhaps with a slight tint. These are bricks of the 19th century, the result of another restoration.
Wall from the river. Here you can clearly see that the bricks are painted red. Photo from Ilya Varlamov's blog
All old photos, unless otherwise noted, are taken from https://pastvu.com/
Alexander Ivanov worked on the publication.
The Kremlin of Dolgoruky was tiny: it fit between the modern Tainitskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers. It was surrounded by a wooden wall 1,200 meters long.
At first, this fortress was called a city, and the lands around it were called a settlement. When it appeared, the fortress was renamed the Old Town. And only after the construction in 1331, the fortress was called the Kremlin, which meant "a fortress in the center of the city."
The word "comes from the Old Russian "krom" or "kremnos" (solid) - this was the name of the central part of the ancient cities. The Kremlin walls and towers were usually placed on the highest place.
The word "Kremlin" could also come from the so-called "kremlin" (strong) tree, from which the city walls were built. And in 1873, researcher A.M. Kubarev suggested that this toponym could come from the Greek language, where "kremnos" means "steepness, a steep mountain above the shore or ravine." The Moscow Kremlin really stands on a hill on a steep bank of the river, and the words “flint” and “kremnos” could have entered Russian speech with the Greek clergy who arrived in Moscow in the late 1320s along with Metropolitan Theognost.
Guide to Architectural StylesThe Moscow Kremlin stands on Borovitsky Hill, at the confluence of the Moscow River and. Behind the walls of the fortress with an area of 9 hectares, the inhabitants of the surrounding settlements could hide from danger.
Over time, the plantations grew. The fortress grew with them. In the 14th century, under Ivan Kalita, new walls of the Moscow Kremlin were built: outside, wooden, covered with clay, inside - stone. Since 1240, Russia was under the Tatar-Mongol yoke, and the Moscow princes managed to build new fortresses in the center of the occupied country!
The Kremlin under Dmitry Donskoy (after the fire of 1365) was built from white stone. Then the walls had a length of almost 2 kilometers - 200 meters shorter than the current ones.
Fires and an earthquake in 1446 damaged the fortress, and under Ivan III at the end of the 15th century, the Moscow Kremlin was rebuilt. For this, Italian architects were invited - experts in fortification - Aristotle Fiorovanti, Pietro Antonio Solari, Marco Ruffo. They built not just a fortress, but a holy city. The legendary Constantinople was laid at three corners on all sides of seven miles, so the Italian masters on each side of the Moscow Kremlin set up 7 red-brick towers (along with the corner ones) and tried to keep the same distance from the center -. In this form and within such boundaries, the Moscow Kremlin has survived to this day.
The walls of the Kremlin turned out so good that no one has ever taken possession of them.
How to Read Facades: A Cheat Sheet on Architectural ElementsTwo water lines and the slopes of Borovitsky Hill already gave the fortress a strategic advantage, and in the 16th century the Kremlin turned into an island: a canal was dug along the northeastern wall, which connected the Neglinnaya and Moscow rivers. The southern wall of the fortress was the first to be built, since it faced the river and was of great strategic importance - merchant ships that arrived along the Moscow River moored here. Therefore, Ivan III ordered to remove all buildings south of the Kremlin walls - since that time nothing has been built here, except for earthen ramparts and bastions.
In plan, the walls of the Kremlin form an irregular triangle with an area of about 28 hectares. Outside, they are built of red brick, but inside they are built from the white stone of the old walls of the Kremlin of Dmitry Donskoy, and for greater strength they are filled with lime. They were built from half a pood brick (weighing 8 kg). In proportion, it resembled a large loaf of black bread. It was also called two-handed, because it was possible to lift it with only two hands. At the same time, brick in Russia was an innovation at that time: they used to build it from white stone and plinths (something in between brick and tile).
The height of the Kremlin walls ranges from 5 to 19 meters (depending on the terrain), and in some places reaches the height of a six-story building. Along the perimeter of the walls there is a continuous passage 2 meters wide, but outside it is hidden by 1,045 merlon teeth. These M-shaped battlements are a typical feature of Italian fortification architecture (the supporters of imperial power in Italy marked fortresses with them). In everyday life they are called "dovetail". From below, the teeth seem small, but their height reaches 2.5 meters, and the thickness is 65-70 centimeters. Each prong is made of 600 half-pood bricks, and almost all prongs have loopholes. During the battle, archers closed the gaps between the battlements with wooden shields and fired through the cracks. Whatever the tooth, then the archer, - they said among the people.
The walls of the Moscow Kremlin were surrounded by rumors for underground wars. They protected the fortress from undermining. Also under the walls was a system of secret underground passages. In 1894 archaeologist N.S. Shcherbatov found them under almost all the towers. But his photographs disappeared in the 1920s.
Dungeons and secret passages of MoscowThe Moscow Kremlin has 20 towers. They played a key role in monitoring the approaches to the fortress and in defense. Many of the towers were travel, with gates. But now three are open to the Kremlin: Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya.
The corner towers are round or polyhedral in shape and contain secret passages and wells inside to supply the fortress with water, while the rest of the towers are quadrangular. This is understandable: the corner towers had to "look" in all external directions, and the rest - forward, since the neighboring towers covered them from the sides. Also, travel towers were additionally protected by diversion towers-shooters. Of these, only Kutafya has survived.
In general, in the Middle Ages, the towers of the Moscow Kremlin looked different - they did not have hipped roofs, but there were wooden watchtowers. Then the fortress had a more severe and impregnable character. Now the walls and towers have lost their defensive value. The gable roof has not been preserved either: it burned down in the 18th century.
By the 16th century, the Kremlin in Moscow acquired the appearance of a formidable and impregnable fortress. Foreigners called it the "castle" on Borovitsky Hill.
The Kremlin has been at the center of political and historical events many times. Here Russian tsars were crowned and foreign ambassadors were received. Here the Polish interventionists and the boyars who opened the gates took refuge. The Kremlin tried to blow up Napoleon, who was fleeing Moscow. The Kremlin was going to be rebuilt according to the grandiose project of Bazhenov ...
What can be compared with this Kremlin, which, surrounded by battlements, flaunting the golden domes of cathedrals, reclining on a high mountain, like a royal crown on the forehead of a formidable ruler? .. It is the altar of Russia, many sacrifices worthy of the fatherland should be and are already being made on it .. No, neither the Kremlin, nor its battlements, nor its dark passages, nor its magnificent palaces can be described... One must see, one must see... one must feel everything that they say to the heart and imagination!...
In Soviet times, the government was located in the Moscow Kremlin. Access to the territory was closed, and the dissatisfied were "calmed down" by the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Ya. Sverdlov.
Undoubtedly, the bourgeoisie and the philistines will raise a howl - the Bolsheviks, they say, desecrate the shrines, but this should not worry us the least. The interests of the proletarian revolution are above prejudice.
During the reign of Soviet power, the architectural ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin suffered more than in its entire history. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 54 buildings inside the Kremlin walls. Less than half survived. For example, in 1918, on the personal instructions of V.I. Lenin demolished a monument to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (he was killed in February 1905), at the same time they destroyed the monument to Alexander II (then a monument to Lenin was erected on its pedestal). And in 1922, more than 300 poods of silver and 2 poods of gold, more than 1,000 precious stones, and even the shrine of Patriarch Hermogenes were taken out of the cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin.
Congresses of Soviets were held, a kitchen was set up in the Golden Chamber, and a dining room in the Faceted Chamber. The Small Nikolaevsky Palace turned into a club of workers of Soviet institutions, a sports hall was opened in the Catherine's Church of the Ascension Monastery, and a Kremlin hospital was opened in the Chudov Monastery. In the 1930s, the monasteries and the Small Nikolaevsky Palace were demolished, and the entire eastern part of the Kremlin turned into ruins.
Kremlin: mini-guide to the territoryDuring the Great Patriotic War, the Kremlin was one of the main targets of aerial bombardment of Moscow. But thanks to the disguise, the fortress "disappeared".
The red-brick walls were repainted, and windows and doors painted on them to mimic individual buildings. The battlements on top of the walls and the stars of the Kremlin towers were covered with plywood roofs, and the green roofs were painted to look like rust.
The camouflage made it difficult for German pilots to find the Kremlin, but did not save them from bombing. In Soviet times, they said that not a single bomb fell on the Kremlin. In fact, 15 high-explosive and 150 small incendiary ones fell. And a bomb weighing a ton hit it, and part of the building collapsed. British Prime Minister Churchill, who arrived later in the Kremlin, even stopped and took off his hat as he passed the breach.
In 1955, the Moscow Kremlin was partially opened to the public - it turned into an open-air museum. At the same time, the Kremlin banned residence (the last residents were discharged in 1961).
In 1990, the Kremlin ensemble was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. At the same time, the Kremlin became a government residence, but retained museum functions. Therefore, uniformed employees are present on the territory, quickly instructing the lost tourists "on the right path." But every year more and more corners of the Kremlin become open for walking.
And the Kremlin is often filmed for cinema. And in the film "Third Meshchanskaya" you can even see the Moscow Kremlin before the demolition of the Chudov and Ascension monasteries.
Mini guide to the Kremlin walls and towersThey say that......The Kremlin walls were built by Ivan the Terrible (Ivan III was also called "The Terrible"). He summoned 20,000 village peasants and ordered:
- To be ready in a month!
They paid little - 15 kopecks a day. Therefore, many died of starvation. Many were beaten to death. New employees were brought in to take their place. And a month later the Kremlin walls were completed. Therefore, they say that the Kremlin is on the bones.
...the shadow of Ivan IV often wanders in the lower tiers of the bell tower. Even the memoirs of Nicholas II have been preserved, how on the eve of the coronation, the spirit of Grozny appeared to him and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
And when False Dmitry was killed in the Moscow Kremlin, Muscovites sometimes began to see the outlines of the figure of the Pretender, flashing in the twilight between the battlements of the walls. They also saw him on the August night of 1991 - before the attempted coup d'état.
And one evening, the watchman who was on duty in the building next to the Patriarch's Chambers raised the alarm (under Stalin there was housing). One of the apartments on the second floor was occupied by the People's Commissar of the NKVD Yezhov, and the duty officer was in the hallway of the former Yezhov apartments. Around midnight, the watchman heard footsteps on the stairs, then the jingle of a key in the lock, the creak of a door opening and closing. He realized that someone had left the building and tried to detain the intruder. The duty officer jumped out onto the porch and saw, a few meters from the house, a small figure in a long overcoat and cap, well known from old photographs. But the ghost of the Chekist melted into the air. We saw Yezhov several more times.
The spirit of Stalin did not appear in the Moscow Kremlin, but the ghost of Lenin is a frequent visitor. The spirit of the leader made the first visit during his lifetime - on October 18, 1923. According to eyewitnesses, the terminally ill Lenin unexpectedly arrived from Gorki to the Kremlin. Alone, without guards, he went to his office and walked around the Kremlin, where he was greeted by a detachment of cadets of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. The head of the guard was at first dumbfounded, and then rushed to call Gorki to find out why Vladimir Ilyich was unaccompanied. It was then that he learned that Lenin had not traveled anywhere. After this incident, real devilry began in the leader’s Kremlin apartment: the sounds of moving furniture, the crackling of a telephone, the creaking of floorboards and even voices were heard. This continued until Ilyich's apartment with all his belongings was transferred to Gorki. But until now, the guards and employees of the Kremlin sometimes see frosty January evenings on
State Duma deputy from the LDPR Mikhail Degtyarev (known primarily as a candidate for mayor of Moscow in the 2013 elections) sent an appeal to the Secretary of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation with a request to bring the question of returning the Moscow Kremlin to its original white color for public discussion.
Degtyarev believes that the process of discussing this issue should end with the preparation of draft laws on the historical complex of the Moscow Kremlin or the formation of an initiative group to hold an all-Russian referendum.
“In 2017, it will be 650 years since the construction of the stone walls and towers of the Moscow Kremlin began,” the politician notes in his letter. “The revival of the white appearance of the Kremlin will become one of the symbols of the beginning of the restoration of a single Eurasian space, just as earlier the construction of the White Stone Kremlin in Moscow marked the beginning of the unification of the fragmented principalities and the expansion of Russia to the South and East.”
“For many centuries, the White Sovereign served Russia, the people and God in the White Kremlin. Until now, people call Moscow Belokamennaya. Despite the fact that baked bricks were used during subsequent reconstructions of the Moscow Kremlin, to give the Moscow Kremlin its original - snow-white - appearance of the surface of its walls and towers, they annually whitewashed until the end of the 19th century,” recalled Mikhail Degtyarev.
“The image of the white-stone Kremlin, as in ancient times, will symbolize the priority of morality and morality in the daily life of our citizens and rulers, as opposed to moral decline in the countries of Western civilization,” Mikhail Degtyarev substantiates the idea.
Only after 1947 did the ancient brick walls of the Moscow Kremlin, on the contrary, begin to be tinted with red paint, which was more in line with the color style of the then political system. At the same time, the parliamentarian proposes to carry out repainting gradually, without additional budget expenditures, because even today the Kremlin is regularly tinted with red paint.
For over 200 years, the walls of the Moscow Kremlin were made of wood. Indirect data on other wooden fortresses, for example, the Tver one, indicate that the Moscow one was probably smeared with clay and whitewashed.
In 1367 Dmitry Donskoy ordered the construction of stone walls and towers. The only stone available was limestone. So, in a record time for that time, in just two years, the White Stone Kremlin arose.
Already in the next century, in 1485-1495, on the orders of Ivan III and under the guidance of the Italian master Pietro Antonio Solari, new, red-brick walls and towers of the Kremlin were erected. The master took the castle of the Dukes of Sforza in Milan as a model.
Then, for either 200 or 300 years, the Kremlin remained red, gradually turning into a dirty brown. But, firstly, it is ugly, and secondly, the brick needs protection. In the Time of Troubles, there was no time for this, but as the state strengthened, the problem had to be solved. It is not known exactly when the walls and towers of the Kremlin were whitewashed for the first time. Usually only the century is called - XVIII, when it was whitewashed in the fashion of that time, along with all the other Russian Kremlins - in Kazan, Zaraysk, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov Veliky, etc.
Nevertheless, according to some reports, the Kremlin was whitewashed even under Princess Sophia, i.e. at the end of the 17th century. According to other sources, the first (or the first after a long break) was whitewashing under Alexander I, started in 1800, i.e. at the turn of the 19th century, when all the walls and towers were whitewashed, except Spasskaya.
From LiveJournal blogger mgsupgs: “The White Kremlin also appeared before Napoleon’s army in 1812, and a few years later, already washed from the soot of warm Moscow, it again blinded travelers with snow-white walls and tents. The famous French playwright Jacques-Francois Anselot, who visited Moscow in 1826, described the Kremlin in his memoirs Six mois en Russie: “This is where we leave the Kremlin, my dear Xavier; but, looking again at this ancient citadel, we will regret that, while repairing the destruction caused by the explosion, the builders removed from the walls the age-old patina that gave them so much grandeur. The white paint that hides the cracks gives the Kremlin an air of youth that does not match its shape and erases its past.”
The Kremlin greeted the beginning of the 20th century like a real old fortress, covered, in the words of the writer Pavel Ettinger, with a “noble urban patina”: it was sometimes whitewashed for important events, and the rest of the time it stood as it should be - smudged and shabby. The Bolsheviks, who made the Kremlin a symbol and citadel of all state power, were not at all embarrassed by the white color of the fortress walls and towers. Blogger mgsupgs also cites a photograph from the parade in 1932, which clearly shows the walls of the Kremlin freshly whitewashed for the holiday.
Then the war began, and the commandant of the Kremlin, Major General Nikolai Spiridonov, offered to repaint the walls and towers of the Kremlin for camouflage. A fantastic project for that time was developed by a group of academician Boris Iofan: walls of houses, black holes of windows were painted on white walls, artificial streets were built on Red Square, and the empty Mausoleum (Lenin's body had already been evacuated from Moscow on July 3, 1941) was covered with a plywood cap representing a house. And the Kremlin naturally disappeared - the disguise confused all the cards for the fascist pilots.
And only during the restoration of the Kremlin walls and towers in 1947 - for the celebration of the 800th anniversary of Moscow, did Stalin have the idea to repaint the Kremlin in red: a red flag on the red Kremlin on Red Square - so that everything sounds in unison and ideologically correct. This instruction of Comrade Stalin is being carried out to this day.
On the illustration: Pyotr Vereshchagin, “View of the Moscow Kremlin. 1879"
We are used to seeing Moscow Kremlin red - with red walls, towers, battlements - and many people perceive the brick coloring of the main fortress of the country as something inalienable, they say, on Red Square - a red wall. But is it really so?
In fact, no: in the past, it was customary to whitewash the walls and towers of the Kremlin.
But whitening the Kremlin was far from immediate. In the years 1482-1495, when Italian architects were building the Moscow fortress, no one had any thoughts of making it white: then the Kremlin walls and towers were considered primarily as a fortification structure, and it would be strategically wrong to whitewash them - after all, if any projectile, the degree of its damage would immediately become noticeable to the enemy. In addition, building red-brick fortresses was simply in the tradition of the Italians: for example, in Milan, shortly before that, a brick fortress that was generally similar to the Moscow Kremlin was built. sforza castle(Castello Sforzesco) - and even the battlements on its walls were exactly the same.
It was decided to repaint the Kremlin white much later - at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, when its walls and towers lost their fortification value. For reasons of beauty and following the fashion trends of that time, the fortress was whitewashed - like many other Russian Kremlins.
However, this does not mean at all that the Kremlin was always snow-white: the walls of the fortress were whitewashed on the occasion of holidays, celebrations and various important events (the coronation of kings, for example), the rest of the time they could be shabby and, again, look more red than white . In addition, individual towers - for example, Spasskaya and Nikolskaya - were not always painted white and left in red for decorative purposes, that is, at some periods of its history, the Kremlin could be partially white and red at the same time.
White Kremlin in photographs
Fortunately, photography caught the time of whitewashing, and a sufficient number of photographic evidence is available to modern Muscovites, on which the towers and walls of the Kremlin are depicted in both white and red.
In Noel Lerebour's painted daguerreotype, which was made in 1842 and is considered the oldest known photograph of Moscow, the walls and towers - Borovitskaya, Vodovzvodnaya and Blagoveshchenskaya - of the Kremlin are depicted in pure white.
Photo: Lerebour daguerreotype, 1842, pastvu.com
In the picture of 1856, the Kremlin's Vodovzvodnaya Tower appears bright white - it may have been whitewashed shortly before on the occasion of the coronation of Alexander II.
In the photo of 1895-1897, the Kremlin is already multi-colored: the Vodovzvodnaya Tower is still brightly whitewashed, Blagoveshchenskaya and Taynitskaya - as well as the wall along the Moscow River - look shabby, but the Borovitskaya Tower and the adjacent wall seem to have no traces of whitewashing at all, or it is completely gone or been cleaned.
Photo: view of the Moscow Kremlin from the Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge, 1895-1897, pastvu.com
The Spasskaya Tower on a postcard from about the same years - 1895-1903 - has a red color with decorative white elements: apparently, it was not whitewashed in those years for aesthetic reasons. At the same time, the wall adjacent to the tower looks shabby, that is, only the tower was left red - the wall around it is whitewashed.
Photo: Red Square and the Moscow Kremlin (Spasskaya Tower), 1895-1903, pastvu.com
The photograph of 1908 again shows the Vodovzvodnaya, Blagoveshchenskaya, Taynitskaya and Borovitskaya towers and the Kremlin walls adjacent to them shabby: they are clearly whitewashed, but for a long time.
Photo: view of the Moscow Kremlin from the Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge, 1908, pastvu.com
The White Kremlin in the paintings of artists
In addition to photographs, the white Kremlin walls can be seen in the paintings of artists of different years.
Friedrich Hilferding's painted drawing "The Spassky Gates and the Pokrovsky Cathedral" (original - 1787) presents the viewer with a red Spassky Tower with decorative white elements and white adjacent walls. The top of the Nabatnaya Tower is also painted white.
In the drawing by the artist of Italian origin Giacomo Quarenghi (1797), the Spasskaya Tower and the walls adjacent to it are depicted in white.
On Fyodor Alekseev's veda "Red Square in Moscow" (1801) - one of the most famous and discussed images of Red Square - the Spasskaya Tower and the Kremlin walls are depicted as white, but already fairly darkened.
The Kremlin is presented in an interesting way in the paintings of Maxim Vorobyov, painted in 1818 and 1819: the painter depicts it from the side of the Ustinsky bridge (1818), then from the side of the Bolshoy Kamenny bridge (1819) - in fact, from opposite angles. All the towers and walls visible in the paintings are white, slightly shabby.
One of the most famous images of the white Kremlin was Pyotr Vereshchagin's painting "View of the Kremlin" ("View of the Moscow Kremlin"), painted in 1879. It depicts a view of the fortress from the side of the modern Sofiyskaya embankment: all visible towers and walls of the Kremlin are brightly whitewashed.
When did they stop whitewashing the Kremlin?
When and why the Moscow Kremlin was no longer whitewashed is a rather controversial issue, on which one can unequivocally answer only that this happened in the Soviet years.
There is an opinion that the Kremlin blushed for ideological reasons - they say, the "red" government - the red Kremlin. It is also speculated that the walls were repainted by special order of Joseph Stalin after the end of the Great Patriotic War.
In fact, the white color of the Kremlin did not bother the new government too much: in any case, immediately after the Revolution, no one was going to repaint the walls, and they continued to peel off uncontrollably until the beginning of the war, when, in order to disguise the fortress, they were painted under urban development. After clearing the "camouflage" the Kremlin simply did not continue to whitewash: was it dictated by banal simplicity (after all, leaving it red and slightly tinting for restoration is much easier than whitewashing), the desire for historical aesthetics (after all, initially the Kremlin was still red) or ideological considerations is unknown.
One way or another, from the restoration on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of Moscow in 1947 to the present day, the fortress remains red.
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