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The Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin

The Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin

The Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin

“This city kingly rising over the entire east of Russia has completely infatuated us. How delightful and boundless are its open fields. We were drunk with admiration for them, and before our eyes the living history of Old Rus rose, where people, these strong good-natured people, knew how to appreciate life, its warmth, and scenic beauty. People like them did not like to settle at random places in a hurry.”

I. E. Repin

At the confluence of the Volga and Oka rivers on top of a mountainous cape the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin is located. Built in XVI, it was one o the main points of young Russia’s defense, first from the Golden Horde, and then from Kazan Khanate. Gathering of the people’s volunteer corps under Minin and Pozharsky also took place here. Nizhny Novgorod played an important role in the establishing of the Russian state and is still one of the biggest cities of Russia, while its heart – the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin – is the administrative center of the city and the region.

In 1221, as Russian chronicles tell us, Grand Duke Yuri Vsevolodovich founded a city in a mouth of the Oka River and called it Nizhny Novgorod (Lower Novgorod). A wooden-earthen fortress was built for its defense.

In 1238, the city was captured by the Tatars. Its rapid restoration began since XIII century.

In 1350, the city became the capital of the independent princedom of Nizhny Novgorod.

In the first half of XIV century the city significantly grew and a necessity of its protection arose.

In the fall of 1363, under Grand Duke Boris Konstantinovich another outer circle of fortifications in Nizhny Novgorod began to be built.

Under 1372, the chronicles tell us that Grand Duke Dmitry Konstantinovich, a descendant of Alexander Nevsky’s younger brother “founded stone Lower Novgorod.”

In the summer of the same year the dwellers of Nizhny Novgorod started building stone Dmitrievskie gates. Their construction was completed by 1374. Unfortunately, there is no other information available about the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin of XIV century.

Nizhny Novgorod was a borderline principality and, therefore, was frequently attacked by the Golden Horde. It occurred in 1377 and in 1378, when the city was almost completely ruined; it also occurred in 1399, 1403, 1409, 1414, 1445, and 1446. In such conditions it was difficult for the Nizhny Novgorod principality to fight for its independence, and in 1450, Nizhny Novgorod for good became a Moscow watch fortress on the Volga. In the second half of XV century, after disintegration of the Golden Horde the Kazan Khanate became Russia’s arch enemy in the east.

In the 1460s, Ivan III began to rule Russia from his throne. During his reign strengthening of Russian eastern borders occurred. According to the Solikam Chronicle, on September 1 of 1500, the Tver Tower (today’s Ivanovskaya or Storage Tower) was founded. Pskov masons and an Italian architect Pietro Francesco (Pyotr Fryazin, as he was called in Russia) were sent to Nizhny Novgorod.

Probably, the construction was stopped in 1505 because of the war against the Kazan Khanate. In 1508, the building was resumed, and on September 1 of 1510, the Dmitrovskaya tower was founded. It is believed that the construction of the Kremlin was completed by 1517.

In the end of XVI and XVII centuries, the residents of Nizhny Novgorod had to undertake a major reconstruction of the defensive fortifications of the Kremlin. On the one hand natural ageing of the fortress required that, on the other hand – frequent fires and landslides. The development of artillery also called to take measures.

The city suffered from frequent attacks of the Kazan troops (1521, 1536, 1537, 1540, 1542, and 1545). But the defense system of the city was so perfect and strong that the Kazan warriors did not manage to break into the Kremlin a single time.

As time went by the city turned into a rear supporting base of the Russian State. It lost its role of a border fortress as early as by the second half of XVI century and served as a gathering point of Russian troops at the times of their marches to Kazan and the Volga river region.

In 1601-1611, it survived a siege of the rebels headed by Bolotnikov, and in the fall of 1611 became a consolidating stronghold of the powers that were recruiting people’s volunteer corps under command of Minin and Pozharsky which liberated the country from the occupants.

By XVIII century the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin lost its defensive significance; its fortifications had become obsolete. As early as in the beginning of XVII century there was only one regiment of Streltsy numbering five hundred in the fortress. In 1705, on Peter I’s order all the guns were removed from the Kremlin.

At the time of Catherine the Great in 1785-1790s, a reconstruction of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin was undertaken. Battlements on the walls were made twice as short, and the roof that had been lying on them since the first days after the Kremlin’s construction was dismantled. The latter was the only safe protection from snow, rain and ice not only for soldiers but even for the very material of the walls. In the same years the towers were remodeled to accommodate regiments of soldiers or serve as storehouses. Since there was no protection left, the Kremlin was rapidly deteriorating.

In the first half of XIX century, several gates were made in the Kremlin walls, which improved communication between the city and the Kremlin’s territory.

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