Hundreds of years ago under the east wall of the Kremlin there was a square which was alive with the bustle of street traders. In the 16th century it was called Troitskaya (Trinity) Square after Holy Trinity Church which stood where St. Basil's Cathedral is now to be seen. In the middle ages there were often raging fires here, and so it had an alternative name: Fire Square. From the mid-17th century it became known as Krasnaya (Red) Square, and in old Russian this simply meant 'beautiful.' Red Square has always been the main square in Moscow. It was here that the town criers would run with the Tsar's decrees, and tell of the Sovereign's will to the crowds who gathered. Occasionally the Sovereign himself would make appeals to his Moscow citizens from Lobnoye Mesto. On days of great church festivals there would be a religious procession from the Kremlin to Red Square, and on such days the whole square would fill with people, and it would have the appearance of an open-air church. It was here that the magnificent cathedrals were built, consecrated to the Mother of God, Protector of Moscow and All Russia.
After the revolution Red Square maintained its significance, becoming the main square in the life of the new state. Lenin's Mausoleum was built in the shadow of the Kremlin walls, and this made the square the ideological focus of Red Moscow. But even the presence of the Mausoleum could not make the ancient Red Square with its cathedrals and old buildings fit in with the new system of values. The plan for socialist reconstruction of Moscow involved the destruction of the Kazansky Cathedral, and the Iverskaya Chapel with the Resurrection Gates. In this way space was made for military parades and demonstrations. The Bolsheviks even intended to knock down the State Department Store (GUM) and the Historical Museum to double the size of the square, but the Great Patriotic War intervened, and that plan died a natural death. In November 1941 the city was besieged by the Germans, and Red Square was the scene for the famous parade of Soviet forces after which they went straight to the front. In June 1945 the troops marched in columns in the Victory Parade, and 200 German banners were thrown at the foot of the Mausoleum. Today Red Square is once again acquiring its historical appearance, and through the efforts of the Moscow authorities the national places of worship have been restored. * * * The Cathedral of the Mother of God of Kazan was the first of Moscow's churches to be restored. It was originally built in the second quarter of the 17th century in honour of the Kazanskaya Icon, in thanks for deliverance of Russia from the invasion of Poles and Lithuanians which took place in 1612, and also in memory of those Russian soldiers who fell in battle.
This icon is one of the most highly honoured in Moscow. It was found in Kazan on 8 July 1579. It is said that Matrona, a nine-year-old girl, dreamed of the Holy Virgin three times. In the dream the Holy Virgin showed the girl a place beneath the ruins of a house where her miracle-working image could be found. The girl told her local priest, Yermolai, about her dreams, and the icon was discovered just where she said it would be.
Thirty years later this Kazan priest became the celebrated patriarch Germogen. During the terrible period in Russia known as the Time of Troubles he was in the forefront of the battle to preserve Russia's sovereignty, and he was an inspiration to Russian irregular soldiers. It was on his instruction that the recently-discovered Kazanskaya Icon was brought to help Russia's defenders. In March 1612 the second group of irregular soldiers under the command of Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky collected the icon from the city of Yaroslavl and started with it on a liberation march to Moscow, which was occupied by Polish troops. After a long siege of Kitai-Gorod in October it was decided to take it by storm, and a prayer was offered up before the Kazanskaya Icon. It is said that the same night St. Sergei Radonezhsky appeared in a dream to the Greek Archbishop Arseny, who was locked up in the Kremlin, and told him: 'through the intercession of the Mother of God, the judgement of God has been tempered with mercy and Russia shall be spared.' The irregulars reached Kitai-Gorod on 22 October 1612, and after five days, the Poles, tormented by hunger in the Kremlin, gave up the fight.
In thanks for this help and protection Prince Dmitry Pozharsky built a wooden cathedral in the 1720s in the name of the Kazanskaya Icon. Soon afterwards it burnt down, but was restored at the state's expense between 1635 and 1636. In the mid 17th century Ivan Neronov and then Avvakum served as archpriest in the Kazansky Cathedral. They were known for their piety, and refused to accept the church reforms initiated by Patriarch Nikon, which caused the schism of the Orthodox Church into Nikonians and Old Believers. Nikon sent these priests his instruction demanding that the signing of the cross with two fingers should be replaced by the three-fingered signing, and that kneeling should give way to bowing from the waist. Both Neronov and Awakum were sent from the cathedral into prison. In the terrible days of autumn 1812 prayers were offered before the Kazanskaya Icon for the salvation of the fatherland, and Field-marshal M. Kutuzov took part in these prayers.
Russia has found it easier to deal with foreign barbarians than with its own. After the revolution the cathedral shared the sad fate of most Moscow churches, but in the 1920s the architect Baranovsky managed to restore it and make drawings of it.
The summer of 1936 saw the cathedral celebrate its 300th anniversary by being knocked down. Within a year there appeared on its site a temporary pavilion for the Third International', built to the plans of B. lofan, the architect of the Palace of Soviets. Later a pavement cafe was opened here, and the site of the sanctuary was used as a public toilet.
Moscow City Council decided that the Kazansky Cathedral should be restored according to plans drawn up by Oleg Zhurin, who studied under Baranovsky, and on 4 November 1990 his Holiness Patriarch Alexy II laid the foundation stone, and three years later he re-consecrated the newly-built cathedral.
Beautiful gold against the pastel colours of the sky ! The light is great And thank you for the history information, a lot of good work Doswedanje :) Jan
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