MOSCOW 141 



troops deserted the city, followed by the greater part of the 

 inhabitants. Shortly afterwards the French entered, and Na- 

 poleon found that he had no submissive citizens to view his 

 triumphal entry, but that the inhabitants were actually burn- 

 ing up their entire city, which was even then built largely of 

 wood. He revenged himself by desecrating churches and de- 

 stroying monuments. The Russian winter begins in October, 

 and, with a city in smoking ruins and without supplies or pro- 

 visions. Napoleon was compelled, on October 19-22, to evacu- 

 ate Moscow and retreat from Russia. Cold and privation 

 were the most effective allies of the Russians. The recon- 

 struction of the city commenced the following year, and from 

 that time hardly any wooden buildings were allowed. In 

 May, 1896, at the coronation of Nicholas II, over 2,000 per- 

 sons were crushed and wounded in a panic just outside the 

 city. In 1905 the Grand Duke Sergius was assassinated in the 

 Kremlin and revolutionary riots occurred throughout the city. 

 Although Moscow is no longer the capital, it has steadily 

 grown in wealth and commercial importance, and, while sec- 

 ond in population to St. Petersburg, it is the latter's close rival 

 in commerce and industry, and is first above all in the heart 

 of every Russian. 



In the religious development of Russia Moscow has held 

 perhaps the foremost place. In 1240 Kieff was taken by the 

 Tatars, who in 1299 pillaged and destroyed much of that 

 mother city of Christian Russia. Peter, Metropolitan of 

 Kieff, who was then in union with Rome, in 13 16 changed his 

 see from that city to the city of Vladimir upon the Kliazma, 

 now about midway between Moscow and Nizhni-Novgorod, 

 for Vladimir was then the capital of Great Russia. In 1322 

 he again changed it to Moscow. After his death in 1328 

 Theognostus, a monk from Constantinople, was consecrated 

 Metropolitan at Moscow under the title "Metropolitan of 

 Kieff and Exarch of all Russia," and strove to make Great 

 Russia of the north ecclesiastically superior to Little Russia 

 of the south. In 1371 the South Russians petitioned the Pa- 

 triarch of Constantinople: "Give us another metropolitan for 

 Kieff, Smolensk, and Tver, and for Little Russia." In 1379 

 Pimen took at Moscow the title of "Metropolitan of Kieff 

 and Great Russia," and in 1408 Photius, a Greek from Con- 

 stantinople, was made "Metropolitan of all Russia" at Mos- 



