The river Moskva is frozen, on the average, for 153 days (from Nov. 12 to April 13).
The Moskva is crossed by five bridges; a branch of it, or rather a channel, makes an elongated island in the middle of the city. Water of excellent quality, principally from the Mytishchi springs and pounds, 11 m. distant, has since 1893 been led to fountains in different parts of the city, whence it is distributed by watermen.
The population was estimated at only 150,000 in the middle of the 18th century, and at 250,000 in 1812. Since 1870 it has been growing at the rate of about 212% per annum; (1872), 601,969; (1882), 753,469; (1902), 1,092,360, or including the suburbs 1,173,427; (est. 1907), 1,359,254. The housing problem is of great importance in Moscow, as it appears that over 10% of the domiciles are underground. And while the average for the city is two occupants to each room, there are more than 10,000 domiciles which have more than four occupants to each room, representing one-fourth of the population. The average mortality is consequently high, namely 28 per 1000 (33 per 1000 if the children inmates of the Foundling House be included). Fires occur very frequently. The inhabitants are mostly Great-Russians. They belong chiefly to the Orthodox Greek Church, or are Nonconformists; the Lutherans number 2% and the Roman Catholics 1%.
Since the 14th century Moscow has been an important commercial city. About the end of the 15th century its princes transported to Moscow, Vladimir, and other Russian towns no fewer than 18,000 of the richest Novgorod merchant families, and took over the entire trade of that city, entering into direct relations with Narva and Livonia. The annexation of Kazan (1552) and the conquest of Siberia (1580–1600) gave a new importance to Moscow, bringing it into direct commercial relations with Khiva, Bokhara and China, and supplying it with Siberian furs. The fur-trade had a great fascination for all European merchants in the 16th century, and an English company, having received the monopoly of the Archangel trade, caused their merchandise to be sent by the White Sea instead of by the Baltic. Moscow thus became the centre for nearly the entire trade of Russia, and the tsar himself engaged in large commercial operations. Situated at the intersection of six important highways, Moscow was the storehouse and exchange-mart for the merchandise of Europe and Asia. The opening of the port at St Petersburg affected its commercial interest unfavourably at first; but the Asiatic trade and internal trade of Moscow have since then enormously increased. Here are concentrated the traffic in grain, in hemp and in oils sent to the Baltic ports; in tea, brought both by way of Siberia and of St Petersburg; in sugar, refined here in large quantities; in grocery wares for the supply of more than half Russia and all Siberia; in tallow, skins, wool, metals, timber, wooden wares, iron and steel goods, wine, drugs, raw cotton, silk and all other produce of the manufactures of middle Russia. As a railway centre the city plays so predominant a part that 16 to 15 of all the goods carried by the railways of European Russia are loaded or unloaded at Moscow. The banks, including the mortgage banks, are the most important in Russia.
From the 15th century onwards the villages around Moscow were renowned for the variety of small industries which they carried on; the first large manufactures in cottons, woollen fabrics, silk, china and glass in Great-Russia were established at Moscow in the 17th and 18th centuries. After 1830, in consequence of protection tariffs, the manufactories in the government of Moscow rapidly increased in number; but two-thirds of them are now concentrated in the capital. Moscow is in fact the principal manufacturing city in the empire, employing about 100,000 operatives in her mills and factories. Nearly one-half of them are engaged in the textile industries, especially calico-printing. Next in importance comes the preparation of food-stuffs, followed by the metal and metallurgical industries and the chemical works.
Moscow has many educational institutions and scientific societies. The university, founded in 1755, exercised a powerful influence on the intellectual life of Russia during the years 1830–1848; and it still continues to be the most frequented Russian university. In 1904 it had over 5000 students, who are mostly poor. The library contains some 286,000 volumes, and has rich collections in mineralogy, geology and zoology. Among the museums the Rumyantsev, now connected with the so-called public museum, occupies the first rank. It contains a library of 700,000 volumes and 2300 MSS., remarkable collections of old pictures, sculptures and prints, as well as an extensive mineralogical collection, and an ethnographical collection representing very accurately the various races of Russia. The private museum of Prince Golitsui contains a good collection of paintings and MSS. The Shchukin Museum contains Russian antiquities, pictures and objects of industrial art. A number of excellent free libraries have been opened, two of them containing valuable collections of books and MSS. The remarkable Tretyakov gallery of pictures, chiefly of the Russian school, has been presented (1892) by its owner to the city. The philanthropic institutions include the vast foundling hospital (1764). The municipal relief of the poor was entirely reorganized in 1894, partly on the Elberfeld system and partly on quite new and original lines.
Moscow is surrounded by beautiful parks and picturesque suburbs. Of the former one of the most frequented is the Petrovsky Park, to the north-west, with a castle built in 1776, burnt by the French in 1812, but rebuilt in 1840. A little farther out is the Petrovskoye Razumovskoye estate, with an agricultural academy (1865) and its dependencies (botanical garden, experimental farm, &c.). Another large park and wood surround an imperial palace (1796) in the village of Ostankino. The private estates of Kuzminski, Kuskovo and Kuntsevo are also surrounded by parks; the last has remains of a very old graveyard, supposed to belong to the pagan period. In the south-west, on the right bank of the Moskva, which here makes a great loop to the south, are the Vorobyevy hills, which are accessible by steamer from Moscow, and afford one of the best views of the capital. In the loop of the Moskva is situated the Novo-Dyevichy or Virgins’ convent, erected in 1524 and connected with Sophia, sister of Peter the Great, and many events of Russian history. In the south, on the road to Serpukhov, is the village of Kolomenskoye, founded in 1237, a favourite residence of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, with a church built in 1537, a striking monument of Russian architecture, restored in 1880. The monastery Nikolo-Ugryeshskiy, 12 m. from the city, between the Kursk and Ryazan railways, occupies a beautiful site and is much visited by Moscow merchants, to venerate a holy picture by which Dmitry Donskoi is said to have been blessed before going to fight (1380) the Mongols. In the north, the forest of Sokolniki, covering 412 sq. m., with its radial avenues and numerous summer residences, is the part of Moscow most frequented by the middle classes.
History.—The Russian annals first mention Moscow in 1147 as a place where Yuri Dolgoruki, prince of Suzdal, met Svyatoslav of Syeversk and his allies. The site was inhabited from a very remote antiquity by the Merya and Mordvinians, whose remains are numerous in the neighbourhood, and it was well peopled by Great-Russians in the 12th century. To the end of the 13th century Moscow remained a dependency of the princes of Vladimir, and suffered from the raids of the Mongols, who burned and plundered it in 1237 and 1293. Under Daniel, son of Alexander Nevsky (1261–1302), the prince of Moscow first acquired importance for the part he took in the wars against the Lithuanians. He annexed to his principality Kolomna, situated at the confluence of the Moskva with the Oka. His son in 1302 annexed Pereyaslavl Zalesky, and in the following year Mozhaisk (thus taking possession of the Moskva from its source to its mouth), and so inaugurated a policy which lasted for centuries, and consisted in the annexation by purchase and other means of the neighbouring towns and villages. In 1300 the Kremlin, or fort, was enclosed by a strong wall of earth and timber, offering a protection to numerous emigrants from the
