Under Ivan I the city replaced Tver as a political center of Vladimir-Suzdal and became the only collector of taxes for the Mongol-Tatar rulers. By paying high taxes, Ivan worked out an important deal with the Khan. Unlike other principalities, Moscow was not divided among his sons but was passed whole to his oldest. However, Moscow did not like the Mongol rule. In 1380, prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow led a Russian army to an important victory over the Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo. Only two years later Moscow was raided by the Khan Tokhtamysh. In 1480, Ivan III finally broke the Russians free from Tatar control, allowing Moscow to become the center of power in Russia. Under Ivan III the city became the capital of an empire that would eventually include all of Russia and other countries.
In 1571, the Crimean Tatars raided Moscow, burning everything but the Kremlin.
In 1609 the Swedish army, led by Count Jacob De la Gardie and Evert Horn, marched from Veliky Novgorod toward Moscow to help Tsar Vasili Shuiski. They entered Moscow in 1610 and stopped the revolution against the Tsar, but left early in 1611. After that the Polish invaded. During the Polish–Muscovite War (1605–1618) hetman (army commander) Stanisław Żółkiewski entered Moscow after he defeated the Russians in the Battle of Klushino. The 17th century had lots of revolutions, such as the Salt Riot (1648), the Copper Riot (1662), and the Moscow Uprising of 1682.
The plague of 1654–1656 killed half the population of Moscow. The city stopped being Russia’s capital in 1712, after the building of Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great near the Baltic coast in 1703. The Plague of 1771 was the last big plague in central Russia, killing 100,000 people in Moscow alone. During the French invasion of Russia in 1812, the Muscovites burned the city and ran away, as Napoleon’s army was coming near to the city on 14 September. Napoleon’s army, which was very hungry and cold, had to leave and was nearly destroyed by the freezing Russian winter and some attacks by the army.
In January 1905, Alexander Adrianov became Moscow’s first mayor. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, on 12 March 1918 Moscow became the capital of the Soviet Union. During World War II (known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War), after the German invasion of the USSR, the Soviet State Defense Group and commanders of the Red Army were placed in Moscow.
In 1941, 16 groups of national volunteers (more than 160,000 people), twenty-five battalions (18,500 people) and four engineering regiments were created among the Muscovites. That November, the German Army was stopped at the edge of the city and then driven off in the Battle of Moscow. Many factories were moved away, and much of the government was too, and from 20 October the city was declared to be under siege. Its people who stayed built and used anti-tank defences, and the city was bombed from the air. Joseph Stalin (the leader of Russia) did not leave the city, so the general staff remained in the city as well. Even with a siege going on, the construction of the Moscow Metro system continued through the war, and by the end of the war a few new metro lines were open.
On 1 May 1944, a medal "For the defence of Moscow" and in 1947 another medal "In memory of the 800th year of Moscow" were given to Moscow. In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, on 8 May 1965, Moscow became one of twelve Soviet cities awarded the title of Hero City.
In 1980, Moscow hosted the Summer Olympic Games, which the United States and several other Western countries did not go to because of the Soviet Union's war in Afghanistan in the end of 1979. In 1991, Moscow was the scene of a failed overthrow attempt by government members opposed to Mikhail Gorbachev. When the USSR ended in the same year, Moscow continued to be the capital of Russia.
Since then, the beginning of a market economy in Moscow has caused an explosion of Western-style stores, services, architecture, and lifestyles. In 1998, it hosted the first World Youth Games.
Moscow has many sister cities:
Canton of St. Gallen
St. Gallen is a canton in Switzerland. St. Gallen is in the north-east corner of Switzerland. North of St. Gallen is the canton Thurgau. West of St. Gallen is Zürich. South of St. Gallen is Schwyz, Glarus, and Graubünden. East of St. Gallen are the countries Austria and Liechtenstein. The cantons Appenzell Innerrhoden and Appenzell Ausserrhoden are inside the canton St. Gallen (the canton St.Gallen sourrounds them).
St. Gallen has been a Swiss canton since 1803.
St. Gallen is near "Lake Constance". At the south of St. Gallen there are big mountains over 3000m high. The best known mountain in St. Gallen is the "Säntis", which is 2503m high. At the east of St. Gallen there is the river "Rhine". The people in St. Gallen speak German.
There are about 455,000 people (2002) in the canton St. Gallen. It has an area of 2,026 km².
The biggest town in St. Gallen is the town with the same name "St. Gallen". There are 70,000 people in the town St. Gallen.
Canton
Canton can mean many different things.
Places:
Saarland
Saarland (, , ; ; Rhine Franconian: "Saarlond") is a Bundesland (state) of Germany. It has an area of and 1,014,000 people living in it (2011). Saarland lies in the south-west of Germany, near the French border near Metz. The capital is Saarbrücken.
In 1920, the Treaty of Versailles made Saarland from parts of the Prussian Rhine Province () and the Rhine Palatinate (). The area was put under the control of the League of Nations for 15 years. After a plebiscite (vote) in 1935, Germany got the land back. After World War II the Saarland came under French administration. The Saar Protectorate was allowed its own government for most things in 1947 but not independence. Germany got the Saarland back in 1957 and it became a Bundesland.
In the south is France, in the north-west Luxembourg and in the north and east is Rhineland-Palatinate.
Saarland is divided in 6 districts:
1974
1974 (MCMLXXIV) was .
Mars (disambiguation)
Mars may mean:
Jupiter (disambiguation)
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun.
Jupiter may also mean:
Venus (disambiguation)
Venus is a planet in the Solar System. It may also mean:
Saturn (disambiguation)
Saturn is a planet in the Solar System. It might also mean:
Uranus (disambiguation)
Uranus is one of the planets in the Solar System. It might also refer to:
Neptune (disambiguation)
Neptune is a planet in the Solar System. It might also mean:
Pluto (disambiguation)
Pluto is a dwarf planet in Earth's solar system.
Pluto can also mean:
Iceland
Iceland (; ) is an island country in the North Atlantic, between Greenland and Norway, formerly a possession of Denmark. It is culturally considered to be part of Europe. Iceland is 301 kilometers east of Greenland and 1001 kilometers west of Norway. There are about 329,100 people who live in Iceland. Iceland has an area of 103,000 km².
The first people who lived on Iceland are thought to have been Irish monks. They came to Iceland around the year 800.
In the 9th century, Norsemen went to live in Iceland. The first Norseman who lived in Iceland was Flóki Vilgerðarson. He was also the one who gave Iceland its name. Ingólfur Arnarsons was the first permanent settler on the island. This chieftain from Norway went to live in South West Iceland and founded the city of Reykjavík.
In 930, the Icelandic rulers wrote a constitution. They created the Althing, a kind of parliament in a place called Þingvellir. Therefore, Iceland is the oldest existing republic.
In 985, Erik the Red was sent away from the island because he had killed someone. He sailed to the west and discovered Greenland. Eric's son Leif Ericson discovered America in the year 1000. He called it Vinland. The voyages of Eric, Leif and others were written down in the sagas (long stories).