The history of the Moscow Kremlin
"The candle would not die away ..."
(second part of the XIVth-first half of the XVth century)

In 1365, the Kremlin suffered from the new fire. Young Prince Dmitry Donskoi decided to build stone fortifications on the Borovitskiy (Grove) Hill. All 1367 winter long, from the Myachkovo village, 30 virsts (country miles) from Moscow, limestone was taken to Moscow on sledges. In spring construction works were started. Finally, the center of Moscow was adorned with white-stone walls and towers as the first white-stone fortress in the North-Western Rus appeared.

 

Two years late, after Moscow had been invaded by tartars in 1382, the render of tribute was to be started anew, in smaller sums though. The growth of the Moscow power was reflected in the spiritual letter missive of Dmitry Donskoi, where the Great Prince’s title was transmitted to the heirs for the first time in the Russian history.

 

In 1404, in the Kremlin on a particular tower called “chasozvon (clock-ringing)” Lazar Serbin, Serbian monk of Athos, mounted a clock. That was the first city clock in Russia, mounted in Moscow before the Novgorod Clock-tower appeared.