The history of the Moscow Kremlin
The last century of "the Moscow tsardom" (XVIIth century)

After Tsar Boris had died in 1605, fierce struggle for authority began in Russia. It was accompanied by plots, occurrence of tsars-impostors and foreign intervention. The period of 1605 - 1612 was named in history the Great Distemper. In 1612, national home guard under the leadership of Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and merchant from Nizhni Novgorod Kuzma Minin released Moscow from interveners. In the early 1613,  in the Kremlin  Faceted Chamber, the Zemskiy Council elected to the most high throne of Russia 13 years old Michael Fyodorovich Romanov - the first tsar of a new dynasty that ruled in Russia for three hundred years. In 1635-1636, the Terem Palace with reception halls and premises was erected  for Tsar Michael. The mid of the XVIIth century was marked by deep ideological crisis - the so called  Great Split. The reason became the reform of the Russian Church inspired by Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich, son of Tsar Michael Romanov, and Patriarch Nikon, the Tsar’s favourite.
           In 1652-1656, during the rise of his career, Nikon reconstructed the Patriarch’s Palace in the Kremlin. The ceremonial hall of the palace – the cross Chamber was particularly admired by contemporaries. In the Cross Chamber Church Councils and feasts for honoured guests used to be held.
          In the reign of  Alexis Mikhailovich the state administration was enlarged and became more complicated. In 1675-1680, a new two-storey office building was erected on the Borovitsky hill. It stretched from the Archangel’s Cathedral almost up to the Saviour Tower. In 1620-1680, corner and passage towers of rthe Kremlin (except the Secret and the Nicholas Tower) were overbuilt with a marque. By the end of the XVIIth century, the Kremlin was in the flower of its beauty. The original beauty and expressiveness of its  architectural ensemble caused in contemporaries either admiration or figurative comparison with the paradise town of Jerusalem.