Smolensk Kremlin, Smolensk

The Smolensk fortress wall, which is also called the Smolensk Kremlin, is a grandiose fortification of medieval Russia. Even the fact that about half of the fortification built at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries reached us only adds to the monument of ancient authenticity.

Smolensk citadel is compared with the Kremlin of Moscow and Tula, Nizhny Novgorod and Zaraysky, but fans in general are prone to ill-advised analogies. The general admiration of the magnificent stronghold led to the emergence of a multitude of statements far from the truth: as if the Smolensk fortress is the largest in Russia, and even in Europe, the newest fortification of its time, etc. We will be fair: the citadel is still smaller than the Pskov and Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, and it can not be compared with the fortifications of the then Moscow. By the time of construction, stone walls and towers were already becoming an anachronism; only earthen bastion fortresses could effectively resist the developing artillery. Despite these clarifications, one thing is beyond doubt - the fortress designed by architect Fedor Savelyevich Kone is exceptionally beautiful. Although from the former six-kilometer walls and 38 towers, none of which repeats the "neighbor", today there is not much left.

The modern Smolensk wall is torn into several pieces - their total length does not exceed three kilometers. Of the 38 towers survived 17. Unfortunately, the loss of this magnitude is quite natural, since no war has spared Smolensk. Four towers were blown up by Polish feudal lords, eight (according to other sources, nine) were destroyed by Napoleon’s soldiers, another four by the Germans. "And the Smolensk themselves unreasonably dismantled the five towers for economic needs," George Nikolayev, a historian, local historian, Smolyanin ironically says. Entire sections of the wall were demolished to make way for new streets. Destruction only ceased in the 1970s, when the historical center of Smolensk no longer required redevelopment.

The most equipped section of the wall is a plot in the south of the city, surrounding Lopatinsky Garden. Here, in the Gromov and Pyatnitskaya towers, museums are organized (“Smolensk is a shield of Russia” and the Vodka Museum), and permanent restoration is under way. The most mysterious and at the same time the most accessible part is in the east, where the private sector is located. There you can climb the wall and explore Smolensk from a bird's eye view. The panorama opens amazing: the Assumption Cathedral, the Dnieper, the city cut by the streets, the famous Smolensk hills. However, this barrel of honey didn’t do without a fly in the ointment: the local gopnik took the Eastern segment of the wall. Almost in every tower there are bottle installations, assurances that Tsoi is alive, and traces of waste. The city authorities, of course, are outraged by this attitude towards the monument of history, but so far no real action has been taken.

In addition to Gopnik and tourists, the Smolensk fortress was chosen by non-drinking parkour people. In the summer, they climb the towers like monkeys, delighting casual spectators. And lovers come - to arrange a date on the wall, though it is trivial, but very romantic.

Towers of the Smolensk fortress
The most popular and postcard tower of the Smolensk wall is Thunder (aka Kuninskaya, Topinskaya, Tupinskaya tower). According to a predictable legend, the name of the tower received after a strong blow of thunder, which sounded right above it. Another version associates the name with the location: the tower is ominously pushed out of the wall, which makes it almost impregnable. Terrible as thunder.

Today, inside the Thunder Tower there is a museum Smolensk - a shield of Russia, where military equipment sets and weapons samples of the second half of the 14th and early 15th centuries are displayed. There is an exhibition dedicated to the history of the fortress, and a large layout of the fortress walls, corresponding to the plan of Fyodor Kony. From the fourth tier of the tower there is an exit to the observation deck, where concerts are held. And not only classical music, but also local pop / rock bands.

Another restored and refined tower is the Pyatnitskaya (or Pyatnitsky Gate). Once through it, they entered the territory of the Smolensk citadel, but when the French retreated in 1812, the gate was blown up. Later on this place a church was erected in the name of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. Today, the Museum of Russian Vodka is located here, where everyone can taste the alcoholic beverages of a local plant, in the process of learning about the key points in the development of the distillery business in Russia.

The third most popular tower is Veselukha, or Luchinskaya. It is sometimes said that the first frivolous name is due to the fact that it offers a breathtaking panorama - a kind that brings joy to the soul. According to another version, both names are associated with the location: the tower stands on a high hill, at the bend of the Dnieper. “Veselukha” in the local dialect means “rainbow”, that is, an arc-like bend.

In addition, the towers of Volkov, Kostyrevskaya, Pozdnyakova, Avraamievsky gates, Voronina, Dolgochevskaya, Zimbulka, Nikolsky gate (Eleninsky gate), Makhovaya, Kopytenskaya gate, Orel, Donets, Bubbleka, Zaaltarnaya have survived.

LOCAL FEATURES
Events and holidays
On Sunday, next to the Thunder Tower, there are performances of the military-historical club. Actors and reenactors play for the guests of the museum theatrical scenes from medieval life: a feast in the boyar’s theater with songs and dances, fights of Russian, Lithuanian and German soldiers on various types of weapons.

HISTORY
A wooden fortress with an earthen wall on the site of the present wall appeared in Smolensk under Ivan the Terrible, and the construction of stone defenses began in 1595 under his son, Fyodor Ivanovich. The construction of the country's most western outpost became a priority task for the head of the then government, the boyar Boris Godunov. In the literature, the fortress is often called “godunovskoy”: Boris Fedorovich himself came to Smolensk to lay the first stone, and then oversaw the construction until its very end. He perfectly understood the significance of this fortress - during the Polish invasion she was the first to stand in the way of the enemy. Smolensk fortress was supposed to be impregnable. The main architect of this “building of the past century” was Fedor Savelievich Kon - an outstanding architect, author of the Moscow White City. Construction was completed in 1602.

And by 1609 was one of the most glorious pages of the military history of the fortress - the opposition of the Polish Royal Army. Until 1611, the Moscow army under the command of the governor Mikhail Shein steadfastly defended a new fortress. Vasily Shuisky had already ceased to be a king, Poles had already entered Moscow, negotiations with the boyar government were already under way for the Polish prince to take the Russian throne, and Shein, in spite of everything, was holding out. Only in the summer of 1611, after a fierce battle, did the Poles succeed in capturing the Smolensk citadel.

After that, the Russians twice, in 1632-1633 and in 1654, tried to regain Smolensk. It was possible to take the fortress only a second time, and then as a result of treason.

Officially, the Smolensk fortress ceased to exist as a fortification in 1786. Four hundred gunners who served with it and 190 guns were distributed among other fortifications.

But in 1812, Napoleon’s troops during the Battle of Smolensk again stormed its gates. When in the autumn of the same year the emperor of France left the city, he ordered the fortress towers to be blown up so that they would not prevent him from a future campaign in Russia. The hike, however, no longer happened, but as many as eight or nine towers were destroyed. The others managed to save the soldiers of the Twentieth Jaeger Regiment who entered Smolensk.

Since then, the Smolensk fortress destroyed only themselves Smolensk. And they did it no worse than Napoleon: only 14 of the original 38 remained. This process occurred particularly quickly in the 1820s and 30s, when the city was restored after the destruction of the Napoleonic war. Nicholas I allocated a lot of money for this, and the work began to boil. Towers and walls that were in poor condition were dismantled for building materials for new buildings. And the governor Khmelnitsky restored the dismantled Kostyrevsky tower at public expense, having spent hundreds of thousands of rubles on it - huge means for those times. As a result, in 1838 he was under investigation along with a number of contractors who rebuilt the city and built roads.

However, this did not affect the fate of the towers, nor did Alexander II wish to preserve the fortress as a historical monument. Citizens living next to the fortress undermined the walls in order to have a reason to disassemble them for building materials due to the threat of collapse.

The last act of destruction dates back to 1930, and the official version for a long time attributed the destruction of the last of the lost towers to the Nazis. However, according to modern researchers, these towers were destroyed as early as 1938, and the Nazis did not even have time to tear down a dilapidated wall, and they mined and blew up factories and institutions before leaving Smolensk.

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