Moscow (population 2024: 13,146,907) is the capital of the Russian Federation and the most populous city located entirely in Europe. It is situated in the west of the country. Moscow is also the capital of the Central Russian Federal District. The administrative unit “City of Federal Significance Moscow” includes several other towns and has a population of 13,258,262. The city is by far the most important political, economic, scientific, and cultural center of the country.
Moscow was founded around the 11th/12th century. The construction of the fortification (Kremlin) is dated to the beginning of the second half of the 12th century. In the 13th century, Moscow became the capital of a sub-principality of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir. In the 14th century, the princes of Moscow established themselves as rulers of the entire Rus. However, from 1247 to 1480, it was required to pay tribute to the Golden Horde, which devastated Moscow in 1238. In 1571, the city, which was almost entirely built of wood, was burned down by Tatar troops. By this time, however, Moscow was already the undisputed center of power in Russia. In 1687, the city's first college was opened, followed by its first university in 1775. Peter the Great moved the capital to Saint Petersburg in 1712. Weakened by unrest and plague, Moscow's development lagged behind that of the new capital. The invasion of Napoleon's troops in 1812 brought a deep cut in Moscow's development, with the city's population setting their houses on fire to repel them. The rapid reconstruction gave Moscow a modern cityscape.
After the October Revolution and the relocation of the capital back to Moscow in 1918, the city experienced an enormous expansion of its public infrastructure, and numerous prestigious buildings were erected until World War II. However, the expansion of residential space was never able to keep pace with population growth. This growth could not be slowed down, even by various restrictions on in-migration, some of which are still in force today. However, the city also grew through incorporations, particularly in 1960 and 2012.
In 1980, Moscow hosted the Summer Olympics. In the years that followed, however, the growing crisis in the Soviet Union also affected the city, which, following decentralization movements in the republics and unrest in Russia itself, was ultimately directly affected by the attempted coup in 1991. After the final collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, Moscow remained the capital of Russia. Since then, the city center in particular has been increasingly characterized by modern, prestigious buildings. Other features of the city's development in the post-Soviet era include the reconstruction of churches destroyed or repurposed during the Soviet era, the renovation of pre-Soviet buildings in the city center, and the expansion of transport infrastructure on the outskirts.
To modernize
The Russian Federation is the largest territorial state in the world and is inhabited by about 145 million people. The capital and largest city is Moscow, with about 11.5 million inhabitants, followed by St. Petersburg with more than 5.3 million inhabitants. The majority of the population lives in the European part of Russia, which is much more densely populated than the Asian part.
Since 1992, the Russian Federation has been the successor state to the Russian Soviet Republic (Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, RSFSR), by far the largest constituent state of the former Soviet Union. It is also the legal successor of the Soviet Union in the sense of international law.
Hannibal grew up in close proximity to the Tsar and became his personal secretary as well as aide-de-camp. He accompanied the Tsar on his trip to Europe in 1716 and then stayed in France to study. There Hannibal took part in the Franco-Spanish War. After his return in 1723, he became one of Russia's first Enlightenment thinkers. He wrote the first textbooks on mathematics and fortification in Russian, built forts in Siberia as well as in the
The Baltic States is a region in the north-east of Europe and is composed of the three states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Baltic States are inhabited by almost 6 million people.
Since Hannibal had been abducted from Africa as an infant, he could not exactly name his country of birth, but was always aware of his African origins. The Tsar christened him Petr Petrov. In 1727 Hannibal adopted the name Hannibal to make clear the parallel between himself and the great Hannibal of ancient history. Later he chose an elephant for his heraldic family coat of arms, to immortalize the African origin of his family. Hannibal's sons also became Russian generals. His moving life story inspired his great-grandson Alexander Pushkin as well as several other writers and filmmakers worldwide. However, Pushkin's historical novel, in which he wanted to immortalize his great-grandfather, remained unfinished.
