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ARSENAL
1702-36
This building was erected by order of Peter the Great on the spot where the Granaries burnt down in 1701 and was intended as a storage place for arms and military equipment. The Emperor put Ivan Saltanov, Mikhail Choglokov, Christopher Konrad and Dmitry Ivanov in charge of the building. The diversion of state funds for the construction of the new capital on the banks of the Neva, the ban on stone building all over the country except in St. Petersburg and the long-lasting Northern War, all delayed work on the Arsenal. It was not completed until 1736. The following year it was destroyed by fire, and the scaffolding was not removed from the rebuilt Arsenal until 1754. In 1812 Napoleon's troops blew up part of the building as they were retreating from Moscow, and the rest was destroyed by fire. In 1812-36 the Arsenal was again restored, this time to a design by the architect Osip Bove, who played a leading role in creating the architectural ensemble of the centre of Moscow after the great fire.
Trophy cannons in front of the former Arsenal
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In plan the building takes the form of a trapezium stretched out along the Kremlin wall. Four large two-storey blocks enclose an inner courtyard of the same configuration. The mighty walls of the building are divided up by a narrow horizontal cornice into the lower floor, which is rusticated, and the upper floor decorated with a thin ribbon-like frieze of foliate ornament.
The austere laconism of the facades is relieved only by the scant decor of the frieze, the luxuriant designs under the windows of the upper floor and the splendid portals of the main entrance. The columns of the ground floor, richly decorated with intricate cartouches and representations of armour and weapons, are rusticated, as are the walls. The sumptuous architecture of the portals executed in baroque style enhances the centre of the facades and adds to the grand scale of the whole edifice. The arch of the portal facing the Senate is decorated with Peter the Great's monogram in the form of two crossed Ps which stand for Petrus Primus (Peter the First) linked by a Roman I.
Apart from being a storage place for arms and military equipment, the Arsenal was envisaged from the outset by Peter the Great as a kind of military museum. To this end he ordered a collection to be made of bronze cannons and military decorations captured in battle as trophies. They were to be sent to Moscow and exhibited in the Arsenal. While the Arsenal was being built, these trophies were displayed in Red Square. A museum was not opened in Peter's day or subsequently, however.
As we know during its retreat from Russia Napoleon's army abandoned nearly all its artillery. Following a special decree, 875 French guns were sent to Moscow for the museum of the Patriotic War of 1812 which it was planned to open in the Arsenal. It was then that the entrance portals were decorated with representations of military armour. Although the museum was not opened on this occasion either, a low pedestal was built along the Arsenal walls for the cannons. The trophy cannons of Napoleon's army were placed on this pedestal. They were not only of French manufacture, but also contained Austrian, Prussian, Italian, Dutch, Neapolitan and Ba-varian specimens.
The old Russian cannons which formerly stood by the facade of the old Armoury building were also displayed here. They were made in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and took part in many Russian campaigns. In all there are forty old Russian, cannons on the territory of the Kremlin. Nineteen of them were placed on decorative iron carriages adorned with representations and ornament in the last century. Among the most famous ones are Troilus showing the King of Troy, made by Andrei Chokhov in 1590, the Wolf, Perseus and Gamayun (seventeenth century) and the Lion made in 1705.
Today some pieces of artillery from the Kremlin collection are on display at the Borodino Museum Preserve, on the field where the famous battle of the Russian and French armies took place, by the Museum Panorama of the Battle of Borodino and in other Moscow museums.
In December 1917 on the initiative of Vladimir llyich Lenin a commanders' school was organized in the Kremlin. The cadets of this school guarded the Kremlin and took part in the Civil War.
In a small garden next to the Arsenal is a granite obelisk with the inscription: "Glory to the commanders and cadets who laid down their lives in the struggle against the counter-revolution at Orekhovo and Sinelnikovo."
On the facade of the Arsenal building is yet another memorial plaque. It is in the form of a merlon, like the Kremlin battlements. The text reads: "Eternal glory to the soldiers, sergeants and officers of the Moscow Kremlin garrison who perished in the defence of Moscow and the Moscow Kremlin against Fascist air raids during the Great Patriotic War..."
This is followed by ninety-two names of the dead inscribed in gold.
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