Red Square (Krasnaya ploshhad)

The word "red" in Russian means everything beautiful. Red is usually associated with blood, in addition, a large number of executions in Russia were conducted on Red Square. St. Basil's Cathedral stands in the place of nine churches "on the blood." The symbolism of the blood is justified. The second meaning of the word "red" is beautiful, and this value puts a certain semantic layer in the semantics: the square as a symbol of elegance, beauty, festivity, splendor, the main square of the country.

It is obvious that among the buildings red predominates. The Kremlin is reddish, and the museum is brownish in color. The color of the mausoleum is close to the burgundy. It is easy to see that GUM falls out of this system. However, this building is slightly supported by the building of the Senate that looks out from behind the Kremlin wall.

Red Square - the main and most famous square of Moscow, near the northeast wall of the Kremlin, between the Kremlin pass, the Voskresensky Gate passage, Nikolskaya street, Ilyinka, Varvarka and Vasilievsky descent to the Kremlin embankment. To the west of it is the Moscow Kremlin, to the east - the Upper (GUM) and the Middle Trade Rows, to the north - the Historical Museum and the Kazan Cathedral, to the south - the Intercession Cathedral (St. Basil's Cathedral).

The total area of the Red Square is 23,100m², the length is 695 meters, and the width is 70 meters.

The oldest part of the modern ensemble - the eastern wall of the Moscow Kremlin with Spassky, Borovitskaya and a small nameless tower between them (later it will be called the Senate) - was built in 1491-1493. Old chronicles retained the names of architects: Anton and Marco Fryaziny, Pietro Antonio Solari, Alois Fryazin Sr.. The moat, fortified by a low crenellated wall, separates the Kremlin from the approaching to it almost closely the construction of the village with the ancient bourse. After the devastating fire at the end of the XV century, a large area in front of the moat burned out, and it was not built up. Thus, a vast empty place was formed between the Kremlin wall and the bazaar, which became known as the "Fire". The place for the future Red Square had been cleared, but it did not yet exist.

The oldest part of the modern ensemble - the eastern wall of the Moscow Kremlin with Spassky, Borovitskaya and a small nameless tower between them (later it will be called the Senate) - was built in 1491-1493. Ivan the Terrible decided to erect a grandiose stone church in commemoration of his victories, both the place and the form of the future building were prompted by life itself. The nine-footed stone Cathedral of the Intercession on the moat - St. Basil's Cathedral - replaced nine churches - the Trinity and eight commemorative.

With the construction of the cathedral, the first fundamental step was taken in the formation of the ensemble of Red Square. The temple-monument became a symbol of the triumph of the Russian people - a kind of giant altar near the historical walls of the Kremlin.

In 1625, the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin, the one closest to the St. Basil's Cathedral, received a concave high-rise superstructure with a characteristic spire. The first of all the towers of the Kremlin. Soon after, the name "Red Square" appeared in the documents for the first time. So far only a small part of the present square is designated in front of the St. Basil's Cathedral, between the Spassky Tower and the Execution Ground.

In the northern end of the square on the site of the Main Pharmacy, architect V.O. Sherwood built a massive building of the Historical Museum in 1847-1883. In 1894, the architect AN Pomerantsev, in collaboration with the outstanding Russian engineer VG Shukhov, erected a new building of the Upper Trading Stalls - now GUM.

In 1930, A.V.Shchusev created a new center of the ensemble - Lenin's Mausoleum. He emphasizes the dominance of the transverse axis and the tiered principle in the formation of the ensemble. The opening of the square from the north to the south contributes to its active inclusion in the Moscow metropolitan center system and simultaneously enhances the importance of the oldest longitudinal axis of the ensemble as the main direction of the through traffic of human flows across the square.

Red Square gives an example of a traditional architectural ensemble, which has been formed for a long time through the efforts of many architects, or rather, even many generations of architects. The ensemble gradually crystallizes in time, at each stage of its formation the architectural and spatial composition is refined and re-interpreted from the position of new tasks. In the course of such evolution, a kind of "natural selection" of the most viable solutions takes place, and the new arises every time, as a rule, in the form of a partial, local change in the overall spatial concept, which is fixed (or not fixed) in the next stages of the ensemble's development.

The towers of the Kremlin are undoubtedly closely related in meaning, since they have almost the same morphology and stylistics, although, of course, with more careful consideration of them, we can come across completely different in appearance and meaning constructions. However, it is very difficult to connect a single idea, for example, the building of the GUM and the Historical Museum, even though they are executed in a pseudo-Russian style. Absolutely all the buildings on the square bear completely different semantic coloring, and the building of the mausoleum is especially brightly displayed. It is not necessary to speak of any stable links between the elements of the ensemble.

The Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, the Kremlin and the Historical Museum can be considered as a symbol of all Russian in architecture.

The center of the ensemble can be called the Lenin Mausoleum. The central axis connects the centers of the Historical Museum and St. Basil's Cathedral and is intersected by a transverse axis connecting the Senate Tower and the GUM entrance. The idea of bringing Russian culture under socialism was embodied in the building of the mausoleum, and having appeared under the Senate Tower, the construction generalized the elements of the ensemble and headed its hierarchy.

Lenin's mausoleum was a symbol of Soviet power, the worship of leaders, a symbol of the eternity of ideas, a symbol of the opposition of Soviet and Russian cultures, decor and laconicism, and partly also a symbol of ignorance and rudeness.

GUM carries a relatively neutral semantic load, not delaying the special attention and not kindling in the viewer as many experiences as the red walls of other buildings are pumping. GUM, most likely, was even created in such an invoice for removing such a heavy semantic load.

The contrasting building of the mausoleum, in turn, provokes the older structures of the square to the conflict, while still being on the transverse axis and observing the symmetry. The rest of the buildings are in a simple semantic dialogue with each other, however, the pretentious building of the Historical Museum deliberately draws attention to itself, in conflict with the GUM and the Nikolsky Tower of the Kremlin. The dialogical structure of the ensemble is clearly seen. Elements are very diverse and often come into conflict with each other.