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When the Byzantine Empire fell in the mid-15th century, Moscow was declared the "Third Rome", and the capital of the Orthodox world. Shortly after this, the first buildings of the Kremlin were constructed by Italian architects.
Moscow remained the capital of Russia through the 16th and 17th centuries, until Peter the Great came to power, built St. Petersburg on the northern marshes near the Gulf of Finland, and proclaimed his new city the capital in 1712. Moscow went into a state of decline, as Peter decreed that no new stone buildings were to be built anywhere but in St. Petersburg.
In 1812, Moscow was virtually destroyed by a raging fire, set by the city's own inhabitants to thwart Napoleon's army. Rather than allow the city to be taken, Muscovites set ablaze the wooden buildings: it is estimated that more than 70% of the buildings in the city were burned. Leo Tolstoy vividly described the dramatic scene in his epic "War and Peace".
In 1918, Vladimir Lenin moved the capital of Russia back to Moscow, having a deep mistrust of the politically volatile St. Petersburg. Moscow reigned for the next 73 years as the USSR's most important and powerful city.
Following the collapse of the USSR, Moscow has garnered perhaps more luster as one of the fastest-growing business centers in the former Communist world. Often compared to Berlin in the 1920's, the city is thriving with international businesspeople, big-name stores appealing to the city's newly rich, and a rapidly growing number of restaurants, bars and nightclubs.
