The
Fire of Moscow (1571) occurred in May of that year when the forces of the Crimean
khanKhan is an originally Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, first used by medieval Altaic-speaking nomadic tribes living to the north of China and the center of Rumelia Kailar yoruks are mentioned as yorukkhans in Ottoman arvhives...
Devlet I GirayDevlet I Giray was a khan of the Crimean Khanate during whose long reign the khanate rose to the pinnacle of its power....
raided the city. The khan set the suburbs on May 24 and a sudden wind blew the flames into Moscow and the city went up in a conflagration. According to
Heinrich von StadenHeinrich von Staden was a self-proclaimed "adventurer in Muscovy"and wrote of his accounts at the court of Ivan IV from 1578-1582.- Early life :...
, a German in the service of Ivan the Terrible (he claimed to be a member of the
OprichninaThe Oprichnina is the period of Russian history between Tsar Ivan the Terrible's 1565 initiation, and his 1572 disbanding, of a domestic policy of political police, mass repressions, public executions, and confiscation of land from Russian aristocrats....
)," the city,
the palaceThe Moscow Kremlin otherwise known as the Russian Parliament , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...
, the Oprichnina palace, and the suburbs burned down completely in six hours.
The
Fire of Moscow (1571) occurred in May of that year when the forces of the Crimean
khanKhan is an originally Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, first used by medieval Altaic-speaking nomadic tribes living to the north of China and the center of Rumelia Kailar yoruks are mentioned as yorukkhans in Ottoman arvhives...
Devlet I GirayDevlet I Giray was a khan of the Crimean Khanate during whose long reign the khanate rose to the pinnacle of its power....
raided the city. The khan set the suburbs on May 24 and a sudden wind blew the flames into Moscow and the city went up in a conflagration. According to
Heinrich von StadenHeinrich von Staden was a self-proclaimed "adventurer in Muscovy"and wrote of his accounts at the court of Ivan IV from 1578-1582.- Early life :...
, a German in the service of Ivan the Terrible (he claimed to be a member of the
OprichninaThe Oprichnina is the period of Russian history between Tsar Ivan the Terrible's 1565 initiation, and his 1572 disbanding, of a domestic policy of political police, mass repressions, public executions, and confiscation of land from Russian aristocrats....
)," the city,
the palaceThe Moscow Kremlin otherwise known as the Russian Parliament , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...
, the Oprichnina palace, and the suburbs burned down completely in six hours. It was a great disaster because no one could escape." People fled into stone churches to escape the flames, but the stone churches collapsed (either from the intensity of the fire or the pressure of the crowds. People also jumped into the Moscow River to escape, where many drowned. The
powder magazinePowder Magazine, Powder House, or Powderworks may refer to:*Magazine , the general term-in the United States:* Powder Magazine , listed on the NRHP in Alabama...
of the
KremlinKremlin is the Russian word for "fortress", "citadel" or "castle" and refers to any major fortified central complex found in historic Russian cities. This word is often used to refer to the best-known one, the Moscow Kremlin, or metonymically to the government that is based there...
exploded and those hiding in the cellar there asphyxiated. The tsar ordered the dead left on the streets to be thrown into the river, which overflowed its banks and flooded parts of the town.
Jerome HorseySir Jerome Horsey of Great Kimble Buckinghamshire was an English explorer, diplomat and politician in the 16th and 17th centuries....
wrote that it took more than a year to clear away all the bodies.
It was one the most severe fires in the history of the
cityMoscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
. Historians estimate the number of casualties of the fire from 10,000 to as many 80,000 people. Foreigners visiting the city before and after the fire have described a noticeable decrease in the city population, and Ivan the Terrible avoided the city for several years after the fire due to the lack of suitable habitation for him and his entourage. The khan's attempt to repeat the raid in 1572 was repelled in the
Battle of MolodiThe Battle of Molodi was one of the key battles of Ivan the Terrible's reign. It was fought near the village of Molodi, 60 km south of Moscow, in July-August 1572 between the 120,000-strong horde of Devlet I Giray of Crimea and about 60,000 Russians led by Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky...
.