Under Ivan I the city replaced Tver as capital of Vladimir-Suzdal and became the sole collector of taxes for the Mongol-Tatar rulers. By paying high tribute, Ivan won an important concession from the Khan. Unlike other principalities, Moscow was not divided among his sons but was passed intact to his eldest. In 1380, prince Dmitri Donskoi of Moscow led a united Russian army to an important victory over the Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo. Although this victory is regarded as important its result was somewhat exaggerated; the battle wasn’t decisive. After 2 years of battle Moscow was completely destroyed by khan Tokhtamysh. In 1480, Ivan III had finally broken the Russians free from Tatar control, allowing Moscow to become the centre of power in Russia.Ivan III relocated the Russian capital to Moscow, and the city became the capital of an empire that would eventually encompass all of present-day Russia and other lands.

In 1609 the Swedish-Finnish army, led by Count Jacobus (Jaakko) De la Gardie ("Lazy Jaakko") and Evert (Eetvartti) Horn started its march from Velikiy Novgorod toward Moscow to help Tsar Vasili Shuiski, entered Moscow in 1610 and suppressed the rebellion against Tsar, but leaving it early next year 1611, following which the Polish-Lithuanian army invaded.

The 17th century was rich in popular risings, such as the liberation of Moscow from the Polish-Lithuanian invaders (1612), the Salt Riot (1648), the Copper Riot (1662), and the Moscow Uprising of 1682. The city ceased to be Russia’s capital in 1712, after the founding of St. Petersburg by Peter the Great on the Baltic coast in 1703. When Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812, the Muscovites burned the city and evacuated, as Napoleon’s forces were approaching on 14 September. Napoleon’s army, plagued by hunger, cold, and poor supply lines, was forced to retreat and was almost destroyed by Russian military forces. In January 1905, the institution of the City Governor, or Mayor, was officially introduced in Moscow, and Alexander Adrianov became Moscow’s first official mayor. Following the success of the Russian Revolution of 1917, on March 12, 1918, Moscow became the capital of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union less than five years later. During the Great Patriotic War (a part of World War II after the German invasion in the USSR), the Soviet State Committee of Defence and the General Staff of the Red Army was located in Moscow. In 1941, sixteen divisions of the national volunteers (more than 160,000 people), twenty-five battalions (18,500 people) and four engineering regiments were formed among the Muscovites. In November 1941, German Army Group Centre was stopped at the outskirts of the city and then driven off in the course of the Battle of Moscow. Many factories were evacuated, together with much of the government, and from October 20 the city was declared to be under siege. Its remaining inhabitants built and manned antitank defences, while the city was bombarded from the air. It is of some note that Stalin refused to leave the city, meaning the general staff and the council of people’s commissars remained in the city as well. Despite the siege, the construction of Moscow’s metro system, which began in the early 1930s, continued through the war and by the end of the war several new metro lines were opened. On May 1, 1944 a medal For the defence of Moscow and in 1947 another medal In memory of the 800th anniversary of Moscow were instituted. On May 8, 1965 in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the victory in World War II, Moscow was one of twelve Soviet cities awarded the title of the Hero City. In 1980, it hosted the Summer Olympic Games.In 1991 Moscow was the scene of a coup attempt by the government members opposed to the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev. When the USSR was dissolved in the same year, Moscow continued to be the capital of Russia. Since then, the emergence of a market economy in Moscow has produced an explosion of Western-style retailing, services, architecture, and lifestyles.

The building of this new city under adverse weather and geographical conditions, and the high mortality rate that went with it, required a constant supply of new workers. Since inhabitants in the area were few and far between, Peter, exercising his prerogative as tsar, drafted forced labour from all parts of the country. A yearly quote of 40,000 peasants was required; the force based on a quota of one conscript for every nine-to-sixteen households, depending on location. The conscripts were expected to provide their own tools and their own food for the journey. They traveled hundreds of miles, on foot, in gangs, often escorted by military guards and more often shackled to prevent desertion; yet despite all these precautions there were many who escaped. This, in addition to the harsh conditions of the trek with its disease and exposure, meant that Peter seldom received more than 20,000 workers in any one year; a loss of around 50% from the very start.Since construction began during a time of war, the new city’s first building was a fortification. Known today as the Peter and Paul Fortress, it originally also bore the name of SanktPiterburh. It was laid down on Zaiachiy (Hare’s) Island, just off the right bank of the Neva, a couple of miles inland from the Gulf. The marshland was drained and the city spread outward from the fortress under the supervision of German engineers whom Peter had invited to Russia. Peter forbade the construction of stone buildings in all of Russia outside of St Petersburg, so that all stonemasons would come to help build the new city. Serfs provided most of the labor for the project "The most artificial city in the world", as Dostoevsky put it, was intended to become the new capital of Russia. By virtue of its position on an arm of the Baltic Sea, it was called by Pushkin a "window on Europe". It was also a base for Peter’s navy, protected by the island fortress of Kronstadt, built soon after the city. With the growth of industry, radical movements were also astir. Socialist organizations were responsible for the assassinations of many royal officials, including that of Alexander II in 1881. The Revolution of 1905 began here and spread rapidly into the provinces. During World War I, the name Sankt Peterburg was seen to be too German and, on the initiative of Tsar Nicholas II, the city was renamed Petrograd on August 31, 1914 (August 18, Old Style).Preserved as a museum ship in St. Petersburg, the Aurora became a symbol of the October Revolution in Russia.1917 saw the beginnings of the Russian Revolution. The first step (the February Revolution) was the removal of the Tsarist government and the establishment of two centres of political power, the Provisional government and the Petrograd Soviet. The Provisional government was overthrown in the October Revolution, and the Russian Civil War broke out. The city’s proximity to anti-revolutionary armies, and generally unstable political climate, forced Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin to flee to Russia’s historic former capital at Moscow on March 5, 1918. The move may have been intended as temporary (it was certainly portrayed as such), but Moscow has remained the capital ever since. On January 24, 1924, three days after Lenin’s death, Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honour. During World War II, Leningrad was surrounded and besieged by the German Wehrmacht from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944, a total of 29 months. By Hitler’s order the Wehrmacht constantly shelled and bombed the city and systematically isolated it from any supplies, which led to the death of more than 1 million people, about 800,000 of them civilians. The secret instruction of the Wehrmacht’s high command from 23 September 1941 said that "the Führer is determined to eliminate the city of Petersburg from the face of earth. There is no reason whatsoever for subsequent existence of this large-scale city after the neutralization of the Soviet Russia." Starting in early 1942, the Ingermanland region was included into the Generalplan Ost annexation plans as the "German settlement area". This implied the genocide of 3 million Leningrad residents, who had no place in this "New East European Order".During the German blockade, the only ways to supply the city, inhabited by several millions, were by aircraft or via Lake Ladoga. The Germans systematically shelled this route, called the Road of Life. The situation in the city was especially horrible in 1941. The German bombing raids obliterated most of the food reserves. A daily ration declined in October to 400 grams of bread for a worker and 200 grams for a woman or child. On 20 November 1941, the rations were reduced to 250 and 125 grams respectively. Those grams of bread were the bulk of a daily meal for a person in the city. The running water supply was destroyed. The situation further worsened in winter by lack of heating fuel. In December 1941 alone some 53,000 people in Leningrad died, many of them simply in the streets.

For the heroic tenacity of the city’s population, Leningrad became the first Soviet city to be awarded the title Hero City in 1945. The war damaged the city and killed off many of those old Petersburgers who had not fled after the revolution and did not perish in the mass purges before the war. Nonetheless, Leningrad and many of its suburbs were rebuilt over the following decades to the old drawings. Though changes in the social fabric were more permanent, the city remained an intellectual and arts centre.After the collapse of the Soviet Union, on June 12, 1991, a bare majority (54%) of the population decided to restore "the original name, Saint Petersburg," on September 6, 1991. As well as the city, 39 streets, six bridges, three Saint Petersburg Metro stations and six parks were renamed. Nevertheless, some, especially older people, still use the old names. The name releases positive associations particularly in connection with the siege - so that on holidays even authorities call places connected with World War II "Hero city Leningrad".