The foundation of Moscow and its early history

For the prescription of time, unfortunately, for us the early history of Moscow is lost . In this regard, so no one was able to give a clear explanation of what event or circumstance the foundation of Moscow is connected with. Also there is no answer, for what reason it was at this place that the capital was built, and not in any other place of Great Russia.

In addition, the year of foundation of Moscow is not known reliably. Presumably according to the "Pantheon of Russian Sovereigns", Moscow was founded in 880, at the end of the ninth century. According to historical data, it was in this year that Oleg, who was not yet the guardian of Igor's throne, but was only the prince of Urman, came to the Moscow river, then called Smorodinoy or Samorodinka. Here, in the mouth of the Neglinnaya River, they laid a small town, which was named after the river - Moscow. After that, for more than two and a half centuries, to be exact 267 years, nothing was known about Moscow.

For the first time it is mentioned in the pages of the Ipatiev Chronicle in 1147. This year, there was a meeting of the Suzdal prince Yuri Dolgoruky with his ally - Prince Novgorod of Novgorod Svyatoslav Olgovich. It should be noted that for a long time the foundation of Moscow was attributed to this year. Then Moscow was a settlement of small size, owned by a rich and famous man, Stepan Ivanovich Kuchko, and it was called Kuchkov.

In historical documents it is noted that the house of Stepan Kuchko at that time was located near the modern Clean Ponds, and in place of the Kremlin the impenetrable dense forest barked. In all at that time there were six Kuchkov settlements: Vorobyevo, Vysotsky, Kudrin, Kulishki, Simonovo and Suschevo. There is an assumption that Stepan Kuchko was originally from Novgorod, as his name is often found in connection with the mention of Novgorod zemtsov.

The foundation of Moscow, the date of which is not known, despite the fact that in 1997 was celebrated the 850th anniversary, causes a lot of controversy among historians. The experts even call the name of the Russian capital - "Moscow". There are many versions. The main one is the name given from the river, which flowed in this place.

According to the same linguists, in ancient times there was a Slavonic word, which had the root "mosk", which means "viscous, marshy." In Russian speech, words with this root include "moskot", which has "moskotilnye" (wet) derivatives. That's why it is said about "brain", "dank" weather. According to this version, the name "Moscow", which was the original "Moskva", comes from the ancient Slavonic word "moisture".

Despite the fact that there is no reliable data on such an event as the foundation of Moscow, they are successfully compensated for by the mass of folded legends that are both popular and not so, are truthful and little like the truth. There are eight main legends describing the foundation of Moscow. We described some of the more plausible ones above, others remain a mystery for many generations in the future. However, despite everything, a small town, once founded at the mouth of the river, could grow to a gigantic scale.