As far back as the twelfth century

As far back as the twelfth century Moscow was known as a small estate of Prince Yuri Dolgoruky ; in 1156 it
was walled , thus became a town, or rather a fortress on the banks of the Moskva river, then an important trade route. Its
subsequent economic and political development was due largely to its favourable geographical position.
The city was raised in the thirteenth century during the Tatar invasion, and for many years paid tribute to the
Tatar Khans, but toward the end of the fourteenth century it rose against these rules, sometimes fighting, sometimes
paying ransom. It gradually grew stronger and became the capital of the new state of Moscovy. As it was a military as
well as an administrative and economic centre, its rulers continued to erect ramparts and fortifications.
By the end of the sixteenth century, during the reign of Boris Godunov, Moscow had three walls with towers
and moats surrounding respectively the Kremlin, the Kitai-Gorod and the White City. It was also surrounded by
earthworks 14km in circumference, and guarded on the south, east and west by six fortified monasteries. From the
Kremlin and the Red Square, then the centre, streets radiated to the outskirts whence they continued as trade roads. The
town itself was divided into 150 self-governed settlements or districts, “sotni” and “slobodi”, with irregularly scattered
houses and narrow crooked streets and blind alleys. Foreigners who visited Moscow in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries as trade representatives or to enter the service of the tsars, as architects and military and industrial advisers
usually expressed their delight with the picturesqueness of the city but noted the dirty streets and wretched wooden
houses that they found on closer inspection. At the beginning of the 18th century peter the Great moved the capital to
St. Petersburg which was founded by him, but Moscow continued to grow as a trading city. It remained too, the
favourite city of the Russian nobility who liked to spend the winter in their Moscow mansions. With the invasions of
Napoleon in 1812, four-fifths of Moscow were destroyed by fire, but it was soon rebuilt and trade and industry
developed again. The city was at its height by the middle of the 19th century.

Результаты (русский) 3:

неуважительным, маленькие негодники