Red Square, Moscow: Context First

Russia has been under sweeping Western sanctions since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Most European and North American travellers face substantial practical obstacles: major airlines no longer operate routes to Moscow, Visa and Mastercard do not function in Russia, and travel advisories from the UK, US, EU, and most Western governments range from “exercise extreme caution” to “do not travel under any circumstances.” This post covers the site’s history and character honestly, with that context stated plainly rather than buried in a footnote.

For visitors from countries with different relationships to these sanctions, or for anyone visiting once conditions eventually change, what follows covers what Red Square actually is and why it genuinely matters.

The Square Itself

Red Square is not red. The name derives from the Russian “krasnaya,” which in medieval Russian meant both “red” and “beautiful.” The square predates the colour association; the name referred to the importance and beauty of the place, not its paving. The dark red-brown brick of the Kremlin wall did come later, but calling it Red Square was never about the bricks.

The square stretches 330 metres north-south along the Kremlin’s eastern wall. The GUM department store occupies the entire eastern side in a stunning 1890s Russian Revival arcade of iron-and-glass galleries. St. Basil’s Cathedral closes the southern end. The red-brick Historical Museum anchors the northern approach. This ensemble, seen across the square’s cobbled expanse on a clear winter day, is extraordinary by any measure.

St. Basil’s Cathedral

Built between 1555 and 1561 on Ivan the Terrible’s orders to commemorate his capture of Kazan, the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat is more properly known as the Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed. The architect or architects created nine chapels arranged around a central tower, each with a differently shaped and coloured dome. The story that Ivan had the architects blinded to prevent them building anything comparable is almost certainly apocryphal, but it has endured because the building seems to invite legend.

The interior is much smaller and darker than the exterior suggests: low vaulted passages connecting individual chapels, frescoes covering every surface, the scale intimate rather than monumental. It comes as a genuine surprise after the overwhelming exterior.

The Kremlin

The Kremlin wall and towers form the western boundary of Red Square, but the compound itself is a functioning government complex and only partially open to visitors. The accessible sections include the Armoury Chamber, which holds one of the most remarkable museum collections in the world: Faberge eggs, coronation regalia, ceremonial carriages, medieval armour, and imperial tableware accumulated over five centuries. Cathedral Square within the Kremlin contains the Cathedral of the Dormition, the coronation church for Russian tsars from the 15th century onward, and the Cathedral of the Archangel, where their tombs are held.

Lenin’s Mausoleum

The granite and labradorite mausoleum at the base of the Kremlin wall was built in 1930. Lenin died in January 1924; his embalmed body has been on public display almost continuously since then, with periodic maintenance interventions every 18 months or so. The viewing takes perhaps three minutes. Silence and bare heads are required for men. The queue on busy days can run two hours.

The mausoleum is genuinely strange and genuinely significant. The combination of Marxist ideology with the essentially religious impulse of embalming and veneration creates something that visitors comment on regardless of their political orientation. It is one of the more unusual things you will see anywhere.

GUM and the Tretyakov

GUM, originally the Upper Trading Rows of 1893, was nationalised after the revolution and is now a luxury retail arcade. The building itself, three levels of iron-and-glass arcading, is worth entering as architecture regardless of shopping interest. Stolovaya No. 57 on the third floor is a Soviet-style canteen serving traditional food at prices that have no relation to GUM’s usual luxury context.

The Tretyakov Gallery, 4km south of Red Square, holds the most important collection of Russian art in existence: medieval icons through Andrei Rublev’s Trinity icon, 19th-century Realist paintings, and the 20th-century Soviet collection in the New Tretyakov building nearby. It is undervalued by foreign visitors relative to the Hermitage, and that is a mistake worth correcting.

Moscow’s metro stations are worth riding specifically for their architecture: Komsomolskaya, Mayakovskaya, and Novoslobodskaya are among the most ornate underground spaces ever built, and they cost one fare to see.