Let me lead you through the streets of Moscow

by Anni Pelmeni

This question still causes heating debates among the historians. There is so called Lobnoe Mesto right in front of the main gateway of the Kremlin - the Spaskaya Tower. If you check the dictionary - the typical translation for Лобное место will be 'execution place'. However this could be misleading. This translation is not literate, but rather definition of the meaning attribute to this place. It is claimed that at Lobnoe Mesto the Russan Tsars executed the enemies of the state. But was it really so?

Lobnoe Mesto appeared in the 16th century as a place where the Tsar's directives were read out loud. The stone dais was constructed to draw the attention to a speaker. Ivan IV the Terrible made a debut on Lobnoe Mesto in 1549 with his passionate speech to stop the feuds between the noble families. Since then till Peter I the Great moved the capital to St. Petersburg in 1712 Lobnoe Mesto was the platform for public and politic debate. It was here where the names of new heirs to Tsar family and new Heads of Orthodox Church were publicly announced. In 1612 Knyaz Pozharskiy announced here the defeat of Polish-Swedish invaders.

But where then did the cut the heads of the rebels off? One of the option: on Vasil'evskiy Spusk: in 1689 Streltsy military rebels were executed there, in 1671 the leader of peasants rebels Razin was executed there.

Stumbe it!