Moscow is mentioned for the first time in the Hypatian Chronicle, when Prince Yuri Dolgoruky holds a meeting there.
Under Prince Yuri Dolgoruky, a wooden fort (kremlin) is built on Borovitsky Hill.
Moscow is completely destroyed during the Mongol invasion led by Batu Khan.
Moscow becomes the seat of its own principality under Daniil Alexandrovich, son of Alexander Nevsky.
Under Prince Dmitri Donskoi, the first stone defensive walls of the Kremlin are built.
Ivan III the Great makes Moscow the center of a unified Russian realm and throws off the Mongol yoke.
Ivan IV (the Terrible) has himself crowned as the first tsar of all Russia in Moscow.
After years of chaos during the Time of Troubles, Moscow is recaptured and a period of reconstruction begins.
Peter the Great moves the Russian capital to the newly founded Saint Petersburg.
After the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks move the capital back to Moscow.
Peter the Great, fascinated by Western Europe, established his new city of Saint Petersburg as a 'window to Europe' and moved the seat of government there. Moscow lost its position as political capital but remained the cultural and religious heart of Russia, where tsars were still crowned in the Kremlin.