“The Kremlin is not like any other palace, it is a city in itself; a city that forms the ioot of Moscow, and that serves as the frontier fortress between two quarters of the world. Under the successors of Genghis-Khan, Asia made her last rush upon Europe; in turning to retreat, she struck the earth with her foot, and from thence rose the Kremlin! The princes who now possess this sacred asylum of oriental despotism call themselves Europeans, because they have chased the Calmucs, their brethren, their tyrants, and their instructors, out of Muscovy. None resemble the khans of Sarai so much as their antagonists, the czars of Moscow, who have borrowed from them even to their very title…
I was beneath the walls of the Kremlin, — that colossal mountain raised for tyranny by the hands of slaves… This tyrannical castle… a Pantheon of barbarism…
The Kremlin is the work of a superhuman being, but that being is malevolent. Glory in slavery — such is the allegory figured by this satanic monument, as extraordinary in architecture as the visions of St. John are in poetry. It is a habitation which would suit some of the personages of the Apocalypse… In vain is each turret distinguished by its peculiar character and its particular use; all have the same signification, — terror armed.
To inhabit a place like the Kremlin is not to reside, it is to defend one’s self. Oppression creates revolt, revolt necessitates precautions, precautions increase dangers, and this long series of actions and reactions engenders a monster; that monster is despotism, which has built itself a house at Moscow. The giants of the antediluvian world, were they to return to earth to visit their degenerate successors, might still find a suitable habitation in the Kremlin.
The sombre cathedrals of the Kremlin, with their narrow vaults and thick walls, resemble caves; they are painted prisons, just as the palaces are gilded gaols.
This sanctuary of despotism was reconstructed in stone for Ivan III., in 1485, by two Italian architects, Marco and Pietro Antonio, who were invited to Moscow by the Great Prince when he wished to again rear the ramparts, formerly wooden, of the fortress more anciently founded under Dmitri Donskoi. But if the Kremlin was not built by Ivan IV., it was built for him. It was by a spirit of prophecy that the great king, his grandfather, constructed the palace of the tyrant. Italian architects may be found every where, but in no other place have they produced a work similar to that which they raised at Moscow.
The earth will never see another masterpiece of despotism similar to the Kremlin, nor another nation as superstitiously patient as was the Muscovite under the monstrous reign of its greatest tyrant.
I could fancy I saw a procession of vices pouring forth from all the gates of the Kremlin to inundate Russia.”
De Custin’s description confirms the fact that the word ‘Kremlin’ is of Asiatic etymology too >
