Moscow has endured a long, tumultuous history and has been shown on countless occasions to be a survivor of great misfortune. Despite this, the city has also enjoyed times of great prosperity, even where little seemed possible.
Early beginnings: 12th century
The first official mention of Moscow dates back to 1147 as a meeting place between Yuri Dolgorukiy (A Rurikid Prince and later Grand Prince of Kiev) and Sviatoslav Olgovich (Prince of Novgorod). This small town was fortified in 1156 with a timber fence and moat, which was then burnt to the ground by The Golden Horde shortly after. In 1260 the town was inherited by Daniel (son of Alexander Nevsky) at a young age with his uncle Yaroslav of Tver acting as caretaker, eventually resulting in a power struggle between principalities with Daniel becoming ruler with his brother Dmitri's (Grand Prince of Vladimir) help.
The making of the Grand Duchy: 13th - 16th centuries
Daniel ruled as Grand Duke of Moscow until 1303, under which time the city became incredibly prosperous. The first monastery was built in 1282, now known as the Danilov monastery.
In 1380, Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow defeated the Mongols at the Battle of Kulikovo with a united Russian army, liberating Moscow from Mongol domination. In 1462, Ivan III (Ivan the Great) became Grand Prince of Moscow (then part of the state of Muscovy) enlarging Moscow's territory by conquering the much larger principality of Novgorod. In 1480, Ivan III succeeded in breaking Russia free from Mongol control entirely and the Moscow Kremlin (originally built in the 14th century) underwent reconstruction shortly after.
The beginnings of the Russian Empire: 17th - 20th century
In 1712, Moscow ceased to become Russia's capital (aside from a brief 4 year period) with Peter the Great moving the government to St. Petersburg, leaving Moscow to fall into decline until 1750 when the population expanded almost ten times over from 130,000 to 1.8 million by 1915. When Russia was invaded by Napoleon in 1812, a fire devastated the city with an estimated three quarters of the city being razed to the ground.
Soviet era and beyond: 1917 - 1991
In 1918, Lenin moved the capital from St. Petersburg to Moscow out of fear of a possible invasion, with the Bolsheviks moving the seat of government back to Moscow in the same year. During the next few decades to Soviet Union was established with Moscow as its capital, a move that of course paved the road to its role as a world capital and a global actor in the Cold War era.
After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Moscow became the capital of the Russian Federation, developing into the city we see today with Western influences in retail and lifestyle.