The name of Moscow first appears in the chronicles about the year 1147. It is there stated that the Grand Prince George Dologorouki, having arrived on the domains of a petty prince named Stephen Koutchko, caused him to be put to death on some pretext, and that impressed by the location of one of the villages on the bank of the Moskowa, where the Kremlin now stands, he founded the city of Moscow.
We could scarcely hope to interest the reader in the long story of petty wars, murders, burnings and unscrupulous outrages which followed and marked the early history of the new city which was destined to become the key of the empire.
Those who are interested in this maze of iniquity may find it fully set forth by the Russian historian Karamsin. Suffice it to say that for a century at least Moscow continued to be an obscure and insignificant place within the domains of the Souzdal princes. We hear that it was burned by the Tartars in 1237, and that a brother of Alexander Nevsky, called Michael of Moscow, was killed there in a battle with the Lithuanians.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
