Red Square

Red Square is the main square of Moscow, lying along the eastern wall of the Kremlin between it and the old merchant quarter of Kitay-gorod. Cleared as a market place in the late fifteenth century, it took its name, which in old Russian meant 'beautiful' as well as 'red', in the seventeenth century. It is lined by St Basil's Cathedral, the State Historical Museum, GUM and Lenin's Mausoleum, and has long been the stage of state ceremonies and parades.