The Tsar Cannon has long been one of the symbols of Russia. And she also entered dozens of jokes, where the Tsar Cannon that never fired, the Tsar Bell that never rang, and some other non-working Russian miracle Yudo appear. In the second half of the 19th century, a number of works appeared that proved that the Tsar Cannon was as fake as its carriage. She never shot and was intended only to intimidate Crimean Tatars. One of the proofs of the sham function of the gun is an elementary mathematical calculation showing that when fired with cast-iron cannonballs, it will be blown to pieces.

But many historians have doubted that 2400 pounds of copper was spent on the creation of a fake tool. And in the middle of the twentieth century, the historian A. Pozdneev wrote: “In 1591, when the Tatar hordes of Kazy-Girey approached Moscow in combat readiness All Moscow artillery was brought in, including Chokhov's Tsar Cannon. It was installed in Kitay-gorod to protect the main Kremlin gates and the crossing over the Moscow River.

The point in the dispute whether the Tsar Cannon fired was put in 1980 by specialists from the Academy. Dzerzhinsky. They examined the channel of the gun and, based on a number of signs, including the presence of particles of burnt gunpowder, concluded that the Tsar Cannon was fired at least once.

STORY
In 1586, alarming news came to Moscow: the Crimean Khan was moving towards the city with his horde. In this regard, the Russian master Andrei Chokhov, on the orders of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, cast a huge gun, which was intended to protect the Kremlin.

A giant gun weighing 2,400 pounds (39,312 kg) was cast in 1586 at the Moscow Cannon Yard. The length of the Tsar Cannon is 5345 mm, the outer diameter of the barrel is 1210 mm, and the diameter of the thickening at the muzzle is 1350 mm. After the Tsar Cannon was cast and finished at the Cannon Yard, it was dragged and installed on a hill to protect the bridge over the Moscow River and the Spassky Gates and laid on the ground next to the Peacock cannon. To move the gun, ropes were tied to eight brackets on its trunk, 200 horses were harnessed to these ropes at the same time, and they rolled a cannon lying on huge logs - rollers.

In 1626, both cannons were lifted from the ground and installed on log cabins, densely packed with earth. These platforms were called roskats. One of them, with the Tsar Cannon and the Peacock, was placed at the Execution Ground, the other, with the Kashpir Cannon, at the Nikolsky Gate. In 1636, wooden roskats were replaced with stone ones, inside which warehouses and shops selling wine were arranged.

Currently, the Tsar Cannon is on a decorative cast-iron carriage, and nearby are decorative cast-iron cannonballs, which were cast in 1834 in St. Petersburg at Byrd's iron foundry. It is clear that it is physically impossible to shoot from this cast-iron carriage, or use cast-iron cannonballs (only lighter stone ones) - the Tsar Cannon will be blown to smithereens! It should be said right away that 4 cast-iron cores, folded in a pyramid near the foot of the cannon, perform a purely decorative function. They are hollow inside.

Documents about the testing of the Tsar Cannon or its use in combat conditions have not been preserved, which gave rise to lengthy disputes about its purpose. Most historians and military men in the 19th and early 20th centuries believed that the Tsar Cannon was a shotgun, that is, a weapon designed to shoot shot, which in XVI-XVII centuries consisted of small stones. A minority of experts generally rule out the possibility of combat use of the gun, believing that it was made specifically to frighten foreigners, especially the ambassadors of the Crimean Tatars. Recall that in 1571 Khan Devlet Giray burned down Moscow.

In the XVIII - early XX centuries, the Tsar Cannon was called in all official documents shotgun. And only the Bolsheviks in the 1930s decided to raise her rank for propaganda purposes and began to call her a cannon.
In fact, this is not a cannon or a shotgun, but a classic bombard. It is customary to call a gun a gun with a barrel length of more than 40 calibers. And this gun has a length of only four calibers, the same as the bombard. Bombards are large-sized wall-beating weapons that destroy the fortress wall. The carriage was not used for them, since the barrel was simply buried in the ground, and two trenches were dug nearby for artillery crews, since such guns often burst. Let's pay attention - the Tsar Cannon does not have trunnions, with the help of which the gun is given an elevation angle. In addition, she has an absolutely smooth rear section of the breech, with which she, like other bombards, rested against a stone wall or log cabin. The first shells of bombards were round stones wrapped with ropes to smooth out irregularities in their shape.
So, the Tsar Cannon is a bombard designed to fire stone cannonballs. The weight of the stone core of the Tsar Cannon was about 50 pounds (819 kg), and the iron core of this caliber weighs 120 pounds (1.97 tons). As a shotgun, the Tsar Cannon was extremely ineffective. At the cost of expenses, instead of it, it was possible to make 20 small shotguns, which take much less time to load - not a day, but only 1-2 minutes.

Did the 350-890 mm caliber bombards fire buckshot or rubble? Theoretically, this is possible, but in practice it is very expensive and inefficient. Charging with a stone core lasted one and a half to two hours, and with crushed stone - several times longer. It was much more profitable to use buckshot from guns of small and medium caliber.
Large bombards were intended to break through the walls of enemy fortresses. But in late XVI centuries in Rus' there were dozens of much more effective, and most importantly, more mobile than the Tsar Cannon, wall-beating guns. Therefore, the Chokhov monster never left the walls of the Kremlin.
Instead of giant bombards, cannons began to perform the functions of battering rams. The invention of grained gunpowder, which was almost twice as effective as powder pulp, and the start of the production of cast-iron cores (for the first time in France in 1493) made it expedient to manufacture long (20 calibers or more) guns. Such guns had many names, of which one soon remained - a cannon.

Who wrote the Tsar Cannon into shotguns and why? The fact is that in Russia all the old guns that were in the fortresses, with the exception of mortars, were automatically transferred over time to shotguns, that is, in the event of a siege of the fortress, they had to shoot with shot (stone), and later - with cast-iron buckshot at the infantry marching to assault.
The fact is that a certificate on the state of artillery at the Moscow Arsenal in the early 1730s. they were given by clerks who were not very literate in history and artillery.
Those guns that they wrote down as cannons could fire cast-iron cannonballs; howitzers and mortars - bombs, that is, hollow cores stuffed with gunpowder. But the old guns could not fire either iron cannon balls or bombs, and stone cannon balls had long since been put out of use. According to the clerks, these old artillery systems could only shoot with “shot”, so they were written down as shotguns. It was not advisable to use old guns for firing cannonballs or bombs: what if the barrel would blow apart, and the new guns had much better ballistic data. So the Tsar Cannon was written into shotguns.

FIRST SHOT
But the tsar cannon, nevertheless, fired. It happened once. According to the LEGEND, after the impostor False Dmitry was exposed, he tried to escape from Moscow. But on the way he was brutally killed by an armed detachment.
The desecration of the body of False Dmitry showed how changeable people are in their sympathies: a carnival mask was put on the dead face, a pipe was inserted into the mouth, and for another three days the corpse was smeared with tar, sprinkled with sand and spat on. It was a "commercial execution", which was subjected only to persons of "vile" origin.

On the day of the election, Tsar Vasily ordered the removal of False Dmitry from the square. The corpse was tied to a horse, dragged out into the field and buried there by the side of the road.
Near the pit, which became the last refuge of the king, people saw blue lights rising straight from the ground.
The next day after the burial, the corpse was found near the almshouse. He was buried even deeper, but after a while, the body reappeared, but in a different cemetery. People said that his land does not accept.
Then the cold broke out, and all the greenery in the city withered.

The clergy were alarmed by these events and the gossip that accompanied them, and deliberated for a long time how to put an end to the dead sorcerer and sorcerer.
On the advice of the monks, the corpse of False Dmitry was dug out of the pit, in last time dragged through the streets of the city, after which they were taken to the village of Kotly, south of Moscow, and burned there. After that, the ashes were mixed with gunpowder and fired from the Tsar Cannon towards Poland - from where False Dmitry came.

Another refutation of the use of the gun specifically for combat purposes is the absence of any traces in the barrel, including longitudinal scratches left by stone cannonballs.

The famous Tsar Cannon in the Kremlin, one of the most visited sights of the Moscow Kremlin, today can be seen on the west side. Each of the tourists who arrived in Moscow necessarily includes an inspection of the grandiose weapon of the 16th century in the program of their visit. A brief history of the Tsar Cannon for both children and adults is given in our article.

Cast in gigantic sizes from high-quality bronze, the cannon is even listed in the Guinness World Book of Records. And this is no accident. Here are just its most basic parameters:

  • length - more than 5 m.,
  • the outer diameter of the trunk reaches 134 cm.,
  • caliber - 890 mm,
  • the product weighs about 40 tons.

When and why was it created?

Photo 1. Tsar Cannon - one of the main attractions of the Kremlin

History and little-known facts about the Tsar Cannon in the Kremlin

In 1586, an alarming message was brought to the city of Moscow: the Crimean Khan was marching on the capital with his large army. To repel the invasion, by order of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, who was ruling at that time, at the Cannon Yard of Moscow, a Russian foundry worker Andrei Chokhov cast a huge artillery gun, which was intended for firing with stone buckshot.

Since the gun was originally intended for the defense of the Kremlin, they installed it on a hill above the shore - on, not far from the famous and.

However, the Crimean Khan never approached the walls of the Mother See of the capital, and therefore the Muscovites were never able to find out how powerfully this gun, nicknamed the Tsar Cannon for its dimensions, shoots.

Later, during the reign of Peter I, the gun was moved to the territory of the Kremlin with the help of special rollers: first to the courtyard under construction, and then to its main gate. There it was mounted on a wooden carriage, which, along with the carriages of other guns, burned down in a fire in 1812.

In 1835, at the Berd shipyard in St. Petersburg, according to the drawings of the military engineer Witte (in some sources, academician Alexander Pavlovich Bryulov is mentioned as the author of the sketch), a more durable, cast-iron carriage for a grandiose gun was made.

In 1843, the Tsar Cannon was removed from the gates of the Arsenal, where it had been all this time, and installed next to the old building of the Armory. She stood there until 1960, when, as part of the construction, the gun was again transferred, this time to Ivanovskaya Square, where it remains to this day.

So, we briefly described the history of the gun, and now for the more inquisitive children and adults we will continue our story.

Description of the legendary Tsar Cannon

As mentioned above, the gun carriage is made using the iron casting method and performs purely decorative functions. The body of the gun itself is cast in bronze. Next to the carriage are cast-iron cannon balls, which are also a decorative element.

On the right side of the gun there is an image of the autocrat Fyodor Ivanovich, sitting on a war horse. The head of the prince is crowned with a royal crown, and in his hands is one of the symbols of Russian power - a scepter. There is an inscription explaining the image next to it.

One of the hypotheses for the appearance of the name "Tsar Cannon" is precisely the image of the king who ruled at the time of the creation of this formidable artillery gun, which is immortalized on the plane of the cannon. True, there is another name that occurs in Russian documents of different eras - this is the “Russian shotgun”. The fact is that this is how the guns intended for firing shots (in a different way - buckshot) were designated.

The left side of the gun is decorated with an inscription commemorating its creator and which reads "Ondrey Chokhov".

The very plane of the trunk, among other things, is decorated with an original ornament.

Separately, I would like to highlight the carriage itself, which is decorated in such a way as to clearly highlight the high status of the artillery piece. Its main component is the image of a lion - a formidable and strong king of beasts. The symbolic depiction of a lion fighting a mythical serpent can also be seen in the intricacies of ornamental plants on the plane of the gun carriage.

I would like to add that to move the cannon located in the Moscow Kremlin, 200 draft horses were harnessed at the same time.

Despite the impressiveness of the weapon, some experts agree that it was still made not for shooting, but solely to intimidate the enemy, in a particular case, the troops of the Crimean Khan advancing on the capital. The technical side of the gun will be discussed further, from which we will find out whether this is a props or a really formidable artillery gun.

We note right away that the cast-iron cores placed in a pyramid near the carriage are only a decoration, hollow inside. If they are made real, then the stone core will weigh about 819 kilograms, and the cast-iron core will weigh under 2 tons.

Further, according to experts, the carriage itself is not technically adapted for firing from such a powerful gun, and the heavy cast-iron cores themselves would not physically fit - the barrel of the Tsar Cannon would simply break during the shot. About him combat use facts in history are not attested.

But it cannot be that in those distant times, before the threat of an attack on Moscow, an artillery gun would be created only in order to “splurge”. Let's try to figure this out!

Let's start with the fact that until the 20th century, military experts and historians still designated the current "Tsar Cannon" as a shotgun, i.e. intended for shooting with buckshot, which was replaced in those days by ordinary small stones. The current name has been fixed only since 1930, when the authorities decided to raise the status of the weapon for propaganda purposes. What? Probably based on the fact that great country must be the grandest thing in the world. It's like a joke from Soviet times that the USSR has "the largest radio components in the world."

But let's not slander and continue, especially since the veil of secrecy over the cannon was nevertheless lifted, and this happened during the planned restoration work carried out in 1980.

The gun was removed from the carriage and sent to one of the military factories in the city of Serpukhov, where it was restored. Together with the usual work in this case, the forces of military specialists from the Moscow Artillery Academy measured the Tsar Cannon, although the main report has not yet been made public. True, draft drawings have been preserved, which emphasize that this gun is not a gun at all in its actual designation.

So, in order. The diameter of the bore, from which the cannon is loaded with nuclei, is 90 centimeters, and by the very end of the warhead it decreases to 82. The depth of this cone is about 32 centimeters. Next comes the charging chamber with a flat bottom 173 centimeters deep, with a diameter of 44.7 centimeters at the beginning, increasing to 46.7 centimeters towards the end.

These data make it possible to attribute the gun to the bombard class, which means that it was quite possible to shoot stone cannonballs from it. Name this one artillery mount you can’t use a gun, because one of the main conditions is not met: the length of the barrel must be at least 40 calibers. Right we are talking only about four. As for using the weapon as a buckshot-shooting shotgun, then, based on the available characteristics, this would be very ineffective.

The bombards themselves belong to the class of battering rams designed to destroy fortress walls. In most cases, they did not even make a gun carriage for them, because. part of the trunk was simply buried in the ground. The calculation of the gun was located in the trenches arranged next to the bombard, because. the barrels were often torn when fired. The rate of fire left much to be desired and rarely reached 6 shots ... per day.

At research work particles of gunpowder were found in the Tsar Cannon channel. The only question is, was it a test shot or did they manage to use the gun against the enemy? The latter is most likely impossible. It can also be confirmed by the fact that no longitudinal scratches were found on the walls of the barrel, which should have remained either from the core or from stone shrapnel.

The myth of the gun and the impostor tsar False Dmitry

And yet she shot!? The myth that has come down to our time says that the only shot was fired by the ashes of the temporary Russian Tsar False Dmitry.

After being exposed, he tried to escape from Moscow, but came across a combat patrol and was brutally killed. The body was buried twice, and twice it again appeared on the surface: either at the almshouse, or at the churchyard. Rumors spread that even the earth did not want to accept him, after which it was decided to cremate the body, and fire a cannon with the ashes, turning the gun in the direction of the Commonwealth (now Poland), where he was from.

Such is the history of the Tsar Cannon in brief - the largest weapon of its era.

Today, smaller copies of the Kremlin guns are installed in Donetsk, Perm and Yoshkar-Ola. However, neither in terms of parameters nor characteristics, they even come close to the Moscow giant.

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On Ivanovskaya Square of the Moscow Kremlin there are two unique monument Russian foundry art. One of them - the world's largest bell is told. But besides the huge bell that never rang, we also have the world's largest medieval (I emphasize - MEDIEVAL) cannon that never fired.

It is called the Tsar Cannon not at all for its size, but for the image on the trunk of the sovereign Fyodor Ivanovich, at whose command it was created.


Tsar Fyodor is depicted as a horseman with a scepter in his hand on the right (facing the Tsar Bell) side of the barrel near the muzzle of the cannon. In addition, on both sides of the barrel are cast following inscriptions- on the current northern side of the trunk, facing the building of the residence of the President of Russia: “By the command of the noble and Christ-loving Tsar and Grand Duke Fyodor Ivanovich, Sovereign Autocrat of All Great Russia with his pious and Christ-loving queen Grand Duchess Irina".


The inscription on opposite side the barrel, facing the Tsar Bell, reads: “This cannon was merged in the most famous royal city of Moscow in the summer of 7094, in the third year of his state. The cannon was made by the cannon man Ondrey Chokhov.”

The year 7094 is surprising to many. The fact is that in the 16th century the reckoning in Russia was conducted from the “Creation of the World”. The chronology from the Nativity of Christ, which is more familiar to us, was introduced by Peter I only at the end of the 17th century.

The famous master Andrey Chokhov cast the Tsar Bell. Seven of his works have survived - four artillery pieces and three bells. Two guns are in Sweden, one is in St. Petersburg.

The Tsar Cannon itself is a bronze trunk covered with the patina of time. Its dimensions are colossal: the mass of the gun is 40 tons (2400 pounds), the barrel length is 5 m 34 cm, the caliber is 890 mm. The cannon was mounted on a late decorative gun carriage, cast from iron in 1835 at the Byrd factory in St. Petersburg.


At the same time, 4 decorative cores were also cast. The decorative carriage was made according to the drawings of the architect Alexander Pavlovich Bryullov, brother of the famous painter Karl Bryullov.




The carriage was also cast using the drawings of Peter Jan de Witte. The mass of the carriage is 15 tons, each of the 4 decorative cores weighs 1 ton.


This information is taken from a book about the Moscow Kremlin, written by the staff of the museum-reserve. Yes, and at the gun carriage, on the south side, there is a sign about this.


I mention this in connection with the fact that for some reason the Internet sources contain the figure of 1.97 tons taken from nowhere.

Of course, the Tsar Cannon cannot and should not have fired such heavy cannonballs. In ancient charters, the cannon is often referred to as the “Russian Shotgun”. The Tsar Cannon was designed to fire “shot”, in other words, buckshot.


The Moscow Tsar Cannon is indeed the largest medieval cannon in the world. The famous “Mad Greta” or “Big Red Devil” from Ghent, created at the beginning of the 15th century, weighs only 16.4 tons, its caliber is almost half that of the Tsar Cannon and is 640 mm, but the barrel is slightly longer: 5 m 50 cm .


The name "Mad Greta" comes from Flemish folklore. The heroine of the same name led the female army to rob ... hell! The second name is associated with the historical red color of the gun.

No less famous is the Scottish cannon, nicknamed “Mons Meg”. Its dimensions are much smaller than our Tsar Cannon. "Mons Meg" weighs only 6.6 tons, its length is 4 m 60 cm, and the caliber is 520 mm. "Mons Meg" was made in 1449 in Mons in what is now Belgium, and then presented as a gift to the King of Scotland. The cannon is installed in Edinburgh Castle and serves as one of the symbols of Scotland.


Many mysteries are connected with the Moscow Tsar Cannon. It is well known that initially the gun did not have a carriage and stood on a special wooden machine opposite the Spassky Gates of the Kremlin near the Execution Ground. It is believed that the Tsar Cannon never fired. During the restoration of XIX, the remains of a casting mold were found in its trunk, which was made from special sifted earth. At the first shot, these remnants were bound to burn out. However, the specialists of the Military Engineering Academy. Dzerzhinsky, who examined the cannon during the restoration of 1977-80, claimed that at least one shot from the Tsar Cannon was nevertheless fired.

It is not known for sure, but is it a cannon? The fact is that, according to the device of the bore, it can be attributed to mortars - mounted combat weapons. Some call the Tsar Cannon a bombard, like Mad Greta and Mons Meg. But to the term "bombard", i.e. a medieval tool should generally be treated with great care.

Despite its colossal size, the Tsar Cannon changed its location several times. In the 18th century, it was moved to the courtyard of the Arsenal, then placed at its main gate. In 1835, the Tsar Cannon was installed on a decorative gun carriage already familiar to us, fake cannonballs were placed and placed in front of the Arsenal near the old building of the Armory. (not preserved). In 1958, on the initiative of N. Khrushchev, the construction of the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, the current State Kremlin Palace, began in the Kremlin. The old Armory was demolished, and the Tsar Cannon was moved to its current location on Ivanovskaya Square.
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History of the Tsar Cannon

The Tsar Cannon was created in 1586 by master Andrei Chokhov on the instructions of the son of Ivan the Terrible, Fyodor Ivanovich. The caliber of the gun is 890 mm, and the weight is about 40 tons, there is no gun in the world bigger size. After manufacturing, the cannon was installed at the Spassky Gates of the Kremlin, probably intending to use it to protect them. However, it didn't have to. Peter I drew attention to the weapon, who created a repository of ancient and captured weapons, where the Tsar Cannon was also placed. The giant cannon was erected on a pedestal in 1835, two years earlier than the Tsar Bell, it took its current location in the 1960s.

Tsar Cannon and Tsar Bell

The Tsar Cannon and in the minds of people always follow side by side: it is worth mentioning one thing, you immediately remember another. And they are located nearby, on the territory of the Kremlin. Cannon - between the bell tower of Ivan the Great and the Church of the Twelve Apostles, the bell - opposite the bell tower. However, the cannon is older and, unlike the bell, could properly perform its functions, although it never took part in battles. For a long time it was believed that the gun never fired, however, studies of the gun channel made it possible to detect traces of burnt gunpowder - this means that the gun still fired at least once.

Where is it located and how to get there

The Tsar Cannon is located in, between the Ivan the Great Bell Tower and the Church of the Twelve Apostles. The most convenient way to get to the ticket office and the entrance to the Kremlin is from the Aleksandrovsky Sad and Lenin Library metro stations.

Opening hours: entrance to the territory of the Kremlin is carried out from 10:00 to 17:00, Thursday is a day off. Ticket price: minors are free of charge, an adult ticket costs 350 rubles, preferential tickets depending on the visited exposition - 250-300 rubles. Website:

The Tsar Cannon is installed on Ivanovskaya Square in the Moscow Kremlin. It was cast by the Russian master Chokhov from bronze at the Cannon Yard in 1586. It was the time of the reign of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich.

Initially, the gun was installed on Red Square, near the Execution Ground. The cannon was intended to protect the Kremlin from invaders, but did not take part in the hostilities. In the 18th century, the cannon was moved to the Arsenal building in the Moscow Kremlin. In the sixties of the twentieth century, due to the construction of the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, the cannon was moved to the Ivanovskaya Square of the Kremlin, to the Temple of the Twelve Apostles.

In our time, the Tsar Cannon is mounted on a decorative cast-iron gun carriage. Nearby are the cannonballs, cast in 1834, but the cannon fires not with them, but with stone cannonballs. This was established by the specialists of the Artillery Academy. Dzerzhinsky, who in 1980 carried out inspection and repair of the gun. The study showed that the cannon is a classic bombard that fires stone cannonballs. The researchers also determined that the cannon had been fired at least once.

Gun carriages are decorated with cast ornaments. They were made at the Byrd factory in St. Petersburg. The sketches were made by A.P. Bryullov, and the drawings were made by engineer de Witte.

The Tsar Cannon is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as a cannon with the largest caliber - 890 mm or 35 inches. The length of the Tsar Cannon is 5.34 m. The mass of the gun is 39.31 tons or 2400 pounds.

The cannon is decorated with relief belts. On the right side, on the muzzle of the cannon, Tsar Fedor Ioannovich is depicted on horseback. He is depicted wearing a crown and holding a scepter. There are four brackets on the barrel of the cannon, designed for fastening ropes during the movement of the Tsar Cannon.

According to some versions, the name of the cannon is associated with the image of the king on it. But the version seems more likely that the name "Tsar Cannon" appeared due to the impressive size of the gun. In the old days, the gun was also called the "Russian Shotgun".