Kremlin Trivia
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54 free Kremlin trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This Kremlin trivia quiz covers the walled citadel at the heart of Moscow, from the oak fort of Ivan Kalita to the helipad Vladimir Putin had built in 2013. The easy questions are the ones any visitor knows: what the word kremlin actually means, which river it overlooks, which square lies to its east, what replaced the tsarist eagles on the towers, and the two giant objects, a bell and a cannon, that never did their jobs. From there it moves into the Italian Renaissance architects Ivan III imported to build the walls and cathedrals, the coronation church, the burial church of the tsars, and the tallest tower nobody was allowed to out-build. The hard end covers the details: the Latin dedication on the Saviour Gate, the two years of Polish occupation, why Napoleon's demolition mostly failed, the wartime camouflage, how many historic buildings the Soviets knocked down, who was buried in the wall and who was carried out of the Mausoleum in 1961, and the Diamond Fund's largest stones. There is also a run of questions on the Grand Kremlin Palace, the Palace of Congresses and the regiment that guards it all. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the Kremlin, its walls, towers, palaces, cathedrals and museums, and each question links to the page that establishes it. Fifty questions, free, with an explanation after every answer.
30 of 54 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Russian, what does the word kreml' mean?
A fortress within a city
A fortress within a city: towns grew up around their kremlins, so the roads to the gates often became radial streets, as in Moscow.
Q 02What does the Kremlin keep a team of trained falcons, hawks and eagle-owls for?
Scaring off crows
Scaring off crows: soldiers had tried shooting the birds, and a trained falconry unit took over instead.
Q 03Which Kremlin palace was the tsars' main residence in the 17th century?
The Terem Palace
The Terem Palace: fires destroyed its painted interiors, and they were recreated in their old style in the 1830s.
Q 04The Kremlin stands on which rise of ground, at the point where the Neglinnaya flowed into the main river?
Borovitsky Hill
Borovitsky Hill: rivers guarded two of its sides, so the tallest stretch of wall rose along the eastern side, the one with no natural water barrier.
Q 05Which prince greatly extended the original fort in 1156, the traditional founding era of Moscow?
Yuri Dolgorukiy
Yuri Dolgorukiy: he is honoured as Moscow's founder because the first chronicle mention of Moscow, in 1147, records him hosting a fellow prince there.
Q 06Dmitri Donskoi replaced the oak palisade in 1366-68 with a citadel of which material, giving Moscow a lasting nickname?
White limestone
White limestone: the new walls held off Lithuanian sieges in 1368 and 1370, though Khan Tokhtamysh tricked his way in and sacked Moscow in 1382.
Q 07The present Kremlin walls and towers were built in 1485-95 by masters from which country?
Italy
Italy: Ivan III brought in Renaissance masters, so the walls' swallowtail battlements echo the castles of northern Italy.
Q 08Why did Napoleon have to leave the Kremlin a day after moving in, in September 1812?
A fire swept toward it
A fire swept toward it: the blaze destroyed most of Moscow, and he moved back into the Kremlin once it died down.
Q 09What did Ivan III decree for the land around the Kremlin?
A cleared zone
A cleared zone: houses near the walls were torn down, and a moat fed by the Neglinnaya was later dug in front of the eastern wall.
Q 10Where do the Kremlin wall's three round towers stand?
At corners
At corners: one of them, the Vodovzvodnaya, was blown up by Napoleon's retreating troops in 1812 and rebuilt under Osip Bove.
Q 11Which Kremlin wall tower, the tallest at about 80 metres, holds the gate most visitors use today?
Troitskaya
Troitskaya: in 1707, fearing a Swedish invasion, the Russians widened its gun slots to take heavy cannon.
Q 12Once Lenin had the shell-damaged Spasskaya Tower clock repaired in 1918, what did its chimes play at noon?
The Internationale
The Internationale: 'You Fell a Victim' played at midnight, but from 1938 the clock stopped playing tunes and only struck the hours.
Q 13What were men passing through the Kremlin's Spassky (Saviour) Gate traditionally expected to do?
Take off their hats
Q 21The Cathedral of the Dormition, where Russian monarchs were crowned from 1547 to 1896, was designed by which Bologna-born architect?
Aristotele Fioravanti
Aristotele Fioravanti: Ivan III hired him after the Russian builders' first attempt collapsed in 1474, and he studied Vladimir's cathedral as a model.
Q 22Almost all Muscovite rulers from Ivan Kalita to Ivan V are buried in which Kremlin cathedral?
The Archangel Michael
The Archangel Michael: once royal burials moved to a new cathedral, only Peter II, who died in Moscow in 1730, was later interred here.
Q 23Which icon painter worked on the Kremlin's Cathedral of the Annunciation alongside Theophanes the Greek and Prokhor?
Andrei Rublev
Take off their hats: riders had to dismount as well, and the custom lasted until Soviet times.
Q 14What now stands on the Kremlin towers where the Soviets took down the tsarist double-headed eagles?
Ruby-glass red stars
Ruby-glass red stars: the first stars of 1935 were set with Ural gems, but the stones dulled, so ruby glass replaced them in 1937.
Q 15What happened to the bells of the Kremlin's cathedrals under Soviet rule?
They fell silent
They fell silent: the Bolsheviks closed the Kremlin's churches in 1918, and its bells stayed silent for decades.
Q 16The Tsar Bell, the largest bell in the world, weighs roughly how much?
200 tonnes
200 tonnes: attempts to lift it failed in 1792 and 1819, so it stayed in its casting pit until 1836.
Q 17Why has the Tsar Bell never been rung?
It cracked in a fire before it was ever hung
It cracked in a fire before it was ever hung: in 1737 flames reached its wooden scaffolding, and an 11.5-tonne slab broke away.
Q 18Which empress ordered the Tsar Bell to be cast in 1733?
Anna Ivanovna
Anna Ivanovna: she had the broken remains of an older giant bell melted down and recast into a far bigger one.
Q 19Which French architect of St Isaac's Cathedral raised the Tsar Bell from its pit onto a pedestal in 1836?
Auguste de Montferrand
Auguste de Montferrand: he wished to be buried in St Isaac's, but as he was not Orthodox this was refused, and his body went back to France.
Q 20Which tsar, reigning when it was cast in 1586, rides on horseback on the Tsar Cannon's barrel?
Fyodor Ivanovich
Fyodor Ivanovich: the cannon was built to fire stone grapeshot at attackers, earning it the nickname 'Russian Shotgun'.
Andrei Rublev: in 1551 a Church council held up his painting as the model that icon painters should follow.
Q 24No Moscow building, it is said, could rise taller than which Kremlin structure?
The Ivan the Great Bell Tower
The Ivan the Great Bell Tower: Menshikov Tower rivalled its height in 1707, but lightning destroyed its wooden top in 1723.
Q 25Which is the oldest surviving secular building in the Kremlin, built for Ivan III's state receptions?
The Palace of Facets
The Palace of Facets: in the 1930s its Red Staircase was torn down to make way for a canteen, and it was rebuilt only in 1994.
Q 26Which American journalist, author of Ten Days That Shook the World, is buried beside the Kremlin Wall?
John Reed
John Reed: in 1917 he watched the first mass graves being dug by the wall, and after dying of typhus in Moscow in 1920 he was buried there himself.
Q 27During the Time of Troubles, forces of which country held the Kremlin from 1610 to 1612?
Poland
Poland: a volunteer army raised by the merchant Kuzma Minin and Prince Pozharsky drove the garrison out, and Mikhail Romanov was elected tsar soon after.
Q 28Which city replaced Moscow as Russia's capital in the early 18th century, ending the Kremlin's role as the tsars' home?
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg: yet emperors still returned to the Kremlin to be crowned in the Dormition Cathedral, right up to Nicholas II in 1896.
Q 29What did Soviet authorities build in the Kremlin where the Chudov and Ascension monasteries had stood?
A military school
A military school: the Chudov Monastery had stood there since the 14th century, and in 2014 Putin proposed rebuilding both cloisters.
Q 30Which architect built the Grand Kremlin Palace in 1839-49 for Nicholas I, to rival the Winter Palace?
Konstantin Thon
Konstantin Thon: his other great Moscow landmark, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, was later destroyed by the Soviet authorities.