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60 free Kremlin trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 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 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Russian, what does the word kreml' mean?
A fortress within a city
Many Russian cities have a kremlin of their own; Moscow's is simply the best known.
Q 02The Kremlin overlooks which river to its south?
Moskva
Red Square lies to its east and the Alexander Garden to its west.
Q 03How many palaces and how many cathedrals does the Kremlin complex comprise?
Five and four
The Grand Kremlin Palace, once a residence of the tsars, is now the official residence of Russia's president.
Q 04The Kremlin stands on which rise of ground, at the point where the Neglinnaya flowed into the main river?
Borovitsky Hill
Slavs occupied its south-western part as early as the 11th century.
Q 05Which prince greatly extended the original fort in 1156, the traditional founding era of Moscow?
Yuri Dolgorukiy
The Mongols destroyed it in 1237 and Ivan I Kalita rebuilt it in oak in 1339.
Q 06Dmitri Donskoi replaced the oak palisade in 1366-68 with a citadel of which material, giving Moscow a lasting nickname?
White limestone
The walls withstood a siege by Khan Tokhtamysh, and Muscovy rose to dominance behind them.
Q 07The present Kremlin walls and towers were built in 1485-95 by masters from which country?
Italy
Ivan III recruited Renaissance architects; Russians called them all Fryazin, a term for anyone Italian.
Q 08Which Italian architect designed the new Kremlin wall and its towers, and is praised in a Latin inscription on the Saviour Gate?
Pietro Antonio Solari
Marco Ruffo designed the prince's new palace, and Fioravanti the Dormition Cathedral.
Q 09How long is the Kremlin wall in total?
2,235 m
It encloses an irregular triangle of 275,000 square metres, with heights from 5 to 19 metres.
Q 10How many towers has the Kremlin wall had since the 17th century?
Twenty
There were originally eighteen; the number rose in the 17th century. All but three are square in plan.
Q 11Which is the tallest of the Kremlin towers, at 80 m?
Troitskaya
It reached its present height in 1495; the Spasskaya with its star stands 71 m.
Q 12The Spasskaya Tower's clock, whose chimes officially set Moscow Time, has a face of what diameter?
6 m
The clock is thought to date from between 1491 and 1585.
Q 13The Spasskaya Tower takes its modern name from an icon of the Saviour placed above its gate in 1658. What was the tower originally called?
Frolovskaya
It was named after the Church of Frol and Lavr, since demolished.
In 1935-37 Stalin replaced the gilded double-headed eagles on the towers with what?
Q 21Which tsar is depicted on horseback on the barrel of the Tsar Cannon?
Fyodor Ivanovich
The name Tsar more likely refers to its size; it was nicknamed the Russian Shotgun for its 800 kg stone grapeshot.
Q 22The Cathedral of the Dormition, where Russian monarchs were crowned from 1547 to 1896, was designed by which Bologna-born architect?
Aristotele Fioravanti
He travelled to Vladimir to study Russian church building before designing it in 1475-79.
Q 23Almost all Muscovite rulers from Ivan Kalita to Ivan V are buried in which Kremlin cathedral?
The Archangel Michael
Ruby-glass red stars
The 1937 ruby stars, designed by Fyodor Fedorovsky, were timed for the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution.
Q 15How many Kremlin towers carry a ruby star?
Five
Four replaced the imperial eagles; one more was added on the Vodovzvodnaya tower.
Q 16The Tsar Bell, the largest bell in the world, weighs roughly how much?
200 tonnes
It stands 6.14 metres tall; the piece that broke off alone weighs 11.5 tonnes.
Q 17Why has the Tsar Bell never been rung?
It cracked in a fire before it was ever hung
A Kremlin fire broke out on 29 May 1737 while it was still in its casting pit.
Q 18Which empress commissioned the current Tsar Bell?
Anna Ivanovna
She was Peter the Great's niece; the bell bears near life-size images of her and Tsar Alexei.
Q 19Which French architect finally raised the Tsar Bell from its pit and set it on a pedestal in 1836?
Auguste de Montferrand
He was busy at the time building St Isaac's Cathedral in the imperial capital.
Q 20The Tsar Cannon was cast in bronze in 1586 by which master founder?
Andrey Chokhov
Guinness lists it as the largest bombard by calibre in the world; it was never used in war.
Boris Godunov was originally buried there too but was moved to the Trinity Monastery.
Q 24Which three painters decorated the Cathedral of the Annunciation in 1406?
Theophanes the Greek, Andrei Rublev and Prokhor
The gilded cathedral was rebuilt in 1489 with three domes and enlarged to nine a century later.
Q 25Until 1917 no building in Moscow was allowed to be taller than which Kremlin structure?
The Ivan the Great Bell Tower
Completed in 1600 at 81 metres, its 21 bells sounded the alarm when enemies approached.
Q 26The oldest surviving secular building in the Kremlin, completed in 1491, is which?
The Palace of Facets
Its Red Staircase, flanked by stone lions, was where tsars bowed three times to the crowd after coronation.
Q 27What is the oldest surviving structure in the entire Kremlin and in all of Moscow?
The Church of the Resurrection of Lazarus
Its lower storey, dating from 1393, is embedded within the Grand Kremlin Palace.
Q 28During the Time of Troubles, forces of which country held the Kremlin from 1610 to 1612?
Poland
The volunteer army of Pozharsky and Minin from Nizhny Novgorod liberated it, clearing the way for the Romanovs.
Q 29Peter the Great, who disliked the Kremlin after barely escaping the 1682 Moscow Uprising, abandoned it in 1703 for which new capital?
Saint Petersburg
He had built a new arsenal in the Kremlin's northern corner just two years earlier.
Q 30What colour were the Kremlin walls traditionally painted from the early 18th to the late 19th century?
White
It was a matter of fashion during the Imperial period.