Editing Kremlin (fortification) (section)

=== Kremlins of the Russian state ===
The term Kremlin (in the variant Kremnik) is first encountered in chronicles of 1317 in accounts of the construction of the Tver Kremlin, where a wooden city-fortress was erected, which was clayed and whitewashed.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Yusupov E.|title=Dictionary of Architectural Terms|publisher=Leningrad Gallery Foundation|year=1994|pages=184}}</ref>

Wooden fortresses were erected everywhere in the Russian state—from the Far East lands to the Swedish borders. They were numerous in the South, where they served as a link of fortified fortification zones cutting off the way to the central regions from [[Crimean Tatars]]. Aesthetically wooden fortresses were not inferior to stone ones—and we can regret that the towers of wooden kremlins have not survived to this day. Wooden fortresses were built quickly: in 1638 in [[Mtsensk]] fortress walls of Bolshoi Ostrog and Pletny Gorod with a total length of about 3 kilometres with 13 towers and almost one hundred meters long bridge over the River [[Zusha]] were erected in 20 days. The town of [[Sviyazhsk]] was built similarly during the [[Kazan]] campaign in the spring of 1551: fortress walls about 2.5 kilometres long, many churches and houses were erected in a month.

Later on, many Kremlins were rebuilt and strengthened. Thus, the [[Moscow Kremlin]] under [[Ivan III of Russia|Ivan the Third]] was reconstructed of bricks.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, about 30 stone fortresses were built in the Russian State. New Kremlins have regular geometric forms in plan ([[Zaraysk|Zaraisky]] and [[Tula Kremlin]]s). The [[Tula Kremlin]] is unique because it was built in a valley (which was possible because of undeveloped siege artillery of nomad Tatars).

Construction of the Kremlin lasted until the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. The last Kremlin structure was built of stone between 1699 and 1717 in the town of [[Tobolsk Kremlin|Tobolsk]] (the easternmost Kremlin in Russia).