Red Square, Moscow

Red Square (Russian: Кра́сная пло́щадь, tr. Krásnaya plóshchaď; IPA: [ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːətʲ]) is a city square (plaza) in Moscow, Russia. It separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod. Red Square is often considered the central square of Moscow since Moscow's major streets, which connect to Russia's major highways, originate from the square.

The name Red Square neither originates from the pigment of the surrounding bricks (which, in fact, were whitewashed at certain periods) nor from the link between the colour red and communism. Rather, the name came about because the Russian word красная (krasnaya), which means both "red" and "beautiful," was applied to a small area between St. Basil's Cathedral, the Spassky Tower of the Kremlin, and the Lobnoe Mesto (it actually never was a place of execution), and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich officially extended the name to the entire square, which had previously been called Pozhar, or "burnt-out place", in reference to the fact that several buildings had to be burned down to make place for the square. Several ancient Russian towns, such as Suzdal, Yelets, and Pereslavl-Zalessky, have their main square named Krasnaya ploshchad.