The first historical reference to Moscow dates from 1147 when it was a small, obscure town in a small province. In 1156, Prince Yury Dolgoruky built a wooden wall and a moat around the city. Later the Mongols burned the city to the ground and killed its inhabitants, but Moscow recovered and became the capital of an independent principality.

In 1300 Moscow was ruled by Daniil Aleksandrovich, the son of Alexander Nevsky and a member of the Rurik Dynasty. Its favorable position on the headwaters of the Volga River contributed to its steady expansion. Moscow was also stable and prosperous for many years and attracted a large numbers of immigrants from across Russia. By 1304 Yury of Moscow contested with Mikhail of Tver for the throne of the principality of Vladimir. Ivan I eventually defeated Tver to become the ruler of Vladimir, and the sole collector of taxes for the Mongolrulers. By paying high tribute, Ivan won an important concession from the Khan. Unlike other principalities, Moscow was not divided among his sons, but was passed intact to his eldest.

When the growth of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania began to threaten all of Russia, the Khan strengthened Moscow to counterbalance Lithuania, allowing it to become one of the most powerful cities in Russia. In 1380, Prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow led a united Russian army in a decisive victory over the Mongols in the Battle of Kulikov. After that Moscow took the leading role in liberating Russia from Mongol domination. In 1480 Ivan III finally broken the Russians free from Tatar rule. Moscow became the capital of an empire which would eventually encompass all of Russia and Siberia, and parts of many other lands.

The tyranny of later Tsars, such as Ivan the Terrible, led to a decay of the state, even as the empire was expanding. In 1571 the Tatars from the Crimean Khanate seized and burned Moscow. From 1610 through 1612 troops of the Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom occupied Moscow, as its ruler Sigismund III tried to usurp the Russian throne. In 1612, the people of Nizhny Novgorod and other Russian cities rose against the Polish occupiers, besieged the Kremlin, and finally killed the Polish troops. In 1613, an assembly of the Empire elected Michael Romanov tsar, thus establishing the Romanov dynasty.