Nemezkaya sloboda
The Nemezkaja sloboda ( Russian Немецкая слобода , "German suburb"), also called Sloboda Kukui (слобода Кукуй), was a quarter of foreigners in northeast Moscow and is now part of the Lefortowo district .
history
Foreign merchants, especially German-Hanseatic merchants at first, who were given the official status of "guests" (Russian гости - gosti), later craftsmen and specialists came from the 15th century at the time of Ivan III. in the country. German miners searched for mineral resources and built the first smelting plants.
Since Russia did not have its own universities, doctors, pharmacists and scholars came from all over Europe. Foreigners were then considered to be non- orthodox , with whom Orthodox were only allowed to have contact under strict security measures. A special location on the other bank of the Jausa River, about two kilometers northeast of central Moscow, was assigned to the foreign skilled workers as a habitat . Since the majority of foreigners were German, the foreign suburb was called the German suburb (Nemezkaja Sloboda). Nemzy is also etymologically related to the mute , Russian немые : this is the name given to all foreigners who do not speak Russian , that is, who were virtually “mute”. The first pharmacy in Russia was opened here. In the Sloboda, standard German was colloquial. Since its founding, the residents of Sloboda have been able to live according to their own customs and traditions and hold their services undisturbed.
According to the court census in 1665, there were 206 farms with around 1,200 foreigners in the German suburb. In 1725 their number was already 2,500, but proportionally they made up only 2% of the total population of the city.
In the time of Peter I , Sloboda played a major role as the center of modern lifestyle. The Tsar also found his first lover, Anna Mons , here. Peter Müller, the ironworks owner, gathered the emissaries of Pietism in his house and did business with August Hermann Francke in Halle through his office.
As a young prince (his sister Sofia was regent) Peter I met Carsten Brant, a Dutch carpenter, who later became the "grandfather of the Russian fleet". With him, the future tsar repaired a boat and dreamed of a port for Russia. There he met the Swiss François Le Fort , who later became admiral of the navy. Peter's close friendship with Alexander Menshikov also began here .