Editing Red Square (section)

== Origin and name ==
The main squares in Russian cities, such as those in [[Suzdal]], <!--[[Kiev]], -- currently Kiev doesn't have a square named Krasnaya; AFAIK, neither it had in ancient times; only during Soviet era one of its squares (not the central one) was renamed to Krasnaya/Chervona and then renamed back --> [[Yelets]], and [[Pereslavl-Zalessky]], are frequently named ''Krasnaya ploshchad'', or Beautiful Square. Archaically, the Russian word [[wiktionary:красный|красная]] (''krasnaya'') meant 'beautiful', but now means 'red'. The current word for 'beautiful' is [[wiktionary:красивый|красивая]] (''krasivaya''), which is derived from it.

In Moscow, the name ''Red Square'' originally described the small area between [[St. Basil's Cathedral]], the [[Spasskaya Tower]] of the [[Kremlin]], and the [[Lobnoye Mesto]] herald's platform. Tsar [[Alexei Mikhailovich]] officially extended the name to encompass the entire square, which had previously been called ''Pozhar'', or "burnt-out place", reflecting that previous buildings occupying the site had burned down.