Our Man in Moscow

The Haddington Man who shaped Red Square

Students of Haddington’s history will be aware of the disproportionate number of influential sons and daughters of the Royal Burgh who have become well known on the national or international stage.

Any list would conceivably include individuals such as Ada, daughter in law to King David I, who was given the town in 1139 as a wedding present, and after whom it may have been named (Ada’s toun – Haddington) and King Alexander II who was born there. Moving through the centuries, John Knox, the famous reformer, is generally accepted as being a Haddingtonian, although it seems more likely that he was born in Giffordgate, then a separate village directly across the Tyne from St. Mary’s Church. Jane Welsh, later to become the wife of Thomas Carlyle, but a powerful influence in her own right spent her childhood in Haddington, while Samuel Smiles whose ‘Self Help’ philosophy enjoyed renewed popularity under Margaret Thatcher was born there in 1812. More recently, as the 19th century came to an end, William Gillies who was to become one of the most prominent artists of his age was born above his family’s tobacconists’ shop in the High Street.

Haddington has also played host to a variety of visitors who have made their mark, including a number of invading armies who “wooed us roughly,” desecrated our church and stole our bells. Some visitors, like Gilbert Burns, brother of the bard, stayed for the rest of their lives, while others appeared only fleetingly. In 1546, days before being burned at the stake, George Wishart, the Protestant martyr preached in St. Mary’s while in the early nineteen fifties, actor Sean Connery worked in the town as a French polisher, some years before finding fame as James Bond.

Many others are commonly cited in various Haddington “Halls of Fame”, but one individual whose contribution to the world stage arguably eclipses all of the above is never mentioned, and until recently, he was largely unheard of in his native town. His name is Christopher Galloway.

Records suggest that Christopher Galloway was the son or grandson of a sixteenth century Haddington burgess of the same name and he first sprung to prominence at the Russian Court of the first Romanov emperor, Tsar Mikhail in 1621 as the official clockmaker, architect and engineer. The most outstanding of his many achievements was the creation of the Saviour’s Tower, the most prominent and easily recognised feature in Moscow’s Red Square.

The Saviour’s Tower in Moscow has been compared to the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Brandenberg Gate in Berlin as a powerful symbol of the capital city. It straddles the main entrance to the Kremlin and was once considered to be so important that individuals passing underneath were obliged to doff their caps as a mark of respect. Interesting, it also appears to straddle all shades of political opinion and its importance has been undiminished despite cataclysmic changes that saw the fall of the Romanovs, the stranglehold of the Soviet Communist Party throughout most of the twentieth century and the subsequent emergence of the post cold war Russia.

Its image appeared on the first ever picture postcard of Moscow in 1895 and was prominently featured on one of Faberge’s most expensive eggs, which was presented by Tsar Nikolay to his wife Alexandra in 1904. During the community era, the western world became used to seeing stagemanaged political activities being enacted in the shadow of the Saviour’s Tower, while currently its image is reproduced on a variety of Rouble banknotes. How strange, therefore, that its creator highly thought of and well regarded at the time, should be virtually unheard of both in present day Haddington and Moscow.

The exact date or place of Galloway’s birth and death have been lost in the mists of time and it is not clear where he learned his trace or earned his living prior to his emergence in Moscow in 1921. What is clear, however, is that his reputation had already been established prior to that time and his outlook would have been influenced by his experiences in Scotland, England or elsewhere in Europe.

That Galloway should have made his way to Russia at this time is not in itself surprising, because while most of Europe were indulging in the so called Thirty Years War, Russia and Britain were trying to establish mutually beneficial links. Britain desperately wanted to establish a trading route to Asia through Russian held territory and Russia badly needed technical and political know how in order to establish itself as a major player in Europe. King James I and VI had himself written to Tsar Mikhail in 1621 urging the closest possible links between the two countries, and Galloway’s appearance in the Russian Court may have been an early example of this in practice. It was not however, unique, and records show that amongst others, a British physician, goldsmith, button maker, engraver and four army Generals were all well established in Moscow at that time.

The gate to the Kremlin over which Galloway created his tower had been built in 1491 and was known as the Imperial Gate. A somewhat squat tower, reaching to a height of thirty meters and known as the St. Flour Tower had been built then, but Galloway was commissioned to “cap” this with a structure reaching to seventy meters and responded with his “Saviour’s Tower” which remains recognisable throughout the world today. In keeping with his area of expertise, an important feature of the tower was two large clocks, one facing towards the town, the other towards the Kremlin. These clocks were of an unusual design in that the hands were replaced by a single pointer which remained static while the massive dial rotated instead. The original clocks remained in service until 1705 when they were replaced by a Dutch model. At the very tip of the spire was placed a large imperial eagle which stared out to the surrounding countryside for an uninterrupted period of more than three hundred years before being replaced by a huge red star in 1935.

On completion of his masterpiece in May 1926, Galloway received handsome payment, but almost immediately disaster struck. The tower was destroyed by a huge fire that raged throughout the Kremlin. According to the translators, the fire had been started by the “envy of the malignant” which strongly suggests that arson may have been the cause. The response of Galloway and the authorities was simple, the work was recommissioned and completed by 1628, when another, similar reward was paid.

Many other evidences of Galloway’s genius exists, but perhaps the most interesting is the Water Pumping Tower which he completed in 1633. Prior to this time there had always been an absolute lack of water in the Tsar’s court, with every drop having to be carried laboriously from the Moscow river. Galloway’s genius was to use a pre-existing tower of considerable architectural merit to house a complex mechanical system capable of pumping sufficient water from the river to meet the needs of the entire palace. This pumping mechanism was decades ahead of its time and has been described as “the most remarkable construction achievement of Tsar Mikhail’s reign”. Certainly, it allowed the palace’s domestic arrangements to emerge from the dark ages and would have leant weight to Russia’s claim to be recognised as a significant European power.

Despite the fact that Galloway’s achievements are worthy of major international recognition, we have established that his fame is all but non-existent. There may be several reasons for this.

Moscow is far from East Lothian and the 1620’s is a long time ago. Records may have been poorly constructed and like the 1624 tower may have “gone up in smoke”. Further, the name Galloway, itself may have contributed to the confusion, since from time to time it seems to appear as Halloway or Holloway, begging the question as to whether or not they are referring to more than one person. Here at least, the explanation seems relatively straightforward in that the letters “G” and “H” can very easily be mistranslated, when the Russian or Cyrillic alphabet is used, while in that period of history, the vowels “o” and “a” were frequently seen as being interchangeable in foreign names.

The final theory, is however, a little more sinister. In an article in 1998, Martin Hannan, claims, “In one of the greatest excesses of their historical larcenies, Stalin’s thought police but erased his (Galloway’s) identity from the record books”! If this view may seem a little overstated when read in the comfort of an East Lothian living room, it is backed by no less an authority than Professor Dimitry Shvidkovsky, head of the department of art and architectural history at the Moscow Institute of Architecture. He believes that Soviet suppression is the main reason why Galloway remains virtually unknown. Talking of the cold was period when he claims it was created by westerners, Shvidkovsky claims, “Galloway was once a forbidden name in the history of Russian art. He was a foreigner who was too important – that was the trouble with him”.

The fact that Galloway’s contribution to the Moscow skyline is belatedly being recognised is due to a large extent to the work and tenacity of St. Andrew’s University lecturer Dr. Jeremy Howard, whose book “The Scottish Kremlin Builder” was brought to the attention of the present author following an article in the Scotsman by journalist Martin Hannan. Howard’s involvement has done much to introduce the work of Galloway to his native audience, but little is known about the man himself. Hopefully, this will be remedied in the near future now that technological and political advances have made communication with Russia more straightforward.

It is a story that deserves to be told!

 

Bob Mitchell 2001

 

Bibliography:
Hannan, M (1998) There is a small part of Red Square that is forever Scotland, The Scotsman Weekend: 7th March

Howard J (1997) The Scottish Kremlin Builder, Manifesto Publications: Edinburgh