Kremlin

The Moscow Kremlin (Russian: Московский Кремль) is a location mentioned in the novel Metro 2033, and seen in the background while on the surface in the video games.

Overview
The Kremlin is a fortified complex in Moscow that once served as the seat of government and the residence of the president of the Russian Federation. When the known world was destroyed during the Great War of 2013, and Russia presumably fell apart, the Kremlin was abandoned. It has since been avoided due to strange and deadly phenomena associated with it.

Stars
There is a rule among stalkers to never look at the Kremlin's stars, as they have a hypnotic effect. In the novel, Artyom reads (but barely understands) a book which interprets the Bolshevik red five-pointed star (and the similar World War II Allied white star) as a pentagram used to contain and control demons. The red stars of the Kremlin, being the largest, contain the most powerful demons. This leads to a dream where he looks at the stars and feels an urge to go to them. Later, when he is accompanied by Miller to the surface, Artyom looks at the stars, despite the warnings, and blacks out. In the video game, Artyom will not experience any ill effects if he looks at the stars.

Biomass
In the novel, the station below the Kremlin is mentioned as a part of Metro 2. In this passage, the Rangers, Artyom, and a young boy named Oleg are surprised by a strange fluid. This biomass emits some sort of psychic influence which causes a veteran stalker and, later, Oleg to willfully jump in and be devoured by the organism. This creature was either killed when one of the stalkers threw a flamethrower canister at the creature and blew it up, causing it to quickly retreat. Months later, as stated in Metro: Last Light, stalkers burned the creature in the Kremlin, destroying it and its psychic influence. This means that the Kremlin's stars can now be looked at without the person being drawn into the building, and explains why the Kremlin is visited in Metro: Last Light.

Although the specific organism is not mentioned in the game, the biomass as seen in the video game possibly serves as a replacement for the other biomass mentioned in the novel. In one of the journal pages in last light it says...

"For years nobody dared approach the Red Square. They said that something remained in the basement of the Kremlin, luring anything alive in and consuming it. Then the Order purged the Kremlin with fire... it's empty and all black with silt inside now. Just like the rest of the city. The Red Square. The stopped heart of a country long gone."

Metro: Last Light
In Metro: Last Light, Artyom visits the Red Square and Alexander Garden, which are situated near the Kremlin, on his way to Polis. He never goes inside the complex, however, so it is unknown if the rumors about the Kremlin described in the novel are true or not.

Trivia

 * As heard in Market Station, the Kremlin was not meant to be destroyed, so it was attacked by a secret biological weapon instead, which might explain how the Kremlin creature was created:

"The ones who fought during the war say the enemy didn't want to destroy the Kremlin, so, during the initial strike, they hit it with a secret bio weapon. Nobody even noticed it first, they didn't even sound an alarm."

"By the time they realized what had happened, the weapon had already eaten everybody inside, and hundreds in the vicinity, too. So, today, the Kremlin still sits there, behind its walls, it's as though the apocalypse had never come."


 * These lines are also said in a different way by Ulman in the novel Metro 2033, before the group of Stalkers reaches the Kremlin.
 * In Metro: Last Light, the Kremlin is shown to have been damaged just as much as the rest of the city. This may be due to natural decay and fire damage from when it was burned by the Rangers.

Gallery
Kreml Московский Кремль Кремль