The Fire of Moscow occurred in May of that year when the forces of the Crimean khan

Khan (title)

Khan is an originally Altaic and subsequently Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, widely used by medieval nomadic Turko-Mongol tribes living to the north of China. 'Khan' is also seen as a title in the Xianbei confederation for their chief between 283 and 289...

 Devlet I Giray

Devlet I Giray

Devlet I Giray was a khan of the Crimean Khanate during whose long reign the khanate rose to the pinnacle of its power....

 raided the city. The khan set the suburbs on May 24 and a sudden wind blew the flames into Moscow and the city went up in a conflagration. According to Heinrich von Staden

Heinrich von Staden

Heinrich von Staden was a self-proclaimed "adventurer in Muscovy" and wrote of his accounts at the court of Ivan IV from 1578-1582.- Early life :...

, a German in the service of Ivan the Terrible (he claimed to be a member of the Oprichnina

Oprichnina

The oprichnina is the period of Russian history between Tsar Ivan the Terrible's 1565 initiation and his 1572 disbanding of a domestic policy of secret police, mass repressions, public executions, and confiscation of land from Russian aristocrats...

)," the city, the palace

Moscow Kremlin

The Moscow Kremlin , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...

, the Oprichnina palace, and the suburbs burned down completely in six hours.