The year 1703 is one of the key years in Russian history. Its beginning was marked by the publication of the first issue of the Russian newspaper Vedomosti. It became the first printed publication in Russian Empire. But the most important event of 1703, undoubtedly, was the foundation of the future cultural capital- majestic St. Petersburg.
1703 in the history of Russia: St. Petersburg
On May 16 (27), by decree of Emperor Peter I Alekseevich, the first stone of a new city in the Neva was laid. The founding of St. Petersburg was a strategic decision of the Russian emperor, since at that time there was a war between Russia and Sweden, and access to the Baltic Sea was a necessary condition for a future victory over the Swedes.
City on the Neva
Subsequently, St. Petersburg became the most important city in the Russian Empire. Thanks to its founding, Peter the Great and his followers managed to establish trade and diplomatic relations with many European countries. In Russian history, this event is treated ambiguously. Some call Pyotr Alekseevich a “great reformer,” others call him a “Westernizer” who destroyed the sacred identity of our country. The name of the city was chosen with reference to the Orthodox Saint Peter, but over time it became associated with its founder
Geographically, St. Petersburg is located in the northwest of modern Russian Federation, at the mouth of the Neva River. In addition, the city is a key maritime hub, where the main command of the navy is located, as well as one of administrative districts armed forces Russia.
It is officially accepted that the founding of St. Petersburg is associated with the founding of the Peter and Paul Fortress on May 27, 1703. At the beginning of the 18th century, Russia entered into a war with its enemy Sweden. By the beginning of 1703, Peter the Great managed to conquer lands near the Neva. In order to retain the acquired territories, it was necessary to thoroughly fortify the area.
Although the Russian authorities already existed there, they decided that this was not enough to maintain their newfound positions. Tsar Peter Alekseevich and his associates chose the site of the founding of the city of Hare Island. The famous Peter and Paul Fortress was founded on this site. It is interesting that the king himself was absent on the day of the foundation of the fortress. The supervision was carried out by the closest adviser to Peter the Great, Alexander Menshikov.
Why is 1703 significant in Russian history?
When the Peter and Paul Fortress was founded, it was not planned to build an entire city, not to mention the future capital. They decided to build fortification buildings from earth and trees. The design of a unique earthen and wooden fort was drawn up by Tsar Peter himself. This attraction includes both a unique exterior and an expertly decorated interior.
The highlight is the carved gilded iconostasis and the altar canopy - a gift to the Peter and Paul Cathedral, located in the fortress, from Peter I. The iconostasis was created in Moscow according to the drawings of D. Trezzini, its design was compiled by Peter I and Novgorod under the direction of I.P. Zarudny. The wealth of the fortress is also gifts military glory Russia - captured banners, keys to captured Russian troops cities and fortresses, but subsequently some of the banners were lost or transferred to collections, and their copies remained hanging in the fortress.
Other events
But not only the beginning of the construction of the city on the Neva is significant in the history of Russia. What other events happened? A lesser known, but no less significant event was the construction of an arms factory. Shore Lake Onega, near the Lososinka River, became the location. The prince and concurrently A. Menshikov was chosen as the construction manager.
Due to the frequent visits of the plant by Peter the Great, such structures as a wooden two-story palace, a camp church of Peter and Paul, a pond, and a garden were erected especially for him.
Subsequently, an urban settlement was founded around the plant. Among the settlers were assigned peasants, Ural and Tula artisans sent to build a factory for the production of weapons. Thus began the history of the city of Petrozavodsk - the capital of the Republic of Karelia, the region with amazing story and nature.
In the Middle Ages, the territories in which St. Petersburg and Leningrad region, belonged to Veliky Novgorod. In 1478, Novgorod became part of the centralized Russian state with its capital in the city of Moscow. Soon after the death of Ivan IV (the Terrible), the period of the Time of Troubles began, ending in 1613, when the first tsar from the Romanov dynasty, Mikhail Fedorovich, ascended the Russian throne. In the same year, a war with Sweden began, which ended in 1617 with the signing of a peace treaty in the town of Stolbovo (near the city of Tikhvin). According to the Stolbovo Peace Treaty, the entire Neva River basin and the coast of the Gulf of Finland remained with the Swedes. As you know, the Neva River connects Ladoga lake And The Gulf of Finland, and from the bay there is access to the Baltic Sea, which Russia ceded to the Swedes.
In 1700, Tsar Peter I declared war on Sweden to regain lost territories. The war, which lasted twenty-one years, was called the “Northern” war. Gradually, the banks of the Neva were liberated from Swedish rule. In 1703, on May 16 (May 27, new style), on the small Hare Island in the delta of the Neva River, the foundation of a fortress took place, which was supposed to protect the conquered territories from the Swedes.
The fortress was named St. Petersburg, in honor of St. Apostle Peter - the heavenly patron of Peter I. The day of the foundation of this fortress, which over time began to be called Petropavlovskaya(By Cathedral of St. Apostles Peter and Paul, built on its territory), is considered the birthday of the city of St. Petersburg.
Gradually, a city began to be built under the protection of the fortress walls. Peter I did not want the young capital to resemble ancient Russian cities. St. Petersburg was created in a “European manner.”
Holland served in many ways as a model for future construction. Therefore, the original name of the city had Dutch “notes” - St. Petersburg (St. Peter’s city). Later, during the reign of Anna Ioanovna, when everything German was in fashion, the city began to be called in German - St. Petersburg.
During its more than 300-year history, the city changed its name twice. The first time this happened was in August 1914, during the reign of Nicholas II, when there was a war with Germany and anti-German sentiment reigned in Russia. St. Petersburg began to be called Petrograd, losing the German sound in its name. The second time the name of the city changed in January 1924, which was associated with the death of V.I. Lenin, then Petrograd began to be called Leningrad. In 1991, as a result of a referendum (voting among the city population), it was decided to return Leningrad to its first historical name, and the city again became St. Petersburg.
Saint Petersburg. Peter Pickart. Engraving from 1704
1703 On May 27 (May 16, old style) Peter I founded the city of St. Petersburg
“For many of us, St. Petersburg begins on May 16, 1703, a date well known from school textbooks. Long before Peter I, the territory of the future St. Petersburg was simply strewn with Russian villages and hamlets. Where Liteiny Avenue now begins, there was the village of Frolovshchina; and at the source of the Fontanka, near the Summer Garden, there is the village of Kanduya. On the site of Smolny there was the village of Spasskoye, on the banks of the Okhta there were twelve villages. Villages and villages, villages and villages - Chuchelovo, Minino, Dorogusha, Brodkino, you can’t list them all... There were, of course, Finnish settlements in these areas, but in composition population was mainly a Russian region. Since ancient times, these lands were inhabited by the Izhora, Vod and Korely tribes, after the names of these peoples and the areas occupied by them were called Izhora, Vodskaya and Korelskaya lands. All together they made up the so-called “Vodskaya Pyatina”, which was part of the Novgorod province.Starting the war with Sweden, Peter I first of all wanted to return to Russia the lands of “fathers and grandfathers”, seized during the unrest in the Muscovite state and ceded to the Swedes under the Treaty of Stolbov in 1617. Therefore, when the actions of F. M. Apraksin’s detachment, sent in 1702 against the Swedes, were accompanied by terrible devastation of villages on the banks of the Neva, Tsar Peter was “not very pleased.” Most of all, the tsar was also dissatisfied because the instructions forbade devastation of the Izhora lands. F.M. Apraksin, who expected the highest praise, was forced to justify himself: he had to go to the destruction of the villages, they say, in order to squeeze the enemy in the supply of food supplies. But the tsar was still dissatisfied, because the country, which Peter I considered Russian, had been “conquered.”
When in the fall of 1702 the Russians stormed the Swedish fortress of Noteburg - the ancient Novgorod city of Oreshek, Peter I was delighted that they had obtained the “key to the sea”, and wrote about this victory: “It is true that this nut was very cruel, however, glory By God, happily chewed up.” The Tsar personally nailed the fortress key over the gate and announced that from now on the city would be called “Shlisselburg” (“Key City”) - the key to the Neva. The Emperor granted A.D. Menshikov as Shlisselburg, Korel and Ingermaland governor, but these lands still had to be conquered so that the title was not an empty phrase. The Neva was then in the hands of the Swedes, but the name turned out to be prophetic: gradually the path to the sea was obtained, and the entire length of the river began to belong to Russia.
True, the nature in these places was scarce and inhospitable: the soil was barren, swamps and swamps everywhere, dense forest all around, settlements were rare. But, accompanied by his entourage, Peter I went to inspect the banks of the Neva to choose a place for future capital. He chose the island of Ieni-Saari (Hare), which was located in the place of the Big Neva where it divides into the Neva and Nevka. In the spring, when the meager nature of the north also blooms, the birch groves of Hare Island also dressed in a bright green outfit and resounded with the jubilant singing of birds, and the first flowers appeared among the young grass. Peter I named this island Lust-Eyland (Merry), and the Peter and Paul Fortress was founded on it, from which St. Petersburg was established.
Although it is believed that the Russian Tsar named the city being built “in his honor,” however, in reality, everything was not entirely true. The city was named not in honor of Tsar Peter, but in honor of St. Peter - “Petrov’s angel”. S.P. Zavarikhin, the author of a book about the city from the time of Peter I, generally believes that May 16, the day the fortress was founded, is not yet the day the city was founded, since the fortress and the city are not the same thing. There are still no documents that, along with the fortress, the construction of a city, especially a capital city, was also implied. But it is known that the idea to build a city at the mouth of the Neva was first expressed by Admiral F. Golovin. True, he also had in mind the construction of a small town for the division of Finland and Livonia (Latvia and Estonia), as well as for storing military supplies. So at first there was no talk about the city at all, since it was urgently necessary to build a port and a fortress, and the role of the city at the fortress was played by Nienschatz-Slottburg.
True, they also say this: when the foundation of the fortress was taking place, Peter I cut out two sods and laid them crosswise, saying at the same time: “There will be a city here.” Then he began to dig a ditch that was supposed to surround the fortress. Popular legend adds that at this time an eagle appeared in the sky and began to soar over the king. A stone box was lowered into the ditch, the clergy sprinkled it with holy water, and the sovereign placed in it a golden ark with a particle of the relics of the Holy Apostle Andrew (Then he covered the box with a stone plaque, on which it was written when the founding of St. Petersburg took place. Meanwhile, one of The royal retinue caught an eagle, and the king saw this as a good omen.
At first, captured Swedes, soldiers and local residents worked on the construction of the fortress, then they began to send workers here from all over Russia. The work was very hard: it was necessary to cut down forests, fill up swamps, clear the land of brushwood and bushes, build houses, dig canals. They worked in any weather, often under enemy fire. The matter was carried out with such zeal that by June 22, 1703, the guard and division of Prince N.I. Repnin moved to the newly founded fortress. On June 28, on the eve of the day of Saints Peter and Paul, the fortress was considered in a certain sense completed, and from that time on the letters of Peter the Great there appeared the note: “From St. Petersburg” or “From San Petersburg”, and before he wrote “From Shlotburgh” (or "Schluterburg").
However, in new fortress, which was supposed to serve as a stronghold for Russian troops and guard the mouth of the Neva, there was still a lot to do. To supply the garrison with water along the entire island (from east to west), a canal was dug, which now does not exist. On its sides there were 4 rows of wooden houses in which soldiers lived; houses were built for the commandant and the parade-major, a workshop, an arsenal and food warehouses. The first fortifications of the fortress consisted of an earthen rampart and bastions, named after those persons who supervised their construction. To the north of the fortress, on the Finnish side, a crownwork was built - an auxiliary fortification built to protect the fortress in the most dangerous place, where the enemy could come closest to her. A ravelin was built on the opposite side, a flag was hoisted on the Sovereign's Bastion, which on special days was replaced by a standard - a yellow banner with a Russian eagle. So that the Tsar could observe the work, a small house was built for him not far from the fortress, which from a distance could be mistaken for a brick one, so how it was painted on wood in Dutch style with red paint with white stripes. The internal structure of "Peter's house" was very simple. It consisted of two rooms, separated by a narrow hallway and a kitchen. All its decoration consisted of bleached canvas wallpaper and doors, frames and shutters painted with bouquets. In one of the rooms, which once served as the king’s bedroom, there is now a chapel, in which there is an icon of the Savior, which accompanied Tsar Peter in many battles, including the battle of Poltava. In “Peter’s house” some things from that time: a skiff with the remains of a sail, made by Peter I himself; a bench that stood at the gate of the house during the king’s life; wooden chair with leather cushion...
Initially, the city was built up without any plan; wooden houses were built haphazardly, low and without courtyards, with the entrance directly from the street. If a carriage passed along the street, then due to the instability of the soil, the glass and dishes in such houses would clink. Under Peter I, the streets had no names, the houses had no numbers, so it was difficult for visitors to find their acquaintances. The fire of 1710 destroyed the large market, since it was impossible to penetrate the narrow passages between the houses; the raging flames quickly turned the market into one big fire, and in just an hour there was nothing left of it. The fire also showed that streets should be laid out correctly and houses should be built at a distance from each other.
St. Petersburg was built up slowly, since until the end of the Northern War no one could be sure of the final possession of this area. And there were few who wanted to go to new town- into “deserts, abundant” only in swamps and tears. In 1705, there were only 3,000 inhabitants in St. Petersburg, not counting, of course, soldiers. To populate his “paradise,” Peter I even had to resort to coercive measures. From the first years of the city’s founding, a series of decrees from within Russia sent “people of every rank, crafts and arts to live in St. Petersburg; not the poor, those with few families or those with little income, but those who would have free trades, industries or factories.” All settlers had to build houses for themselves in the city and live in them permanently. However difficult conditions life forced many to flee, and often messengers caught the first St. Petersburg residents.
Gradually, following the St. Petersburg side, Vasilyevsky Island began to be built up little by little. Peter I ordered all spiritual and secular village owners and nobles to build houses here, and they had to be built in three years so as not to lose their estate. Land and timber for buildings were distributed free of charge, but houses had to be built of stone. Some “eminent” people, by royal decree, had to build two or even three houses, but you can’t live in all of them at once! So it turned out that the outside of the buildings was completely plastered and painted, but the inside remained empty - without any decoration. Only poor people could build wooden houses for themselves, but only in alleys and outlying streets.”
Quoted from: Ionina N.A. One Hundred Great Cities of the World. M.: Veche 2000, 2003
History in faces
About the conception and building of the reigning city of St. Petersburg:On the 14th, the Tsar's Majesty deigned to inspect the mouth of the Neva River and the islands on the seashore and saw a convenient island for the structure of the city (This island was then empty and overgrown with forest, and was called Luistrand, that is, a cheerful island.). When I went to the middle of that island, I felt a noise in the air, I saw an eagle soaring, and the sound of its wings soaring was heard; Taking a baguette from the soldier and cutting out two turfs, he laid the turf on the turf in a cross shape and, having made a cross out of wood and placing it in the turfs, he deigned to say: “In the name of Jesus Christ in this place there will be a church in the name of the supreme apostles Peter and Paul” (Now on In this place there is a stone cathedral church of the Supreme Apostles Peter and Paul.). After a satisfied inspection of this island, he deigned to cross along the rafts standing in the channel, which now flows between the city and the crown (In this channel there were forests stored in rafts, prepared for vacation in Stockholm.). After passing the channel and descending onto the island (Which is now called St. Petersburg.), he deigned to walk along the bank up the Neva River and, taking an ax, cut off a broom bush (In that place is now the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity.), and, having gone a little further, cut off a second bush (Now in this place is the first palace.), and, getting into the boat, he deigned to walk up the Neva River from the Kanets fortress.
On the 15th, he deigned to send a small company of soldiers and ordered the shores of this island to be cleared and the forests cut down and piled up. During this carving, an eagle's nest on that island was seen on a tree.
On the 16th, that is, on the day of Pentecost, according to the Divine litorgy, with the face of the saint and the general and civil ranks from Kanets deigned to march on ships along the Neva River and upon arrival on the island of Luistrand and after the blessing of the water and after reading the prayer for the foundation of the city and after sprinkling Holy water, took a spade, and the first began to dig a ditch. Then the eagle, with a great noise of soaring wings, descended from its height and soared over that island.
The Tsar's Majesty, having gone away a little, cut out three turfs and deigned to bring them to the designated place. At that time, the ditch was conceived, the earth was dug about two arshins deep and a quadrangular box carved from stone was placed in it, and after sprinkling that box with holy water, he deigned to place in that box a golden ark, in it the relics of the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, and cover it with stone a cover on which was carved: “After the incarnation of Jesus Christ 1703 May 16, the reigning city of St. Petersburg was founded by the Great Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Peter Alexievich, Autocrat of All Russia.” And he deigned to place on the lid of this box the three sods spoken with the verb: “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. The reigning city of St. Petersburg was founded.”
Then His Royal Majesty, on behalf of the saints and generals and from all those who were, we congratulate him on the reigning city of St. Petersburg; The Tsar's Majesty deigned to thank all those who congratulated him, and there was a lot of cannon fire. We saw an eagle soaring over this island. The Tsar's Majesty, having gone to the channel that flows between St. Petersburg and the crown, after serving the litany and sprinkling that place with holy water, deigned to cover another roskat. Then there was a secondary cannon fire, and between those two roars he deigned to measure where the gates should be, ordered two holes to be punched into the ground and, having cut down two birch trees, thin but long, and the tops of those birches rolled up, and put the ends into the punched holes in the ground like gate And when he established the first birch tree in the ground and supplied another, then the eagle, descending from the heights, sat on this gate; Corporal Odintsov removed the eagle from the gate.
The Royal Majesty was overjoyed at this good omen; Having tied the eagle's legs with a scarf and putting a glove on his hand, he deigned to sit him on his hand and ordered him to sing the litiya. After the litany and sprinkling of the gate with holy water, there was a third round of cannon fire, and he deigned to go out through that gate, holding an eagle in his hand, and, boarding a yacht, marched to his house as a royal woman. The face of the saint and the generals and civil ranks were granted to the table; the fun lasted until 2 o'clock in the morning, and there was a lot of cannon fire.
This eagle was in the palace; After the construction of the fortress of St. Alexander on Kotlin Island, this eagle was given to guard duty by His Tsar's Majesty in this Alexander fortress with the name of the eagle commandant rank (Inhabitants of the island, which is now called St. Petersburg, and those who lived near it on the islands said that this eagle was tame, and His life was on the island on which the city of St. Petersburg is now; the mash and timber royal forests were unloaded along the banks of the Neva River, and the eagle was accustomed to the hands of the guard soldiers of those forests.
God revealed something similar to the pious king Constantine of old in a dream about the construction of a city in the East. The great and Equal-to-the-Apostles Tsar Constantine was looking at the places to the city building and during the procession from Chalcedon by water to Byzantium he saw an eagle flying and carrying shipyards and other tools of stone makers, which the eagle placed at the wall of the city of Byzantium. The great Tsar Constantine built a city in that place and named it Constantingrad in his name.
“Show off, city Petrov, and stand
Unshakable like Russia...”
A. S. Pushkin, “The Bronze Horseman” (1833)
On May 16 (27), 1703, on the day of the Holy Trinity, a fortress was founded by Peter I at the mouth of the Neva River on Hare Island. This day is considered the founding day of St. Petersburg, which was the capital of the Russian Empire for more than 200 years.
The plan for the future fortress was drawn by Peter himself. The fortress received its name - “St. Petersburg” on St. Peter’s Day, when the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul was founded here. The city that arose around the island received this name. The Apostle Peter, according to Christian tradition, was the keeper of the keys to heaven, which also seemed symbolic to the Russian Tsar, since the city bearing the name of his heavenly patron was supposed to become the “key to Baltic Sea" A few years later, the fortress was named Peter and Paul - after the name of its main cathedral.
In November 1703, in memory of the fact that the fortress was founded on the day of the Holy Trinity, the first church was opened in the city - Trinity. It was here that in 1721 Peter took the title of emperor. Peter I attached importance to the new city strategic importance to provide waterway from Russia to Western Europe. In the autumn of 1704, construction of the Admiralty shipyard with fortifications began at the mouth of the Neva. At the end of 1706, in order to protect the Peter and Paul Fortress from artillery shelling from the opposite bank, Peter I issued an order for the construction of Kronverk. The Poltava victory (1709) and the capture of Vyborg finally strengthened the position of St. Petersburg.
St. Petersburg is the first city in Russia that developed according to a pre-developed plan. This determined a high level of urban planning and contributed to the formation of urban ensembles characteristic of the late 18th - early XIX centuries In 1703, by royal decree, the “Office of Buildings” was created, which supervised all the work, but in fact, Peter himself headed everything.
In the first ten years of its existence, the main part of the city was the City (now Petrogradsky) Island; there were office buildings, craft settlements and military units. The island was connected to the Peter and Paul Fortress using a drawbridge. Later, the left bank of the Neva began to be built up, where Winter Palace, Summer Palace Peter I, Summer Garden. Since 1712, the city was proclaimed the capital of Russia, and in 1713 the Senate moved here. In 1712, Peter I issued a decree on the creation of a General Plan for St. Petersburg, according to which Vasilyevsky Island was chosen as the center of the city. It was here that port facilities, lighthouses, as well as the building of the Twelve Colleges and the Kunstkamera were built. In 1725, the Academy of Sciences was founded in St. Petersburg, where in 1728 the first Russian newspaper, St. Petersburg Gazette, began to be published.
In August 1914, in the wake of anti-German sentiment, the city was renamed Petrograd. After the October Revolution, state architectural and planning organizations were created here, in whose work major Petrograd architects A. I. Gegello, V. G. Gelfreich, A. S. Nikolsky, L. V. Rudnev, I. A. Fomin were involved. Behind the Narva, Moscow and Vyborg outposts, construction of residential buildings and public buildings began. New types of buildings began to appear - cultural centers, clubs, kitchen factories, communal houses. The architecture of this period was called “constructivism”.
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