St Peter Born Again on Earth Today
Tretyakov gallery, Getty Images, Global Await Printing
Did the city price thousands of human lives? Was it founded in a swamp? Did the curse of Peter's showtime wife come true? In Russia and abroad, there are myths nigh the foundation of St. Petersburg, myths nosotros are here to debunk.
i. Saint petersburg was founded on a vacant plot in the swamps
Valentin Serov, Peter I on the Neva Embankment, 1907
Global Await Press
Beginning, the place was a bustling spot. Already in 1300, a Swedish fortress named Landskrona was erected here, and after, in 1611, the fortress of Nyenskans took its place, with the Swedish town of Nyen effectually it.
In the 17th century, Nyen became a big trading centre, due to its favorable location nigh the body of water and at the confluence of several rivers. This is why, when in 1703, Peter the Slap-up took Nyen during the Not bad Northern state of war of Russia and Sweden, he decided to build a new city here – to further found Russia's military presence on Swedish territory and finally secure Russian federation'due south access to the Baltic bounding main. And at that place'south a peculiar fact: when Petrograd became Russian capital in 1712, it was withal formally on the Swedish territory (the St. Petersburg region became fully Russian only afterwards the Northern War ended in 1721).
Model of the Nyenskans fortress
Evgeny Gerashchenko (CC Past-SA 2.five)
Then where did the "swamp" rumor come from? Indeed, in 1705, two years after the metropolis'southward foundation, one fifth of its territory was marshland. A giant swamp was, indeed, on the identify of Paul I'south Mikhailovsky Castle. And an impassable slough occupied what is now considered the city's pinnacle of nightlife, Dumskaya street.
But the urban center was constructed with the assist of European urban engineers. They ordered soil to be brought to Leningrad to solidify the ground under heavy buildings. As soil scientist Elena Sukhacheva says, beds of springs and tiny rivers were filled with sand and rubble, and swamps were drained. This all was executed gradually until the 1780s when the Neva River'south shores were finally dressed in granite.
ii. An eagle soared in the skies when Peter the Swell founded St. Petersburg
Boats on the Neva River in front of the Peter and Paul Fortress - lithograph - Early 19th century
Getty Images
The Peter and Paul Fortress was founded on May 16th, 1703. At that place'due south a persistent rumor that Peter himself laid the first stone in the foundation of the fortress while an eagle was flying over his head.
Even so, this is a complete myth. According to the tracklog of Peter the Great, on this twenty-four hour period, Peter was stationed much farther Due north, in Schlötburg, at the place of the former Nyenskans fortress (all his decrees and messages from May-June 1703 are signed in this identify). Finally, no eagles e'er inhabited St. Petersburg region.
iii. The urban center was built on basic
"Peter I at the Construction of Saint petersburg", by Georgy Pesis.
Leonid Sievert/Sputnik
Legend has it that Peter the Bully ordered thousands of peasants from Russian regions to build St. petersburg. They were ill-fed, suffered from moisture and frost and died in swarms, buried correct in that location in the swamps. This horrible tale ends with "this is why St. petersburg is congenital on bones".
It'southward true that structure works were performed by peasants, although they weren't simply ordered to come to Petersburg, but rather commissioned. As of 1704, xl thousand workers were summoned to Leningrad, more often than not state serfs or landlords' serfs.
The peasants worked in shifts: after iii months, they were immune to become home. Withal, many of them stayed for the next three months, as the work paid 1 ruble per month, a standard worker's pay at the time.
After 1717, in that location were no more peasant workers, but an almanac tax was instead introduced. For the construction, the government commissioned workers and paid them with the taxation money.
Every bit for the death rate among workers, it was usual for the population at the time. In the 1950s, a Soviet historian conducted excavations on the major building sites of the 18th century and didn't find any evidence of mass perishing, only cesspools filled with animal bones. This only proved that workers were fed proficient rations that included lots of meat.
4. Vasilyevsky island should have had canals, but Menshikov stole the money
Programme of the city, 1705
Public domain
Jacob von Staehlin (1709-1785), member of the Russian University of Sciences, who lived under several Russian monarchs, states in his volume 'Original anecdotes of Peter the Great' that Peter ordered the Vasilyevsky isle in St. Petersburg to become a "little Amsterdam" with canals instead of streets, and deputed the task to his henchman, Prince Alexander Menshikov. Simply the prince, who was a notorious cheat, stole almost of the money, and then the canals turned out too narrow for boats to canvas and were eventually backfilled.
Portrait of Aleksander Danilovich Menshikov
Public domain
In reality, even in 1723, there were no canals on Vasilyevsky island. Only in 1727-1730 (afterwards Peter's death), did iv canals appear, which were then backfilled at the order of Catherine the Great in 1767.
5. 'Petersburg will exist empty!'
Tsarina Eudoxia (Yevdokiya Fyodorovna Lopukhina) (1669-1731) - starting time wife of Peter I the Bang-up of Russia.
Viktor Kornushin/Global Look Printing
Peter the Great didn't love his first wife, Evdokia Lopukhina, who was a adult female of old germination and didn't share Peter'southward passion for everything European. Evdokia was said to have taken part in a conspiracy plot against Peter, then he sent her to a convent, tonsuring her forcibly. Before leaving for the convent, Evdokia shouted well-nigh Saint petersburg: "This place volition be empty!"
READ More: Peter the Great and his women
The Inundation of 1824 in the square at the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre by Fyodor Alekseyev
Russian Museum
However, Evdokia could hardly take known anything about St. Petersburg when she was sent to the convent in 1698, 5 years before the town of Nyen had been conquered and the 'place' she was talking about was but defined as the construction ground for the future city. And then Evdokia couldn't accept predicted that this swampy place will be subject to many floods (as her 'prediction' was usually interpreted).
READ More than: The start Romanov political exile: How Peter the Great's son fled Russia
All the same, Prince Alexei, the ill-fated son of Peter and Evdokia, repeated the rumor in 1718 when he was interrogated. We believe he simply repeated a rumor. But later on in the 19th century, Russian historian Sergey Solovyev told this tale one time again, and from so on it became a pseudo-historical fact.
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Source: https://www.rbth.com/history/330787-debunking-5-myths-petersburg-was-built
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