Saint-Petersburg History |
 The history of Saint-Petersburg is a short but densely packed one. Saint-Petersburg exists a little bit more than 300 years but became known not only in Russia but all over the world! Saint-Petersburg is said to owe its foundation to the desire of one only man, Russian tzar Peter the Great, who really was a great statesman. One of his main ideas was to turn Russia into a contemporary Western state and show to everyone in Western Europe that Russia is a great power! To do this it was necessary to put an end to the conservative traditions of Moscow. And there was taken a decision to build a new capital that would have nothing in common with any other ancient Russian city. To found his new capital, Saint-Petersburg, Peter needed a proper place. The best location one could find for the city-key from the symbolic door to the West was in the delta of the river Neva flowing into the Baltic Sea. It was a part of the ancient water way from the North to the South. There was one only problem with the place, at the beginning of the 17th century the territory had been annexed by Sweden. But it couldn't prevent the tzar from fulfilling his dreams and he started the Northern War in 1700. It lasted more than 21 years, but after the first victories of the Russian Army, in 1703, Saint-Petersburg was founded. The history of Saint-Petersburg started with the foundation of a fortress on one of the numerous islands of the river Neva. Till now the golden spire of the Peter&Paul's cathedral of the fortress remains one of the symbols of Saint-Petersburg. It was not an easy task to construct a kind of Paradise on the Earth (so Peter called his rapidly growing capital). Under the severe climatic conditions typical for the region there started a real struggle between the human will and the nature. Peter dreamed his new capital to have stone buildings and strait wide streets. Thousand of serves were transferred from all over the country to build Saint-Petersburg; hundreds of foreign masters were called to give the city a really European air. One can hardly find any other city to be constructed that period of time in accordance with a general plan in such a short period. The location of Saint-Petersburg was really good for economic and political purposes, but not for living here. Nobody wanted to abandon his cosy place to find himself in an unfriendly cold city with its yearly floods, cruelly destroying wonderful mansions, its long windy winter nights, its low gray sky and permanent rainy weather. But the imperial capital was here. Saint-Petersburg couldn't remain deserted. Its first citizens came here by Peter's order but the more years were passing by the more attractive for people it was becoming. A lot of eminent Russian figures: musicians, writer, scientists, architects etc. lived and worked in Sain-Petersburg. It is impossible to name all them, but mentioning Dostoyevsky and Tcsaikovsky is quite enough. Saint-Petersburg was not only the imperial capital but also the city of Revolution, where a new kind of political system was born. Now the Revolution could be differently regarded but undoubtedly it was one of the most significant events of the 20th century that affected greatly the political situation all over the world. Saint-Petersburg has been always regarded as a mysterious city. There was always a great variety of predictions and myths concerning the city. Saint-Petersburg was often said to be born in order to be deserted and destroyed. And there were moments in its history when it seemed that the city was so close to this especially during the 20th century with all its Revolutions and Wars. But Saint-Petersburg survived the bloody and lean years of the Revolutions, the horrific 900 days of the Siege during the 2nd World War when it lost more than a half of its population, the difficult 90ies full of social and political earthquake. And now Saint-Petersburg remains one of the most important and interesting cities of Russia, its Northern capital, Northern Venice, one of the most significant scientific, economic and cultural centres: the city of large squares, long straight streets, numerous canals and bridges, the city of ballet, classical and jazz music and many other attractions. |
