History of the St. Petersburg

Plan of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

After viewing the sights of Hare Island, one may take a short walk along the right shore of the Kronwerk Strait in the direction of the Defence Arsenal which stands opposite the Golovkin Bastion. The arsenal is a massive red-brick building (472 metres in length at its axis) reminiscent of a medieval -Western European castle.

Among them was the already world-famous writer Maxim Gorky, who made an appeal on the evening of January 9 “To all Russian citizens and public opinion of all European governments”. Gorky was released in a few weeks thanks to a widespread campaign in Russia and abroad in his defence. While in prison Gorky wrote the tragic comedy Children of the Sun, showing how far the Russian intelligentsia, “blind, drunk not with deeds, but only with pretty words and ideas”, was from understanding the real needs of the Russian people.

After viewing the exterior of the Sts Peter and Paul Cathedral one may enter it through its western doors, that is, from the side of Cathedral Square. Inside the cathedral impresses one first of all with the sheer size of the church hall, divided into three naves by two rows of pylons. The pylons support the square pieces of the mighty entablature, upon which rest the great arches, which in their turn serve as the support for the groin vaults and the pendentives under the drum.

The Sts Peter and Paul Cathedral is one of the most interesting monuments of Baroque architecture. Its general shape is that of an elongated rectangle stretching from west to east; its eastern portion is topped by a drum crowned by a cupola, its western portion is surmounted by a bell-tower with a tall spire.

After passing under the arch of the St Peter Gate, where one can still observe the signs of the former guides along which a grate was formerly lowered to block the path more securely, one sees the start of the main avenue of the fortress (whose full perspective is impeded by the central part of the main building of the Mint Works).

Passing through the St John Gate into the ravelin of the same name, one’s attention is immediately drawn to the main gate of the fortress located in the centre of the curtain wall connecting the Tsar Bastion (on the left) and the Menshikov Bastion (on the right). Originally the main gate was crowned by a statue of St Peter; therefore, the gate itself, as well as the entire curtain wall in which it is located, have the same name – St Peter.

A tour of the fortress is best begun on Petrograd Island, from the intersection of Kamennostrovsky Prospekt and Kuibyshev Street. The streets are named in honour of Sergei Kirov (1886-1934), the leader of the Leningrad party organization in 1926-34, and Valerian Kuibyshev (1888-1935), an eminent Soviet political and military figure, respectively.

Soon after the victory of the October Socialist Revolution, organs of Soviet power began to implement special measures for the preservation of the Peter and Paul Fortress as a historical and architectural complex.

The St Petersburg (Peter and Paul) Fortress went down in the history of the Russian revolutionary movement not only as a prison, but also as a primary military object, always figuring in the strategies of both revolutionaries and their opponents. On December 14, 1825, only a few hours following the armed anti-governmental uprising, the Emperor Nicholas I ordered that the fortress gates be locked and that the guns be loaded with buck-shot.