The history of St. Petersburg of the 19th century includes important events for the whole country. In the middle of the century, the city turned into a large industrial center. In 1825, guard officers attempted a coup, and this event went down in history under the name of the Decembrist uprising.
The assassination of the emperor
Paul I, the son of Catherine II, ruled for only five years. But these years Petersburgers were remembered for a long time. The very next day after the accession of Paul, white booths of the German type appeared in the city, which the emperor ordered to bring from Gatchina. The life of the townspeople has become strictly regulated. Officials, policemen ran around the streets, grabbed citizens dressed in French fashion clothes and tore off their round hats (a symbol of the French Revolution). Paul ordered everyone to start the day at six in the morning, dine at the same time. After eight in the evening, he introduced a curfew in the city. Appearance on the street in the late hour was fraught with punishment.
Imperial palaces Paul I ordered to call castles. He hated everything related to his mother. The emperor did not want to live in the Winter Palace, and therefore ordered to build a castle, which was called Mikhailovsky. From the Tauride Palace ordered to make a stable. But he did not live long in Mikhailovsky Castle. On the night of March 11-12, 1801, Paul I was killed by the conspirators. They killed him, of course, not because of the orders that he established in St. Petersburg.
In the 19th century, relations with England worsened. This was a consequence of the contract concluded by Paul I with Napoleonic France, and created unpleasant conditions for representatives of Russian business circles. Petersburgers, learning that the emperor was killed, did not hesitate to rejoice and congratulate each other.
The history of St. Petersburg of the 19th century begins with the reign of Alexander I, who in his manifesto announced that he would rely on decrees issued by Catherine II in everything. The castles were again called palaces, and one of the most famous, Tauride, was no longer used as a barracks.
May 16, 1803
An important event of the early 19th century in St. Petersburg is the celebration of the 100th anniversary. Peter the Great founded this city on May 16, 1703. A hundred years later, a parade took place in St. Petersburg, in which about twenty thousand soldiers participated. The boat of Peter, who was called the "grandfather of the Russian fleet," was taken aboard the ship "Archangel Gabriel." The ceremony was attended by four contemporaries of the Great Reformer - the elders, who were personally acquainted with the founder of St. Petersburg.
Return of the Semenovsky Regiment Guard
This is another important event of the early 19th century. In St. Petersburg, they met soldiers and officers who returned from the war in which Russia won. The Russian guard defeated the French in 1812, triumphantly reached Paris, traveled to England, then returned to St. Petersburg. In the 19th century, wooden gates were built in honor of this significant event.
Narva Triumphal Gate
This design has become one of the architectural monuments of St. Petersburg. In the 19th century, however, the gates had little in common with those that today can be seen in the city on the Neva.
The construction existed until 1827, was created by the project of Giacomo Quarenghi. The gate was decorated with a six-horse chariot, which was controlled by the goddess of Glory. However, the wooden structure quickly fell into disrepair. Soon the mayors decided to build a new gate, but from stone.
Russian architect Vasily Stasov retained the intent of his Italian colleague. On August 26, 1027, the first stone of the Narva Triumphal Gate was laid - one of the symbols of St. Petersburg. At the end of the 19th century, the building was again reconstructed - copper sheets were replaced by iron ones.
Riot of the Semenovsky Regiment
This is another important event in the history of St. Petersburg in the 19th century. The Semenovsky regiment was the favorite regiment of Emperor Alexander I. Soldiers and officers with great respect for their commander, Y. A. Potemkin. However, in the spring of 1820, A. A. Arakcheev achieved his displacement. He introduced Potemkin to the emperor as the chief of a weak character, incapable of commanding a regiment. Fyodor Schwartz, the protege of Arakcheev, was appointed in his place.
The soldiers, dissatisfied with the unjustifiably cruel treatment and the exactingness of the new regimental commander, refused to go on guard. They wrote a complaint, which was perceived by the authorities as a riot. The company was surrounded by the Life Guards Pavlovsky Regiment. The soldiers were put in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where they were led under escort in front of all Petersburgers.
The prisoners were supported by their comrades, showing disobedience to the highest authorities. But they soon found themselves in the Peter and Paul Fortress. These events lasted four days. The Emperor was at the Troppaus Congress all this time. Semenovtsi were transferred to remote parts of Russia. The soldier was sent to the Caucasus or Siberia. Officers - to Ukraine. Four rioters brought to justice.
Life of St. Petersburg of the 19th century
The number of inhabitants of the city in this century has been continuously growing. In the history of St. Petersburg and Moscow of the 19th century, the main phenomenon was the opening of huge factories and plants. With the creation of enterprises, the urban population grew.
At the beginning of the 19th century, 220 thousand people lived in St. Petersburg. In the fifties - about 500 thousand. St. Petersburg in the 19th century in terms of population ranked fourth in the list of world capitals after London, Paris, Constantinople.
It is worth noting that twice as many men lived in the city than women. Among the inhabitants of St. Petersburg , the military and officials prevailed. New factories were opened in which exclusively male labor was used. People came to the capital from villages who want to learn a new profession. The most sought after were masons, artisans, cabmen, carpenters.
Mortality, as in the 18th century, exceeded the birth rate - the population of St. Petersburg grew at the expense of visitors. Most of all were immigrants from the Tver and Yaroslavl provinces. And after the abolition of serfdom, peasants from all over Russia poured into the capital in search of work. Representatives of this social stratum accounted for 60% of the population of St. Petersburg. In the 19th century, this city was a gigantic labor market.
Putilovsky plant
One of the largest St. Petersburg enterprises was founded during the reign of Paul I. In 1801, the Kronstadt Iron Foundry was transferred to the capital. In the same year, the first cannonball was cast here . The plant was subsequently renamed more than once.
The first managers of the enterprise were foreigners. As a result of the flood that occurred in 1824, 152 workers were killed. Putilov factory did not close even in the most difficult periods of Russian history. So, he continued to operate during the blockade of Leningrad.
Flood
In the history of St. Petersburg, the largest destructive event occurred in 1824. The second largest flood occurred a hundred years later - in the year when the city was renamed Petrograd. In 1824, the Neva rose four meters above the ordinary. According to various sources, from two hundred to six hundred people died. Pushkin dedicated the poem The Bronze Horseman to this terrible flood.
The culture of St. Petersburg of the 19th century
The heyday of Russian literature came in the first third of the XIX century. Connected with the work of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin. The poet devoted many of his works to the events that took place in the city on the Neva. First of all, the Decembrist uprising.
At the beginning of the century, few new buildings appeared in the Northern capital. Apart from the Mikhailovsky Castle, the construction of which was proceeding rapidly. Most of the country's resources at the beginning of the second decade went to the needs of the war.
Toward the middle of the century, several important events took place in the cultural life of St. Petersburg: the Pulkovo Observatory, the Russian Geographical Society , opened. 1836 began the construction of a railway between the capital and Tsarskoye Selo. In the first half of the 19th century, the design of ensembles around the Senate or Palace Squares was completed.
On October 1, 1811, the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum was established. This institution has graduated many students who later became well-known figures of culture and science. Among the famous graduates - A. S. Pushkin. Many sights of St. Petersburg are associated with the name of the poet . For twelve years he lived on the Fontanka. Then on Voznesensky Prospekt. In 1836, the poet lived in the house of Princess Volkonskaya. This building is located on the Moika Embankment, today it houses the Pushkin Memorial Museum-Apartment.
Strauss in Petersburg
The fame of the Austrian composer by the middle of the 19th century spread far beyond Vienna. In 1856, Johann Strauss visited the Russian capital. Here, by the way, already at that time many famous foreigners lived.
The composer arrived in St. Petersburg at the invitation of the director of the Tsarskoye Selo Railway, whom he met in Germany. The Russian official offered the musician the position of conductor at the Pavlovsky station with a salary that Strauss could not refuse. In addition, at that time, speaking to the exquisite Petersburg public was considered very prestigious.
Johann Strauss signed a contract with the director of the Tsarskoye Selo Railway and the next year the legendary city on the Neva set off. From the first concerts, Strauss managed to win universal sympathy. Women were especially admired by him. At first he was invited only for one season - for the summer of 1856. Over time, he became the permanent conductor of Pavlovsky concerts.