Dostoevsky

The swampy terrain along the River Neva (Peka Heba) wasn’t really suitable for building a city but, in 1703, Peter the Great - the Russian Tsar - believed its strategic location was perfect. Having spent time in The Netherlands, Peter wanted a city - like Amsterdam - of canals and shipbuilders.

How does one tell a ruler that his choice of land, which is subject to flooding, isn’t a sensible place for development? Exactly ... one doesn’t ... so site preparation commenced. At the time, no bridges spanned the Neva.

The first house was for Peter himself. It was a small wooden cabin, along the Neva, which still exists inside a protective pavilion. Peter lived there - in a total living space of about 60 square meters - while he supervised building his new fortress and the town itself.

For a time, St. Petersburg was just a town built up around the Peter and Paul Fortress. By 1712, however, it was large enough to become Russia’s new capital. Several years after Peter the Great died (in 1725), Elizabeth - his daughter - became empress and commissioned the Smolny Convent and the Winter Palace. During the twenty years of her reign, the city flourished and its population reached about 150,000. During this time, Peter the Great’s summer palace - called Peterhof - was remodeled by Bartolomeo Rastrelli. The home, and its stunning fountains, remain one of St. Petersburg’s biggest attractions.

Catherine the Great was the first to move into the Winter Palace, built along the Neva. The royal art collection, which Catherine started, eventually grew so significantly that it became the Hermitage Museum - now maintained in the Winter Palace.

Let’s take a closer look at life in the city which features so prominently in Dostoevsky’s writing.