St. Petersburg

Question #1 From the Start, St. Petersburg was a city with forceful origins. Before construction, St. Petersburg’s location was structurally incapable of supporting large settlement. To overcome these unstable conditions, it was necessary to mobilize thousands of peasants, artisans and nobles. These peasants lacked basic construction tools, leaving them dependent on brute force to complete the massive project. The city also relied heavily on the architectural and technical experts from all over europe who were attracted to the costly undertaking. The rapid and long-term mobilization of labor shows that Peter’s Russia had a large population that could expend and feed thousands of workers. Furthermore, this rapid, long-term mbilization is a

At the time of St. Petersburg’s construction, there were no Russian play, ideas, innovations or books. The country was stuck in a medieval, peasant-based society that was based on feudalism, and religion, which left the country vulnerable to advanced European neighbors. The construction of a new city, St Petersburg, marks a new beginning. By building Petersburg on the coast, Peter sought to make Russia more cosmopolitan and advanced by importing the latest, groundbreaking technologies and ideas of the west. Ocean access was clearly meant to facilitate Russia’s exposure to the rest western world. Up until Petersburg’s construciton, Russia was landlocked and geographically isolated from the advances of the European enlightenment. Petersburg was filled with buildings and palaces built by European architects. The goal was to build a modern, European city in Russia, in which peter could gather the nobility and surround them with European culture. The fact that Peter was willing to build a city for this purpose alone, shows how backwards he thought the obility really was. Petersburg was a gateway from which European ideas could spread into Europe. It’s European style also acted as a signal to the world that Russia was capable of becoming

Firstly, Muscovy was influenced by the culture of the previous mongol empire, under whose rule it formed as a state. Muscovy was deeply religious and saw western culture as heretical. As a result, its mongol-influenced culture was impervious to European ideas. Peters’s Russia on the other hand, was filled with European people, culture, ideas and secularism, that were intentionally imported to expose Russia to western influence. Muscovy embodied the original religious, traditional, agricultural and some would argue, moral spirit of the Russian people. Petersburg on the other hand, embodied the cosmopolitan, matieralist, secular, enlightened, urban spirit of Western Europe. The two cities embodied opposite states of