St. Petersburg

by Jonathan Miles

  Loznitsa, Sergei, dir., Blockade, using footage found in Soviet archives, Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography and St Petersburg Documentary Film Studios, 2005.

  ______Revue, using footage found in Soviet archives mainly from the Krushchev era, Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography & St Petersburg Documentary Film Studios, 2008.

  Nevzorov, Alexander, dir., 600 Seconds, Leningrad Chanel/St Petersburg Television.

  Polsky, Gabe, dir., Red Army, documentary, Weintraub and Herzog, 2014.

  van den Berg, Rob, dir., ‘Catching Up with Music’ with Valery Gergiev, bonus feature on Glinka, Ruslan and Lyudmila, conducted by Valery Gergiev, Kirov Opera and Chorus, Decca, 1996.

  Weinstein, Larry, dir., Shostakovich Against Stalin – The War Symphonies, documentary, Rhombus Films, 1997.

  OPERAS, MUSICALS AND DANCE

  Borodin, Alexander, Prince Igor, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, DVD Deutsche Grammophon, 2014.

  Glinka, Mikhail, A Life for the Tsar, conducted by Alexander Lazarev, DVD NVC ARTS, 1992.

  ______Ruslan and Lyudmila, conducted by Valery Gergiev, DVD Decca, 1995.

  Paris Dances Diaghilev, Paris Opera Ballet; VHS NVC ARTS, 1991.

  Prokofiev, Sergei, War and Peace, conducted by Valery Gergiev, Kirov/ Opera Bastille, 1991, Arthaus Musik, 2015.

  Rimsky-Korsakov, Le Coq d’Or, conducted by Kent Nagano, DVD Arthaus Musil, 2011.

  Shostakovich, Dmitri, Cheryomushki, dir. Paul Rappaport, Lenfilm, 1963; DVD Decca 2007.

  Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilyich, Eugene Onegin, conducted by Sir Georg Solti, dir. Petr Weigl, DVD Decca, 1990.

  DISCS

  Meader, Vaughn et al., The First Family, LP, New York: Cadence Records, November 1962.

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  The Menshikov Palace in 1717.

  Map of St Petersburg, c. 1718–20. The gridding of Vasilevksy Island was, at that stage, a mere projection.

  The evolution from the residual influences of a highly decorative baroque architecture through the early, vigorous phase of neoclassicism and on into more sophisticated variations on the style.

  St. John the Baptist Church at Chesme – now absorbed by southern St Petersburg; the stark Tuscan Doric columns of New Holland Arch; the tower over the central arch of the Admiralty; the Palace of Pavlovsk; the Mikhailovsky Palace’s main staircase.

  The Bronze Horseman in Senate Square, unveiled in 1782. A print by K. Ludwig after Benjamin Paterssen.

  A fair in St Petersburg, c. 1803, from A Picturesque Representation of the Manners, Customs and Amusements of the Russians in One Hundred Coloured Plates by John Atkinson and James Walker.

  The Nevsky Prospekts Police Bridge over the Moika with Wolff & Béranger café on the left.

  The Mikhailovsky Palace, now the Russian Museum.

  A. P. Bogolubov’s Sledging on the Neva, 1854.

  Postcard of the Mariinsky Theatre, which opened in 1860.

  Pyotr Vereshchagin, The Alexandrinsky Theatre, 1870s.

  Postcard of the Eliseev building, which went up on the Nevsky Prospekt between 1902 and 1903.

  The almost palatial Stil moderne interior of Vitebsk Station, created between 1902 and 1904.

  Postcard of the Nevsky Prospekt, c. 1909.

  That these three items appeared within a year of each other reveals the gulf between the tsarist assertion of the past and the desire of Russia’s performers and painters for a revolutionary future.

  menu for the banquet to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Romanov Dynasty in 1913.

  Auguste Rodin’s maquette for a sculpture of Nijinsky, The Dancer, 1912.

  Kasimir Malevich’s design for the Chorister costume in Victory Over the Sun, which premiered in 1913.

  International Women’s Day, February 1917: women workers demonstrate on the Nevsky Prospekt.

  Lenin speaking in Petrograd, July 1920.

  Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, First Snow, 1917 – a view of Senate Square from the University Embankment.

  Nikolai Terpsikhorov, The First Slogan, 1924 – turning their backs on antiquity, artists worked for the revolution.

  Alexander Rodchenko’s colourful revolutionary library was never more than an installation at the 1925 Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris; Vavara Stepanova’s design for unisex sportswear, 1920s: function and simplicity above all; women and men fight for the revolution in Alexander Deineka’s The Defence of Petrograd, 1928.

  Alexander Deineka, Construction of New Workshops, 1926.

  During the Siege. The poster reads, ‘Death to the Child Murderers’.

  ‘We Defended Leningrad! We Will Restore It!’

  Intourist buses parked in front of the Headquarters of the General Staff, 1979.

  Alexei Sundukov, Queue, 1986.

  Private enterprise on the Nevsky during the White Nights, 1993.

  Desperate selling, early 1990s.

  The pop art city. The Nevsky Prospekt, 2016.

  Temporary city heating pipes on Vasilevsky Island making way for pedestrians and traffic.

  The Nevsky Prospekt is full of surprises. Kazan Cathedral in the background.

  A glut of traffic, tourists and cables obscuring the city.

  A statue of Trezzini looks proudly out on all the might and the mess – on what has become of the city that Peter-the-Great engaged him to build.

  The Bronze Horseman.

  INDEX

  Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.

  Places and institutions in St Petersburg are indexed under themselves and not under the city. References in italics are to illustrations.

  Ablenovsky, Count, 197–8

  abortion, 395, 446

  Abramovich, Roman, 474

  Academy of Arts, 147–8, 148, 206, 235–6, 438

  Academy of Fine Arts, 372

  Academy of Sciences, 61, 74, 75, 156, 454

  Acosta, Jan d’, 96

  Adam, Adolfe, 244

  Adams, John Quincy, 193, 194, 195–6, 200, 203, 205

  administration: city, 130, 140; opaqueness under Nicholas I, 234–5; zemstvo introduced, 261; first mayor, 458–9

  Admiralty, 5, 34, 35, 73, 197, 198–9

  Admiralty Embankment structure, 280

  advertising, 333, 396

  agriculture, 388, 443

  Akakievich, Ivan, 10

  Akhmatova, Anna, 25, 373, 388, 404, 433, 454

  Aksakov, Ivan, 249

  Alaska, 74, 280

  alcohol: Peter I’s habits, 16–17, 19, 33, 38, 53, 64, 70; Catherine I’s habits, 25, 72–3, 75, 76; taphouses, 46–7; common people’s drinking habits in eighteenth century, 87, 129; Elizabeth’s habits, 110, 124; Peter III’s habits, 124; nineteenth-century servants and drinking, 191; Alexander I’s attitude, 195; fashionable drinks in nineteenth century, 255–6; epidemic of drunkenness under Alexander II, 268–9; state promotes weaker kinds in mid-twentieth century, 444; Seventies violence from alcoholism, 445, 450; Gorbachev campaigns against, 453; rationed in 1990, 455; average male daily vodka consumption, 462

  Aleksandrinsky Theatre, 209–10

  Alekseev, Fedor, 162

  Alembert, Jean de Rond d’, 143

  Alexander I, Emperor of Russia: birth, 153; variolated against smallpox, 168; Catherine II dies just before proclaiming him her successor, 179; agrees to coup deposing father, 189; reign, 190–213; attitude to alcohol, 195; St Petersburg building schemes, 196–7, 198–9, 206–10; childhood and upbringing, 200–1; marriage, 201; policies, 201–2; and Napoleonic Wars, 202, 203, 204, 205–6; expands Hermitage Collection, 210–11; resistance to political change, 211–12; plot against, 212–13; death, 213; monument to celebrate victory over Napoleon, 227, 228, 411–12, 470

  Alexander II, Emperor of Russia: buys back pieces of Cameo Service, 237; reign, 257–86; St Petersburg building schemes, 260, 280; pressures for reform under, 261–7, 271–3; issues Emancipation of Serfs Edict, 26
1–2; 1866 attempt on life, 269–70; 1879 attempt on life, 275; more threats to life, 276–8; foreign policy, 280; court corruption, 281; philandering and second marriage, 281–2; death, 282–6, 284

  Alexander III, Emperor of Russia: Narodnaya Volya disagree about plan to assassinate, 285; Narodnaya Volya petition him about father’s assassination, 285–6; reign, 286–98; character, 286; anti-Semitism under, 287–8; expansion of industry, 289–90; attempt on his life and backlash, 290–1; death, 298

  Alexander, Prince, of Battenberg, 277

  Alexander Column, 227, 228, 411–12, 470

  Alexander Nevsky, St, 79, 96–7 Alexander Nevsky (film), 408, 424

  Alexander Nevsky Monastery, 85, 96–7, 155

  Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia (Nicholas I’s wife), 236, 240, 245

  Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia (Nicholas II’s wife): background, 300; character, 300; taste in interior design, 307, 350–1; children, 336; relationship with Rasputin, 336–8, 346; interest in paranormal, 342, opens hospital in Winter Palace, 350–1; growing unpopularity, 352; reaction to Rasputin’s death, 354; family put under guard, 357; moved with family to Tobolsk, 361; death, 375

  Alexandra Theatre, 240

  Alexandrova (ballerina), 293

  Alexei I, Tsar of Russia, 10–11, 20

  Alexei, Prince (Peter I’s son), 13, 38, 44, 58–60, 70–1

  Alexei, Tsarcvich (Nicholas II’s son), 336–8, 375

  Alexei, Metropolitan, 422

  Algarotti, Francesco, 42, 82–3

  Alisa, 465

  ‘All-Mad, All-Jesting, All-Drunken Assembly’, 16, 30, 43, 56, 64, 75–6

  Almedingen, Marta, 307, 332, 367, 376

  Altman, Nathan, 374

  America: Russia annexes Alaska and Pacific Northwest, 74; see also USA ’

  Amsterdam, 15–16, 22, 50

  Andronnikov, Mikhail, 346–7

  Andropov, Yuri, 453

  Angleterre hotel, 454

  Anichkov Palace, 105–6, 123, 199, 214, 287, 431

  Anna (Catherine II’s daughter), 117

  Anna Ivanovna, Empress of Russia: marries Duke of Courland, 37–8; succeeds to throne, 80; reign, 80–101; retinue, 83–4; appearance and character, 84; influential figures at court, 87–8; lifestyle and interest in the arts, 88–95; persecution under, 98–9

  Anna Leopoldovna, Regent of Russia, 93–4, 99, 100

  Anna Pavlovna, Grand Duchess (Paul’s daughter), 212, 225, 244

  Anna Petrovna (Peter I’s daughter), 39, 72

  Anne, Princess (future Queen Anne), 19

  Annenkov, Yuri, 369–70

  anti-Semitism see Jews appliances, household, 450

  Apraksin, Count Fedor, 122

  Apraksin, Admiral Fyodor, 34

  Apraksin, Field Marshal, 108

  Araja, Francesco, 93, 116

  Arkhangelsk, 14, 24, 25, 371

  arms industry, 271, 331, 349–50

  art: Peter I’s interest, 50, 62; Imperial Academy founded, 121; Catherine II’s interest, 142, 147; she assembles Hermitage Collection, 157–62; topographical painting and engraving, 163; Paul’s purchases, 180–1; collections evacuated in preparation for Napoleon’s invasion, 205; Alexander I expands Hermitage Collection, 210–11; painters in Nicholas I’s reign, 235–6; New Hermitage built to house imperial collection, 238–9; New Hermitage acquisitions under Alexander II, 260; students of history painting request a more contemporary title for their exam, 260–1; Wanderers movement, 273–4; Alexander III funds what will be Russian Museum, 291; he also expands Hermitage Collection, 291; Nevsky Pickwickians and Mir Istkusstva, 301–4; Russian works exhibited at 1906 Paris Salon, 327; 1909 modern art exhibition at Menshikov Palace, 340; Der Blaue Reiter group, 340; Union of Youth movement, 340–1; other avant-garde art under Nicholas II, 341–2; in early days of Soviet government, 371–2, 374; appropriation of private collections and antique smuggling, 373, 378; Hermitage reopens, 378; in Soviet era, 381–2, 389–91, 394, 437–8; some Hermitage works sold and remaining ones recontextualised, 402–3; treasures moved out of St Petersburg so as not to fall into German hands, 412; Hermitage tours for soldiers during Second World War, 426–7; Hermitage paintings returned after war, 431; Russia takes many artworks from Germany in recompense for invasion, 431; exhibitions from abroad grow in number, 449

  art nouveau, 305–7, 306

  Artamonov, Mikhail, 437–8

  Artillery and Engineers’ schools, 121

  Artillery Laboratory, 61

  Asafiev, Boris, 393

  assemblées, 55

  Astrakhan, 32

  Aurora (ship), 362

  Austerlitz, Battle of (1805), 202

  Austria, 111, 202, 349

  aviation, 331, 341

  Aved, Jacques, 158

  Azeff, Evno, 311

  Azov-Don Bank, 332–3

  Bakst, Léon, 293, 302, 304, 308, 340

  Bakunin, Mikhail, 248, 250, 271

  Balabanov, Alexei, 333–4, 465

  Balakirev, Mily, 242, 279–80, 287

  Balatri, Filippo, 13–14, 24

  ballet: St Petersburg Classical Dance and Ballet School (later Imperial Ballet School) founded, 83; Anna’s attitude to, 93; under Alexander I, 210; under Nicholas I, 242–4; early nineteenth-century changes; under Alexander III, 293–8, 296; imperial ballet strikes in 1905, 299, 321–2; some intellectual discontent with, 317; under Nicholas II, 328–30, 338–40, 343, 351–2; during Kerensky’s Provisional Government, 358–9; in Soviet era, 378, 389, 404–5, 424–5, 427, 438–9, 440–1, 450–1; in twenty-first century, 475

  Ballets Russes, 329–30, 351, 359

  ballooning, 194

  balls: under Catherine I, 72; under Anna, 92; under Elizabeth, 117; under Catherine II, 137; under Alexander I, 192–3; under Nicholas I, 244–5; under Alexander III, 286–7; under Nicholas II, 300–1, 345

  banks and banking, 166, 289

  banya see baths

  Baranovsky, Gavriil, 343

  barbers, 132

  Baring, Maurice, 325, 326–7

  Barkhin, Grigory, 390–1

  baroque, 31, 46, 52, 103, 104–5, 106, 149

  Basilewski Collection, 291

  baths (banya), 56, 169–70, 169, 380 The Battleship Potempkin (film), 319, 392

  Beardsley, Aubrey, 302–3

  The Beatles, 448

  beggars, 327

  Behrens, Peter, 349

  Belinskaya, Stanislava, 296

  Belinsky, Vissarion: on St Petersburg, 227, 371; on the court, 228–9; on popular drinks and dances, 230; on St Petersburg’s citizens, 232.; as revolutionary thinker and writer, 248, 249; on Bulgarin, 252

  Bell, John, 28, 41, 60

  Belsky, Igor, 438–9

  Benckendorff, General Alexander von, 216

  Bennigsen, General von, 189

  Benois, Alexandre: on Tsarskoe Selo, 106–7; frontispiece to Pushkin book, 224; catalogues works at Russian Museum, 291; background and relationship with Nevsky Pickwickians, 301–2; on Nicholas II and art, 304; on ballet, 317; on Nijinsky, 329; Petrushka, 338–9; paintings exhibited at Menshikov Palace, 340; visits Winter Palace hospital, 350–1

  Benois, Nicholas, 302

  Berggolts, Olga, 416, 419

  Bergholtz, Friedrich Wilhelm von, 63–4

  Beria, Lavrenti, 434

  Bering, Captain Vitus, 74

  Berlatskaya, Chionya, 336

  Berlin, 51

  Berlioz, Hector, 241, 278

  Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Lieutenant, 213, 215–16, 220

  Betskoy, Ivan, 144

  Biely, Andrei: and Bronze Horseman statue, 147; Petersburg, 233–4, 314, 320–1; on Duncan, 299; on St Petersburg’s workers, 304; prose symphony, 343; appearance in immediate aftermath of 1917 Revolution, 373

  ‘Big House’, 400, 401

  Biron, Count Ernst Johann von, 81, 87–8, 98, 99, 100

  Black Hundred gangs, 323, 326

  black markets, 385

  Blackford, Henrietta, 281

  Bl
anc, Louis, 250

  Der Blaue Reiter group, 340

  Blok, Alexander, 288, 299

  Bloody Sunday (1903), 309–17, 315

  Boeing-Boeing (farce), 475

  Bogdanov, Andrei, 120

  Bogrov, Mordko, 337

  Bokova, Mariya, 266

  Bolsheviks: origins, 325–6; Duma delegates arrested, 330; membership decreases between 1907 and 1911, 331; begin to take control of St Petersburg, 348; promises to the people, 355; seize power, 359–62; early days of government, 365–83; consolidate power brutally, 370

  books and publishing: in seventeenth-century Amsterdam, 15; Peter I’s library, 50; under Catherine II, 141–2; Imperial Russian Public Library built, 157; formal censorship introduced, 175; Paul bans foreign imports, 184; Alexander I’s policies, 201; Third Section receives copies of all printed matter, 220; writings begin to circulate without being printed, 221; censorship tightens and government propaganda increases, 252–4, 256; censorship eased under Alexander II, 261; tightened again, 263; growth in desire for sensationalism in early twentieth century, 333; under Stalin, 388–9; censorship continues under Khrushchev, 437; see also literature and learning

  Borisov-Musatov, Viktor, 303

  Borodin, Alexander, 272, 278, 279, 292

  Borodino, Battle of (1812), 204