August 19, 2025 • 24 mins
Few figures in history are as renowned as Peter the Great, often hailed as the architect of modern Russian civilization. His legacy captures the imagination of many, particularly young people, largely due to his adventurous journey to Holland. There, he immersed himself in the world of shipbuilding, even rolling up his sleeves to work in a local shipyard. The very workshop where Peter honed his skills still stands in Saardam, near Amsterdam, albeit in a state of decay. To protect this historical gem, it has been encased in a larger brick structure, drawing curious visitors from around the globe each year. The captivating story of Peter the Great, underscored by his hands-on approach to learning, offers profound insights and lessons for everyone.
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Chapter eleven of Peter the Great. This is a LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
by russ Lemker Peter the Great by Jacob Abbott, Chapter eleven,
(00:24):
the Building of Saint Petersburg. The struggle thus commenced between
the Tsar Peter and Charles the twelfth of Sweden for
the possession of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea
continued for many years. At first the Russians were everywhere
beaten by the Swedes, but at last, as Peter had predicted,
(00:46):
the King of Sweden taught them to beat him. The
commanders of the Swedish army were very ingenious in expedients,
as well as bold and energetic in action, and they
often gained an advantage over their enemy by their wit
as well as by their bravery. One instance of this
(01:07):
was their contrivance for rendering their prisoners helpless on their
march homeward after the Battle of Narva, by cutting their
clothes in such a manner as to compel the men
to keep both hands employed as they were walking along
the roads and holding them together. On another occasion, when
they had to cross a river in the face of
the Russian troops posted on the other side, they invented
(01:28):
a peculiar kind of boat, which was of great service
in enabling them to accomplish the transit in safety. These
boats were flat bottomed and square. The foremost end of
each of them was guarded by a sort of bulwark,
formed out of a plank and made very high. This
bulwark was fixed on hinges at the lower end, so
that it could be raised up and down. It was
(01:50):
of course kept up during the passage across the river,
and so served to defend the men in the boat
from the shots of the enemy. But when the boat
reached the shore it was let down, and then it
formed a platform or bridge by which the men could
all rush out together on to the shore. At the
same time, while they were getting these boats ready and
placing the men in them, the Swedes, having observed that
(02:12):
the wind blew across from their side of the river
to the other, made great fires on the bank and
covered them with wet straw, so as to cause them
to throw out a prodigious quantity of smoke. The smoke
was blown over to the other side of the river,
where it so filled the air as to prevent the
Russians from seeing what was going on. It was about
(02:33):
a year after the first breaking out of the war
that the tide of fortune began to turn in some
measure in favor of the Russians. About that time, the
Czar gained possession of a considerable portion of the Baltic shore,
and as soon as he had done so, he conceived
the design of laying the foundation of a new city there,
with the view of making it the naval and commercial
(02:55):
capital of his kingdom. The plan was carried most eccessfully
into effect in the building of the great city of
Saint Petersburg. The founding of this city was one of
the most important transactions in Peter's reign. Indeed, it was
probably by far the most important, and Peter owes perhaps
more of his great fame to this memorable enterprise than
(03:17):
to anything else that he did. The situation of Saint
Petersburg will be seen by the map in the preceding chapter.
At a little distance from the shore, there is a
large lake called the Lake of Ladoga. In outlet of
the Lake of Ladoga is a small river called the Neva.
The Lake of Ladoga is supplied with water by many
(03:39):
rivers which flow into it from the higher lands lying
to the northward and eastward of it, and it is
by the Neva that the surplus of these waters is
carried off to the sea. The circumstances under which the
attention of the Czar was called to the advantages of
this locality were these. He arrived on the banks of
the Neva at some distance above the mouth of the river,
(04:01):
in the course of his campaign against the Swedes in
the year seventeen o two. He followed the river down
and observed that it was pretty wide, and that the
water was sufficiently deep for the purpose of navigation. When
he reached the mouth of the river, he saw that
there was an island at some distance from the shore,
which might easily be fortified, and that, when fortified, it
(04:22):
would completely defend the entrance to the stream. He took
with him a body of armed men and went off
to the island in boats in order to examine it
more closely. The name of this island was then almost unknown,
but it is now celebrated throughout the world as the
seat of the renowned and impregnable fortress of Kronstad. There
(04:46):
was a Swedish ship in the offing at the time
when Peter visited the island, and this ship drew near
to the island and began to fire upon it as
soon as those on board saw that the Russian soldiers
had landed there. This cannonading drove the Russians back from
the shores, but instead of retiring from the island, they
went and concealed themselves behind some rocks. The Swedes supposed
(05:07):
that the Russians had gone around to the other side
of the island, and that they had there taken to
their boats again and returned to the main land. So
they determined to go to the island themselves and examine
it in order to find out what the Russians had
been doing there. They accordingly let down their boats and
a large party of Swedes embarking in them, rowed to
(05:28):
the island. Soon after they had landed, the Russians rushed
out upon them from their ambuscade, and after a sharp contest,
drove them back to their boats. Several of the men
were killed, but the rest succeeded in making their way
back to the ship and the ships Soon afterward, weighed
anchor and put to sea. Peter was now at liberty
to examine the island, the mouth of the river, and
(05:48):
all the adjacent shores as much as he pleased. He
found that the situation of the place was well adapted
to the purposes of a seaport. The island would serve
to defend the mouth of the river, and yet there
was deep water along the side of it, to an
afford an entrance for the ships. The water, too was
deep in the river, and the flow of the current smooth.
(06:09):
It is true that in many places the land along
the banks of the river was low and marshy, but
this difficulty could be remedied by the driving of piles
for the foundation of the buildings, which had been done
so extensively in Holland. There was no town on the
spot at the time of Peter's visit to it, but
only a few fishermen's hut near the outlet of the river,
(06:29):
and the ruins of an old fort a few miles above.
Peter examined the whole region with great care, and came
decidedly to the conclusion that he would make the spot
the sight of a great city. He matured his plans
during the winter, and in the following spring he commenced
the execution of them. The first building that was erected
(06:50):
was a low one story structure made of wood, to
be used as a sort of office and place of
shelter for himself while superintending the commencement of the works
that he had projected. This building was afterward preserved for
a long time with great care, as a precious relic
and souvenir of the foundation of the city. The Czar
(07:10):
had sent out orders to the governments of the different
provinces of the Empire, requiring each of them to send
his quota of artificers and laborers to assist in building
the city. This they could easily do, for in those
days all the laboring classes of the people were little
better than slaves, and were almost entirely at the disposal
of the nobles their masters. In the same manner, he
(07:34):
sent out agents to all the chief cities in Western Europe,
with orders to advertise there for carpenters, masons, engineers, shipbuilders,
and persons of all the other trades likely to be
useful in the work of building the city. These men
were to be promised good wages and kind treatment, and
were to be at liberty at any time to return
(07:54):
to their respective homes. The agents also, at the same
time invited the merchants of the cut entries that they
visited to send vessels to the new port, laden with
food for the people that were to be assembled there,
and implements for work and other merchandise suitable for the
wants of such a community. The merchants were promised good
prices for their goods and full liberty to come and
(08:17):
go at their pleasure. The Czar also sent orders to
a great many leading boyers or nobles, requiring them to
come and build houses for themselves in the new town.
They were to bring with them a sufficient number of
their serfs and retainers to do all the rough work
which would be required, and money to pay the foreign
mechanics for the skilled labor. The Bowyers were not at
(08:38):
all pleased with this summons. They already possessed their townhouses
in Moscow, with gardens and pleasure grounds in the environs.
The site for the new city was very far to
the northward, in a comparatively cold and inhospitable climate, and
they knew very well that even if Peter should succeed
in the end in establishing this new city. Several years
(08:58):
must elapse before they could live there in comfort. Still,
they did not dare to do otherwise than to obey
the Emperor's summons. In consequence of all these arrangements and preparations,
immense numbers of people came into the sight of the
new city in the course of the following spring and summer.
The numbers were swelled by the addition of the populations
of many towns and villages along the coasts that had
(09:21):
been ravaged or destroyed by the Swedes in the course
of the war. The works were immediately commenced on a
vast scale, and they were carried on during the summer
with great energy. The first thing to be secured, of course,
was the construction of the fortress, which was to defend
the town. There were wharves and peers to be built, too,
in order that the vessels bringing stores and provisions might
(09:42):
land their goods. The land was surveyed, streets laid out,
building lots assigned to merchants for warehouses and shops, and
to the boyers for palaces and gardens. The boyers commenced
the building of their houses and the Czar himself laid
the foundation of an imperial palace. But notwithstanding all the
(10:02):
preparations and precautions which Peter had taken to secure supplies
of everything required for such an undertaking, and to regulate
the work by systematic plans and arrangements, the operations were
for a time attended with a great deal of disorder
and confusion, and a vast amount of personal suffering. For
a long time there was no proper shelter for the laborers.
(10:23):
Men came to the ground much faster than huts could
be built to cover them, and they were obliged to
lie on the marshy ground without any protection from the weather.
There is also a great scarcity of tools and implements
suitable for the work that was required in felling and
transporting trees, and in excavating and filling up where changes
in the surface were required. In constructing the fortifications, for example,
(10:46):
which in the first incidence were made of earth, it
was necessary to dig deep ditches and to raise great embankments.
There was a great deal of the same kind of
work necessary on the ground where the city was to stand,
Before the work of erecting buildings could be commenced. There
were dikes and levees to be made along the margin
of the stream to protect the land from the inundations
(11:09):
to which it was subject when the river was swollen
with rains. There were roads to be made, and forests
to be cleared away, and many such other labors to
be performed now in order to employ at once the
vast concourse of laborers that were assembled on the ground.
In such a works as these, an immense number of
implements were required, such as pickaxes, spades, shovels, and wheelbarrows.
(11:33):
But so limited was the supply of these conveniences that
a great portion of the earth which was required for
the dikes and embankments was brought by the men in
their aprons, or in their skirts of their clothes, or
in bags made for the purpose out of old mats
or any other material that came to hand. It was
necessary to push forward the work promptly and without delay,
(11:56):
notwithstanding all these disadvantages, for the Swedes were still off
the coast with their ships, and no one knew how
soon they might draw near and open up a cannonade
upon the place, or even land, and attack the workmen
in the midst of their labors. What greatly increased the
difficulties of the case was the frequent falling short of
the supply of provisions. The number of men to be
(12:18):
fed was immensely large, for in consequence of the very
efficient measures which the Czar had taken for gathering men
from all parts of his dominions, it is said that
there were not less than three hundred thousand collected on
the spot in the course of the summer. And as
there were at that time no roads leading to the place,
all the supplies were necessarily to be brought by water,
but the approach from the Baltic side was well nigh
(12:41):
cut off by the Swedes, who had at that time
full possession of the sea. Vessels could however, come from
the interior by way of Lake Ladoga, But when for
several days or more the wind was from the west,
these vessels were all kept back, And then sometimes the
provisions fell short, and the men were reduced to great
distress to go yuard as much as possible, against the
(13:01):
danger of coming to absolute want. At the times when
the supplies were thus entirely cut off, the men were
often put on short allowance. Beforehand the emperor, it is true,
was continually sending out all requisitions for more food. But
the men increased in number faster, after all, than the
means for feeding them. The consequence was that immense multitudes
(13:22):
of them sinckened and died. The scarcity of food, combined
with the influence of fatigue and exposure men half fed,
working all day in the mud and rain, and at
night sleeping without any shelter, brought on fevers and dysenteries
and other similar diseases which always prevail in camps, and
among large bodies of men exposed to such influences as these.
(13:45):
It is said that not less than one hundred thousand
men perished from these causes at Saint Petersburg in the
course of the year. Peter doubtless regretted this loss of life,
as it tended to impede the progress of the work.
But after all it was a loss which he could
easily repair by sending out continually to the provinces for
fresh supplies of men. Those whom the nobles and governors
(14:06):
selected from among the serfs and ordered to go had
no option. They were obliged to submit, and thus the
supply of laborers was kept full, notwithstanding the dreadful mortality
which was continually tending to diminish it. If Peter had
been willing to exercise a little patience and moderation in
carrying out his plans, it is very probable that most
(14:27):
of this suffering might have been saved if he had
sent a small number of men to the ground the
first year, and had employed them in opening roads and
establishing granaries, and making other preliminary arrangement, and in the
meantime had caused sores of food to be purchased and
laid up, and ample supplies of proper tools and implements
to be procured and conveyed to the ground, so as
(14:49):
to have had everything ready for the advantageous of employment
of a large number of men in the following year.
Everything would perhaps have gone well. But the qualities of
patience and mind duration formed no part of Peter's character.
What he conceived of and determined to do must be
done at once, at whatever cost, and a cost of
(15:09):
human life seems to have been the one that he
thought less of than any other. He rushed headlong on,
notwithstanding the suffering which his impetuosity occasioned, and thus the hymn,
which solemnized the entrance into being of the new born city,
was composed of the groans of one hundred thousand men
dying in agony of want, of misery, and despair. Peter
(15:35):
was a personal witness to this suffering, for he remained
during a great part of the time on the ground,
occupying himself constantly in superintending and urging on the operations. Indeed,
it is said that he acted himself as a chief
engineer in planning the fortifications and in laying out the
streets of the city. He drew many of the plans
with his own hands, for among the other accomplishments which
(15:58):
he had acquired in the early part of his life,
he had made himself quite a good practical draftsman. When
the general plan of the city had been determined upon,
and proper places had been set apart for royal palaces
and pleasure grounds and public edifices of all sorts that
might be required, and also for open squares, docks, markets,
(16:20):
and the like, a great many streets were thrown open
for the use of any persons who might choose to
build houses in them. A vast number of the mechanics
and artisans, who had been attracted to the place by
the offers of the Czar, availed themselves of this opportunity
to provide themselves with homes, and they proceeded at once
to erect houses. A great many of the structures thus
(16:41):
built were mere huts or shanties, made of any rude
materials that came most readily to hand, and put up
in a very hasty manner. It was sufficient that the
tenement afforded a shelter from the rain, and that it
was enough of a building to fulfill the condition on
which the land was granted to the owner of it.
The number of these structures was, however, enormous. It was
(17:04):
said that in one year there were erected thirty thousand
of them. There is no instance in the history of
the world of so great a city springing into existence
with such marvelous rapidity as this. During the time while
Peter was thus employed in laying the foundations of his
new city, the King of Sweden was carrying on the
war in Poland against the conjoined forces of Russia and Poland,
(17:29):
which were acting together there as allies. When intelligence was
brought to him of the operations in which Peter was
engaged on the banks of the Neva. He said, it
is all very well. He may amuse himself as much
as he likes in building his city there. But by
and by, when I am a little at leisure, I
will go and take it away from him. Then if
I like the town, I will keep it, and if not,
(17:51):
I will burn it down. Peter, however, determined that it
should not be left within the power of the King
of Sweden to take his task, or even to molest
his operations in the building of it, if any precautions
on his part could prevent it. He had caused a
number of redoubts and batteries to be thrown up during
(18:12):
the summer. These works were situated at different points near
the outlet of the river and on the adjacent shores.
There was an island off the mouth of the river
which stood in a suitable position to guard the entrance.
This island was several miles distant from the place where
the city was to stand, and it occupied the middle
of the bay leading toward it. Thus, there was water
(18:36):
on both sides of it, but the water was deep
enough only on one side to allow the passage of
ships of war. Peter now determined to construct a large
and strong fortress on the shores of this island, placing
it in such a position that the guns could command
the channel leading up the bay. It was late in
the fall when he planned this work, and the winter
(18:57):
came on before he was ready to commence operation. This
time for commencing was, however, a matter of design on
his part, as the ice during the winter would assist
very much, he thought in the work of laying the
necessary foundations. For the fortress was not to stand on
the solid land, but on a sand bank which projected
from the land on the side toward the navigable channel.
(19:20):
The site of the fortress was to be about a
cannon shot from the land, and there being surrounded by
shallow water on every side, it could not be approached
either by land or sea. Peter laid the foundations of
this fortress on the ice by building immense boxes of
timber and plank and loading them with stones. When the
(19:41):
ice melted in the spring, these structures sank into the
sand and formed a stable and solid foundation on which
he could, afterworld build at pleasure. This was the origin
of the famous Castle of Kronstadt, which has since so
well fulfilled its purpose that it has kept the powerful
navies of Europe at bay in time of war and
(20:02):
prevented their reaching the city. Besides this great fortress, Peter
erected several detached batteries at different parts of the island,
so as to prevent the land from being approached at
all by the boats of the enemy. At length, the
King of Sweden began to be somewhat alarmed at the
accounts which he received of what Peter was doing, and
(20:23):
he determined to attack him on the ground and destroy
his works before he proceeded any further with them. He
accordingly ordered the Admiral of the fleet to assemble his
ships to sail up the Gulf of Finland, and there
attack and destroy the settlement which Peter was making. The
admiral made the attempt, but he found that he was
(20:44):
too late. The works were advanced too far and had
become too strong for him. It was on the fourth
of July seventeen o four that the Russian scouts, who
were watching on the shores of the bay, saw the
Swedish ships coming up. The fleet consisted of twenty two
men of war and many other vessels, besides the forts
and batteries. The Russians had a number of ships of
(21:06):
their own at anchor in the waters, and as the
fleet advanced, a tremendous cannonade was opened on both sides,
the ships of the Swedes against the ships and batteries
of the Russians. When the Swedish fleet had advanced as
far toward the island as the depth of water would allow,
they let down from the decks of their vessels a
great number of flat bottomed boats which they had brought
(21:29):
for the purpose, and filled them with armed men. Their
plan was to land these men on the island and
carry the Russian batteries there at the point of the bayonet,
but they did not succeed. They were received so hotly
by the Russians that, after an obstinate contest, they were
forced to retreat. They endeavored to get back to their boats,
(21:49):
but were pursued by the Russians, and now as their
backs were turned, they could no longer defend themselves, and
a great many were killed. Even those that were not
killed did not not all succeed in making their escape.
A considerable number, finding that they should not be able
to get to the boats, threw down their arms and
surrendered themselves prisoners, and then, of course the boats which
(22:12):
they belonged to were taken. Five of the boats thus
fell into the hands of the Russians, the others were
rowed back with all speed to the ships, and then
the ships withdrew. Thus the attempt failed entirely. The admiral
reported the ill success of his expedition to the King,
and not long afterward another similar attempt was made, but
with no better success than before. The new city was
(22:36):
now considered as firmly established, and from this time it
advanced very rapidly in wealth and population. Peter gave great
encouragement to foreign mechanics and artisans to come and settle
in the town, offering to some lands, to others houses,
and to others high wages for their work. The nobles
built elegant mansions there in the streets set apart for them,
(22:59):
and many public buildings of great splendor were planned and commenced.
The business of building ships, too, was introduced on an
extended scale. The situation was very favorable for this purpose,
as the shores of the river afforded excellent sites for
dry dock yards, and the timber required could be supplied
in great quantities from the shores of Lake Ladoga. In
(23:22):
a very few years after this, the first foundation of
the city, Peter, began to establish literary and scientific institutions there.
Many of these institutions have since become greatly renowned, and
they contribute a large share at the present day elan
that surrounds the celebrated city, and which makes it one
(23:43):
of the most splendid and renowned of the European capitals.
End of chapter eleven The Building of Saint Petersburg recording
by russ Lemker
Chapter eleven of Peter the Great. This is a LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
by russ Lemker Peter the Great by Jacob Abbott, Chapter eleven,
(00:24):
the Building of Saint Petersburg. The struggle thus commenced between
the Tsar Peter and Charles the twelfth of Sweden for
the possession of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea
continued for many years. At first the Russians were everywhere
beaten by the Swedes, but at last, as Peter had predicted,
(00:46):
the King of Sweden taught them to beat him. The
commanders of the Swedish army were very ingenious in expedients,
as well as bold and energetic in action, and they
often gained an advantage over their enemy by their wit
as well as by their bravery. One instance of this
(01:07):
was their contrivance for rendering their prisoners helpless on their
march homeward after the Battle of Narva, by cutting their
clothes in such a manner as to compel the men
to keep both hands employed as they were walking along
the roads and holding them together. On another occasion, when
they had to cross a river in the face of
the Russian troops posted on the other side, they invented
(01:28):
a peculiar kind of boat, which was of great service
in enabling them to accomplish the transit in safety. These
boats were flat bottomed and square. The foremost end of
each of them was guarded by a sort of bulwark,
formed out of a plank and made very high. This
bulwark was fixed on hinges at the lower end, so
that it could be raised up and down. It was
(01:50):
of course kept up during the passage across the river,
and so served to defend the men in the boat
from the shots of the enemy. But when the boat
reached the shore it was let down, and then it
formed a platform or bridge by which the men could
all rush out together on to the shore. At the
same time, while they were getting these boats ready and
placing the men in them, the Swedes, having observed that
(02:12):
the wind blew across from their side of the river
to the other, made great fires on the bank and
covered them with wet straw, so as to cause them
to throw out a prodigious quantity of smoke. The smoke
was blown over to the other side of the river,
where it so filled the air as to prevent the
Russians from seeing what was going on. It was about
(02:33):
a year after the first breaking out of the war
that the tide of fortune began to turn in some
measure in favor of the Russians. About that time, the
Czar gained possession of a considerable portion of the Baltic shore,
and as soon as he had done so, he conceived
the design of laying the foundation of a new city there,
with the view of making it the naval and commercial
(02:55):
capital of his kingdom. The plan was carried most eccessfully
into effect in the building of the great city of
Saint Petersburg. The founding of this city was one of
the most important transactions in Peter's reign. Indeed, it was
probably by far the most important, and Peter owes perhaps
more of his great fame to this memorable enterprise than
(03:17):
to anything else that he did. The situation of Saint
Petersburg will be seen by the map in the preceding chapter.
At a little distance from the shore, there is a
large lake called the Lake of Ladoga. In outlet of
the Lake of Ladoga is a small river called the Neva.
The Lake of Ladoga is supplied with water by many
(03:39):
rivers which flow into it from the higher lands lying
to the northward and eastward of it, and it is
by the Neva that the surplus of these waters is
carried off to the sea. The circumstances under which the
attention of the Czar was called to the advantages of
this locality were these. He arrived on the banks of
the Neva at some distance above the mouth of the river,
(04:01):
in the course of his campaign against the Swedes in
the year seventeen o two. He followed the river down
and observed that it was pretty wide, and that the
water was sufficiently deep for the purpose of navigation. When
he reached the mouth of the river, he saw that
there was an island at some distance from the shore,
which might easily be fortified, and that, when fortified, it
(04:22):
would completely defend the entrance to the stream. He took
with him a body of armed men and went off
to the island in boats in order to examine it
more closely. The name of this island was then almost unknown,
but it is now celebrated throughout the world as the
seat of the renowned and impregnable fortress of Kronstad. There
(04:46):
was a Swedish ship in the offing at the time
when Peter visited the island, and this ship drew near
to the island and began to fire upon it as
soon as those on board saw that the Russian soldiers
had landed there. This cannonading drove the Russians back from
the shores, but instead of retiring from the island, they
went and concealed themselves behind some rocks. The Swedes supposed
(05:07):
that the Russians had gone around to the other side
of the island, and that they had there taken to
their boats again and returned to the main land. So
they determined to go to the island themselves and examine
it in order to find out what the Russians had
been doing there. They accordingly let down their boats and
a large party of Swedes embarking in them, rowed to
(05:28):
the island. Soon after they had landed, the Russians rushed
out upon them from their ambuscade, and after a sharp contest,
drove them back to their boats. Several of the men
were killed, but the rest succeeded in making their way
back to the ship and the ships Soon afterward, weighed
anchor and put to sea. Peter was now at liberty
to examine the island, the mouth of the river, and
(05:48):
all the adjacent shores as much as he pleased. He
found that the situation of the place was well adapted
to the purposes of a seaport. The island would serve
to defend the mouth of the river, and yet there
was deep water along the side of it, to an
afford an entrance for the ships. The water, too was
deep in the river, and the flow of the current smooth.
(06:09):
It is true that in many places the land along
the banks of the river was low and marshy, but
this difficulty could be remedied by the driving of piles
for the foundation of the buildings, which had been done
so extensively in Holland. There was no town on the
spot at the time of Peter's visit to it, but
only a few fishermen's hut near the outlet of the river,
(06:29):
and the ruins of an old fort a few miles above.
Peter examined the whole region with great care, and came
decidedly to the conclusion that he would make the spot
the sight of a great city. He matured his plans
during the winter, and in the following spring he commenced
the execution of them. The first building that was erected
(06:50):
was a low one story structure made of wood, to
be used as a sort of office and place of
shelter for himself while superintending the commencement of the works
that he had projected. This building was afterward preserved for
a long time with great care, as a precious relic
and souvenir of the foundation of the city. The Czar
(07:10):
had sent out orders to the governments of the different
provinces of the Empire, requiring each of them to send
his quota of artificers and laborers to assist in building
the city. This they could easily do, for in those
days all the laboring classes of the people were little
better than slaves, and were almost entirely at the disposal
of the nobles their masters. In the same manner, he
(07:34):
sent out agents to all the chief cities in Western Europe,
with orders to advertise there for carpenters, masons, engineers, shipbuilders,
and persons of all the other trades likely to be
useful in the work of building the city. These men
were to be promised good wages and kind treatment, and
were to be at liberty at any time to return
(07:54):
to their respective homes. The agents also, at the same
time invited the merchants of the cut entries that they
visited to send vessels to the new port, laden with
food for the people that were to be assembled there,
and implements for work and other merchandise suitable for the
wants of such a community. The merchants were promised good
prices for their goods and full liberty to come and
(08:17):
go at their pleasure. The Czar also sent orders to
a great many leading boyers or nobles, requiring them to
come and build houses for themselves in the new town.
They were to bring with them a sufficient number of
their serfs and retainers to do all the rough work
which would be required, and money to pay the foreign
mechanics for the skilled labor. The Bowyers were not at
(08:38):
all pleased with this summons. They already possessed their townhouses
in Moscow, with gardens and pleasure grounds in the environs.
The site for the new city was very far to
the northward, in a comparatively cold and inhospitable climate, and
they knew very well that even if Peter should succeed
in the end in establishing this new city. Several years
(08:58):
must elapse before they could live there in comfort. Still,
they did not dare to do otherwise than to obey
the Emperor's summons. In consequence of all these arrangements and preparations,
immense numbers of people came into the sight of the
new city in the course of the following spring and summer.
The numbers were swelled by the addition of the populations
of many towns and villages along the coasts that had
(09:21):
been ravaged or destroyed by the Swedes in the course
of the war. The works were immediately commenced on a
vast scale, and they were carried on during the summer
with great energy. The first thing to be secured, of course,
was the construction of the fortress, which was to defend
the town. There were wharves and peers to be built, too,
in order that the vessels bringing stores and provisions might
(09:42):
land their goods. The land was surveyed, streets laid out,
building lots assigned to merchants for warehouses and shops, and
to the boyers for palaces and gardens. The boyers commenced
the building of their houses and the Czar himself laid
the foundation of an imperial palace. But notwithstanding all the
(10:02):
preparations and precautions which Peter had taken to secure supplies
of everything required for such an undertaking, and to regulate
the work by systematic plans and arrangements, the operations were
for a time attended with a great deal of disorder
and confusion, and a vast amount of personal suffering. For
a long time there was no proper shelter for the laborers.
(10:23):
Men came to the ground much faster than huts could
be built to cover them, and they were obliged to
lie on the marshy ground without any protection from the weather.
There is also a great scarcity of tools and implements
suitable for the work that was required in felling and
transporting trees, and in excavating and filling up where changes
in the surface were required. In constructing the fortifications, for example,
(10:46):
which in the first incidence were made of earth, it
was necessary to dig deep ditches and to raise great embankments.
There was a great deal of the same kind of
work necessary on the ground where the city was to stand,
Before the work of erecting buildings could be commenced. There
were dikes and levees to be made along the margin
of the stream to protect the land from the inundations
(11:09):
to which it was subject when the river was swollen
with rains. There were roads to be made, and forests
to be cleared away, and many such other labors to
be performed now in order to employ at once the
vast concourse of laborers that were assembled on the ground.
In such a works as these, an immense number of
implements were required, such as pickaxes, spades, shovels, and wheelbarrows.
(11:33):
But so limited was the supply of these conveniences that
a great portion of the earth which was required for
the dikes and embankments was brought by the men in
their aprons, or in their skirts of their clothes, or
in bags made for the purpose out of old mats
or any other material that came to hand. It was
necessary to push forward the work promptly and without delay,
(11:56):
notwithstanding all these disadvantages, for the Swedes were still off
the coast with their ships, and no one knew how
soon they might draw near and open up a cannonade
upon the place, or even land, and attack the workmen
in the midst of their labors. What greatly increased the
difficulties of the case was the frequent falling short of
the supply of provisions. The number of men to be
(12:18):
fed was immensely large, for in consequence of the very
efficient measures which the Czar had taken for gathering men
from all parts of his dominions, it is said that
there were not less than three hundred thousand collected on
the spot in the course of the summer. And as
there were at that time no roads leading to the place,
all the supplies were necessarily to be brought by water,
but the approach from the Baltic side was well nigh
(12:41):
cut off by the Swedes, who had at that time
full possession of the sea. Vessels could however, come from
the interior by way of Lake Ladoga, But when for
several days or more the wind was from the west,
these vessels were all kept back, And then sometimes the
provisions fell short, and the men were reduced to great
distress to go yuard as much as possible, against the
(13:01):
danger of coming to absolute want. At the times when
the supplies were thus entirely cut off, the men were
often put on short allowance. Beforehand the emperor, it is true,
was continually sending out all requisitions for more food. But
the men increased in number faster, after all, than the
means for feeding them. The consequence was that immense multitudes
(13:22):
of them sinckened and died. The scarcity of food, combined
with the influence of fatigue and exposure men half fed,
working all day in the mud and rain, and at
night sleeping without any shelter, brought on fevers and dysenteries
and other similar diseases which always prevail in camps, and
among large bodies of men exposed to such influences as these.
(13:45):
It is said that not less than one hundred thousand
men perished from these causes at Saint Petersburg in the
course of the year. Peter doubtless regretted this loss of life,
as it tended to impede the progress of the work.
But after all it was a loss which he could
easily repair by sending out continually to the provinces for
fresh supplies of men. Those whom the nobles and governors
(14:06):
selected from among the serfs and ordered to go had
no option. They were obliged to submit, and thus the
supply of laborers was kept full, notwithstanding the dreadful mortality
which was continually tending to diminish it. If Peter had
been willing to exercise a little patience and moderation in
carrying out his plans, it is very probable that most
(14:27):
of this suffering might have been saved if he had
sent a small number of men to the ground the
first year, and had employed them in opening roads and
establishing granaries, and making other preliminary arrangement, and in the
meantime had caused sores of food to be purchased and
laid up, and ample supplies of proper tools and implements
to be procured and conveyed to the ground, so as
(14:49):
to have had everything ready for the advantageous of employment
of a large number of men in the following year.
Everything would perhaps have gone well. But the qualities of
patience and mind duration formed no part of Peter's character.
What he conceived of and determined to do must be
done at once, at whatever cost, and a cost of
(15:09):
human life seems to have been the one that he
thought less of than any other. He rushed headlong on,
notwithstanding the suffering which his impetuosity occasioned, and thus the hymn,
which solemnized the entrance into being of the new born city,
was composed of the groans of one hundred thousand men
dying in agony of want, of misery, and despair. Peter
(15:35):
was a personal witness to this suffering, for he remained
during a great part of the time on the ground,
occupying himself constantly in superintending and urging on the operations. Indeed,
it is said that he acted himself as a chief
engineer in planning the fortifications and in laying out the
streets of the city. He drew many of the plans
with his own hands, for among the other accomplishments which
(15:58):
he had acquired in the early part of his life,
he had made himself quite a good practical draftsman. When
the general plan of the city had been determined upon,
and proper places had been set apart for royal palaces
and pleasure grounds and public edifices of all sorts that
might be required, and also for open squares, docks, markets,
(16:20):
and the like, a great many streets were thrown open
for the use of any persons who might choose to
build houses in them. A vast number of the mechanics
and artisans, who had been attracted to the place by
the offers of the Czar, availed themselves of this opportunity
to provide themselves with homes, and they proceeded at once
to erect houses. A great many of the structures thus
(16:41):
built were mere huts or shanties, made of any rude
materials that came most readily to hand, and put up
in a very hasty manner. It was sufficient that the
tenement afforded a shelter from the rain, and that it
was enough of a building to fulfill the condition on
which the land was granted to the owner of it.
The number of these structures was, however, enormous. It was
(17:04):
said that in one year there were erected thirty thousand
of them. There is no instance in the history of
the world of so great a city springing into existence
with such marvelous rapidity as this. During the time while
Peter was thus employed in laying the foundations of his
new city, the King of Sweden was carrying on the
war in Poland against the conjoined forces of Russia and Poland,
(17:29):
which were acting together there as allies. When intelligence was
brought to him of the operations in which Peter was
engaged on the banks of the Neva. He said, it
is all very well. He may amuse himself as much
as he likes in building his city there. But by
and by, when I am a little at leisure, I
will go and take it away from him. Then if
I like the town, I will keep it, and if not,
(17:51):
I will burn it down. Peter, however, determined that it
should not be left within the power of the King
of Sweden to take his task, or even to molest
his operations in the building of it, if any precautions
on his part could prevent it. He had caused a
number of redoubts and batteries to be thrown up during
(18:12):
the summer. These works were situated at different points near
the outlet of the river and on the adjacent shores.
There was an island off the mouth of the river
which stood in a suitable position to guard the entrance.
This island was several miles distant from the place where
the city was to stand, and it occupied the middle
of the bay leading toward it. Thus, there was water
(18:36):
on both sides of it, but the water was deep
enough only on one side to allow the passage of
ships of war. Peter now determined to construct a large
and strong fortress on the shores of this island, placing
it in such a position that the guns could command
the channel leading up the bay. It was late in
the fall when he planned this work, and the winter
(18:57):
came on before he was ready to commence operation. This
time for commencing was, however, a matter of design on
his part, as the ice during the winter would assist
very much, he thought in the work of laying the
necessary foundations. For the fortress was not to stand on
the solid land, but on a sand bank which projected
from the land on the side toward the navigable channel.
(19:20):
The site of the fortress was to be about a
cannon shot from the land, and there being surrounded by
shallow water on every side, it could not be approached
either by land or sea. Peter laid the foundations of
this fortress on the ice by building immense boxes of
timber and plank and loading them with stones. When the
(19:41):
ice melted in the spring, these structures sank into the
sand and formed a stable and solid foundation on which
he could, afterworld build at pleasure. This was the origin
of the famous Castle of Kronstadt, which has since so
well fulfilled its purpose that it has kept the powerful
navies of Europe at bay in time of war and
(20:02):
prevented their reaching the city. Besides this great fortress, Peter
erected several detached batteries at different parts of the island,
so as to prevent the land from being approached at
all by the boats of the enemy. At length, the
King of Sweden began to be somewhat alarmed at the
accounts which he received of what Peter was doing, and
(20:23):
he determined to attack him on the ground and destroy
his works before he proceeded any further with them. He
accordingly ordered the Admiral of the fleet to assemble his
ships to sail up the Gulf of Finland, and there
attack and destroy the settlement which Peter was making. The
admiral made the attempt, but he found that he was
(20:44):
too late. The works were advanced too far and had
become too strong for him. It was on the fourth
of July seventeen o four that the Russian scouts, who
were watching on the shores of the bay, saw the
Swedish ships coming up. The fleet consisted of twenty two
men of war and many other vessels, besides the forts
and batteries. The Russians had a number of ships of
(21:06):
their own at anchor in the waters, and as the
fleet advanced, a tremendous cannonade was opened on both sides,
the ships of the Swedes against the ships and batteries
of the Russians. When the Swedish fleet had advanced as
far toward the island as the depth of water would allow,
they let down from the decks of their vessels a
great number of flat bottomed boats which they had brought
(21:29):
for the purpose, and filled them with armed men. Their
plan was to land these men on the island and
carry the Russian batteries there at the point of the bayonet,
but they did not succeed. They were received so hotly
by the Russians that, after an obstinate contest, they were
forced to retreat. They endeavored to get back to their boats,
(21:49):
but were pursued by the Russians, and now as their
backs were turned, they could no longer defend themselves, and
a great many were killed. Even those that were not
killed did not not all succeed in making their escape.
A considerable number, finding that they should not be able
to get to the boats, threw down their arms and
surrendered themselves prisoners, and then, of course the boats which
(22:12):
they belonged to were taken. Five of the boats thus
fell into the hands of the Russians, the others were
rowed back with all speed to the ships, and then
the ships withdrew. Thus the attempt failed entirely. The admiral
reported the ill success of his expedition to the King,
and not long afterward another similar attempt was made, but
with no better success than before. The new city was
(22:36):
now considered as firmly established, and from this time it
advanced very rapidly in wealth and population. Peter gave great
encouragement to foreign mechanics and artisans to come and settle
in the town, offering to some lands, to others houses,
and to others high wages for their work. The nobles
built elegant mansions there in the streets set apart for them,
(22:59):
and many public buildings of great splendor were planned and commenced.
The business of building ships, too, was introduced on an
extended scale. The situation was very favorable for this purpose,
as the shores of the river afforded excellent sites for
dry dock yards, and the timber required could be supplied
in great quantities from the shores of Lake Ladoga. In
(23:22):
a very few years after this, the first foundation of
the city, Peter, began to establish literary and scientific institutions there.
Many of these institutions have since become greatly renowned, and
they contribute a large share at the present day elan
that surrounds the celebrated city, and which makes it one
(23:43):
of the most splendid and renowned of the European capitals.
End of chapter eleven The Building of Saint Petersburg recording
by russ Lemker
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