Location: Situating the City

Abstract

As founder of St Petersburg, Peter I consciously, and arguably also subconsciously, attempted to control both the city’s space and its inhabitants, in pursuit of certain goals. These goals were in part related to his wider reform agenda — that of transforming Russia into a stronger entity, domestically and internationally — but were also emblematic of a desire to use the city as a testing ground for certain specific ventures. Whilst St Petersburg began life as a fortified port on the Baltic coast, considerable efforts were made by Peter I and his successors to provide it with the appearance, institutions and activities of something much more in keeping with a royal residence or a capital city. The cities that Peter himself visited during the Grand Embassy of 1697–8 provided a natural starting point for some of the inspirations for his new project. This list of cities includes both large capitals and some of the smaller, but significant cities in central Europe: Riga, Mitau, Königsberg, Amsterdam (specifically Zaandam), London, Leipzig, Dresden, Prague, Vienna and Rawa. These cities provided a range of experiences and examples that would prove important, to varying degrees, in Peter’s planning. Whether as international ports, commercial centres, seats of learning or sites of courtly culture, they provided a tangible flavour of the possibilities available to the young Tsar.