Original citadel of Saint Petersburg, Russia
The
Peter and Paul Fortress
(
Russian
:
Петропавловская крепость
,
romanized
:
Petropavlovskaya krepost'
) is the original
citadel
of
Saint Petersburg
, Russia, founded by
Peter the Great
in 1703 and built to
Domenico Trezzini
's designs from 1706 to 1740 as a
star fortress
.
[1]
Between the first half of the 1700s and early 1920s it served as a prison for political criminals. It has been a museum since 1924.
[2]
History
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From foundation until 1917
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]
The fortress was established by
Peter the Great
on May 16 (
Old Style
; henceforth "(O.S.)"; May 27 by the
Gregorian calendar
) 1703 on small
Hare Island
by the north bank of the
Neva
river. From around 1720, the fort served as a base for the city garrison and also as a prison for high-ranking or
political prisoners
.
Russian Revolution and beyond
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]
During the
February Revolution
of 1917, it was attacked by mutinous soldiers of the
Pavlovsky Life Guards Regiment
on February 27 (O.S.) and the prisoners were freed. Under the
Provisional Government
, hundreds of Tsarist officials were held in the Fortress.
The tsar was threatened with being incarcerated at the fortress on his return from
Mogilev
to
Tsarskoye Selo
on March 8 (O.S.); but he was placed under house arrest. On July 4 (O.S.) during the
July Days
demonstrations, the fortress garrison of 8,000 men declared for the
Bolsheviks
. They surrendered to government forces without a struggle on July 6 (O.S.).
On October 25 (O.S.), the fortress quickly fell into Bolshevik hands. Following the ultimatum from the
Petrograd Soviet
to the Provisional Government ministers in the
Winter Palace
, after the blank salvo of the cruiser
Aurora
at 21.00, the guns of the fortress fired 30 or so shells at the Winter Palace. Just two hit, inflicting only minor damage, and the defenders refused to surrender at that time. At 02.10 on the morning of October 26 (O.S.), the Winter Palace was taken by forces under
Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko
; the captured ministers were taken to the fortress as prisoners. On 28 January 1919, four grand dukes from the
House of Romanov
were shot within the walls of the fortress on the orders of the Presidium of the
Cheka
under
Felix Dzerzhinsky
,
Yakov Peters
,
Martin Latsis
, and
Ivan Ksenofontov
.
The structure suffered heavy damage during the bombardment of the city during
World War II
by the
Luftwaffe
who were laying siege to the city. It has been restored post-war and is a tourist attraction.
[1]
Public perception
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In the years before and after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, the Peter and Paul Fortress was portrayed by Bolshevik propaganda as a hellish, torturous place, where thousands of prisoners suffered endlessly in filthy, cramped, and grossly overcrowded dungeons amid frequent torture and malnutrition. Such legends had the effect of turning the prison into a symbol of government oppression in the minds of the common folk. In reality, conditions in the fortress were far less brutal than believed; no more than one hundred prisoners were ever kept in the prison at a time, and most prisoners had access to such luxuries as tobacco, writing paper, and literature (including subversive books such as
Karl Marx
's
Das Kapital
).
Despite their ultimate falsehood, stories about the prison were vital to the spread of Bolshevik revolutionary sentiment. The legends served to portray the government as cruel and indiscriminate in the administration of justice, helping to turn the common mind against Tsarist rule. Many inmates, after being released, wrote chilling and increasingly exaggerated accounts of life there that solidified the structure's horrible image in the public mind and pushed the people further towards dissent. Writers often purposely exaggerated their experiences to garner more hatred for the government; as writer and former Peter and Paul inmate
Maksim Gorky
would later state, "Every Russian who had ever sat in jail as a 'political' prisoner considered it his holy duty to bestow on Russia his memoirs of how he had suffered."
[3]
Sights
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The fortress contains several buildings clustered around the
Peter and Paul Cathedral
(1712?1733), which has a 122.5 m (402 ft) bell-tower and a gilded angel-topped cupola.
Other structures inside the fortress include the still functioning
Saint Petersburg Mint
building
[1]
(constructed to Antonio Porta's designs under Emperor
Paul I
), the Trubetskoy Bastion with its grim prison cells, and the
city museum
.
- Views of the fortress
-
Peter and Paul Fortress. View across the Neva River
-
Entrance from Ioannovsky Bridge
-
-
View of the fortress and cathedral from the Neva
-
Peter and Paul Fortress at sunset
-
Walls
To the north of the fortress across the
Kronverksky Strait
lies the
Kronverk
, formerly the fortress' outer defence and now home to the
Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineers and Signal Corps
.
Midday Cannon Shot
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During the time of Peter the Great, a shot from the cannon of the Peter and Paul Fortress was heard in honor of military victories, on holidays, and also to warn residents about the rise in the water level of the Neva.
Since 1873, the cannon is fired at noon. Residents of the city even checked their watches by the shot. The gun was silent only in times of revolutions and wars. However, nowadays the gunshot can be heard every day at 12 noon.
[4]
References
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External links
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