The Presidential Library illustrates the main "perspective" of St. Petersburg

Marking the year of the 320th anniversary of St. Petersburg, the Presidential Library illustrates the history of the main thoroughfare of the city.

“There is nothing better than Nevsky Prospekt”, - wrote Nikolai Gogol in his eponymous story. Indeed, Nevsky Prospekt, which is the same age as the city of Peter the Great, is the "face" of St. Petersburg. The history of Nevsky Prospekt is associated with two "beginnings" - the construction of the Admiralty and the Alexander Nevsky Monastery.

“The Admiralty fortress-shipyard was founded in 1704”, - writes Nikolay Lanceray in the book Main Admiralty. Brief Outline of its Creation. Entire Russian villages and cities (Kargopol, Vologda, Ustyug) were involved in the construction of the Admiralty. In front of the Admiralty was a meadow (now the Alexander Garden), shops and workshops were located around. Between the Admiralteisky meadow and the Moika, they built the Sea Sloboda (buildings for workers) and the sea market, where they traded meat, fish, firewood and hay. Next to the market stood one of the first "famous" buildings on the future Nevsky Prospekt - the house of Admiral Cornelius Cruys, who supervised the construction of the Admiralty.

In order to establish a connection between the city and central Russia, a good road was needed. It was decided to lay the "perspective" along the shortest route from the Admiralty to the Novgorodsky tract, which ran along the route of modern Ligovsky Prospekt. So the first direction of Nevsky Prospekt was set, called the "Big Perspective Road".

The second direction of Nevsky Prospekt was associated with the construction of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery according to Ivan Bozheryanov’s book Nevsky Prospekt.

According to Ivan Pushkarev’s book Description of St. Petersburg and county towns of St. Petersburg province, a digital copy of which is available in the Presidential Library, says that by 1719 the road was “managed”, and in 1721, according to Ivan Bozheryanov book Nevsky Prospect, “it already seemed beautiful”.

Thus, two segments of the future Nevsky Prospekt - Bolshaya Pershpektiva (from the Admiralty) and Nevskaya Pershpektiva (from the Alexander Nevsky Monastery) - were built at different times and were called differently until 1738. The pace of construction was also different. The Neva prospect was built up faster, the lands around it were allotted for monastic lands. The big prospect was started earlier, but the construction was slower - perhaps this was due to Peter's intention to make Vasilyevsky Island the center of the city.

The construction of Nevsky Prospekt was fraught with various difficulties, requiring large financial costs and physical effort. Workers drove poles into the viscous soil of the swampy area, they laid logs taken from the bottoms of the barges on them, and then covered them with boards. Every year, the swampy soil sucked in the flooring, and everything had to be done anew. The maintenance of the road turned out to be expensive, so a toll was introduced - and not only with money, but also with stones, which later paved the central St. Petersburg highway.

In the 18th century, along the Neva Perspective, wooden houses stood randomly among the birches, and the inhabitants dried linen and household utensils on the branches, until a decree was issued according to which it was no longer allowed to “hang anything on the birch trees on the Neva Perspective”. The houses of the townsfolk were gradually “transferred” to the nearest streets, and the Great Perspective area began to be built up with stone mansions. At that time, architects Mikhail Zemtsov and Bartolomeo Rastrelli, Baron Sergei Stroganov, favorites of the Empress Alexei Razumovsky and Ivan Shuvalov lived on Nevsky Prospekt. By the middle of the 18th century, the architecture of Nevsky Prospekt was already in the Baroque style. Birch alley was carefully preserved.

The Elizabethan baroque was replaced by the classicism of Catherine the Great. Scientific and educational functions were added to the residential and commercial functions of Nevsky Prospekt: in 1801, at the corner of Sadovaya Street and Nevsky, the construction of the building of the first public library in Russia was completed. Stone bridges were erected across the Fontanka, the Moika and the Catherine Canal (now the Griboyedov Canal). In November 1841, on one of the bridges, the sculptural group "Horse Tamers" by architect Pyotr Klodt appeared, which is now a symbol of St. Petersburg. In the middle of the 19th century, the building of the State Duma and the Duma Tower appeared, which became another famous vertical of Nevsky Prospekt and gave it classical austerity.

Ivan Pushkarev’s book Description of St. Petersburg and county towns of St. Petersburg province includes a description of St. Petersburg of the 19th century: “Kazan Cathedral with monuments to two famous commanders of our time, four churches of other faiths, Anichkov Palace, Alexandrinsky Theater, Public Library and Gostiny Dvor make up the precious necklace of Nevsky Prospekt, along which numerous and colorful crowds of strollers scurry about on clear winter days and at the beginning of spring.

The 19th century was also marked for Nevsky Prospekt by the opening of the Nikolaevsky (now Moscow) railway station. It was very popular, the flow of passengers was huge, and therefore it became necessary to build hotels and apartment buildings in this part of Nevsky. The appearance of horse cars, electric lamps, the first telephone exchange in Russia, as well as the formation of large and small banks and credit offices, became a sign of the rapid capitalization of Nevsky Prospekt.

In the 20th century, publishing houses appeared on Nevsky Prospekt, illuminated by advertisements, and the first cinemas opened. So on Nevsky, 60 the cinema "Aurora" was opened, and on Nevsky, 15 - "Svetlaya Lenta" (later the cinema "Barricade").

One of the most amazing buildings was the shop of the brothers-millionaires Eliseevs. The building was built in the fashionable Art Nouveau style using new, newly appeared building materials - concrete, metal structures, allowing new engineering experiments: high ceilings, huge stained-glass windows almost in the entire facade, electric lighting. The poet Georgy Ivanov wrote: “On Nevsky Prospekt, like mushrooms, ‘luxurious’ buildings sprang up one after another — real ‘monsters’, like Eliseev’s store or Singer House”.

During the Soviet period, Nevsky Prospekt was renamed "October 25 Prospect" in honor of the beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. During the Civil War, the avenue literally dimmed - it was not illuminated, it was not repaired for a long time.

The whims of capitalist chic were leaving, the development of Nevsky Prospekt went "another way". From dark tones Nevsky was repainted in light. In 1924, two loudspeakers were installed on the avenue, the first radio broadcasting points in Leningrad. New theaters were opened - the Red Theatre, the Theater of Experiences and others. Most of them did not last long, but some - for example, the E. S. Demmeni Puppet Theater, which still exists.

The history of the main perspective of St. Petersburg also includes the loss of some monuments: for example, in 1929, at the request of the “Old Petersburg - New Leningrad” society, a chapel was demolished next to the Gostiny Dvor on the Perinnaya Line - the building in the neo-Russian style was considered “ugly”. In October 1937, the monument to Emperor Alexander III was dismantled in front of the Moscow railway station. In the spring of 1941, the Znamenskaya Church, erected during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna and completing the front part of Nevsky Prospekt, was blown up on the same square (the Ploshchad Vosstaniya metro station stands on its foundation).

The appearance of Nevsky was "distorted" by the Great Patriotic War. In January 1944, the name of Nevsky Prospekt was returned. The post-war period for Nevsky was a time of revival of the historical appearance of buildings. Advertising returned again, an underground passage was built at the intersection of Nevsky and Sadovaya, and the metro stations Nevsky Prospekt, Gostiny Dvor, and Mayakovskaya were opened.

In the XXI century, Nevsky continues to change and delight the inhabitants of the city. At all times, the avenue has been the best place for holding events, solemn meetings and, of course, for walking citizens and tourists.

From century to century, a passerby walking along the Nevsky seems to become a hero of Russian literature. Let us recall the poem by Yuri Levitansky "Lament for Mr. Golyadkin". His hero - "an old St. Petersburg resident", "a donquixote in the manner of St. Petersburg", "a gentle and meek person" - fights, measures his strength with Nevsky Prospekt, whose inhabitants "strive to bite, then pinch, then touch the floor of the overcoat". In this case, Nevsky Prospekt acquires an allegorical meaning.

Everyone walking along Nevsky seems to merge with it, sharing and creating its history together with it. I recall the words of Nikolai Gogol, addressed to the main prospect of St. Petersburg: “Almighty Nevsky Prospekt! How cleanly its sidewalks are swept, and, God, how many feet have left their footprints on it”.

The Presidential Library’s collection Nevsky Prospekt features unique materials about the history of the main street of St. Petersburg. It also includes electronic copies of images of Nevsky Prospekt, which testify to how the main "perspective" of St. Petersburg has changed during its existence.