For a time in Russian history, only St. Petersburg allowed the construction of stone houses. Is this a ridiculous move or a clever manipulation? Let's take a look!
Peter the Great wrote in a decree of 1714: "The stone buildings here [in St. Petersburg] were built very slowly, because even with good salaries it was difficult to find stonemasons and other similar artists." "Therefore, nationwide, it is forbidden for anyone, regardless of name, to carry out any stone construction for several years, under the threat of confiscation of property and exile." By "stone architecture" Peter refers to brick buildings.
Ten years after the founding of St. Petersburg, there was still a shortage of stonemasons at the construction sites of the city at that time. Peter believed that if he banned stone building, stonemasons from all over the country would go to St. Petersburg to find work, and that was the case. However, this was not the only measure by Which Peter the Great made St. Petersburg a stone city rather than a wooden one.
Deadly construction work
St. Petersburg is also a reputation project of the Russian government. Building a modern European city from scratch on the marshlands at the mouth of the Neva River is an ambitious undertaking that has left the whole of Europe in awe – in the process of construction, countless people have died.
In 1723, the French envoy Jacques de Campriton reported that more than 150,000 people had been killed during the construction of St. Petersburg. In 1733, Francis Dashwood, the first Englishman to travel to Russia, said that the number was more than twice as large, and that the workers died of starvation and disease. However, this is far from the case.
From 1703 to 1704, St. Petersburg had two main builders. Most of the unqualified workers — builders, loaders, excavators — belonged to the peasants and serfs of the state. Every year a certain number of people are sent to St. Petersburg on the orders of the emperor. The Russian historian Ekaterina Andreyeva notes that between 1703 and 1712, about 190,000 unqualified peasants were sent to St. Petersburg. These farmers are paid, have health care, and don't stay in the cities very long — they work three-month shifts before they can go home.
Another category of workers were qualified quarries, stonemasons, blacksmiths and carpenters, who were invited to St. Petersburg. Andreyeva studied archival data from 1704 to 1711, which showed that 13-14,000 qualified workers were actually sent to St. Petersburg. They also have salaries, though higher than those of farmers.
Historians also prove that the mortality rate of workers in St. Petersburg was not higher than the average of the total population of the country at that time (about 10%). Thousands of workers simply could not have lost their lives in the construction of the city – which meant that almost all the workers sent there were killed.
However, the construction sites did lack workers: "What is most needed is the blacksmith, because without them, some construction sites are completely static and quiet, and the carpenters are also in demand," a St. Petersburg official wrote in 1705.
Missing bricks
The main disadvantage of stone architecture is the lack of bricks. In the first few years, brick factories soon used up all the wood around St. Petersburg, and by the 1710s they had to supply firewood from other areas, which hampered production.
Historian Sergei Lupov calculated that in the 1610s, brick mills in St. Petersburg produced an average of 15 million bricks a year), which was only enough to build about 30 government brick buildings. However, most of the bricks were used to build the Peter and Paul Fortress, as well as the early Hermitage. Most houses are still wooden. Sometimes, in order to save bricks, people built new brick houses with ordinary walls.
In 1709, Peter ordered "ministers, generals, and nobles" to build brick houses in St. Petersburg. Apparently, their numbers were too small, and in 1713 another decree was issued requiring all court officials to live in their own brick houses in St. Petersburg.
Finally, in 1714, a ban on all-Russian brick buildings came into force. However, it hasn't changed much. From 1716 to 1717, the house of Peter's entourage, situated on the embankment of the Petrovskaya River, remained wooden, except for the stone house of Minister Gavril Golovkin. Other courtiers were still "preparing" to build brick houses. Both the Summer Palace and the Winter Palace are brick, and there are several stone houses belonging to the nobility and royalty, located behind the Fontanka River.
Ordinary people were forced to build houses on Vasilievsky Island, far from the Winter Palace and the city center. However, in 1726, less than half of the island was occupied. The ban on the construction of brick buildings in Russia was lifted in 1741. St. Petersburg is still a largely wooden city. According to statistics, in 1798, only 1834 of the 6072 houses in St. Petersburg were built of stone, while in 1833, 2730 of the 7976 houses were built of stone. Peter's wishes were not always fulfilled easily.