Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
GREAT POWER ST PETERSBURG
1812 Overture
The downside to becoming a great power in European politics is that you become
drawn into European wars. Though, in fairness to the Hanovers and Hapsburgs, the
Romanovs were pretty good at picking fights on their own. From the 19th century on,
Russia was at war and St Petersburg was transformed.
Contrary to rumour, Catherine the Great categorically did not die under-
neath a stallion - her death was a far more prosaic affair. She collapsed
from a stroke in her bathroom and died tucked up in her bed. No horses
are believed to have been present.
It was Napoleon who coined the military maxim, 'first we engage, then we will
see'. That was probably not the best tactic to take with Russia. Tsar Alexander first
clashed with Napoleon after joining an ill-fated anti-French alliance with Austria and
Prussia. The resulting Treaty of Tilsit was not so bad for Russia - as long as Alexan-
der cooperated with Napoleon's designs against Britain. Alexander reneged; Napole-
on avenged. The Little Corporal targeted Moscow, instead of the more heavily-armed
St Petersburg. His multinational, 600,000-strong force got there just in time for winter
and had little to show for the effort besides vandalising the Kremlin. Hungry, cold and
dispirited, they retreated westward, harried by Marshal Kutuzov's troops. The Grande
Armée was ground up: only 20,000 survived. Napoleon was booked for an island va-
cation, while Russia became the continent's most feared nation.
The War of 1812 was a defining event for Russia, stirring nationalist exaltation and
orchestral inspiration. Catherine's favourite grandson, Alexander I, presided over a
period of prosperity and self-assuredness in the capital. His army's exploits were im-
mortalised in triumphal designs that recalled imperial Rome: the Kazan Cathedral
( CLICK HERE ) and the Alexander Column ( CLICK HERE ) were shining symbols for a
new Russian empire that stretched across half way the globe.
When Peter I died in 1725, one in six residents was a member of the armed forces;
100 years later the proportion was one in four. St Petersburg was a military capital, a
city of immense parade grounds, swaggering elite regiments and epaulette-clad nobil-
 
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