The Presidential Library marking the 310th anniversary of Tsarskoe Selo

5 July 2020

July 5 (according to the new style) 2020 marks the 310th anniversary of Tsarskoe Selo, now the city of Pushkin, the most luxurious suburban residence of Russian sovereigns. The history of its creation is available on the Presidential Library’s portal.

“There is a very widespread opinion that Peter the Great, “having cut a window to Europe” transferred the capital of the state to soil alien to the people, to poor Finnish territory, - writes Sergey Vilchkovsky, police chief of the palace buildings of the Tsarskoe Selo Palace Board, author of the guide “Tsarskoe Selo” ( 1910). - However, Petersburg and the surrounding towns were not created by Peter in a foreign, conquered country, but on the original Russian land returned by his sword.

Thus, after the expulsion of the Swedes, Peter I began to distribute the lands around St. Petersburg to the nobles. He presented the hilly Sarsky manor to Alexander Menshikov, and later handed it over to Ekaterina Alekseyevna, who soon became his wife. The guide “Tsarskoe Selo” by Sergey Vilchkovsky describes in detail the circumstances under which on June 24 (old style) in 1710, the future wife of Emperor Peter the Great received the “Sarsky Manor” (translated as an elevated place). This date is considered the day of the foundation of Tsarskoe Selo.

As soon as Ekaterina Alekseyevna took possession of the patrimonial estate, "immediately" migrants "were called from various Moscow palace villages and settled in new villages that surrounded the Sarsky manor ring." In 1716, the wooden Assumption Church was erected here and the Sarsky Manor began to be called Sarskoe Selo, and then Tsarskoe Selo. Even during the life of Peter I, a small two-story stone palace grew here, surrounded by utility buildings; the park expanded and the park was re-planned and ponds dug.

Since 1741 Tsarskoe Selo became the official residence of the Russian monarchs. From year to year, this residence became prettier, because, according to Vilchkovsky “even under Peter, to help peasants brought in from other palace estates, an order was established for appointing military teams to work in the park, in vegetable gardens and in greenhouses”.

Changing each other on the throne, the Russian monarchs made their changes in the appearance of Tsarskoe Selo. The most noticeable changes occurred when the daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine - Elizabeth, ascended the throne. Alexander Uspensky in his work “Historical panorama of St. Petersburg and its Environs. Tsarskoe Selo” notes: “Gradually, in a few years, from a modest Petrovsky palace, Elizabeth Petrovna created a whole fantastically luxurious world, competing with Versailles”.

The author of the guide “Tsarskoe Selo” Vilchkovsky adds: “Every desire of Empress Elizabeth was immediately and unusually luxuriously executed by the chief architect. <...> The Empress does not like a large number of servants during the table - Rastrelli designs the Hermitage, where tables, dishes, plates are served in the hall with an invisible hand and the servant is not needed... ".

The reign of Peter III was short, but even it left its mark in the history of Tsarskoe Selo. “In Tsarskoe Selo, in February 1762, preparations are underway for the arrival of Emperor Peter III”, - says Alexander Uspensky in the book “Historical Panorama of St. Petersburg and its Environs. Tsarskoe Selo”. The tsar orders, on the occasion of his arrival, to drown the upper chambers in the palace, except for the large gallery, the Chinese hall and the amber room, and so that these rooms, where there are no stoves, are warm, they should be covered with two felt and heated with vodka and wine”.

During the 34-year reign of Empress Catherine the Great, Tsarskoe Selo reached the highest degree of prosperity. The better government affairs went, the more Catherine spent on her beloved residence.

The years of the reign of Paul I were marked by the crushing ruin of Tsarskoe Selo. The architect Brenna, the builder of Mikhailovsky Castle, received the highest order to take from Tsarskoe Selo everything that he considers necessary to decorate the Pavlovsky and Gatchinsky palaces: paintings, statues, furniture were exported from Tsarskoe Selo.

We must pay tribute to Alexander I - under him, almost everything that his father Pavel Petrovich destroyed was restored. In honor of the victory of Russia in the Patriotic War of 1812, the emperor ordered the installation of a monumental gate “My dear colleagues” at the entrance to the park. Having inherited a love of gardening from Catherine the Great, Emperor Alexander brought the greenhouses and parks of Tsarskoe Selo to a high degree of perfection. This lively picture of Tsarskoe Selo life is drawn by the historian Alexander Uspensky in his book “Historical Panorama of St. Petersburg and its Environs. Tsarskoe Selo” (1912), presented on the the Presidential Library’s portal. “This is what Catherine II wrote on June 3, 1783 from Tsarskoe Selo to Grimm: “If you had seen Mr. Alexander digging the earth, sowing peas, planting cabbage, plowing plow, with a plow, harrowing, then all in sweat goes to wash in the stream, after what takes its network and, with the help of Sir Constantine, takes to fishing... All this is done on his own initiative and with the same zeal; they are not forcing us to anything; but we are cheerful and alive, like fish"".

Under Alexander I, in the building of the palace wing of the Catherine’s Palace, built at the end of Catherine’s reign for the daughters of Pavel Petrovich, a new higher educational institution was established - the Imperial Tsarskoe Selo Lyceum, where Alexander Pushkin studied, whose name has been the former royal residence since 1937. The Presidential Library’s portal provides unique documents - the “Decree on the Lyceum”, written by the emperor personally, and the digitized “Diploma granted to the Imperial Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum by Emperor Alexander I”.

Alexander I’s brother, Nicholas I, in turn, connected Tsarskoe Selo with the development of technological progress in Russia: the country's first public railway connected St. Petersburg and the residence of the monarchs and became the starting point for the start of large-scale railway construction. This event is described in the "Historical Outline of the Development of Railways in Russia..." by Vladimir Verkhovsky.

The imperial residence at the time of the first Russian revolution has become one of the most beautiful, environmentally healthy and well-maintained cities in Russia. And it continues to remain so for more than three centuries of its existence, no matter what the name of the city - Tsarskoe Selo, Detskoe Selo, Pushkin...