St Petersburg, 1703-1825 by Anthony Cross (review)

Abstract

1124 Reviews able speed with which it has appeared after the conference. Footnotes occasionally give an interesting whiffof the heated conference discussion which clearly accompa? nied some papers' original presentation. The volume's chief strength lies in the high quality of the individual articles, but the collection also shows how the study of Old Norse myth is developing along both new and well-established lines. Close study of texts and typological and structural analyses still have their place in an area which is increasingly returning to interdisciplinary methods to uncover myth's immanence in archaeology, anthropology, and history. St John's College, Oxford Carolyne Larrington St Petersburg, 1703-1825. Ed. by Anthony Cross. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan . 2003. xiii+197pp. ?45- ISBN 1-4039-1570-9. In this stimulating volume, scholars from Britain, Ireland, Italy, and the United States explore various aspects of St Petersburg's history during the 'long eighteenth century', from its foundation by Peter the Great in 1703 to the abortive Decembrist revolt in 1825. The contributions, originally presented at a conference held at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, mark the tercentenary of St Petersburg, and they are a fine tribute to a remarkable city. In the opening contribution, Denis J.B. Shaw draws from recent writing on the re? lationship between social and spatial change, arguing that St Petersburg was a 'space of modernity' (p. 7), a place where the 'well-ordered police state', disencumbered from Muscovite traditions, could be constructed. Yet, as Shaw emphasizes, even new cities are imbued with heritage, and behind the 'orderly' facades of Peter the Great's experiment lay much 'disorder', a contrast that was emblematic of St Petersburg's manifold contradictions. Shaw highlights such ambiguities by discussing the intro? duction of modern mapping methods to Russia, showing how European techniques were adapted to Russian circumstances. The cartographical theme is continued by Michael J. Bitter, who relates the story of a chart of St Petersburg and its environs created in 1734 by the Dutchman Abraham Mass for George, Lord Forbes, Third Earl of Granard, while the latter was on a diplomatic mission to Russia. Bitter dis? cusses the chart within the context of its early counterparts, emphasizing its detail and accuracy, and noting that it pre-dates the Russian Academy of Sciences map of St Petersburg (1737), usually considered the firstaccurate map of the city. In the third essay, Anthony Cross provides a fascinating and detailed account of the emergence and development of one of the most prestigious areas of St Petersburg, the English Embankment. Raising the question of the embankment's Englishness, Cross explains that while ithoused many English residents at the end of the eighteenth cen? tury,it did not become generally known as the English Embankment until the early nineteenth, when the presence of those after whom it was named was beginning to wane. ltalian views of eighteenth-century St Petersburg are the subject of the fourth essay, by Maria Di Salvo, who argues that the attitude of ltalian visitors was one of 'aloof admiration' (p. 72). Interestingly, ltalian visitors did not view St Petersburg as a 'Venice of the North', but often remarked on the 'despotism' behind its planning and construction. The next two contributions deal with aspects of St Petersburg's administration. George E. Munro analyses the compilation of the 'Book of City Inhabitants' in order to create a profile of home and property ownership in the late eighteenth century. Although the Book appears not to have been completed, the extant data indicate that property was owned by people from a 'wide range of social backgrounds' (p. 82). Janet M. Hartley provides a detailed discussion of the city's administrative structures MLR, 99.4, 2004 1125 at the time of Catherine the Great. Alluding to the idea that the Russian Empire was an 'undergoverned' one, Hartley observes that this 'is less true' (p. 108) for its capital, although the plethora of structures often resulted in inefficiencies,notably the 'overlapping of functions' (p. 111). The last three essays are weighted more towards the early nineteenth century, though not exclusively. Wendy Rosslyn provides a fascinating discussion of the city's actresses, highlighting the covert prostitution that characterized many of their rela...