3 - Petrograd in 1917: the view from below

Summary

The city, its industry and workforce

Petrograd was the capital of the Russian Empire and the foremost financial and industrial center in a overwhelmingly agrarian society. In 1917 it had a population of 2.4 million, making it by far the largest city in Russia. The city had been built by Peter the Great as Russia's “window on the West.” Its Western architecture and layout symbolized the incorporation of Russia into Western culture and the European state system. Here was the seat of government, the court of Nicholas and Alexandra, the major institutions of learning and the arts, of law, commerce, and industry. In the central districts of the Admiralty, Kazan', and Liteinyi stood the palaces of the most eminent aristocratic families, the apartments of the gentry and wealthy bourgeois, elegant emporia, banks, and company offices. Yet just across the Neva River, to the northeast, were the slums and teeming factories of the Vyborg district; and encircling the city (moving in a clockwise direction) were the predominantly proletarian districts of Okhta, Nevskii, Moscow, Narva-Peterhof, and Vasil'evskii, where poverty, overcrowding, and disease were rife. Here there were few open spaces, and no proper roads, pavements, water supply, sewage system, or street lighting. Rubbish was piled up in the streets and open cesspools posed a mortal threat to public health. skii, where poverty, overcrowding, and disease were rife. Here there were few open spaces, and no proper roads, pavements, water supply, sewage system, or street lighting. Rubbish was piled up in the streets and open cesspools posed a mortal threat to public health.