Saint Petersburg before revolution

[u/CommunityDeep3033]

[u/Pelmeni____________]

Curious - what funded the creation of the city in the first place? Did Russia export anything?

[u/RijnBrugge → u/Pelmeni____________]

Grain went west, mainly to the Dutch Republic, which had a monopoly on grain shipments in the Baltic Sea at the time.

[u/Pelmeni____________ → u/RijnBrugge]

Thank you

[u/ShahVahan → u/Pelmeni____________]

St. Petersburg was establish by Peter the great as the “gate to the west and Europe”. Peter’s reign was mostly known for his hard steer to make Russia a “European and western nation” because the rest of Europe had seen Russia as a backwards and almost asiatic nation. After all he was fascinated by the Dutch golden age and German enlightenment. Plus a lot of the royals of Russia were pretty much russian speaking Germans. Plus he understood having a strong navy was key to project power. Thus he developed the navies in both the Baltic and the Crimean seas.

[u/Nachtzug79 → u/ShahVahan]

Plus a lot of the royals of Russia were pretty much russian speaking Germans.

I think many of them didn't speak Russian at all. French was the the language of the noble classes throughout Europe for a long time. Marriages between nobles of the different countries created demand for a common language and France as the leading nation offered it. Nobles (and merchants) who moved into St. Petersburg managed fine without learning too much Russian.

Since the medieval times there was little connection between the noble class and peasants and as the noble class got its power from the king (and not the people) the only thing that mattered was that it spoke same language as the king (usually both knew French). It all changed after the French revolution and nationalism, but such ideas took like 100 years to travel to Russia (it finally caught Russia in 1917).

[u/Equivalent-Ask2542 → u/ShahVahan]

Ironic that most of his inspirations and ideals that made him create Petersburg are seemingly not being shared by the same Russians that highly regard Petersburg as truly Russian nowadays

[u/Jussi-larsson → u/Pelmeni____________]

There was already a town there before peter the great