Smolny Institute
The Smolny Institute ( Russian Смольный институт ) is a complex originally conceived as a monastery in Saint Petersburg , but it was never used as such. The complex is divided into the institute itself and the monastery ( Russian Смольный монастырь ) including the Resurrection Cathedral ( Russian Смольный Воскресения Христова собор ).
Origin of name and location
Smolny comes from the Russian word smoljanoj ( Russian смоляной ), which means something like resinous or tarry. The location was the former site of a tar factory, located on a Neva bend in northeast Saint Petersburg. Today the monastery is located on Rastrelli Square ( Russian площадь Растрелли ), which was named in honor of the architect of the Smolny Monastery.
Monastery and Resurrection Cathedral
The monastery was planned by Tsarina Elizabeth I as a retirement home and built by the Italian master builder Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli between 1748 and 1757. The monastery is laid out in the form of a Greek cross, in whose four corners single-row churches have been integrated. It is widely regarded as a masterpiece of Elizabethan Baroque and the white-and-blue hues typical of Rastrelli dominate. The 160 meter high bell tower designed by him should have been the tallest building in Russia at the time. However, the outbreak of the Seven Years' War prevented further expansion and with Elisabeth's death in 1762, plans for the bell tower and further interior work were put on hold. Since the new Tsarina Catherine II also preferred classicism , the former court architect Rastrelli received no further commissions.
The further interior work was not carried out until a good 70 years later under the master builder Wassili Stassow on behalf of Tsar Nicholas I in 1828. Stassow closely followed Rastrelli's designs. The cathedral was lavishly decorated by him in the neoclassical style prevailing at the time and contains a silver tabernacle that resembles a temple with 24 columns and an altar in the middle. The cathedral was blessed on July 22, 1835. In the years 1873 to 1875, the iconostasis was created based on the model of the Petersburg Baroque. The side altars consecrated to Saints Elizabeth and Mary Magdalene were erected in 1885. Although the cathedral was consecrated, the monastery never served as such.
Today the interior of the cathedral is used, among other things, as a concert hall. The buildings of the monastery complex also house the faculties of sociology, political science and international relations of the St. Petersburg State University .
Smolny Institute
In 1764 Katharina had parts of the monastery converted into a higher education institution for girls. After the number of female students increased, the Smolny Institute was built on the site of the monastery to accommodate the older girls. The building was built from 1806 to 1808 according to the strictly classical plans of the architect Giacomo Quarenghi . A central portico with eight columns, which was erected in front of the actual hall with numerous white columns, gives it its shape .
In the 19th century the institute served as an educational establishment for noble girls who were prepared for life in higher society as court ladies and who mainly learned foreign languages and good behavior. It was the very first educational institution for women in Russia and was under the personal protection of the Tsarina until 1917.
The institute building became particularly famous when, in August 1917, the Petrograd Soviet moved its conference venue from the nearby Tauride Palace to Smolny. The October Revolution was planned here and after the revolution it was the seat of government of the Soviet Union . After the fall of the Kerensky government , the Council of People's Commissars resided here and the Second General Congress of the Soviets of Workers 'and Soldiers' Councils met here . The congress met until the early hours of October 26th / November 8th, 1917 and after the assault on the Winter Palace , the takeover of power at 5 a.m. was legally enshrined in a letter entitled To the Workers, Soldiers and Peasants . Lenin proclaimed the Soviet Socialist Republic , which was led by a Council of People's Commissars (Council of Ministers from 1946 ) under his leadership. Lenin initially lived in room number 67 in the right wing of the third floor, then from mid-November 1917 until March 10, 1918 he worked in room number 86 on the second floor. After Moscow became the country's capital again on March 10, 1918, the Smolny Institute served as the headquarters of the Petrograd / Leningrad CPSU .
To emphasize the important role of the Smolnys as the cradle of the revolution, two five-column Propylaea were built between 1923 and 1924 at the beginning of the main road to the institute. They are kept simple, but dominate the entrance and connect the institute with the so-called place of the proletarian dictatorship and the adjoining garden. The redesign was in the hands of the architects Wladimir Schtschuko and Wladimir Helbark . On the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution in 1927, a Lenin monument by the sculptor Vasili Koslow was erected at the main entrance of the building. The round base bears the inscription 1917–1927 and is girded by a bronze band with the inscription "Long live the dictatorship of the proletariat". In the 1930s, the garden was expanded with flower beds and fountains and the busts of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were put up by the sculptor Sergei Yevsejew . The sculptures are cast in bronze and are on granite bases.
The institute achieved rather sad notoriety in 1934 when the then party functionary Sergei Kirov was shot dead by an assassin on the premises under circumstances that have not yet been clarified.
Today the building serves as the seat of the Saint Petersburg city government.
literature
- Cornelia Skodock: Baroque in Russia. On the oeuvre of the court architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (= publications of the Eastern European Institute Munich . History series . Volume 70). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-447-05304-6 (Zugl .: Erlangen, Nürnberg, Univ., Diss., 2000/2001). Full text
Web links
- Smolny Cathedral ( Memento from August 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- Photos from Smolny
- History of Smolny (Russian)
- The Smolny Institute: Girl Power vs. Communist Power at Russia Beyond the Headlines: News from Russia
Coordinates: 59 ° 56 ′ 47 ″ N , 30 ° 23 ′ 47 ″ E