ALEXANDER I (1777, St. Petersburg - 1825), Emperor (since 1801). Son of Emperor Paul I and Empress Maria Fedorovna. Brought up by his grandmother, Empress Catherine II. Married (in 1793) the Princess of Baden, Marie Louise Auguste (Elizaveta Alexeevna). In 1796, he was appointed General Governor of St. Petersburg and Inspector of the St. Petersburg Division, then Head of the Military Collegium. He took the crown as a result of a coup on the palace on 11 March 1801, accompanied by murder of his father (which turned into a psychological trauma for him). He declared adherence to Catherine II's political plans, and restored the Noble Charter and towns abolished by his father. During the reform of central control, collegiums were replaced by ministries (1802), and in 1810 the State Assembly was established. He founded the Tsarskoselsky (Alexandrovsky) Lyceum. In the summertime, he preferred to live in the Kamennoostrovsky Palace, where all important decisions were made (including the appointment of M.I. Kutuzov as the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Forces in 1812). Stiffening of internal policy in the second half of Alexander I's reign led to the appearance of opposition among the nobility and the organization of secret societies (see Decembrist Movement). Alexander I's sudden death in Taganrog led to a dynastic crisis. In the interim, at the end of 1825, members of secret societies attempted a tentative military uprising (see December 14, 1825). By order of Empress Catherine II, a summer house was built for Alexander in St. Petersburg (today 46 Kurlyandskaya Street), as was the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. Emperor Paul I presented him with Oranienbaum. Alexander I was buried in the SS. Peter&Paul Cathedral. A number of monuments are devoted to him (Alexander Column), as well as to events during his reign (the Narva Triumph Gates, the General Staff Arch).

References: Мироненко С. В. Самодержавие и реформы: Полит. борьба в России в нач. XIX в. М., 1989; Федоров В. А. Александр I // ВИ. 1990. № 1. С. 50-72; Сахаров А. Н. Человек на троне. М., 1992.

Y. A. Kuzmin.

ALEXANDROVSKY PARK (Pushkin), a landscape architecture monument, situated west of Ekaterininsky Park. The park is a part of Tsarskoe Selo palace and park ensemble. Alexandrovsky Park covers an area of 120 hectares. Its old regular part (the New Garden) was laid out in the 1750s (allegedly, by architects S.I. Chevakinsky, N. Girard); it is divided by Krestovy Canal into four squares with amusement tricks: scarpir (a round area with slopes), Chinese theatre (1778-79, architects A. Rinaldi, I.V. Neelov); Parnas hill and water maze. Over the canal, Krestovy, Kitaysky, Drakonov and other bridges were erected (built in the 1770s, architect Neelov). The complex of Chinese Village is situated south of the New Garden. The landscape park was established in the 1790s at the same time with the construction of Alexandrovsky Palace on the ground of the Menagerie of the period of Elizaveta Petrovna's reign (the fragments of bastions and canals setting its bounds remained to date). In the landscaped part of Alexandrovsky Park the artificial ponds were made: Detsky Pond (on the island there is a pavilion built for Emperor Nicholas I's children), Nizhny Pond, Vittolovsky Pond, and Lamsky. In the 1820s–30s according to the projects of architect A.A. Menelas, ornamental pavilions were built in various parts of the park. These included the White Tower (1821 - 27; destroyed during the Great Patriotic War, restored in the 1990s); the Arsenal (1819-34; built on the site of Mon bijou pavilion designed by architect S.I. Chevakinsky in 1747-54); Chapelle (Chapel; 1825–28) – neo-Gothic. Opposite the Chapelle, there are classical palace green-houses (1819-28). In the western part of Alexandrovsky Park flows the Kuzminka river, which has been dammed. Beside the river stands Lamsky Pavilion (1882), built for keeping lamas given to Emperor Alexander I (Nicholas II established a dark room here); and Pensionerskie Stables (1827-29), where emperors' horses were kept. North of Alexandrovsky Park, there are Feodorovsky Village, Ratnaya Chamber and other buildings in the neo-Russian style of the beginning of the 20th century.

Reference: see Tsarskoe Selo.

A. A. Alexeev. Alexander I, Emperor
Chevakinsky Savva Ivanovich
Elizaveta Petrovna, Empress
Girard N.
Menelas Adam Adamovich
Neelov Ilya Vasilievich
Nicholas I, Emperor
Nicholas II, Emperor
Rinaldi Antonio
the Neelovs

Four Cavaliers’ houses were built in 1752-1753 to the design of S.I. Chevakinsky according to Empress Elizabeth’s order given in 1748 about building dwelling houses in Sadovaya Street for arriving “cavaliers”. Originally all one-storied houses with mezzanines were equal, built in the Baroque style, they were joined with fences from Sadovaya Street and painted in the colour of the same with facades of the Catherine Palace. In 1784 I.V. Neyelov enlarged mezzanines, transformed them in the low second floor. In 1817 small front gardens were laid out in front of houses. The marshal’s house (6 Sadovaya Street) was rebuilt and doubled, in the middle of the 19th century the Tsarskoye Selo superintendent of Palace buildings lived here. The Study house (10 Sadovaya Street) was occupied by the office of the Governor of Tsarskoye Selo, Peterhof and Gatchina over a some period in the early 19th century, in the middle of the 19th century noncommissioned - Masters of the Horse lived here. The field-doctor’s house (12 Sadovaya Street) was used for living the historian N.M. Karamzin in 1817 according to Alexander I’s order. Afterwards a campaign noncommissioned - Master of the Horse lived here. Alexander I, Emperor
Chevakinsky Savva Ivanovich
Elizaveta Alexeevna, Empress
Karamzin Nikolay Mikhailovich
Neelov Ilya Vasilievich
Sadovaya Street/Pushkin, town
Sadovaya Street/Pushkin, town, house 6
Sadovaya Street/Pushkin, town, house 10
Sadovaya Street/Pushkin, town, house 12

KOCHUBEY Viktor Pavlovich (1768-1834), Prince (1831), statesman, Chancellor for Internal Affairs (1834), Honorary Member of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1818). Maternal nephew of Prince A. A. Bezborodko, riding on his coattails. Studied at universities in Geneva, Upsala and London. Since 1784, he was sent on diplomatic service. In the 1780s, he was a member of the Masonic Lodge of Harpocrat in St Petersburg. In 1792-97, he was Envoy to Constantinople. In 1798-99, he directed as Vice-Chancellor of the Collegium for Foreign Affairs. One of Emperor Alexander I's minions. From 1801, he was Senator; in 1801-02, he again directed the Collegium for Foreign Affairs; in 1802-07, he became a member of the Private Committee, helping work out system-wide reforms and planning for the Russian Empire's public administration; helped initiate the creation of ministries and the abolition of collegiums (1802). In 1802-07, he was Minister of Internal Affairs, extending his protection to M. M. Speransky. From 1810, he was Member of State Assembly. During the Great Patriotic War of 1812, he attended to Emperor Alexander I; in 1813, he became Chairman of the Central Council for the Administration of German Lands. In 1816-19, he headed the Department for Ecclesiastical and Civil Affairs of the State Assembly, initiating the integration of the Ministry of Police and Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as the creation of the Ministry for Ecclesiastical Affairs and People's Education. In 1819-23, he headed Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1827, he became Chairman of the State Assembly and an Honorary Member of the Petersburg Ecclesiastical Academy (1814), the Russian Academy (1818), the Free Economic Society (1821), and the St Petersburg University (1821). In 1802-07, he owned a house at 22 Millionnaya Street, then a house at 27-29 Mokhovaya Street; form 1819, he lived in a house at 16 Fontanka River Embankment. Buried in the Descent of the Holy Spirit Church at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra (in 1937 his remains were moved to the Lazarevskaya Burial Vault).

References: Чечулин Н. Д. Князь Виктор Павлович Кочубей, 1768-1834: Очерк жизни и деятельности. СПб., 1900.

D. N. Shilov.

The oldest part of the park, founded as the Menagerie, occupied more than a half of the Alexander Park territory. The area for the Menagerie has been chosen as early as 1710, the date coincides with the first visit of Peter I and Catherine to “Saari Mois”. During 1718-1723 gardendesigners Ya. Roozen and I. Fokht laid out the area of the Menagerie. According to the landscape design the Menagerie can be named the second “wild grove” in the Tsarskoye Selo escape. The Menagerie area was three times greater than the regular garden of that time. A square plot of spruce forest with sides about 1 verst (3500 ft. ) was enclosed with a wooden palisade and ditch. The Menagerie was located on the central axis of the stone mansion but in the distance 400 sazhens (852 metres) from it. A vista road, with lime tree planted along it, led to it. In the middle of every Menagerie sides there were lattice cabinet-work gates with wickets. In the center there was an open lattice garden-house which was set on an artificial hill. Under the garden-house there was covered up with earth stone cellar where stores for hunting were saved. Clearings (so-called “Plezir”) led from the garden-house to the gates and corners. The Zverinochny Pond, where there were pikes, was dug on the Kioke River (or Kuzminka) which flowed there. A mill dam was constructed and a mill shed and granary were built on the dam. Deer, elks, Siberian deer, wild boars were placed in the Menagerie from the beginning, sometimes hares were added. Special workers were responsible for supervising animals as far as the palisade. They worked under the direction of the senior forester. In addition the senior forester supervised forests in all country-houses of Tsarskoye Selo. The Palace sloboda peasants were contracted to supply moss for feeding up animals, hay was brought from the palace stables. In autumn black grouse hunting, using stuffed birds from disguised with fir branches boxes on sledge, was the most attractive amusement. Catherine I, Peter II, Princess Elizabeth with courtiers liked hunting elks, deer, foxes, hares and stuffed birds in Tsarskoye Selo.
In 1750-1752 according to the design of Rastrelli the hunting lands were fenced with the stone fence of 4.5 arshine (about 3.2 metres) instead of the wooden palisade. In the middles of the fence sides there were passages, two fronts crossed the Kuzminka River. So called Menagerie (Zverinets) line of the Upper hothouses, been here from 1722, bordered with the south-eastern front from the outside. According to rules of military engineering the engineer Pyetr Ostrovsky built four bulwarks crowned with lusthauses in the corners of the stone fence. Diagonal clearings which were begun at the Monbijow ground to the lusthauses. The Tsarskoye Selo Menagerie was used for presentations . According to the court ceremonial hunting for the diplomatic corps and other guests of high rank were organized in the Tsarskoye Selo Menagerie. Empress Elisabeth received ambassadors of France and Austria in the pavilion Monbijow that was richly decorated with pictures of hunting plots.
. Keeping wild animals in captivity, hunting and high perimeter fence was unacceptable for ideas of landscape parks which became popular and it changed the attitude to menageries. New landscape parks were often begun to create on these areas. The Alexander Park is one of example of this. During the rule of Catherine II, who herself was a lover of hunting, the hunting grounds were located in Tsarskoye Selo environments in forests on the Slavyanka River banks and then in Gatchina Town. Gradually the Menagerie fell into neglect and only in 1799 Emperor Paul I ordered to introduce order in the forest, to repair the Monbijow, the Menagerie roads and clearings, but works were stopped in 1801.
In 1803 Alexander I ordered to give a part of the Menagerie area for experiments of The Forestry School organized in Sophia Town. In March 1814 a gardening school or a nursery for trees, that were needed for planting on the vast territory of the creating Alexander Park, was opened. In addition to old clearings landscape roads and paths were paved in the Menagerie during 1819-1823. The east bulwark, surrounded with a ditch, was preserved and included in the new landscape composition of the park. The Menagerie wall and three bulwarks were knocked down, their places were laid out, ditches were filled up. Bricks and stones, remained after dismantling, were used for constructing new buildings: the White Tower, the Chapelle, the Farm group, the Menagerie line of Green Houses, pavilions for llamas and elephants. These pavilions served as the peculiar marking of the borders of the Menagerie territory. Alexander I, Emperor
Catherine I, Empress
Catherine II, Empress
Elizaveta Petrovna, Empress
Foсht I.
Ostrovsky, Pyetr
Paul (Pavel) I, Emperor
Peter I, Emperor
Rastrelli Francesco de
Roozen Yan
Pushkin, town

RADISHCHEV Alexander Nikolaevich (1749-1802, St. Petersburg), writer, court counsellor (1780). In 1762-66 he was educated in the Page Corps. For the next five years he studied at Leipzig University. In 1771-73 he served at the Senate, in 1773-75 he rendered military service. In 1777-80 he held a post in the Collegium of Commerce, to become the assistant director of St. Petersburg custom house in 1780 (the director of the custom house from 1790). In 1774 he frequented the meetings of Masonic lodge Urania. The 1780s came to be the time when his literary activity was the most intense. His works of that time include A Letter to a Friend Living in Tobolsk... (1782), written on the opening of the monument to Peter the Great (the Bronze Horseman), and ode Liberty (1781-83). In 1790 Radishchev published A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow at his home printing press with 650 copies. This book merges various genres and styles, while the journey of the narrator is interpreted as overcoming of social and moral maladies. Empress Catherine II took this book for an act of political assault, which undermined the basis of autocracy. By her order, Radishchev was put into St. Peter and Paul Fortress and condemned to death; later this was commuted to exile to Siberia. In 1796 he was released by order of Emperor Pavel l. After his amnesty in 1801 by Emperor Alexander I, Radishchev returned to St. Petersburg and worked at the Commission on Lawmaking. On the night of September 12 he committed suicide. He was buried at Volkovskoe Orthodox cemetery (the grave was not preserved; memorial plaque). In 1775-90 he occupied his own house at Gryaznaya Street (today 14 Marata Street; memorial plaque), in 1801-02 he lived at present-day 15 Mozhayskaya Street (the house was not preserved). The name of Radischev was attached to a street (former Preobrazhenskaya Street) and a lane (former Tserkovny Lane), as well as to a street in Pushkin and Tannery in St. Petersburg. In 1923-89 Preobrazhenskaya Square bore the name of Radischev.

References: Кулакова Л. И., Салита Е. Г., Западов В. А. Радищев в Петербурге. Л., 1976; Кочеткова Н. Д. Радищев и масоны // Рус. лит. 2000. №1. С. 103-107.

V. A. Kuznetsov, D.N. Cherdakov.

The architectural ensemble of the Admiralty or “Holland” consisted of three pavilions and Sailor’s house was included in the Great Pond view of the Catherine park. Earlier, from the times of Elizabeth Petrovna in different secluded parts of the park there was a wooden shed where was a boat for the Empress’s boating on the lake and sailor crew lived, as well as a shed for aquatic birds. Instead of broken sheds during 1773-1777 V.I. Neyelov built stone buildings with the Gothic style facades. Towers, lancet windows, merlon gables and parapets, red brick facing were used for creating the Gothic style. White decorative moulded details and surrounds of windows formed the elegant and well-decorated viewing. The plinth wall was made of dark-red Shoksha porphyry was chosen to match the colour of the façade. The ensemble was devoted to the annexing of ancient Taurida to the Russian Empire.
The middle pavilion was used as a Boat shed where the Tsarskoye Selo flotilla boats were kept in the ground floor. In summer time the boats were given for boating in the Great Lake to all people who was interested in it, they even queued at the Great Pier. Inside there was a model of the seventy-gun navy ship “Leipzig”, a South-American boat-pirogue, oars and another rigging that was kept here in winter. The Large Hall, decorated with white glazed Holland style tiles, occupied the first floor. English etchings and drawings, pictures with depicting ruins, the famous Gottorpsky Globe was can seen here.
The identical side pavilions of the Admiralty – the Bird Houses – were used for keeping birds: swans, pheasants, geese and ducks of especially exotic species. In small decorative yards and in a pavilion there were pools for the wintering of birds. During his morning walks, Alexander I liked to feed birds by himself, he put on a special glove for feeding. Alexander I, Emperor
Elizaveta Petrovna, Empress
Neelov Vasily Ivanovich

The Chapelle pavilion was located near the Upper Hothouses along the Menagerie line. Two Chapelle’s towers, connected with the arch, were built during 1825-1828 on the place of the dismantled southern bastion of the Menagerie. Constructing was started at the time of Alexander I rule. Menelaws used a part of walls of the Elizabethian lusthaus for constructing the new building. The appearance of the mystery – pavilion, as it was conceived by its creators, has reflected mystical spirits and legends of the Alexander epoch. The pavilion was crowned with a wind gauge in the form of a rooster and reproduced ruins a Gothic chapel, that was a well-known touch of gardening and park architecture. Inside room was lighted with stained-glass window with pictures of biblical scenes, the vault was painted by the artist V.Dadonov and sculptures of angels were made by V.I. Demut-Malinovsky. Inside the Chapelle there was a statue of the Saviour made in Stuttgart in 1820-1824 by the sculpture J.H. von Dannecker on the order of dowager Empress Maria Fiodorovna. It was supposed to place the statue in a Moscow church, but it was not done and the Empress presented the statue to her son – Emperor. A variant of the sculpture, made by the author, was placed in Regensburg. The Chapelle building was partly destroyed during WWII; a chiming clock, wind gauge, stained-glasses were lost. The restored works have to start in the pavilion at the nearest time. Alexander I, Emperor
Dadonov, V.
Danneker, I.G.
Demut-Malinovsky Vasily Ivanovich
Maria Fedorovna, Empress
Menelas Adam Adamovich

The Lutheran Church was founded according to the initiative of the director of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum Ye. A. Engelgardt and the Lyceum pastor Gnichtel. In 1817-1818 a wooden building was adapted for using as the church on money granted by Alexander I. At first public religious services were conducted by the Lyceum pastor in German and Latin languages. In the church plot there was a primary school which was maintained on the parish’s money. On 14 August 1860 the new building was laid in the place of the old one. Design, approved by the Emperor, was developed by A.F. Vidov on the base of the model project of the Lutheran church of K.A. Thorn. In 1864 Alexander II made the donation of 7,000 Rb for finishing the building and on his birthday on 17 April 1938 the church was consecrated. At the Soviet time public services were stopped here in 1938 and the building was used as a vehicle repair workshop. In 1977 on the initiative of the Finnish Evangelical community the restoration repair of facades was made under the direction of M.I. Tolstov. In the same year the church was anew consecrated in the name of the Resurrection of Christ and services were begun in Finnish and Russian. Alexander I, Emperor
Alexander II, Emperor
Engelgardt Egor Antonovich
Gnihtel
Tolstov M.I.
Ton Konstantin Andreevich
Vidov Alexander Fomich
Naberezhnaya Street/Pushkin, town

Address: the town of Pushkin, Sadovaya Street, to the North-East part of the Catherine Park.
Architects: Vasily Petrovich Stasov (1769-1848)
Adam Menelaws (1748-1833)

Opened: 17 August 1817

Materials: the Gate columns and attic and links of the trellis were made of cast iron; the pedestal was made of granite; letters of inscriptions were made of golden bronze.

Inscriptions: on the attic from the side of Sadovaya Street : TO MY DEAR COMRADES
On the attic from the park side there is the inscription in French : A MES CHERS COMPANGONS
D ? ARMES

The Gate was installed according to the order of Alexander I as the homage of thankfulness to commanders and counselors of Alexander I who taken part in the War of 1812 and the military company of 1813-1814 that led to the liberation of Europe from Napoleon.
The portico, including two rows of Doric columns which support a massive entablature, resembles The Moscow Triumph Gate, the latest work of V.P. Statsov, compositionly. The trellis design with lattice rods- spears and superimposed shields was designed by the architect A. Menelaws. Alexander I, Emperor
Menelas Adam Adamovich
Stasov Vasily Petrovich

In 1820-1822 the architect A. Menelaws built the Llama Pavilion, where llamas brought to Alexander I, apparently from Peru, were placed. In the closed courtyard there was a stable, small manège for animals and fodder store as far as accommodation for keepers. The eight-sazhen-high (sixteen-metre-high) tower towers above it. Richly decorated apartment for resting with the Empire style furniture was contained in the tower. The room walls were decorated with coloured etchings with views of Central and South America. “Using llamas for work by Peruvian” was the plot of etchings. In 1860 the architect I. Monighetti built two-story wing here for use as a photographic laboratory and since then the pavilion has been named as “Photpgraphy”. In 1907 mountain fallow-deer, brought by Colonel Zhukovsky from southern Mongolia, were kept in the manege. Alexander I, Emperor
Menelas Adam Adamovich
Monighetti Ippolito Antonovich
Zhukovsky

The monumental building of the Orderly Stables (8 Sadovaya Street) was built in 1822-1824 by the architect S.L. Shustov according to the design of V.P. Stasov for placing the own imperial stables of Alexander I. On Stasov’s conception the semicircular form building was located in the heart of the residential area between Cavaliers’ houses. It compositionally combined them into the completed architectural ensemble. Realizing the project S.L. Shustov increased the size of the building in length and hight, he built the mezzanine floors for placing employees’ apartments over the end parts of the building. The building purpose is peculiarly reflected in the sculpture decoration, frieze metopes were decorated with moulding horse heads in laurel wreathes, as well as in features of the compositional architectural solution. Inside there were horseboxes for horses and two carriage sheds that were lighted through semicircular windows in the top parts of walls. Alexander I, Emperor
Shustov Smaragd Loginovich
Stasov Vasily Petrovich
Sadovaya Street/Pushkin, town, house 8

A path of the Alexander Park to ponds on the Kuzminka River has led to the Pensioners’ Stables, a Gothic park building hidden in trees thicket. The pavilion was built by Menelaws in 1827-1829 and intended for eight horses which were used by the Tsar, horses were placed in this pavilion after the death of Alexander I. Later the pavilion was used for other emperors’ favourite horses. A picturesque space design, similar other constructions of the architect in the Alexander Park, was harmoniously connected with the nature surrounding. On the opposite corner from the path a round tower towered above one – two – story stone U-shaped pavilion. The high pyramidal roof and frieze decorated with lancet arches do the tower expressive. Plaster detailed of the cornices, string-courses and surrounds with bracket-shaped canopies stand out against a background of the brickwork. In the tower ground floor there was a stable with eight horseboxes and a semicircular room where horses’ rich attires were saved. Afterward these items increased collections of the Stable Museum in Saint Petersburg. In the first floor there were apartments for a supervisor and stablemen. In summer old horses were let to graze in the park. Rows of marble gravestones in the park, located opposite the tower, showed burial grounds of the horses. Signs on gravestones told that the horse “L’ami”, who had been in the Paris campaign with Alexander I, had been buried here, and the horse “Flora”, who had been with Nicholas I near Varna, had been buried here, and the horse “Kob”, who was used by Tsar-Peace-Maker Alexander III for greeted troops, had been buried here also. Alexander I, Emperor
Alexander III, Emperor
Menelas Adam Adamovich
Nicholas I, Emperor

The Alexander Palace was constructed by Giacomo Quarenghi for Grand Duke Alexander ( the future Emperor Alexander I), the beloved grandson of Empress Catherine II. Alexander I, Emperor
Catherine II, Empress
Quarenghi Giacomo

6 July. Ceremony of the baptism of Grand Duke Nicholas Pavlovich, the future Emperor Nicholas I, took place in the Palace Church of the Resurrection of Christ.

12 June. Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich and his wife moved into the Alexander Palace which was reconstructed.

6 November. Empress Catherine II died and her 42 -year- old son ascended the throne as Paul I. Alexander I, Emperor
Catherine II, Empress
Nicholas I, Emperor
Paul (Pavel) I, Emperor

April. One of the "Cavaliere Houses", at the corner of Sadovaya Street and Leontyevskaya Street, was given to N.M. Karamzin, the writer, poet, literary critic, he was honoured with the title Historiographer, for the summer staying with his family according to the order of Emperor Alexander I and N.M. Karamzin, with his family, lived in this house during summer time (he lived in the Chinese Village after 1822) until 1825, year of the death of the Historiographer. Here Karamzin activly worked on "History of the Russian State", the main work of his life.

April. 22-year-old Lieutenant Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadaev began to serve at the Tsarskoye Selo Life-Guard Hussar Regiment.

The fountain "The Girl with a Pitcher" was erected in the Tsarskoe Selo Park, the Granite Terrace was built at the Rampovaya Alley.

The colony "Fridental" began to form out of the Moscow barrier post by the German colonist-craftsmen from the Duchy of Berg. Alexander I, Emperor
Chaadaev Peter Yakovlevich
Karamzin Nikolay Mikhailovich
Leontievskaya Street/Pushkin, town
Sadovaya Street/Pushkin, town

May. Alexander I received the certain memo of A.Kh. Benkendorf about the secret societies and this memo was without consequences. Alexander I, Emperor
Benckendorff Alexander Krristoforovich