As we see any historical events can be kept in different ways: in architectural styles, palaces’ interiors or even myths and legends of the past.
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5. The Lost Past - The Cable Factory of M.Edwards and T.Cavos
There are a lot of monuments of the past throughout the world and all of them need thorough care. The idea of uniting of the preserving systems of natural and cultural objects was worked out by the United States of America. In 1965 there was created “The Trust of the World Heritage” for the development of the international cooperation in the process of protecting “prominent natural and picturesque places and historical monuments in the world for present and future generations”. According to these statements St. Petersburg can be put down in the list of the objects of the World Heritage.
At the very beginning St. Petersburg became a bright example of the unit of European and Russian culture. Those Russians who hadn’t visited Western Europe considered the city to be rather European. Europeans thought St. Petersburg to be a young Russian city different from ancient European ones but having the European style of town building.
The image of St. Petersburg and its suburbs made a great influence on the development of architecture, town building and landscape architecture in Russia in the 18-20th centuries.
As St. Petersburg was the capital of Russia at that time it was connected with the activities of the outstanding representatives of culture and with the important events of this period. Now there are about 4 thousands architectural, historical and cultural monuments in the city having special significance but some of them are not in a very good condition and demand a lot of time and money to keep them.
Some years ago a public movement “Living City” for protecting old buildings came into being in the city. It is a non-government movement that unites people who love and care about St. Petersburg. The goal of this movement is preserving the unique architectural look of the city. [Слайд 13]
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One of the historical places which “Living City” is standing for is the former Cable Factory of M.Edwards and T.Cavos. The factory was built in 1876 in one of the picturesque corners of the mansion of Kushelev-Bezborodko (now it is Piskarev Prospect). In the 1850s this territory was a wonderful place with quiet parks, clean lakes and cozy country houses. 35 years later the first “British” enterprise appeared on the bank of the lake. Within several years one building turned into a whole factory village with a cable workshop, a tarring house, storehouses, and a boiler room.
After the October Revolution the factory was reorganized into the cord manufacture “Neva”. In the 1990s the function of it came to an end.
Nowadays this place is different from the original one: multi-storied constructions have been built everywhere, the parks have become neglected, and the factory has been destroyed. Only the main building of it has been kept.
Meanwhile it has still been the favorite place for rest of the citizens. Thus “Living City” tries to protect the left structure and find investors to reconstruct some ruined parts of it as it is the only example of “British industrial style” of T.Cavos in St. Petersburg.
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6. St. Petersburg and Great Britain Today.
The tragic events of 1917 interrupted the connections between Russia and Britain which had been created over centuries. In 1918 the diplomatic relations between the two countries were broken. After their renewal in the 1920s British official bodies were situated only in Moscow.
The mid 80s were marked by the revival of contacts between the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom.
In 1994 the British Queen Elizabeth II made an official visit to St. Petersburg. Since then visits of members of the royal family and other high-ranking officials have become regular.
Nowadays the UK is one of the main investors in St. Petersburg. About 41% of all investments are from Britain. There are a lot of British-Russian enterprises and programs in the city now. Some years ago a new Anglo-Russian complex “Logistic Avalon” was opened with the help of British investing company “Raven Russia” not far from the centre of the city. One more mutual project “Venture Investment & Yield Management” successfully started in St. Petersburg. A new educational program for British and Russian students “The MA Fashion Design and Merchandising course” was worked out by Saint-Petersburg State University of Technology and Design and De Montfort University, Leicester.
Numerous mutual projects of reconstructing different places in St. Petersburg have become popular recently. One of the most interesting and important is “New Holland”- the island having the Anglo-Russian history.
The main shipyard of St. Petersburg, the Admiralty, was built in 1705 but soon it didn’t manage to execute a great amount of work in ship-building. It was decided to open a new shipyard on the island New Holland. Soon it was reorganized into the first Russian naval port and in 1892 – into an experimental
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area for testing models of the first naval ships. It was the place where the model of the first ice-breaker “Yermak” was built and tested.
After testing “Yermak” itself was built for the Imperial Russian Navy under the supervision of Admiral Stepan Osipovich Makarov by Armstrong Whitworth in Newcastle upon Tyne at its Low Walker yard. It was launched there in 1898. Yermak served with different branches of Russian and Soviet Navy and Merchant Marine up until 1964. It became one of longest-serving icebreakers in the world.
In December 2004 there was a great fire on the island which destroyed a lot of old constructions there. For a long time this place was lonely and desert. But soon the city government came up to a decision to reconstruct a historic look of the island and a new “Russian-English” stage in the history of the island began. [Слайд 14]
In 2006 there was declared an international competition for the revival of this place. The winner was ST New Holland, set up by the Moscow-based ST Group controlled by Shalva Chigirinsky who had invited the prominent British architect Norman Forster and pledged to spend $320 million on the project. “Norman Foster’s plan will integrate the site’s disparate elements around a roofed amphitheater enclosing a pond. A gleaming cupola will top the star-shaped structure, which will function as a year-round facility for aquatic events and open-air performances. The arena will be complemented by a 2,000-seat concert hall, three hotels, a two-tier parking lot, gallery space, and retail and office spaces.
The redeveloped island will feature 40,673sqm of retail properties, a 5-star hotel and 2 four-star hotels (56,850sqm in total), a two-level underground car park (1,100 spaces), and 60 apartments. The total of 180,146sqm will be redeveloped or built. Eight new bridges will be added across the canals surrounding the island. The projected annual profit will be at no less than $100 million”. [19]
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Conclusion
On the whole, the problem of preserving the world cultural and historical heritage is of great importance throughout the world. Only studying the past we are able to see ahead and not to make previous mistakes.
Many people are convinced that changing the image of the cities they make them more comfortable and universal. In my opinion this subject is very controversial. There are many things to be said in favor of modernization of old and useless places. From the other hand this problem should be solved very carefully - sometimes taking away “unnecessary and ugly” sights people are loosing the historic biography of the place they live at. Moreover the cities are deprived of their individuality and become very much alike.
As we see St. Petersburg managed to preserve a lot from its past and without any doubt can be proud of being included in the World Cultural Heritage List. It is not only a great honor but also a great civil responsibility - the city should share its inherited wealth with people from different countries. Actually even only British inheritance is quite rich: in industry, in ship building, in culture, in medicine, in garden architecture and wherever else.
Analyzing the results of this work I came to a conclusion that a lot of countries influenced the development of St. Petersburg but it was Britain that helped the city progress in the Western way in the 18-19th centuries. Just now we feel the influence of Britain in St. Petersburg: in the buildings on the English Embankment, in the “English parks” in Pushkin and Pavlovsk, in the “Victorian” halls of the palaces and even in “endless rice puddings and baked apples” served in numerous Anglo-Russian cafes. [Слайд 15]
Almost 100 years ago William Faulkner, a Nobel Prize-winning American author, wrote: “The past is never dead; it's not even past”. [9] It will stay with us forever. We must only treat it with loving care. [Слайд 16]
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Resources
1. Артемьева Т.В., Златопольская А.А., Микешин М.И., Тоси А. А.М. Белопольский-Белозерский и его философское наследие. – СПб: Санкт-Петербургский центр истории идей, 2008.
2. Бурова И.И. The History of England. Parliamentary monarchy. – СПб: Питер Пресс, 1996.
3. Керимова Елена. Кобург и Петербург. Одна история из жизни Романовых. – СПб: Logos, 2005.
4. Маерова Вера. Елизавета Федоровна. Биография.- М.: Захаров, 2001.
5. Масси Роберт. Николай и Александра. – СПб: Издательский дом «Нева», 2004.
6. Палеолог Морис. Воспоминания посла. - М.: Захаров, 2003.
7. Цельядт М.П.,Дворец Белосельских-Белозерских.–СПб: Белое и черное, 1996.
8. G.A.Apshyein, N.M.Kazanskaya. A Glimpse of Saint-Petersburg. – СПб: Триада, 1996.
9. N.N.Karetnikova, R.E. Pavlova, A.A.Smirnova. The British Itinerary. Guide-book with a map – St. Petersburg: Fregat Publishing House, 2003.
10. http://beloselskiy-palace.ru/
11. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/nursing-sisters/025013-2202-e.html
12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beloselsky-Belozersky_Palace
13. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1499826/pdf/bmjcred00630-0047.pdf
14. http://palomnic.org/journal/5/hl/1/
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15. http://www.russinitalia.it/europa_orientalis/Cross.pdf
16. http://www.spbin.ru/encyclopedia/palaces/beloselsky.htm
17. http://theesotericcuriosa.blogspot.com/2010/01/recollections-from-diplomatic-eye-miss.html
18. http://www.tvkultura.ru/page.html?cid=762&p=18
19. http://www.vedomosti.ru/newspaper/article/2006/03/20/104859
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