Question by .: What the cities of St. Petersburg and Moscow probably looked like before the Soviets took over power in Russia?
how the architecture was similar or different than western European countries? and please give names or describe the styles of the buildings in main center that were there before? how many of these did the Soviets tear down and which years and how they did this so quickly?
also, is St. Petersburg a good place to see examples of this previous style of architecture? are many buildings there still in this style? where this style originates? and is this similar at all to GERMAN architecture? which buildings? (since have heard that the German Monarchies and the British were the big hands in Russia before the “Communist Revolution”) how this was too if you can explain
?
thanks for your answers!
ALSO, HOW BIG WERE THESE TWO CITIES BEFORE COMPARED TO AFTER THE COMMUNISTS TOOK OVER? HOW AND WHY POPULATION INCREASED SO MUCH AND WHICH DECADES MOSTLY?
Answers and Views:
Answer by polynesian
St.Petersburg was a very big city already in 1915 – its population was 2.3 million.
The centre of the city was designed and built in 18th century by French and Italian architects,
most of the architecture has been preserved until now.
One of St.Pete’s jewels is Peterhof park complex – a Russian Versailes built in 1724-1725
The St.Pete’s highlights you can see in Wikipedia –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Petersburg
Read all the answers in the comments.
Know better? Leave your own answer!
Slava T says
Ok, have a look at some photographs of pre-revolutionary(before 1917) St Petersburg http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/la_belle_epoque/… http://www.liveinternet.ru/community/769936/post9… http://www.savok.name/306-leningrad1.html http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=97…
Moscow before 1917:
http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/la_belle_epoque/… http://100mb.ru/
http://ancient-image.ru/catalog/befor-revolution….
Before the October revolution of 1917 Moscow area was about 91.5 sq. km. Having incorporated the suberbs in May of 1917 the area of the city grew 2.5 fold and reached 234.4 sq. km. During the Soviet time the city area grew 4-fold. According to the all-Russian census of 1897 Moscow population was a little more than one million – 1,039 thousand people then in 1912 – 1.618 thousand people, 1926 – about 2 million, 1939 – 4.6 million, 1959 – 6.1 million, 1979 – 8.1 m., 1989 – over 9 m.
St. Petersburg
Population in 1890 – 954.400; in 1905 – 1. 248 thousand people; in 1914 – 2.11 mln.
The growth of the urban population reflected the pace of industrialisation. As you see the tendency was in place before the revolution. The Bolsheviks drive for industrialisation expedited the process from the end of 1920s. The number of the urban population rapidly increased in 1930s and after the WWII in 1950s.