Peter the Great never spoke of cutting a 'window to Europe'. The phrase is Pushkin's, from The Bronze Horseman (1833), and as he noted himself, the image came from the Italian writer Francesco Algarotti.
The events
- Pushkin writes The Bronze Horseman1833 · Boldino. In autumn 1833 at Boldino Pushkin wrote his poem about Peter and the Petersburg flood. He footnoted the line about cutting a window to Europe: the image came from the Italian Francesco Algarotti, who called Petersburg a window through which Russia looks at Europe.
- Founding of Saint Petersburg1703 · Saint Petersburg. During the Great Northern War, Peter I laid a fortress at the mouth of the Neva on land taken from Sweden. The new city became Russia's capital and its 'window on Europe', the emblem of Peter's reforms.
More amazing facts
- 1699 · 1700 Russia's shortest year lasted four months.
- 1700 · 1800 In the 18th century Britons’ sugar intake more than quadrupled, from about 4 lb a year per person in 1700 to about 18 lb in 1800.
- 1701 No one sits on the Ashanti kingdom's sacred throne.
- 1704 Pushkin's great-grandfather came to Russia as a boy, a 'gift' for Peter I. African-born Abram Gannibal became the tsar's godson, a military engineer and a general — and his great-grandson Russia's greatest poet.
- 1705 · 1742 · 1758 Edmond Halley predicted that a comet would return in 1758 but did not live to see it. He died in 1742; the comet came back on schedule and was named after him.
- 1707 The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, who ruled almost all of India, wanted his burial paid for with money earned sewing caps and copying the Quran.