Shlisselburg

Fortress

Oreshek Fortress

Inside the fortress walls

Interior of the dungeon

A wooden fortress named Oreshek (Орешек) or Orekhov (Орехов) was built by Grand Prince Yury of Moscow (in his capacity as Prince of Novgorod) on behalf of the Novgorod Republic in 1323. It guarded the northern approaches to Novgorod and access to the Baltic Sea. The fortress is situated on Orekhovets Island whose name refers to nuts in Swedish as well as in Finnish (Pähkinäsaari, "Nut Island") and Russian languages.

After a series of conflicts, a peace treaty was signed at Oreshek on August 12, 1323 between Sweden and Grand Prince Yury and the Novgorod Republic. This was the first agreement on the border between Eastern and Western Christianity running through present-day Finland. A modern stone monument to the north of the Church of St. John in the fortress commemorates the treaty. In 1333 Novgorodians invited Lithuanian prince Narimantas to govern their north-western domain. Narimantas appointed his son, Alexander Narimuntovich to rule the autonomous Principality of Oreshek.

In 1348 king Magnus Eriksson attacked and briefly took the fortress during his crusade in the region in 1348–1352.^[9] It was largely ruined by the time the Novgorodians retook the fortress in 1351. The fortress was rebuilt in stone in 1352, by Archbishop Vasily Kalika of Novgorod (1330–1352), who, according to the Novgorod First Chronicle, was sent by the Novgorodians after several Russian and Lithuanian princes ignored the city's pleas to help them rebuild and defend the fort.^[10][11] The remnants of the walls of 1352 were excavated in 1969, and can be seen just north of the Church of St. John in the center of the present fortress.

In 1478 the Novgorod Republic was absorbed by the Muscovy who immediately started to strengthen their border with Sweden. The existing small citadel was demolished and a new stone fortress with seven towers was constructed, which occupied almost the complete island. The old Novgorodian basement was used to construct a new citadel with three towers inside the outer walls. The total length of the walls was about 740 meters. Their height up to 12 meters, and the width at the basement 4.5 meters; The towers were 14-16 meters high and 16 meters in diameter at the basement. This made it the strongest Russian fortress of that period. The residents were forced to resettle on the mainland and most preferred the Southern bank of Neva for safety reasons^[12].

In 1554-1555, during the Russo-Swedish war, The Swedes laid siege to the fortress, with no success. In response, Muscovites besieged Vyborg, with no success either^[12].

During the Livonian war, in 1582 Swedish troops led by Pontus De La Gardie almost captured the fortress. After a row of artillery fire they managed to break into one of the towers, but were later repelled by Muscovites^[12].

The fort was captured by Sweden in 1611 during the Ingrian War after nine months of siege, when the defenders lost every 9 men of 10. As part of the Swedish Empire, the fortress was known as Nöteborg ("Nut-fortress") in Swedish or Pähkinälinna in Finnish, and became the center of the north-Ingrian Nöteborg county (slottslän). During that time very little was done to maintain the fortress in good order, and the experts coming to Nöteborg to do inspections warned the crown of its deterioration^[12].

During the Ingrian Campaign of tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in June 1656 the fortress came under a siege by voevoda Potyomkin which lasted until November 1656 with no success.

In 1702, during the Great Northern War, the fortress was taken by Russians under Peter the Great in an amphibious assault: 440 Swedish soldiers defended the fort for ten days before surrendering. After heavy artillery fire and 13 hours of fighting inside the fortress, the Swedish commandant finally agreed to capitulate on honorable conditions. The Swedes left the fortress with their flags, rifles and four cannons. The Russian forces numbered 12,500 men and sustained a total of 1,500 casualties, compared to 360 for the Swedes.{see Siege of Nöteborg (1702)}.

Peter renamed the fortress to Shlisselburg, a transliteration into the Cyrillic alphabet of Schlüsselburg. The name, meaning "Key-fortress" in German, which refers to Peter's perception of the fortress as the "key to Ingria".

During Imperial times the fortress lost its military role and was used as a notorious political prison. Among its famous prisoners were Wilhelm Küchelbecker, Mikhail Bakunin and, for thirty-eight years, Walerian Łukasiński. Ivan VI was murdered in the fortress in 1764, and Lenin's brother, Aleksandr Ulyanov, was hanged there as well. It was informally known as the Russian Bastille^[13]. Immediately after the Russian Revolution of 1917 the prisoners, both political and criminal, were released, and set the prison on fire^[12].

In 1928 the fortress was turned into a branch of the Museum of the October Revolution, but in 1939, shortly before the war, it was closed and the exhibits were moved to Leningrad^[14].

Shortly before Shlisselburg was occupied by the German troops (8 September 1941), a garrison of 350 Red Army soldiers was sent to the fortress on Orekhovets island to bring supplies and munition to the frontline. The garrison held the abandoned castle for 500 days preventing the Germans from landing there and cutting the last transit route from Leningrad to the mainland. Food and supplies were brought from the northern bank of the Neva which remained under Soviet control. Heavy artillery fire by the Germans destroyed all the buildings inside the fortress and part of the outer towers and walls, but despite numerous attempts the fortress was not captured. During Operation Iskra (18 January 1943) the siege of the fortress was lifted.^[15]

The war completely devastated the fortress. Out of original ten towers, the fortress retains only six (five Russian and one Swedish). The remains of a church inside the fortress were transformed into a memorial to the fortress's defenders. An archaeological site was established in the fortress during 1968-1975 that excavated what remained from the ancient Novgorodian stone fort dated 1352 and other artefacts. The fortress has been the site of an annual rock concert since 2003. There is also a museum of political prisoners of the Russian Empire and a small collection of World War II artillery. Renovation of the walls and towers is slow, although still underway. A stone monument in memory of the first Russo-Swedish peace treaty (1323) was placed inside the fortress.

Tourists can reach the island from May to October via Shlisselburg^[16] or from the Northern bank of Neva, via Petrokrepost' railway station with regular ferries that run every 10-15 minutes^[17].

Town

A predecessor of the town was posad that first appeared around the citadel on the island, and in late XV-early XVI century shifted to both banks of Neva. Once muscovites rebuilt old citadel into a powerful stronghold leaving no place for residential purposes, residents and merchants were only allowed to the island to seek a shelter from advancing Swedish troops. Posad on the southern bank was more convenient, as for its population, unlike for those living on the Northern coast, was easier to flee the enemies to the Southeast, into the Russian mainland^[12]. Southern posad of Oreshek was turned into town in 1702 by Peter the Great.

In the course of Peter's administrative reform, Shlisselburg was included into Ingermanland Governorate (known since 1710 as St. Petersburg Governorate). In 1727, it became a part of Sankt-Petersburgsky Uyezd, and in 1755 Shlisselburgsky Uyezd was established. In 1914, Sankt-Peterburgsky Uyezd was renamed Petrogradsky Uyezd.^[18]

Old Ladoga Channel that divides the town into two parts was constructed during 1719-1731 to ensure the safety of the vessel traffic along the Southern coast of the dangerously turbulent lake Ladoga. The plan of the channel was worked out by the Emperor Peter I himself. In 1826 the channel became too shallow, so numerous locks, including those in the town, were built to maintain the depth of the channel. In 1861 construction of the new channel was commenced, that run between the old one and the lake. The old channel was finally abandoned in 1940, and what remains of it may still be seen in Shlisselburg^[19].

One of the most notorious political prisoners of Shlisselburg fortress was Iustin Zhuk (1887—1919), anarcho-syndicalist rebel from the Kiev Governorate. During the Russian Revolution he was released from prison and found a job on the Gunpowder works of Shlisselburg, where he joined and then headed a commune of pro-Bolshevik workers. Zhuk supported the revolutionary forces in Petrograd and arranged day care for the children of workers as well as sourced food from Ukraine, where he was born^[20]. He led a group of Red Guards from Shlisselburg that were dispatched to the Russian-Finnish borderland to halt an intrusion of White Finns towards Petrograd and died in an ambush near Gruzino railway station in 1919. One of the streets in Shlisselburg downtown is named in memory of I.Zhuk

On February 14, 1923, Shlisselburgsky Uyezd was merged into Petrogradsky Uyezd.^[21] In January 1924, the uyezd was renamed Leningradsky.^[21] St. Petersburg Governorate was twice renamed, first Petrograd Governorate and subsequently Leningrad Governorate. On August 1, 1927, the uyezds were abolished.^[21] Shlisselburg was made a town of okrug significance and belonged to Leningrad Okrug.{^[22] On August 19, 1930, Leningradsky Prigorodny District, with the administrative center in Leningrad, was established.^[22] On August 19, 1936, the district was abolished and Shlisselburg became the town of oblast significance.^[22]

During the Great Partiotic War Shlisselburg town was swiftly occupied by the Nazi troops (8 September 1941) that aimed to encircle Leningrad^[23]. On 18 January 1943 in course of Operation Iskra Shlisselburg was retaken by the Red Army.^[15] As the railway connection to Leningrad via German-occupied Mga was still unavailable, two temporary railway passages over Neva were rapidly built in Shlisselburg, a temporary railway line over the ice, and shortly afterwards a wooden pile bridge. First train with supplies that went through Shlisselburg arrived in Leningrad on 7 February, 1943.

In 1944, the town's name was changed to Petrokrepost (lit., Peter's fortress).^[5] Shlisselburg regained its former name in 1992.^[5]

In 2010, the administrative structure of Leningrad Oblast was harmonized with its municipal structure,^[24] and Shlisselburg became a town of district significance, subordinated to Kirovsky District.

Industry

There are several shipyards in Shlisselburg.^[25]

The main company operating in the city is "Nevsky shipyard" which was founded in 1913 when the ship repair workshops were established.^[26] The main activities of the company are: shipbuilding, ship repair, modernization and renovation and machine-building.^[27]

Transportation

The railway platform of Petrokrepost, which has passenger service to Ladozhsky railway station in St. Petersburg, is located on the other bank of the Neva opposite of Shlisselburg.

The A120 road, which encircles St. Petersburg, and the M18 Highway, which connects St. Petersburg and Murmansk, pass several kilometers south of the town.

The Neva and Lake Ladoga are navigable. In the beginning of the 19th century, a system of canals bypassing Lake Ladoga was built, which at the time was a part of Mariinsky Water System, connecting the Neva with the Volga River. In particular, the New Ladoga Canal connects the Volkhov and the Neva Rivers. It replaced the Old Ladoga Canal built by Peter the Great, which thus became disused and decayed. The canals collectively are known as the Ladoga Canal. The canals originate from the Neva in Shlisselburg.

Notes

Sources