The flood of 1777. Flood history. Neva Gates of the Peter and Paul Fortress

XIII. Cares of Catherine II about urban improvement?. - Rich people and hospitals. - Public schools. - Street lighting. - Police. - Fires. - The flood of 1777. By arranging city government by legislative means, Catherine II at the same time actively took care of

Catherine II was proud of Petersburg, the city that became her home. All the years of her reign, she, sparing no effort and means, decorated her capital. True, in 1777 the city suffered misfortune - the first great flood. Misfortune came, as always, suddenly. After midnight on September 10, the wind from the west sharply increased (became “hard”), and at 5 in the morning the Neva overflowed its banks “and instantly flooded the low-lying parts of the city”, so much so that people sailed along Nevsky and other streets in boats. The height of the water that morning reached 310 cm above the ordinary. It rose higher only twice: in 1824 (410 cm) and in September 1924 (369 cm). A furious wind from the sea carried through the air sheets of iron torn from the roofs, tiles, broke glass, broke the frames in the Winter Palace, where Empress Catherine II was.

A lot of ships and baroques that entered the Neva were blown off the anchors. The storm threw them at each other, threw them ashore. As Catherine II wrote to M. Grimm, ships were piled up on the ruined Palace Embankment. On Vasilyevsky Island, the ship from Lübeck was not just washed ashore, but thrown into a forest standing in the distance. At the same time, the Summer Garden actually perished: many mighty trees fell down, buildings were destroyed by water. The water quickly receded, and the city was a terrible sight. The corpses of people and animals, fallen fences, timber and firewood brought by water, small and large ships, broken trees - all this piled up in incredible chaos among dilapidated houses, whose roofs were torn off, windows were broken. All the cellars and warehouses were flooded, the goods were spoiled, the merchants suffered huge losses. Only fish was everywhere in abundance. After the sudden departure of water, it was found in the most unexpected places: in cellars, cellars, rooms, right on the street ...

The city under Catherine II lived rapidly and changed rapidly. At the end of the 18th century, it overtook Moscow in terms of numbers - about 200 thousand people lived in it. But Catherine's Petersburg is not remarkable for its crowdedness. His fate at that time was determined by the place occupied by Russia during the reign of Catherine II. The city became one of the centers of world politics, the residence of the great empress, who ruled the vast empire with glory for more than a third of a century. The economic and military power of Russia then reached its peak and amazed contemporaries. There was no more magnificent court in Europe than the Russian court in St. Petersburg. The cost of it in the year of the death of Catherine II (1796) amounted to a gigantic amount, reaching almost 12% of all government spending!

Let's look at the source

The huge city with its variegated population, a mixture of different peoples, persons, classes left a strange impression on the observer.

“Petersburg,” writes the Frenchman Segur, “presents a dual spectacle to the mind: here at the same time you meet enlightenment and barbarism, traces of the 10th and 18th centuries, Asia and Europe, Scythians and Europeans, a brilliant proud nobility and an ignorant crowd. On the one hand, fashionable clothes, rich clothes, luxurious feasts, magnificent celebrations, spectacles such as those that amuse the select society of Paris and London, on the other, merchants in Asian clothes, cabbies, servants and peasants in sheepskin coats, with long beards, with fur hats and mittens and sometimes with axes tucked behind belt belts. These clothes, woolen shoes and a kind of rough cothurn on their feet resembled Scythians, Dacians, Roxolans and Goths ... But when these people sing their melodious, albeit monotonously sad songs on barges or on wagons, it is immediately remembered that these are no longer the ancient free Scythians, but the Muscovites who lost their pride under the yoke of the Tatars and Russian boyars.

Segur correctly noticed the origins of the striking contrasts of St. Petersburg. He wrote that “despite all the charm of luxury and art, power there is not limited by anything, there will always be only a master and a slave, no matter how beautifully they are called.” As N. I. Turgenev wrote, in Catherine’s time, “whole barracks were brought to St. Petersburg for sale.” The adventurer and debaucher Casanova bought a young girl for an insignificant amount for him, and when asked when he could make his purchase, his Russian companion replied: there is no shortage of beautiful girls here.” Foreigners were unaccustomed to the crowds of servants who lived in the homes of wealthy landowners, disgusting scenes of noble life with constant humiliation of people and even beatings.

Imperial power was imprinted on the appearance of the city. This could be judged by the magnificent festivities, parades on its squares, by the lifestyle of St. Petersburg residents. In Catherine's time, the "mental" conflict with Moscow was especially clearly manifested. The dandy, new, western, impetuous, but at the same time callous, cold, rejecting a person, the Petersburg beginning was opposed to the Moscow, old Russian, hospitable, kind, but lazy, inert, unenterprising beginning. The glow of the court, a certain special awareness of the state of affairs "in the higher spheres" gave even the St. Petersburg lackey, who came with the master to Moscow, significance and importance.

By this time, St. Petersburg became the largest port. It accounted for half of the foreign and two-thirds of the country's maritime trade. It became profitable for merchants to trade here. The port on the spit of Vasilyevsky Island was overflowing with ships that came from 18 European countries. In 1760, 338 ships entered the port, and in 1797 - already 1267, and more than half of them were English. Ships from the North American United States began to appear. Some skippers from Boston and other cities in Massachusetts made trade with Russia their main occupation, sailed across the ocean dozens of times, called their ships “S. - Petersburg", "Neva", etc. They brought to America a lot of different goods, mainly iron, canvas, yuft, leather, hemp, lard and linen, as well as millions of goose feathers. This allows historians to jokingly suggest that the US Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776 with Russian goose feathers.

The year 1777 opened the most cheerful and happy time of Catherine's reign.
The Polish and Turkish wars ended victoriously, Russia's influence on European affairs steadily increased, Voltaire and Grimm extolled the statesmanship of "Saint Catherine of Petersburg" to the skies. The nobility, having shaken off the numbness caused by the horrors of Pugachevism, vigorously enjoyed the pleasures of life.

The court and the capital set the tone. The favorites and the favorites of the favorites changed. Potemkin gave way for a while to the brilliant Zavadovsky and again returned the favor of the empress. The nobles exchanged ceremonial bows and discouraging slaps in the face. Chamber-pages and ladies-in-waiting, having received their portion of the rod, went to play sensitive pastorals at the Hermitage meetings. Whist, pharaoh and macao, like a tornado, carried away villages and peasants. Corks and pistols clapped deafeningly. On the Russian Parnassus, after the death of Sumarokov, the real state councilor Kheraskov and the empress's cabinet secretary thundered Vasily Petrov, proud of the title of "Her Majesty's Pocket Poet". Kniazhnin's "Dido" was a success. Bogdanovich, having written "Darling", was "on roses". Derzhavin, unknown to anyone, was released from the guard into the civil service, having been recognized as incapable of military service. Fonvizin traveled around France and, in letters to his friend General P.I. Panin, cursed Parisian uncleanness, “which is very difficult for people who are not completely brutes to endure.”

This year seemed to give hope for the restoration of peace in the family of the Empress. In March, Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna (Sofia Dorothea) felt pregnant.

Only one event this year disturbed the calm course of life in St. Petersburg. September 10 at ten o'clock in the morning Neva rushed to the capital. All of St. Petersburg, except for the Foundry and Vyborg sides, disappeared under the water, which rose almost four meters. Boats floated through the streets, and chief police chief N.I. Chicherin sailed in a skiff from his house at the Police Bridge directly to the Winter Palace. A small merchant ship sailed past the Winter Palace across the stone embankment; another ship was blown away from the shore into the forest. In Kolomna and Meshchanskaya, more than a hundred houses were blown away by waves and wind, one hut swam across to the opposite bank of the Neva. The famous gardens and groves of St. Petersburg suffered. In Akademicheskie Vedomosti, after the flood, an advertisement was published for the sale of two thousand mast pines uprooted by a storm from one dacha on the Peterhof road. The number of human victims could not be counted. On the seashore, a prison was washed away, in which there were up to three hundred people. By evening, when the water subsided, around the city for eleven miles they found corpses of people and animals in the fields.

In the morning of that day, Catherine was informed that water was standing at the porch of the Winter Palace. She ordered to break the glass in one of the windows of the Hermitage and from there watched the disaster and the actions of the city authorities to save the life and property of the townsfolk. Then she ordered the priest to serve a prayer service and prayed herself on her knees. After mass, the empress sat down to write a letter to Grimm, which she had begun in the morning, and, describing the flood in detail, added: “I am dining at home. The water has run out and, as you know, I have not drowned. in an English carriage; the water was higher than the rear axle, and the footman, standing on the back, got his feet wet. But enough about the water, let's add about the wine. My cellars are filled with water, and God knows what will become of them. Farewell; four pages are enough in the time of the flood, which is decreasing every hour."

The head of the St. Petersburg police, Chicherin, was accused of the fact that it was his lack of control that led to such terrible consequences. Having received a scolding from the empress, Chicherin could not stand the shame and died two days later.
After the flood of 1777, "Rules for residents - what to do in a moment of danger?" In particular, they reported that now they would warn about the approach of the elements "with firing from the fortress and a signal flag during the day and lanterns at night."

Local residents knew about the capricious nature of the Neva long before the founding of St. Petersburg. It is possible that the floods were one of the serious reasons why until the beginning of the 18th century there were no significant settlements on the site of our city.

But the character of the king turned out to be no less severe than that of the river. Despite the threat of constant floods, he did not give up the idea of ​​​​founding the future capital at the mouth of the Neva.

Before the construction of the Peter and Paul Fortress began, people witnessed the rise of water. Already on the night of August 19-20, 1703, a flood began. Despite the fact that it was insignificant, even a small rise in water really scared people.

But the river still managed to make adjustments to Peter's ideas. As you know, he wanted to place the center of the future city on Vasilyevsky Island. Moreover, in accordance with the town-planning plan of 1717, this idea began to be put into practice. Buildings for administrative and scientific institutions began to be erected on the Strelka. But time has shown that the island, due to its particularly low position above sea level, was flooded more than others. This was one of the reasons why the city center gradually moved to the left bank of the Neva.

Thoughts about how to save the city from a recurring natural scourge began to arise in the time of Peter the Great. There was even a project to raise the level of Vasilyevsky Island by three meters, but because of the colossal amount of work, it was abandoned.

The famous canals, now filled in and turned into lines, were also dug in part for this purpose. It was assumed that the rising water would go through them back to the Neva. But this event did not help solve the problem. For this, the Catherine Canal (now Griboedov) and Obvodny were dug later.

Despite the fact that the highest water level was recorded during the flood of 1824, the scale of the disaster and the number of injured and dead people was the most terrifying on September 10, 1777.

Two days before, a terrible storm began, and on the night of September 10, the water level rose by three meters. Almost the entire city was flooded. The ill-fated Vasilyevsky Island and Kolomna were especially affected. Only the area of ​​Liteiny Prospekt and the Vyborg side turned out to be untouched by water.

The flood was short-lived - by 12 noon, nature began to calm down. But a few hours were enough to inflict catastrophic damage on the city.

Many wooden houses ended up in the sea. City gardens were badly damaged - trees were uprooted. And in the Summer Garden, the flood destroyed the fountains. A small ship sailed past the Winter Palace right along the embankment. The prison that stood on the shore, in which there were about 300 people, was simply washed away into the water, and all the prisoners died. The total number of human lives taken exceeded 1000. By evening, when the water subsided, the corpses of people and animals were found in the fields around the city for 11 miles.

On the eve of the catastrophe, Empress Catherine returned from Tsarskoye Selo to the Winter Palace and at night found herself in the very center of events. As she later wrote, “A gust of wind woke me up at five o'clock. I called and was told that the water was at my porch and ready to flood it. The Neva represented the spectacle of the destruction of Jerusalem.” Soon the Empress summoned Chief of Police Chicherin. He sailed to the Winter Palace on a skiff. The angry queen accused the official of the indiscretion of the authorities, because of which the flood caused such terrible consequences. Apparently, Chicherin took Catherine's words so close to his heart that he died two days later.

Residents who lived to see another large-scale flood in 1824 testified that, despite the higher water level, the events of 1777 were much worse.

After the flood of 1777, "Rules for residents - what to do in a moment of danger?" were published. Among other things, they said that now they would warn of the onset of a disaster with cannon fire, a signal flag during the day and lanterns at night.

This catastrophe greatly increased interest in the study of the causes of floods. Regular monitoring of the water level in the Neva was established.

For a long time it was believed that the main cause of flooding lies in the river itself. The researchers believed that with a strong western wind, the flow in the river slows down, and it overflows its banks. But only recently it became clear that the Atlantic cyclones are to blame. They cause waves to rise in the Baltic Sea. At first low, passing through the Gulf of Finland, it picks up speed and height, sometimes reaching five meters. Colliding at the mouth of the Neva with the course of the latter, it causes a rapid rise in the water level. This is due to the shallow depth of the bay and the Neva Bay.

Despite a long history of work on projects to protect the city from floods, this issue was dealt with in more detail only after the disaster of 1924. Protective structures were designed and their construction began. The work was supposed to be completed in four years. For various reasons, including the war, work was suspended.

The modern complex of protective structures of St. Petersburg from floods began to be designed in the 1960s, and construction began only in 1979. The notorious dam became a long-term construction - the work ended only in 2011. Now meteorologists learn about the approach of a wave from the Baltic two days in advance, and five hours before its approach, all passages for ships are closed.

St. Petersburg, located in the Neva delta, has experienced 323 floods over the three hundred years of its existence, which is considered to be the rise of water by 1.6 m above the ordinary established in the area of ​​the Mining Institute. Usually they take place in September-December - such is the specificity of the Baltic Sea.

In winter, the water level in the Neva can rise up to a meter due to clogging of the river bed with sludge during the onset of severe frosts; in spring, similar phenomena are sometimes observed when the channel is filled with passing ice during ice drift. Rising water levels as a result of floods were observed in 1903, 1921 and 1956, but they cannot be considered the cause of floods.

Atlantic cyclones became the reason for the rise of water in the Neva: south-western winds caused a surge from the Gulf of Finland, and it prevented the free flow of the river. Most often, floods were observed in autumn - in September and November, the largest of them occurred in 1777, 1824 and 1924.

The first flood in the history of St. Petersburg occurred on August 30, 1703. The water rose to 2.5 m, flooded Hare Island and washed away part of the forest harvested for the construction of the fortress. The first security measures were taken against sudden rises in the water level: “Since during the flood, Zayachy Island was covered with water, when building the fortress it was somewhat elevated and even increased with earth filling,” reports the Chronicle of the Peter and Paul Fortress 1703-1789, stored in State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg.

The news cannon, installed on the Sovereign's bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress in 1703, warned of an impending disaster with a shot. From the middle of the XVIII century. a signal of a dangerous rise in water was given by the guns of the Admiralty. In 1873, signal guns were again transferred to the Peter and Paul Fortress. Every day, from the Naryshkin bastion, they fired a midday volley, and with a dangerous rise in water, they notified the townspeople with several shots about the beginning of the flood. The tradition continued until the 1920s.

In 1706, Peter I witnessed one of the floods and left a description of it in a letter to A. D. Menshikov: “On the third day, the west-south wind caught up such water, which, they say, never happened. In my mansions, the top of the floor was 21 inches, and boats traveled freely around the city and on the other side of the street. And here it was comforting to see that people were sitting on the roofs and on the trees, as if during the flood - not only men, but also women.

In 1715 in the Peter and Paul Fortress a hydrometer rod was installed to measure the water level at the mouth of the river during storm surges. With its help, Academician I. G. Leitman in 1726 determined the Neva's ordinary - the normal water level in calm weather. The first scientific studies of the Neva floods, published at the end of the 18th century, were based on the testimony of this footstock at the Nevsky Gates of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The chronicle of the most catastrophic floods, when the water rose by more than 3 m, is imprinted on commemorative plaques, fortified under the gate arch.

Vasilyevsky Island - one of the lowest places in the city - according to the plan of Peter I was to become the center of the capital. In 1716-1717, a project for its development was developed. To prevent frequent flooding of the island, the architect D. Trezzini proposed to raise the soil level by 3 m, dig a rectangular network of canals on the model of the Dutch and build dams along the coastline. The project was partially implemented. The channels dug along the lines of Vasilyevsky Island turned out to be too narrow, and they were soon filled up.

In 1720, a certain soothsayer appeared on Petersburg Island, who prophesied: “Petersburg will be empty”, water will pour on the island and flood the whole city to the mark on the top of a tall tree that grew on the shore. Many townspeople began to hastily move from the lowlands to higher places. Peter I, having learned about this, ordered the tree to be cut down, and the “prophet” to be punished with a whip. From 1721 to 1724 there were indeed three major floods. During these years, Peter I issued several decrees on protection from "profit water": the inhabitants of the coastal territories were obliged to pour and strengthen the coast, to raise the foundations of buildings under construction. At the end of 1724, during a flood, the sovereign, saving drowning fishermen, caught a bad cold, from which he soon died.

Another disaster almost forever decided the fate of St. Petersburg: after the flood on October 13, 1729, Emperor Peter II moved the capital to Moscow. Empress Anna Ioannovna returned to St. Petersburg its capital status in 1732.

During the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, there were no significant rises in water, but regular flooding brought a lot of trouble, so the empress throughout her reign issued decrees on the construction of foundations "one foot higher than the flood water."

In 1764, engineer-general I. M. Kutuzov, the father of the great commander, presented a project “On the construction of a canal to prevent the inhabitants of the capital from the disastrous consequences of a flood.” On the plan of St. Petersburg, which reproduces the town-planning project of the 1760s, this canal, called Ekaterininsky (now - Griboyedov), is marked. Its construction was completed in 1790, but it did not prevent the "disastrous consequences of floods".

The flood of 1777 was especially disastrous for the capital: about a thousand inhabitants died, many wooden houses and shops were destroyed, the granite Palace Embankment under construction was damaged, and the fountains of the Summer Garden were destroyed. On September 10, the water rose to 3.21 m and flooded the city. Empress Catherine II observed the rampant elements from the windows of the Winter Palace and described the flood as follows: “A gust of wind woke me up at five o'clock. I called and was told that the water was at my porch and ready to flood it. I said: if so, let the sentries leave the courtyards, otherwise they will probably take it into their heads to fight the pressure of the water and destroy themselves ... Wanting to find out more closely what was the matter, I went to the Hermitage. The Neva represented the spectacle of the destruction of Jerusalem. Three-masted merchant ships piled up along the embankment, which had not yet been completed. I said: my God! The stock exchange has changed its place, Count Munnich will have to set up a customs office where the Hermitage Theater used to be.”

The flood of 1777 destroyed the prison, which stood on the banks of the Neva. All 300 prisoners died. The incident gave rise to a legend about the drowning of the prisoners of the Peter and Paul Fortress, including an impostor who pretended to be the daughter of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. In the 19th century, she was identified with Princess Tarakanova, another adventuress who also lived in the era of Catherine. The legend served as the plot of several novels and the famous painting by K. D. Flavitsky. In fact, the prisoner died of consumption two years earlier - in 1775.

The news of the misfortune that befell St. Petersburg reached Europe. M. I. Pylyaev on the pages of the book “Old Petersburg” reproduced a German engraving of the late 18th century depicting the flood of 1777. Apparently, the artist used a verbal description or a cursory sketch of the scene.

The winding river flowing among the hills does not look like the Neva, and in the architectural landscape of the town with rows of peaked roofs it is difficult to recognize Petersburg. The flooded tower in the foreground is Fort Kronshlot, located in the Gulf of Finland near Kotlin Island.

November 7, 1824 on the square near the Bolshoi Theater

The most devastating flood, the 79th in a row, occurred on November 7, 1824. The water rose 4.1 m above the ordinary. Galernaya harbour, Vasilyevsky island and Petersburg side suffered the most. On Nevsky Prospekt, the water reached Troitsky Lane (now Rubinshtein Street). The villages around Ekateringof and the state-owned ironworks were flooded with water. Several hundred people and thousands of livestock died, almost all wooden buildings in the flooded area were destroyed.

Flood November 7, 1824

Governor-General of St. Petersburg Count M. A. Miloradovich and Adjutant General Count A. Kh. Benckendorff took part in rescuing the inhabitants of the city. On November 8, Emperor Alexander I inspected all the places affected by the flood, and ordered the issue to the townspeople left without a livelihood, "one million rubles from the amounts made up of savings by the economic organization of military settlements."

The natural disaster of 1777 marked the beginning of scientific research on the problem. At the direction of Empress Catherine II, General Engineer F.V. Baur drew up a plan of St. Petersburg with the designation of flood sites, and Academician L.Yu. Petersburg".

Under Emperor Alexander I in 1804, according to the project of Lieutenant-General I.K. Gerard, the architect of the Imperial water structures, the construction of the Bypass Canal began. In 1816, the construction was headed by P. P. Bazin, an outstanding French engineer and scientist, mathematician and mechanic, corresponding member and honorary member of the Munich, St. Petersburg, Stockholm and Turin academies of sciences. The construction of the Obvodny Canal was completed in 1834. On the "Plan of the capital city of St. Petersburg", published in 1820, this canal, called New, is already indicated.

In 1824, A. S. Pushkin was not in St. Petersburg, but the great disaster became the theme of the poem "The Bronze Horseman". The poet documentarily reproduced the picture of the St. Petersburg flood, as he said in the preface: "The incident described in this story is based on the truth ... The curious can cope with the news compiled by V. N. Berkh." Marine engineer and fleet historian V. N. Berkh in 1826 published "Detailed historical news about all the floods that were in St. Petersburg." Pushkin also used the article "Letter to a friend about the flood, who was in St. Petersburg on November 7, 1824" by F.V. Bulgarin, a well-known St. Petersburg journalist and publisher.

Memories of the flood of 1824 were left by A. S. Griboyedov, I. I. Martynov, a well-known scientist and journalist, actor of the Imperial Theater V. A. Karatygin and other eyewitnesses. The poetic description of the catastrophe, composed by Count D. I. Khvostov, was dedicated to the four-legged victims of the flood:

Boreas raged,
And how many horses died that day!
And a terrible picture appeared
how: ... a lot of kravs were lying on the haystacks,
Who lay there with their legs up in health ...

In 1888, the Chronicle of the St. Petersburg Floods of 1703-1879 was published, compiled by P.P. Karatygin, a famous writer and nephew of the famous actor. The book contains the memories of eyewitnesses and legends related to the disaster of 1824: “The flood hit the memory of St. Petersburg residents, leaving indelible sad traces for many years. The reminder of him was facilitated, perhaps, by the still preserved marks on the walls of houses in the form of tin, and in some places marble plaques with the inscription: November 7, 1824. There are also many terrible episodic stories and legends about the mysterious connection of this flood with the life of Emperor Alexander the First: it preceded his death by 12 months and 12 days, and the flood of September 10, 1777 - by three months and two days of his birth. . Images of the flood of 1824, created from sketches from nature by St. Petersburg artists F. Ya. Alekseev, S. F. Galaktionov, G. G. Chernetsov, have also been preserved.

Johann Friedrich Tilker's Flood Panorama combines personal recollection of the incident with the precision of scientific observation. Depicted is one of the moments of the disaster in the afternoon of November 7, when the level of water rise reached its maximum. The sea has spread to the horizon, in which the Winter Palace, the Admiralty, the Stock Exchange rise as separate islands. A cliff in the foamy abyss stands the Bronze Horseman.

In February 1825, Alexander I announced a competition for the best project to protect St. Petersburg from floods. P.P. Bazen, one of the five participants in the competition, proposed separating the Neva Bay from the Gulf of Finland with a stone dam. The dam was supposed to cross the bay between Lisiy Nos and Oranienbaum via Kotlin Island. For the passage of ships between the ends of the dam that overlap each other, it was supposed to leave a wide channel perpendicular to the direction of the westerly winds.

The projects were discussed for almost 30 years, but the destructive floods did not recur during this time, and interest in protective measures gradually faded. In 1890, the Neva water rose again. It is believed that it was then that the Obvodny Canal protected the city from the catastrophic flood of the Neva.

In 1891, the discussion of projects for protective structures resumed, but due to lack of funds and the danger of pollution of the Neva Bay, the plans did not receive support. Design began only after the flood of 1924, taking as a basis the project of P.P. Bazin, developed a century earlier.

In 1897, a permanent meteorological service was established at the Physical Observatory, whose task was to timely predict the danger of flooding. Nevertheless, even at the beginning of the 20th century, many citizens learned about upcoming storms and the threat of flooding from barometer readings. In St. Petersburg, several companies were engaged in the production of a popular device.

Sadovaya street near the former Nikolsky market during the flood on November 25, 1903

In the year of the 200th anniversary of St. Petersburg there was a major flood. On November 12, 1903, the water level reached 2.58 meters above normal. Subsequently, this natural disaster was considered as a "warning from above" about the beginning of a period of wars and revolutions that was unfavorable for Russia. The destruction was captured by St. Petersburg photographers. For the first time in the history of the city, the event was captured on film. In memory of the flood, postcards were issued with views of the areas of the city affected by the flood.

Bolshaya Podyacheskaya st. during the flood of November 25, 1903

The last catastrophic flood occurred in Leningrad on September 23, 1924. Around noon, a gusty wind blew, and the water began to rise rapidly. At 13.20, the first five warning shots rang out from the Peter and Paul Fortress. The water rose by 1.52 m, and by 15.00 began to flood the city. The hurricane wind uprooted trees, tore off roofs, brought down telegraph poles, and threw barges ashore. Several tornadoes swept over the city - an unusually rare phenomenon for the northern latitudes. From 16.30 the wind began to weaken, but the rise of water continued and reached a level of 3.8 m above the ordinary. The electric light went out, telegraph and telephone communications were interrupted, the work of the city water supply stopped. By 21.00 Neva again entered the banks.

Boating on the streets of Vasilyevsky Island during the flood on September 23, 1924

A. N. Polukhina, a resident of Vasilyevsky Island, described this day as follows: “The grass in the middle of the yard began to become covered with water. A whole scattering of Antonov apples, probably floating away from the Andreevsky market, was nailed to the gate. The striped watchman's booth, falling on its side, floated across the yard to the 3rd line; a huge, shaggy guard coat stretched behind it, there they pushed against the gate for a long time and, when they gave way, victoriously swam out into the street. It was impossible to go... The water rushed into the front doors and began to rise, flooding more and more steps. In the basement of the house office, the accountant, like Princess Tarakanova, stood numbly on the table, clutching a bundle of statements to her chest.

Vladimirskaya Street (Vladimirsky Prospekt) after the 1924 flood.

During the flood of 1924, almost two-thirds of the territory of Leningrad was under water. Lakhta, Lisiy Nos, Strelna, Petrodvorets, Lomonosov, Sestroretsk and Kronstadt were also in the area of ​​flooding. More than 5,000 buildings were damaged, 19 bridges were destroyed, 40 ships in the seaport sank or were washed ashore. The Krasny Putilovets and Russian Diesel plants were badly damaged, the archives of the General Staff and the Peter and Paul Fortress were flooded. 550 ancient trees died in the Summer Garden. Accurate information about the number of victims of the flood was not reported. As in previous catastrophes, in the sudden rise of the Neva waters, they were looking for a higher meaning and ominous omens.

Two floods, with a difference of a hundred years,
Do they shed some light
For the meaning of everything?
And since childhood, I remember, my soul worried
Two floods visible connection...

A. S. Kushner

The leadership of Leningrad learned the lessons of the 1924 disaster. In 1932, the Institute of Public Utilities presented a project for protective hydraulic structures based on the developments of P. P. Bazin. The construction was supposed to be completed by 1938, but after the assassination of S. M. Kirov in 1934, it was time for total repressions, then war, blockade. The construction of protective structures during this period ceased to be relevant. They returned to the dam project in the early 1960s after a major flood on October 15, 1955 (2.93 m above the ordinary) and in connection with the development of a new General Plan for the Development of Leningrad. Work on the project has been going on for almost 20 years.

At the pier of the Marine Passenger Station during the flood on October 18, 1967

At the Mining Institute during the flood on October 18, 1967

To prevent the constant threat of surge floods was built