"Английские названия в Санкт-Петербурге" - ученическая проектная работа
проект (8 класс) на тему

English names in St. Petersburg

 A Research Project  by Baranov Artiom, 8 A class

Introduction

While walking along streets in St Petersburg, I paid attention to the fact that there are too many names in my city which sound not quite Russian. So, I’ve decided to learn how many of them are English or have derived from English, and, maybe, why. I thought of two possible developments of the question: whether the English names are connected with the early history of St.Petersburg or with the modern life of the city.

From my history lessons I knew that the first diplomatic mission from England came to Moscow during the times of Ivan the Terrible. While searching the Internet I found out that the British -Russian relations date back to the 12-13th century, when an Englishman, David Aberdonis (David from Aberdeen), visited the Prince of Muskovy on a diplomatic mission on behalf of the King of Denmark. But that was long before St. Petersburg was founded.

British people in St.Petersburg

I went on searching and learned that the first British who settled in St.Petersburg had been invited by the founder of the city, Peter the Great. Never a large community but an old and an influential one, British merchants began to arrive in the first years after its foundation by Peter the Great in 1703. For the next two centuries they were to exercise a remarkable influence on the city’s economic development, drawing in their wake British soldiers, sailors, bankers, engineers, manufacturers, doctors, architects and craftsmen. By the 1820’s some 2,500 families lived in the city, some in aristocratic comfort: ‘proud of their indispensableness and the invincibility of their fleets’, one disgruntled German observer wrote, ‘highly thought of by the government and by all, because they think highly of themselves, and reside chiefly in the magnificent quay named after them’.

 The British community became one of the first foreign communities in St.Petersburg and it grew bigger.  The trade treaty of 1734 gave start for British merchants who flooded the city with goods of all kinds. By 1790 there were 28 English trade houses and a thousand and a half British settlers. It was about 1 % of the whole city population. They occupied a district in the city which was once called the English Line and then got the name of the English Embankment.

So, by the end of the eighteenth century the city’s first grand embankment along the Neva had become ‘English’.

 One of famous Britons lived at number 62 on the English Embankment for more than a hundred years. A Scot of modest background, the founder of the family’s fortunes, Samuel Greig, distinguished himself in Catherine the Great’s navy, rising to the rank of admiral of the Russian Empire. The next three generations of the Greig family served the tsars as admirals, generals and government ministers, marrying into the Russian aristocracy without entirely losing their connection to Britain. A little further along the embankment from number 62 is the broad blue and white mansion that was once owned by Sir James Wylie, another Scot and a doctor who served as personal physician to three tsars. Another famous Scottish physician, John Rogerson, lived at number 21; at number 70 the prominent banker Samuel Gwyer; at number 38 Clarke the grain merchant, and at number 6 the Cazalet family who owned a rope factory, the capital’s largest brewery, a tallow processing plant, and was involved in banking and the development of the railway. In the city beyond the English Embankment, embassy records for the second half of the nineteenth century list the occupations of other British residents as jockey, accountant, ringmaster, cotton mill manager, clerk, carder, electrical engineer, foreman printer and brewer.

There were really only two types of ‘Britishers’ in St Petersburg at the end of the nineteenth century; those who spoke Russian, educated their children in the city and were comfortable in society, and a smaller group who made little or no attempt to integrate. There was an English speaking prep school for this group – the older children of the rich were sent ‘home’ to a public school – tennis and yacht clubs, an English Church, an English shop on the Nevsky Prospekt and an English Gentleman’s Club.

 A Baker's dozen - thirteen Scottish doctors were personal physicians to Russian Emperors dating from Peter the Great. Some of them left traces in the city history. James Wyllie was the first doctor and apothecary in Russia from Kincardineshire.   He was personal physician to three emperors and President of the Medico-Chirrupy Society.   He founded No.1 Medical Hospital in St Petersburg.   A statue to his memory still stands in the hospital grounds. Another famous name is Thomas Dinsdale who vaccinated Catherine the Great and her family against smallpox.         

I also found out some information about British engineers in St.Petersburg. Charles Baird was  the greatest of them all. Catherine the Great had tried to recruit James Watt (although not the inventor of the steam engine, his reworking of the early steam engine, became the basis for the design of the modern steam engine.) from the University of Glasgow, but he would not break his contract.   He sent who he thought was the greatest talent - Charles Baird.

Baird built the first Russian steamship - with a brick chimney for a funnel.   The 'Elizaveta' plied between St Petersburg and Kronstadt and made Baird his fortune.   Eventually Baird owned his own wharf on the Neva.   He founded the Baird works in St Petersburg and Kolpino.   These great 'zavods' moved from the Baird family to become the Putilov works and today are better known as the Kirov Works. Unfortunately, the name of Baird is not mentioned on the map of the city.

Bairds foundaries produced all the iron works for a well-known series of bridges in St Petersburg - the first iron bridges in the city.   They were designed by another Scot, William Hastie (Vasilli Geste in Russian).   All the metal work, the disciples, and the structure of the dome, which decorate the roof of St Isaac's Cathedral were cast by Scottish and Russian workers at Baird's works,  likewise the angel on top of the Alexander column in Palace Square as well as the garniture which once surrounded its pediment.

Another engineer from Carron Ironworks who travelled to Russia with Charles Baird, was Charles Gascoine (Karl Karlovich Gaskoin).   Although not as well known as Baird, Gascoine left his imprint on Russia.   He designed the new Mint and established the first presses in the Fortress of Peter and Paul - the engineering work was carried out by Baird.   He invented a new gun, named the Gasconade in his honour.   He created a new unit of measure based on the inch (the distance between the top and knuckle of the thumb) called, I think, a dyum.

The British community was essentially middle-class, though some more interesting professions were represented.  A glimpse at the St Petersburg consulate register of births from 1856 to 1912 includes, amongst the fathers’ professions: merchant, accountant, jockey, ringmaster, cotton mill manager, clerk, weaving manager, banker, iron moulder, cotton carder, mechanic, electrical engineer, mining engineer, foreman printer, resident manager of Kodak Ltd and technical brewer.

The first English names in the city

 The English Embankment was built between 1763 and 1767. It is named after the former English (British) Embassy and the English church that was located at № 48, the building is now occupied by the Travel and Sightseeing Bureau. The English church was built in 1814 and 1815 to a design by Giacomo Quarenghi; it is preserved as architectural landmark. The interior of the English church is highlighted with marble, historic paintings, and boasts a large pipe organ - the only English organ existing in Russia. The last English (British) Ambassador left in 1918, after the Russian Revolution.

English Bridge is a pedestrian bridge across Fontanka River connecting Pokrovsky and Anonymous islands in Saint Petersburg. Five span wooden bridge existed at the location since 1910.  It took the traffic load previously carried by Egyptian Bridge after the latter collapsed in 1905.

Modern bridge was built in 1962-1963 to the designs of architects Areshev and Vasilkovsky under the supervision of engineer Kerlikov. The construction is a three span bridge set on ferroconcrete abutments with granite cover. Metal railings have a simple pattern. The bridge takes its name from the nearby English Prospekt.

      This rich historical background could be the answer to my question “Why are there so many English names”? But I also had to take into account that the world has changed  much during the last two centuries, and there are very few reminds of the past English glory in St.Petersburg.

       So, my next step was to find out, how many English names there are in the city in reality.  

The English Embankment gave the name to another English street – English Prospect stretches from the River Moika to the Fontanka River. For a short period of time it was called Macklin Prospect in honour of one of the leaders of British socialist Party, but then returned its original name.

Modern names

 Shotlandskaia (Scottish) Street  got its name at the beginning of the 20th  century when there was a storehouse of the Scottish trading company, which organised trades of goods from Scotland. It is situated on Gutuev Island and stretches from Nevelskaia to Dvinskaia Street.

            The right bank of the Neva River is rich in names devoted to the revolutionary movement in Russia and Europe. So, we can find here the street named after John Reed, an American journalist and poet-adventurer, whose colorful life as a revolutionary writer ended in Russia. Reed was a close friend of V.I. Lenin and he himself saw the first days of the revolution of 1917 in Moscow. He recorded this historical event in his best-known book, TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD (1920).

           To understand the history of another English street in St.Petersburg, we have to know about the tradition of twin cities in Europe.

             Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas. In Russia the tradition started after the World War II when European countries suggested their help to our country which had been destroyed during the war years.

The name Manchester was given to the street in 1964 in honour of St. Petersburg twin city Manchester.

In one of internet sources I found also a hint on Barmaleeva street, which was likely to have been named after another British –  Bromley. But a thorough research showed that it was the so-called folklore toponymy: the idea belonged to Russian writer Korney Chukovskiy, who also made up a name for his literary character Barmaley after the name of the street. I also came across the name Leshtukov Bridge which got its name after doctor J.H.Lestocq, the favourite doctor of Tsarina Elizabeth . But he turned out to be a Frenchman, not an Englishman.

The search for signboards in English

The historical research resulted in 5 names of the streets, including the embankment and prospect.  But when thinking about the English names I meant not only the names of the streets but the numerous signboards which include the names of the cafes, shops, restaurants pubs, etc.

I made a practical research and found out that the share of English names is not as big as it seemed to be at the beginning. So, it means that my contemporaries prefer Russian names in what they eat and drink.

              I also searched the names of the biggest network markets which now are popular in St. Petersburg. The result shows that the majority of the names are still not English. So, I have to admit, that the names in St. Petersburg only seem to be English because we are used to think that everything that is written in Latin letters IS English.

Bibliography

1. Энциклопедия для детей. Дополнительный том. Российские столицы. Москва и Санкт-Петербург. издательство: Аванта, 2001

2. Петербург в названиях улиц. Происхождение названий улиц и проспектов, рек и каналов, мостов и островов  Автор: Алексей Владимирович , Алексей Ерофеев Издательство: Астрель-СПб, , 2009 г.

3. Города-побратимы Санкт-Петербурга

http://www.ipetersburg.ru/articles/misc/sistercities/

4. Discussions about Russian History http://forum.alexanderpalace.org/index.php?action=printpage;topic=8846.0

5. Желтые страницы. Санкт-Петербург: телефонный справочник, 2010