Excursion to Kronstadt from St Petersburg

The sea and the marine element of nature were the things that attracted Peter the Great so much. But every element of nature forces to be cautious. Nowadays, to protect the city from the marine element, that he couldn’t conquer - the strong Baltic winds, that raise the water level, flooding his brainchild, the whole flood protection complex has been built. Its scope truly amazes, and that is not surprising - not in vain it is often being compared to such astonishing buildings of the ancient world as the Pyramids of Egypt. At the confrontation with the tangible enemy - the Kingdom of Sweden - Russia, during the reign of Peter the Great, won a decisive victory, while the opposition to natural conditions still lets us know about itself even today. And here, personifying in each breaking on the sea wall of the dam of the Gulf of Finland, water sharpens the stone. We are going to Kronstadt - the fortress, a fortress conceived before all imaginable and unimaginable city and country residences, which arose to protect a life clear and tense in its regularity, brilliant to the point of pretentiousness.The history of the navy is what attracts us. Peter the Great had to control the fairway and close the passage from the uninvited guests - Swedish vessels. The threat was understandable, and it was necessary to be able to defend from it, in case of an emergency resorting to the last abdominal strength. For that, by the will of the monarch, the human forces were directed - under the icy wind, in the rain and the blizzard, the initial crowns of the future naval fortification - Fort Kronshlot was taking shape. It was impossible to procrastinate. And after a short time - to the next navigation of the year 1704 - the fortress arose. Gradually, with the growth of the new capital of Russia, a defensive system, the center of which was Kronstadt, increased in size and power. The success of the Russian weapons in the XVIII century put down the tension around Saint-Petersburg, but its significance still was up - it is the main trade port, the ship repair site, the place for training the future naval commanders and also the starting point of all long trips. When the threat or its discreet shadow was appearing on the Baltic Sea, for Russia it was becoming a new push for straightening its defense. The amount of forts was increasing and artillery equipment started to improve. But for the the devastating flood of 1824, the nineteenth century might have claimed that is to be considered a match won by Kronstadt in a draw. But nobody else - neither in times of strained relations with Great Britain after Tilsit, nor with the straightforward threats from Europe during the Crimean war, manage to break its reputation. The alarm of the beginning of the XX century - the first Russian revolution didn’t pass Kronstadt by , but this did not prevent him, as any sailor dressed before the fight for the first time, meet the beginning of the Great War fully armed. The revolution of 1917, the civil war, the rebellion of 1921 are not the shameful events, but the pain of Kronstadt - the new battle which it entered for Russia. But the most important battle, its most important combat was taken by Kronstadt during the World War II. It could have been impossible to resist for Leningrad during the blockade without Kronstadt. The numerous monuments and strengthenings tell the story of the persistence and firmness of Kronstadt. Not always as bright as the monument of Peter the Great in the Peter’s park, created by Theodore-Joseph-Napoleon Jacques, or as solemnly as the Kronstadt Naval Cathedral on the Yakornaya square, erected by Kosyakov, but always true, such as the wall of the Kronstadt arsenal, speckled with traces of fragments of the enemy shells. Before such witnesses, you want to take off your hat. And it can be done.