History of Shlisselburg. Nut during the Great Patriotic War. Monument to Peter I: a familiar silhouette

Geographic Encyclopedia

SHLISSELBURG- a city in the Leningrad region, a pier on Lake Ladoga, at the source of the river. Neva. Railroad station. 12.5 thousand inhabitants (1993). shipbuilding Shipyard. Founded by Novgorodians as a fortress on Orekhovy Island in 1323; before 1611 Nut. In 1611 ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

SHLISSELBURG- SHLISSELBURG, a city in the Leningrad region, a pier on Lake Ladoga, at the source of the river. Neva. Railway station. 12.0 thousand inhabitants (1998). Shipbuilding and ship repair plant. Founded by Novgorodians as a fortress on Orekhovy Island in 1323 (see ... ... Russian history

shlisselburg- Petrokrepost Dictionary of Russian synonyms. shlisselburg n., number of synonyms: 2 city (2765) ... Synonym dictionary

Shlisselburg- (colloquially Shlyushin) county town St. Petersburg province, at the source of the Neva from Lake Ladoga, 60 miles from the city of St. Petersburg (along the Neva). The city itself is located on the left bank of the Neva, at its connection with the Ladoga canals, in ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

Shlisselburg- a city in Russia, Leningrad region, a pier on Lake Ladoga, at the source of the river. Neva. Railroad station. 12.0 thousand inhabitants (1998). Shipbuilding shipyard. Founded by the Novgorodians as a fortress on Orekhovy Island in 1323; until 1611… … encyclopedic Dictionary

Shlisselburg city, Leningrad region Founded by the Novgorod prince. Yuri Danilovich in 1323 on about. Nut like a fortress Oreshek. In 1611 the fortress was captured by the Swedes and Russians. Nutlet transformed into Noteborg key, Burg fortress); used more... Toponymic Dictionary

Shlisselburg- Shlisselburg. Shlisselburg fortress. Shlisselburg, a city in Leningrad region, 64 km east of St. Petersburg. Pier on the left bank of the river. Neva, at its source from Lake Ladoga. Railroad station. Population 11.9 thousand people ... ... Dictionary "Geography of Russia"

Shlisselburg- In the Leningrad region, regional subordination, 64 km east of St. Petersburg. Pier on the left bank of the river. Neva, at its source from Lake Ladoga. Railway station on the opposite bank of the river. Population 12.5 thousand people ... ... Cities of Russia

Shlisselburg- a city named so by Peter I, folk. Shlyushin. About more early titles see Nut, above. From it. Schlüsselburg, literally the key city, on the outskirts of the Baltic Sea. According to this fortress, a political prisoner was also called a Shlisselburger. ... ... Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language by Max Fasmer

Books

• Gallery of Shlisselburg prisoners. Part I, . St. Petersburg, 1907. Printing house of M. M. Stasyulevich. Edition with 29 portraits. Owner's binding. The original cover has been retained. The safety is good. January 8, 1906 ... Buy for 10640 rubles
• Shlisselburg and his martyrs, . Petrograd, 1919. Book publishing house of the Union of Communes of the Northern Region. Typography "Kopeyka". Typographic cover. The safety is good. Edition SHLISSELBURG AND HIS MARTYRS: (ON THE OPENING OF THE MONUMENT… Buy for 2660 rubles
• In casemates. Essays and materials on the history of Russian prisons. Shlisselburg. Suzdal prison. Peter and Paul Fortress, A S Prugavin. Reproduced in the author's original spelling. IN…

Less than an hour's drive from St. Petersburg, there is a small but very interesting city Shlisselburg. If you have not been there yet, I recommend that you definitely go there to visit a real fortress located on the island. Romance boat trip and the opportunity to get in touch with the beautiful, heroic and historical, I am sure, will not leave you indifferent.

When designing this page, one of the participants in this trip, our friend Rustam Zagidullin, helped me a lot, providing me with excellent photographs of the fortress.

Murmansk highway. 55 km from St. Petersburg along a relatively good highway, with the exception of sudden potholes in the asphalt and sudden traffic cops in the gaps in the median strip. Then we cross the Ladoga bridge, to the right - and again to the right, under the bridge, then, following the signs, 3 km to Shlisselburg.

In Shlisselburg keep on the main road, after the bridge to the left, to the pier.

Photo: Grump. Winter 2003

There are no pointers, of course. Landmark - behind the square, on which three religious buildings fit at the same time, we drive onto a narrow bridge (attention - follow the signs!), Turn left along the embankment and drive to the monument to Peter I. Behind him - the pier.

Photo: Grump. Winter 2003

A ship departs from the pier - or private boats of various classes, from a motor boat to a high-speed yacht. Who cares. A trip on a boat costs 25 rubles per person, not counting children (2002 prices), the ship is much cheaper.

The ship runs like a ferry: it starts its movement from Shlisselburg, enters Oreshek, then follows the right bank of the Neva, in the village. them. Morozov, then returns back, with a stop at Oreshek.

boatman's house
Photo: Vorchun

Nut in winter
Photo: Vorchun

They say that you can get to the fortress in an even more exotic and cheap way - by rowing boat. The boatman's house is located just on the edge of the Novoladozhsky Canal, separated from the city by the canal itself, and from the fortress by Lake Ladoga. In order to go to the boatman's house, you have to go straight all the time. Of course, there are no guarantees that you will be able to shout the boatman, but from this place you can enjoy an amazing view of the fortress.

The boat trip lasts 5-10 minutes depending on the strength of the wind and the speed of your boat.

Fortress Oreshek. View from the boat
Photo: R. Zagidullin

The boat hardly resists the current, the waves strive to overwhelm the fragile ship, the spray sprinkles the face and it seems that the bottom will inevitably run into the stones in the fairway of the Novoladozhsky Canal - but everything is fine, and we are already being unloaded at the pier of the Shlisselbursk fortress.

The towers facing the pier have been freshly restored, roofed and decorated with weather vanes. The gradual degradation of the walls and towers began long ago, back in the 18th century, during the construction of a prison in the fortress - the walls were deprived of battlements, the towers lost up to three meters in height (and some were completely dismantled), the internal channel was filled up, and the courtyard was disfigured by the buildings of prison and barracks - but the fortress keeps real traces of the terrible battles of the past, and still proudly dominates the source of the Neva on Oreshek Island.

The sovereign's tower. View from the pier
Photo: R. Zagidullin

Golovin Tower
Photo: R. Zagidullin

What should a traveler remember during his visit to the fortress? Probably, first of all, about history.

Fortress Gate in the Sovereign Tower
Photo: R. Zagidullin

They say that the fortress on Orekhovy Island at the source of the Neva was founded by the grandson of Alexander Nevsky, Prince Yuri Danilovich. By that time, not even ninety years had passed since the famous Battle of the Neva, when young Alexander, as the chronicles say, gathered the army of the Swedes, Atakos, their leader, Jarl Birger, cut his face with a sword, after which the unfortunate Swedes barely crawled away. It was, they say, in 1240. Apparently, the Novgorodians were tired of gathering troops from Veliky Novgorod for eight decades, and they decided to establish a more suitable bridgehead for control over the Neva.

I think that you will admire the foresight of our distant ancestors if you stand in front of the fortress and try to take in the view of the vast space that it controls - not a single ship could pass unnoticed near its walls. And from the walls of the fortress one could see no less - the whole Neva at its source from Lake Ladoga. There probably were no other ways to get to Ladoga from the west, except, perhaps, Vuoksa, but even there, the Novgorodians, greedy for collecting tolls, built Korela (but about it - in the next excursion).

So, in fact, according to the chronicles that have come down to us, the date of foundation of the fortress is considered to be 1323, when "In the summer of 6831, the Novgorodians went to prince Yury and set up a city at the mouth of the Neva, on Orekhovy Island."

Now the remains of the walls of that time have been dug up by archaeologists and, as guidebooks say, they represent an immortal monument of that era. Nevertheless, for me, who is passionate about history and immensely reveres the archeology of a person, these remnants of stones that have grown into the ground leave me indifferent - in comparison with the quite real walls towering nearby.

The second date is "Time of Troubles". In 1611, the Swedish troops were invited as allies of the Russian state to jointly repulse the Poles. Having swirled around Novgorod and sensing near wealth, the Swedes became completely too lazy to go to some kind of Poland, when here, next to them, stretched the most abundant lands located in this moment completely without a sovereign (here - special thanks to John Vasilyevich, who killed his son). And, remembering the strong grievances caused to the Novgorodians during the long-term confrontation, they decide to take these lands into their hands. Quickly retraining from allies to opponents, they gradually capture all the strongholds of Novgorod in the north and west of Novgorod (Korela, Yam, Pskov and Pechora) and find themselves near the walls of Oreshok.

The defense of the fortress was long - but there was nowhere to wait for reinforcements for the Russian knights. And the fortress fell under the onslaught of the Swedish troops - out of 1300 defenders of the fortress, only a hundred survived. The fortress fell. Behind the fortress, most of the Izhora land was under Swedish rule.

The peace of Stolbov in 1612 legalized this disgrace, but not for long - in 1655 the governors of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich again took possession of the fortress, but under the Treaty of Cardis in 1661 it was returned to the Swedes, who renamed it Noteburg.

Finally, in 1702, the future All-Russian Emperor Peter Alekseevich, together with his associates Count Sheremetev, Prince Golitsyn and Aleksashka Menshikov, mercilessly bombarded the fortress, and after a twelve-day siege and assault, the commandant of Noteburg brought the keys to the Russians.

“It is true that this nut was very cruel, but, thank God, it was happily gnawed.”

Not being, however, satisfied with this modest name, the young tsar gives the fortress a new name - "the key-city", Shlisselburg, later shortened by the lazy descendants of Novgorod to a simple Shlyushin.

In the meantime, the war had gone far to the west, and the fortress was given a purpose appropriate to its location - it was turned into a sovereign prison. Peter immediately imprisoned his sister, Princess Marya Alekseevna, here for participating in the conspiracy of Tsarevich Alexei. It only opens this gloomy list of imperial cunning and the transience of secular power. Soon other eminent prisoners appeared within these walls: in 1725, by decree of Peter's second wife, his first wife, Evdokia Lopukhina, who had previously languished in the Staraya Ladoga Dormition Monastery, was transferred here.

An apple does not fall far from an apple tree - and already in 1736, Peter's niece, Anna Ioannovna, imprisoned in the fortress the members of the Supreme Privy Council, those who, in fact, elected her to the kingdom: the Dolgoruky brothers and Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Golitsyn, whose brother, Mikhail Mikhailovich, (a paradox of history!) demonstrated exceptional courage when taking this fortress in 1702.

Following the enemies of the Empress, her favorite, Duke of Courland Ernest Johann Biron, is enclosed in the fortress. After the death of Anna Ioannovna, according to her will, her four-month-old nephew, John Antonovich, is proclaimed emperor. Biron becomes regent under the young emperor - and a year later finds himself in Shlisselburg fortress. 15 years after Biron, Ivan Antonovich himself, who became a terrible mystery of the Russian autocracy, was imprisoned in the fortress.

The young prince, guilty, perhaps, only of the fact that, by some evil irony of fate, he was inscribed in the will of Anna Ioannova, he spent almost his entire life in captivity. Neither Elizabeth nor Peter III could decide what to do with him: and you can’t let him out - the emperor, after all - and there’s nothing to kill for. This difficult question was decided by Catherine II with truly feminine cunning and elegance: if it is impossible to let her out, she must be killed. It remains only to find a reason. The fortress guards are given strict instructions - "in case of an attempt to release the prisoner, kill him." And such an attempt is unexpectedly made by a certain lieutenant Mirovich. An attempt, it must be said, more than incomprehensible and more like suicide - alone, against the whole garrison of a well-guarded fortress, he could hardly count on any success. The guards without much hesitation kill the 24-year-old Emperor John Antonovich, Mirovich surrenders and is soon executed.

However, let's not be overly amazed at the medieval cruelty of that era of enlightened absolutism - they also say that Peter III himself gave a secret order to build a Secret House on the territory of the fortress. Perhaps it was intended to imprison an unfaithful little wife, but Catherine herself was ahead of her slow-witted hubby. And what is there to be surprised at the obscure death of an awkward prince and a lost lieutenant, when an entire empire was at stake!

Nevertheless, after the death of the unfortunate Ivan Antonovich, the list of royal persons imprisoned in the fortress dries up - they are replaced by the Decembrists, who woke Herzen, raznochintsy, who tried to launch revolutionary agitation, revolutionary terrorists who did not take into account the victims among the people for the sake of the ideas of the same people ; however, there are plenty of materials on this topic both in the literature and on the walls of the gloomy casemates of the Shlisselburg dungeons.

The fortress remains a prison until the February Revolution of 1917.

The 20th century inscribed a new page in its history - amazingly, the Shlisselburg Fortress, perhaps, remains the only one, as far as I know, of the medieval fortifications that survived under the powerful weapons of the Second World War. But there are facts in this story that surprise me a little. Quoting the book:

In 1939, “due to the aggravation of the international situation, all the exhibits of the Oreshek fortress were transported to Leningrad” ... What a strange evacuation two years before the start of the war?

“The defense of the fortress began when the 1st division of the NKVD troops, which was defending Shlisselburg, was forced, under the onslaught of superior enemy forces, to leave the city and cross to the right bank of the Neva ... On the night of September 9, 1941, reconnaissance of the fortress was organized by the forces of two platoons. She was not occupied by the enemy. A platoon of our fighters immediately took up all-round defense. It turns out that the entire heroic defense of the fortress became possible only because the Germans, in modern terms, “got fooled”?

One way or another, it is now difficult to imagine what a flurry of fire the walls of the ancient Oreshek withstood during the 500-day confrontation, when the Germans, who fortified in Shlisselburg itself, hit the fortress with direct fire.

Fortress walls. Carefully! A collapse is possible.
Photo: Rustam Zagidullin

Ruins of the Oreshek fortress.
Photo: Rustam Zagidullin

And today the fortress bears more than obvious scars of the past war - the cathedral, built, as they say, on the site of the grave of John Antonovich, was practically destroyed; the western wall and casemates are ruined by constant mortar fire... But the fortress is alive! One has only to climb the Royal Tower, look around the vast expanse of the Neva and Ladoga waters around - and understand how long ago this fortress was built and how recently it did not allow the enemy to capture our city!

royal tower
Photo: Rustam Zagidullin

Another detail that an unlucky tourist should remember is food. Unfortunately, you can’t eat everywhere in the city (that’s why I express myself so delicately because I’m sure that there must be eateries in the city, but I don’t know about them). A few stalls on the square in front of the churches - that's all that is concentrated along our route through the city. Therefore, I recommend stocking up on food in advance, while still at home - and I will definitely tell you about places where you can gladly devour the stock.

First of all, you can have an impromptu picnic in the fortress itself. Behind the fortress walls there is a narrow strip of land, formerly occupied by curtains and bastions, and now - absolutely nothing. If you leave the fortress through the gates of the citadel, which is near the old prison, the distant expanse of Ladoga will open before you, and eating supplies against the background of this depth that goes beyond the horizon, believe me, an incomparable pleasure. It is quite possible that no one will prevent you from bringing a brazier with you - if only you have the desire to carry it around the fortress.

We, in fact, settled down for a picnic under the walls of the fortress. It was already evening (and the fortress is officially open only until 17.00), and we agreed in advance that the boat would definitely pick us up around seven in the evening. “Don't worry, we work until the last tourist,” was my answer. “In any case, you won’t remain Robinsons on the island.” And here we are, confident that we will definitely be taken out of here, peacefully absorbing sandwiches. Suddenly behind us - "click-click" - the servant locks the gate. The very ones through which we left the fortress to the water. "Hey, we're still eating here!" I'm trying to get attention. Unsuccessfully - the servant hurries to the last ship and quickly runs away to the pier. Then a couple more Robinsons appear - the same sightseers, like us, bypassing the fortress along the walls. “And we were closed,” I turn to them. “Yes, there is a breach in the wall around the corner,” they nonchalantly answer. Indeed, after finishing the meal, we return through the gap to the fortress, walk near the ruins of the cathedral and head to the pier - there "our" boat is waiting for us. But I am still tormented by a mystery - why, after all, ministers lock the gate with a bolt?

In addition to the fortress itself, the city has something to linger on the gaze of an admiring traveler:

Church next to the cathedral
Photo: Vorchun

Firstly, this is the already mentioned Red Square, on which the cathedral, church and chapel merged into a single ensemble - a complete hierarchy of temples.

Chapel
Photo: Vorchun

Cathedral on the central square of the city
Photo: Vorchun

Secondly, this is an interesting hydraulic system of locks and canals: the Staraya Ladoga canal, built back in the times of Peter the Great to bypass the restless and treacherous Lake Ladoga; Novoladozhsky Canal, built in the era of Nicholas I, when the Ladoga Canal became cramped for an ever-increasing flow of ships; lock system and original canal bridges. Now, looking at the blurry banks of the canals overgrown with trees, it is hard to imagine the abundance of ships that required the construction of a new canal. And the gateways have not been used for their intended purpose for a long time. Yes, and one of the bridges (on piles) is no longer a bridge, but rather, piles, but there is something attractive in all this atmosphere of the former greatness of the Russian fleet, and the sunset there is absolutely wonderful!

Sunset over canal locks
Photo: Vorchun

Gostiny Dvor is typical of all, in modern terms, "shopping malls" of that time - but it really harmonizes with the pink colors of the sunset in this photo. It also serves as a good guideline - it is from it that you need to turn left to the pier.

Recognizable Gostiny Dvor building
Photo: Vorchun

For those who still have the strength to perceive something after a walk along Shlisselburg, I recommend returning back not by the usual Murmansk highway, but by making a small detour and returning to the city along the ancient Shlisselburg tract, laid along the left bank of the Neva. The road surface is perhaps a little worse than on the Murmansk highway, and the road will take 20-30 minutes more, but the amazing views of the banks of the Neva, unfamiliar to the city dweller, will more than pay for this time.

) in 1323. The fort got its name from its location. It was decided to build a fortress on the Nut Island. The place for construction was chosen taking into account the natural protection of the island, separated from the mainland by two wide channels of the Neva with a strong current. The wooden fortress was surrounded by an earthen rampart. Nut had the most important strategic importance. The fortification was supposed to protect Lake Ladoga from the penetration of the Swedes. Thus, the Novgorodians completely controlled the route along the Neva to the Gulf of Finland. Goods were usually sent along this route to Western Europe.

In 1348, in August, Swedish troops approached Oreshok. The commander of the fortress, the Lithuanian prince Narimont, was absent at that time. The fortress, left without command, was easy enough to capture. As a result, the fortification was occupied by the Swedes. However, foreigners occupied the fortress for a short time. A militia was assembled from several Russian cities in Ladoga. On February 24, 1349, the fortress was returned to the Russians. Most of The nut burned out during the battle. After 3 years, the fortification was rebuilt. But this time, the Novgorodians decided that the fortification should be made of stone. The remains of the walls of the stone fortification, built in 1352, were found in the late 60s of the twentieth century.

Shlisselburg in the 20th century

In 1917, all political prisoners were released from prison. In the 20s and 30s of the 20th century, tests in the field of military biology were carried out on the island where the fortress is located. Among others, pathogens of tuberculosis, glanders, anthrax and other dangerous diseases were studied here.

Even in the 20th century, the Oreshek fortress had to play an important role in the battles of 1941-1943. A small garrison for almost five hundred days staunchly defended the Shlisselburg fortress. If the Soviet troops had allowed the Nazis to cross to the right bank of the Neva, he would have been in the ring, and then his blockade would have been complete. In early September 1941, the Nazis captured the fortification and approached Leningrad. Thus began the blockade of the city. On the night of September 9, 1941, by order of the command of the First Division of the NKVD troops, a group of scouts was sent to the fortress. As it turned out, the Nazis were no longer there. A platoon of soldiers immediately occupied Oreshek. At dawn, the heroic defense of the fortress began, which lasted until January 18, 1943.

In 2010, Shlisselburg received new status- historical settlement. However, after some time, the Ministry of Culture issued an order according to which Shlisselburg was deprived of its new status.