User:Giano/The Winter Palace

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The principal facade viewed from Palace Square In the centre is the Column of Alexander.

The Winter Palace (Russian: Зимний дворец) in Saint Petersburg, Russia was the formal and official residence of the Russian tsars. Located between the Palace Embankment and the Palace Square, it was built almost continuously from the late 1730s into the 19th century. This great palace has been the setting for many of the most glorious, and infamous, chapters in Russia's history.

The construction of the palace is on a monumental scale, intended to reflect the might and power of Imperial Russia. Designed by many architects, most notably, Bartolomeo Rastrelli, in what came to be known as the Elizabethan Baroque style, the green-and-white palace has the shape of an elongated rectangle. It possesses 1,786 doors, 1,945 windows and 1,500 rooms. The principal facade is 500ft in length and 100 ft. high ^[1]. Following a severe fire in 1837, the palace was heavily restored and rebuilt. Thus it can be described as: "A 19th century Palace inspired by a model in Rococo style." ^[2]

In 1905 the palace was the backdrop for the Bloody Sunday massacre, but by this time the Imperial Family had already chosen to live in the more secure and secluded Tsarskoe Selo, returning to the Winter Palace only for the most formal and rarest state occasions. Later, during the Russian Revolution of 1917, the palace was stormed by a detachment of Red Army sailors and soldiers. It has been said the month-long looting of its wine cellars, at this time, caused "the greatest hangover in history." During World War II the building suffered damage from artillery fire, and the deprivations of war. Restoration began immediately folowing the end of the Siege of Leningrad. Today, the palace forms part of the complex of buildings housing the Hermitage Museum.

[edit] Ethos

St George's Hall, the principal throne room of the Tsar's of Russia

St George's Hall (13), 1906: The throne draped and flanked by the Imperial Romanov regalia, the Imperial family (to the left of the throne) and the 1st State Duma await the arrival of the Tsar. "the workmen....looked as though they hated us" ^[3]

Russia's rulers belonged to the House of Romanov, the dynasty which ruled Russian from 1613 to 1917. At the end of the 17th century Tsar Peter the Great began a policy of Westernization and expansion that transformed the Tsardom of Russia into the Russian Empire, and a major European power. A consequence of the Tsar's Westrernisation was the founding, in 1703, of the new city of St Peterburg. The culture and design of St Petersburg was to be a conscious rejection of traditional Byzantine influenced Russian architecture, such as the then currently fashionable Naryshkin Baroque, in favour or the classically inspired architecture fashionable in the great cities of Europe. It was the Tsar's intention that his new city would be designed in a Flemish renaissance style, later to be known as Petrine Baroque. Indeed, the first Imperial palace on the site of the Winter Palace was in this style, as were all the earliest residences of the nobility in the city. Peter ordered his nobles to construct residences in the city, and spend half the year there.^[4] It was an unpopular command, the city was being founded upon a swamp, with so little sunlight,it was said only cabbages and turnips would grow there. It was forbidden to fell trees for fuels and consequently hot water was only permitted once a week. Only the Peter's second wife, the scheming Tsaritsa Catherine, pretended to enjoy life in the new city. ^[5] However, as the direct result of pressed slave labour from all over the Empire, ^[6] work on the city progressed quickly. A contemporary foreign diplomat who described the city as "a heap of villages linked together, like some plantation in the West Indies" just a few years later described it as "a wonder of the world, considering its magnificent palaces" Some of these palaces in Peter's beloved Flemish baroque style, such as The Kikin Hall and the Menshikov Palace still stand. However, by the time of Peter the Great's death, in 1725, the city of St Petersburg was still far from the centre of western culture and civilization that he had envisaged, wolves roamed the squares at night, while bands of discontented pressed serfs imported to build the Tsar's new city and Baltic fleet frequently rebelled. It is estimated that 200,000 people died in twenty years while building the city. ^[7]

Immediately following Peter's death many of the aristocrats, who had been compelled by the Tsar to live in St. Petersburg, left; and in the late 1720 the Imperial Court moved back to Moscow, as Russia entered a political period of uncertainty and various of Peter's relation sought the Imperial throne.

Against this background of medieval barbarism, and political intrigue, elsewhere in Europe the 18th century was to be a period of great development in the history of royal architecture, in that the gradual lessening of need for a fortified residence, a change which began in the late 16th century, now became commonplace throughout Europe. No where was this obvious than in the great palace built by the sovereigns of Europe as they cast off their fortified castles in favour of vast edifices built in the classical styles. The earliest and most notable example was Louis XIV's Versailles. Largely completed by 1710, the size and splendour of Versailles became a source of rivalry amongst the sovereigns of Europe.

Thus on the accession of Peter the Great's daughter Elizabeth, in 1741, when St Petersburg began to enjoy a renaissance in popularity the comparatively modest, new, Petrine Baroque Palace of Peter the Great, which has been marginally enlarged by his successors, was completely replaced by a massive palace intended to reflect the power of Imperial Russia and dazzle all envoys from the courts of Europe, this is the Winter Palace seen today.

[edit] History

Peter the Great's Winter Palace of 1721, designed by Georg Johann Mattarnovi

The Empress Elizabeth, was responsible for the palace, much as it appears today.

The Winter Palace, as it appears today, is the fourth palace on the site. Nothing remains of the first Winter Palace, that of Peter the Great, built in the Dutch style in 1711. This modest palace faced the Zimnyaya Kanavka (literally the "Winter Dyke") - a canal which links the Neva to the Moika River. In 1721 Peter the Great's palace was replaced by a larger building designed by the German architect, Georg Johann Mattarnovi.^[8] The new palace, though larger, was still on a modest scale. It was further enlarged by the architect, Domenico Trezzini. He transformed Mattanovi's palace, doubling it in size, building in a North European Baroque style with a piano nobile raised above and rusticated ground floor. It was here that Tsar Peter died in 1725.

During the reign of Empress Anna, St. Petersburg officially replaced Moscow as Russia's capital, and it was Anna who commissioned the architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli to redesign the palace incorporating other neighbouring houses. The Empress Anna, though unpopular and considered ugly, was keen to introduce a more civilized and cultivated air to her court. She designed new liveries for her servants, and on her orders mead and vodka were replaced with champagne and Burgundy. She instructed the Boyars to replace their plain furniture with that of mahogany and ebony, ^[9] while her own tastes in interior decoration ran to a dressing table of solid gold, and an "easing stool" of silver studded with rubies. It was against such a backdrop of magnificence and extravagance that she gave her first ball in the newly completed gallery at the Winter Palace which in the middle of the Russian winter resembled an orange grove. ^[10] However, despite the extravagance the Empress's love of dwarfs, the bizarre and humiliation of courtiers that displeased her ensured that life at the Winter Palace was very different to that at the courts of Versailles and St. James, which she so wished to outshine. ^[11]

This, the fourth version of the Winter Palace, was to be an ongoing project for the architect throughout the reign of the Empress Anna. During intervals in building work, the palace was scene of important happenings in Russia's history. In 1740 the Empress Anna died, having named the son of her niece Anna Leopoldovna her successor. The new Tsar Ivan VI was a baby, and Russia entered a period of unrest.

In 1741, the palace was the scene of a bloodless coup d'etat staged by the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, a daughter of Peter the Great. Backed by 400 soldiers, she informed the baby Tsar's mother that her son was deposed. Once in power the new Empress Elizabeth delegated almost all powers to favourites and assumed a life of pleasure - leading the court at St. Petersburg to be described later by the Russian historian Vasily Klyuchevsky as a place of "gilded squalor." ^[12]

[edit] A new plan

The Winter Palace as designed by Rastrelli. In the southwestern corner can be seen the Opera House which for 20 years was St. Petersburg's principal theatre. Catherine the Great had it transformed to smallprivate apartments for her family. ^[13]

Diagram showing layout of the Winter Palace. The numbers in this key are referred to throughout the article - Click on numbers for images and further details.

However, during the reign of Elizabeth, in 1753 Rastrelli, still working to his original plan, devised an entirely new scheme, on a colossal scale. The fast completion of the palace became a matter of national honour to the Empress who regarded the palace as a symbol of national prestige.

Building work continued throughout the year, even in the severest months of the winter. The deprivation to both the Russian people and the army caused by the ongoing Seven Years War were not permitted to hinder the progress. 859,555 rubles had been allocated for the project, a sum raised by a tax on state owned taverns. Though the labourers earned a monthly wage of just one ruble, the project became colossally over budget, so much so that despite the Empress' obsessive desire for rapid completion at time work ceased due to lack or resources. Ultimately, the Russian people, already burdened by taxes to pay for the war, had their taxes further increased on salt and alcohol to fund the extra costs. The final cost was 2,500,000 rubles. ^{[14] [15]}

By 1759, shortly before Elizabeth's death, a Winter Palace existed, truly worthy of the name Imperial Palace. (Elizabeth and her architect Rastrelli were responsible for another of Russia's great palace the transformation and enlargement of Peter the Great's Peterhof.^[16]). However even while Elizabeth and Rastrelli were building elsewhere, work continued at the Winter Palace.

It was Elizabeth, who selected as a bride for her nephew and successor Peter III the German princess, Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, who as Catherine the Great was to be most associated with the Winter Palace. Catherine's patronage of the architects Rastrelli, Starov and Giacomo Quarenghi saw the palace further enlarged and transformed. ^[17] Catherine was responsible for the three large extensions to the palace, known as the Hermitage.

The principal or "Jordan Staircase," (8) so called because on the Feast of the Epiphany the Tsar descended this imperial staircase in state for the ceremony of the "Blessing of the Waters." One the few parts of the palace retaining the original 18th century style. The massive grey granite columns were,however, added in the mid 19th century.^[18]

Catherine had been so impressed by the French architect Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe, who designed the Imperial Academy of Arts which sits across the Neva River from the Winter Palace, that she commissioned him to build an extension to the Winter Palace. Catherine intended to use the extension to entertain without too much pomp and to hang her pictures, thus she called it her Hermitage. (Catherine took the name from the Tsaritsa Elizabeth who had referred to her rooms in the Winter Palace as her Hermitage.) Her art collection was too large and so she commissioned a German-trained architect Yury Velten to build a second and larger extension to the palace, which became known as the Old Hermitage. The third extension commissioned by Catherine was the Hermitage Theatre, designed by Giacomo Quarenghi.^[19]

Connected to the main palace by a series of covered walkways and heated courtyards, in which flew rare exotic birds, the Hermitage, intended as a private retreat, was another large palace in itself. ^[20] The interior of the Hermitage wing was intended to be a simple contrast to that of the Winter Palace, indeed it said that the concept of the Hermitage as a retreat was suggested to Catherine, by that advocate of the simple life, Jean Jacques Rousseau.^[21] Simple or not, the halls and receptions rooms of the hermitage were richly furnished with an ever growing art collection. The Empress' ambassadors in Rome, Paris, Amsterdam and London were instructed to purchase priceless works of art on her behalf. Thus works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Titian, Raphael, Tiepolo, Van Duck and Reni were soon adorning the walls of the Winter Palace and the Hermitage ^[22]

Life within the Hermitage was simpler than in the adjacent Winter Palace; surrounded by her brilliant art collection, the Empress gave small intimate suppers, servants were excluded and a sign on the wall read "Sit down where you choose, and when you please without it being repeated to you a thousand times." ^[23]

Catherine was also responsible for introducing the lasting fashion for all things French to the Russian court. While she personally disliked France, her dislike did not embrace its culture and manners. ^[24] French became the language of the court; Russian was relegated for use only when speaking to servants and inferiors. The Russian aristocracy were encouraged to embrace the philosophies of Moliere, Racine and Corneille. ^[25] The magnificence of the Winter Palace served as a model for numerous Russian palaces belonging to Catherine's aristocracy, all of them, like the Winter Palace itself, built by the enslaved labour of the Russian serfs. The sophistication and manners observed inside the Winter Palace were greatly at odds with the grim reality of life outside its externally gilded walls. In 1767, as the Winter Palace grew in richness and splendour, the Empress published an edict further enslaving her people. During her reign she further enslaved over a million formerly free peasants. ^[26] Work continued on the Winter Palace right up until the time of the Empress' death in 1792.

[edit] Architecture

The Winter Palace from the Neva. (30 on plan) This facade is 100 ft high and 500 ft in length.

The Nicholas Hall (6 on plan) is the principal reception toom, at the centre of the Neva facade (above). This room was the setting for court balls. ^[27]

The overriding dominant form of architecture is Baroque. However, the external decoration, in the form of statuary and the opulent stucco work on the pediments above façades and windows are such that it can appear to be almost rococo. However, the scale and monumental proportions create a huge architectural mass that is unequivocably Baroque. Viewed from a distance this Baroque can even appear to be the severe solid form as exemplified at the Winter Palaces's near contemporary, Caserta. However the Winter Palace was not intended to be viewed from a distance: both its principal facades, that onto Palace Square, and the Neva façade were accessible to the public. Only the lateral facades are hidden behind granite walls concealing a garden created during the reign of Nicholas I. ^[28] The concept of the palace was very much one of a town palace, rather than a private place within a park, such as that of the French kings at Versailles.

That the palace appears more baroque than Rococo is largely due to the influences of the architects employed by Catherine the Great in the last years of her life. Starov and Quarenghi began to alter much of the interior of the palace as designed by Rastrelli - only the principal staircase and church remained untouched. Catherine always wanted the latest fashions and during her reign many of the Russsian Rococo motifs of the Empress Elizabeths' palace were slowly replaced as the more severe neoclassical architectural influences, fashionable in Western Europe from the late 1760s, slowly crept towards St Petersburg. ^[29]

Quarenghi is credited with introducing the Neoclassical style to St Petersburg ^[30] Together with Karl Ivanovich Rossi St Petersburg gradually became an "Empire Town". It was Rossi who following the defeat of Napoleon was commissioned by Tsar Alexander to create the palace's great Military Gallery to celebrate the heroes of the 1812 war. ^[31]

During the early 19th century the interior of the Winter Palace underwent further transformations.

[edit] Interior

Blue: Private rooms of the Imperial Family. Yellow: Principal Staircase and entrance to the State Apartments. Red: Baroque State suite. Pink: Neoclassical State Suite. Gold: The Grand Church.

The Armorial Hall, or Guard Room, (11 on plan). Is decorated with vast stucco panaopolies

The Small Throne Room (10 on plan) has columns of jasper. Here diplomats gathered on New Years day to offer good wishes to the Emperor. ^[32]

The Winter Palace contains apriximately 1500 rooms. The principal rooms are on the first floor, the piano nobile. Images of many of the principal rooms can be obtained from the links beneath the plan above. The great state rooms, used by the court, are arranged in two enfilades, from the top of the Jordan Staircase. The original Baroque suite, of the Tsaritsa Elizabeth running west, fronting the Neva, (red on plan) was completly redesigned in 1790-93 by Giacomo Quarenghi. He transformed the original enfilade of five state rooms, into a suite of three vast halls, decorated with with faux mabre columns, bas-reliefs and statuary. ^[33]

A second suite of state rooms (pink on plan) was created for Catherine II running south to the Great Church (gold on plan). To this suite, between 1787-95, Quarenghi added a new eastern wing, this contained the a great throne room, known as St George's Hall.^[34] which linked the Winter Palace to Catherine's less formal palace the hermitage next door. This suite was later altered in the 1820s when the Military Gallery (12) was created to celebrate the defeat of Napoleon. The gallery designed by Carlo Rossi was completed in 1826.

While the state rooms occupied the nothern and eastern wings of the palace and the private rooms of the Imperial family occupied the western wing, the four courners of the building contained the smaller rooms, which were the appartments of lesser members of the Imperial Family, often being of two floor, ^[35] these apartments were in themselves miniature palaces for their occupants.

In the 1820s, the French architect Auguste de Montferrand had been hired to rebuild the Field Marshal's Hall and the Small Throne Room. In 1837 a fire broke out, possibly because Montferrand had left pieces of wood too close to the chimney (of an apothecary stove and several smaller fireplaces) hidden in the wall between the two rooms, where the fire originated. The fire spread slowly enough that the palace guards were able to rescue the art, depositing it in the snow in Palace Square. The Russian poet Vasily Zhukovsky witnessed the conflagration—"a vast bonfire with flames reaching the sky"—which burned for several days, and destroyed most of the Winter Palace's interior.^[36]

While the two principal suites were restored to their original style and decoration, the remainder of the palace was altered and decorated in various 19th century contemporary styles according to whim and fashion, ranging from Gothic to Rococo. In fact the Tsaritas's crimson boudoir (23), in the private imperial appartments was a faithful reproduction of the rococo style, which Catherine II had her architects eliminate from the palace less just 50 years earlier.

As the formal home of the Russian Tsars, the palace was the setting for profuse, frequent and lavish entertaining - guests on ceremonial and state occasions would follow a ceremonial route, arriving at the palace courtyard through the central arch of the south facade, and then entering the palace through the state entrance (38), they would then proceed through the colonnaded Jordan Hall before mounting the gilded imperial staircase (8), from where the two enfilades of state room spread out. The principal or "Jordan Staircase," is so called because on the Feast of the Epiphany the Tsar descended it in state for the ceremony of the "Blessing of the Waters." One the few parts of the palace retaining the original 18th century style. Its massive grey granite columns were,however, added in the mid 19th century.^[37]

[edit] Official residence and deserted home.

Alexander II photographed in his study at the Winter palace

The winter palace was the official residence of the Russian sovereign from the 1740s until 1917, however, it was their home for little more than 140 years of those years.

The last Tsar to truly reside in the palace was Alexander II, who ruled from 1855 to 1881, it was during this reign that the seeds for the Russian Revolution were sown. The Tsar being a constant target for assassination attempts. One of which occurred inside the Winter palace itself. This attempt on the Tsar's life was organized by a group known as Will of the People was led by an "unsmiling fanatic" Andrei Zhelyabov and his mistress. later wife, Sophia Perovskaya. ^[38] Perovskaya, the daughter of a former Governor of St Petersburg, was well placed to learn information concerning happenings within the palace, through her connections she learnt of repairs being carried out in the palace's basement.^[39] One of the group, a trained carpenter, was subsequently enrolled as one of the workmen. Everyday he carried dynamite charges concealed amongst his tools, placing them in the exact spot beneath the private dining room. So great was the quantity of dynamite, that the fact there was an intervening floor between the dining room and the basement was of no significance. ^[40]

Plans were made to detonate the bomb on the evening of February 17 [O.S. February 5] 1880, assassinating the Tsar and Imperial family as they dined. Fortunately for the Romanovs, a guest arriving from Berlin was delayed, and for the first time in years dinner was held. ^[41] As the family left the drawing room for the dining room the bomb exploded. So great was the explosion that it could be heard all over St petersburg, the dining room was completely demolished, and 11 members of the Finnish Guard in the Guard Room below were killed and a further 30 wounded. ^[42]

The devastation inside the Winter palace following the 1880attempt on the Tsar's life.

The Tsar's first reaction was to rush to the floor above to check on the welfare of his mistress, Princess Catherine Dolgorukov, his second visit were to the apartments of his sick wife, the Tsaritsa Maria Alexandrovna, closer to the explosion. However, the Tsaritsa had been sedated for the evening and slept through the explosion. ^[43] Russia was "horrified" to learn that terrorists were now so skilled they could penetrate the symbol of Imperial power, the Winter palace itself.^[44]

A year later, however, the vulnerability of the Russian Tsars inhabiting such a highly visible and exposed palace became evident. Sophia Perovskaya had taken to standing in the palace precincts studying the travelling arrangements and movements of the Tsar. She noted that it was the Tsar's habit to inspect the guard, each Sunday, at the Michael Palace and then call on his cousin, the daughter of Grand Duchess Elena, as a result of her research, "Will of the People" plotted to mine the street leading to the Michael Palace from the Winter Palace. From the cellars of a rented baker's shop they tunnelled under the street, when one of their number was arrested, the plan was brought forward the mines replaced by hand-grenades. ^[45] In spite of warnings from his police chief on Sunday 12 March 1881 the Tsar followed his usual routine having said "If I'm not safe surrounded by Cossacks, I might as well abdicate." ^[46] As the Tsars carriage passed the terrorists the first grenade was thrown, killing two cossacks and three horses, as the Tsar left his carriage to see the wounded, the second grenade was thrown, looking like a snowball it fell at the Tsar's feet - the explosion shook the windows of the Winter Palace. ^[47] The Tsar, his abdomen torn open, his right left torn off uttered his last words "Home to the palace to die" ^[48] Alexander II died in his study in the arms of his morganatic wife minutes after reaching the palace. A member of the Imperial family arriving at the palace reported the "large drops of black blood showed us the way,up the marble steps (36), along the corridor (11) and into the Tsar's study" ^[49] The exposed Winter Palace was never a true home again to the Imperial family.

Following the assassination of Alexander II, the Winter Palace was never truly inhabited again. The new Tsar Alexander III, was informed by his security advisers that it was impossible to make the Winter Palace secure. ^[50]. The Imperial family then moved to the seclusion of the Palace of Gatchina some 40 miles from St Petersburg. By comparison with the Winter Palace, the moated Gatchina set within forests, with 600 rooms, was a cosy family home.^[51] When in St Petersburg the Imperial family resided at the Anichkov Palace, the Winter Palace used only for official functions. ^[52]

In 1894, Alexander III was succeeded by his some Nicholas II. The last Tsar, suspended court mourning for his father , to marry his wife Alix of Hesse in a lavish ceremony at the Winter palace. ^[53] However, after the ceremony it was to to the Anichkov Palace, along with the Dowager Empress, that the newly wed couple retired, there they began their married life in six small rooms. ^[54] The Dowager Tsaritsa forbade the new Tsar and his wife to set up their own court until six months after her husband's death. ^[55] In May 1895 when the Dowager went to Copenhagen, the couple took the opportunity to set up their own household, but it was first a small palace at Peterhof and then the Alexander Palace in the imperial compound at Tsarskoe Selo which became their permanent home ^[56]. The neoclassical Alexander Palace, both secure and private in a great park had just 100 rooms,and helped to cement public opinion that the new Empress, not only had questionable taste, but that she was shunning St Petersburg. ^[57]

[edit] A period of change

By the 20th century the Palace was little more than an administrative office block, and place of rare official entertaining. However, the Winter Palace was seen not only as still the home of the Tsars, but a symbol of Imperial power. Thus it was to be at the centre of some of the most momentous happening in Russia's earliest twentieth century history. Four of these events stand out in the palace's history: The Bloody Sunday massacre of 1905; the opening of the first State Duma in 1906, which opened in St George's Hall (13); The national celebrations of the Romanov's tercentenary and finally the storming of the palace by revolutionaries in 1917.

[edit] Bloody Sunday

Main article: Bloody Sunday (1905)

Bloody Sunday. Tsarist troops massacred peaceful demonstrators in front of the Winter Palace.

The Bloody Sunday massacre happened on January 22 [O.S. January 9] 1905 directly infront of te Winter Palace, in Palace Square. Unarmed, peaceful demonstrators marching to present a petition to the Tsar were gunned down by the Imperial Guard. The protest was organized by Father Gapon. Bloody Sunday was a serious blunder on the part of the Okhrana, and an event with grave consequences for the Tsarist regime, as the blatant disregard for ordinary people shown by the massacre undermined support for the state. (I need a ref for all of that and expansion)

[edit] The Opening of the Duma

[edit] The Romanov tercentenary of 1913

When the Romanovs celebrated the tercentenary of their rule, in 1913, the religious solemnities were clouded by numerous bad omens. The face of Our Lady of St. Theodore, the patron icon of the family, became blackened. However, this in no way was allowed to interfere with the celebrations. while the religious rites and solemnities of the occasion took place in the more historic Moscow, where the Kremlin's sillhouette was illuminated by thousands of elecric lights, a marvel never seen before, the social events centred on St Petersburg. The balls and parties given throughout the social season of 1913 culminated in what was to be the last grand imperial party at the Winter palace.

[edit] The storming of the Palace, 1917

The Storming of the Winter Palace. A little outside help has located it here [2]

The most notorious event concerning the palace was its storming in 1917. Facts and fiction concerning the infamous storming have been blurred, largely as a result of Sergei Eisenstein's film October. While the heroics and united camaradie may not have been quite as Eisenstein depicted them, and the Bolsheviks wished to portray them, neither was the storming the "non-event" as claimed by others. In truth, the storming of the Winter palace was a symbolic and important moment in Russia's history.^[58]

During the October Revolution the palace became the seat of the short lived Russian Provisional Government led by Alexander Kerensky. The Government was based in the north west corner of the palace, the Malachite Room (34) being the chief council chamber. A military hospital was housed in another wing. On 27 December 1917 the failing Government realising the palace was a target for the more militant Bolsheviks ordered its defence. ^[59] All military personnel in the city in the city pledged support to the Bolsheviks, who accused Kerensky's Government of wishing "surrender Petrograd to the Germans so as to enable them to exterminate the revolutionary garrison." ^[60]

Thus the provisional government served by a few loyal remaining servants, who had formerly served the Tsar, barricaded themselves into the palace. ^[61] Many of the administrative staff fled leaving the palace severely under-defended by some loyal [[Cossack]s, cadets, and 137 female soldiers from the Women's Battalion. Food ordered by the occupants of the palace was commandeered by the Bolsheviks and a state of siege existed, as the Winter Palace entered the most turbulent period in its history. Five thousand sailors newly arrived from Kronstadt were deployed to attack the palace, meanwhile the cruiser Aurora positioned itself on the Neva, all its guns trained towards the Palace. Across the water, the Bolsheviks captured the Peter and Paul Fortress and turned its artillery towards the besieged building. As the provisional Government, now impotent, in the private rooms of the former Imperial family, nervously surveying the scenes outside,^[62] one by one the Government buildings in Palace Square surrendered to the Bolsheviks,^[63] leaving the palace seemingly only hours from destruction.

At 7 pm the Government held its last meeting in the Malachite Room, by now the telephone and all contact with the outside world was disconnected.^[64] A short debate determined that they would not leave the palace to talk to attempt dialogue with the hostile crowds outside. A short time later the palace was completely surrounded and sealed, and the Aurora began her bombardment of the great Neva facade, as the Government refused an ultimatum to surrender. Further machine gun and light artillery fire were directed at the palace, as the Bolsheviks gained entry via His Majesty's own Staircase (36) in the ensuing battle there were casualties on both sides until the Bolsheviks finally, by 2 am, had control of the palace. Leaving a trail of destruction they searched room by room before arresting the Provisional Government in the former private dining room (43), from where they were taken to imprisonment, in the Fortress across the river.

The Bolsheviks then began a rampaging, unsystematic looting and vandalising of the palace, destroying state papers, furniture, paintings and smashing the huge crystal chandeliers. ^[65] Priceless books and manuscripts were destroyed as the library were devastated. Meanwhile down in the wine cellars drunken soldiers embarked on an orgy of rape and abuse of the loyalist women soldiers.^[66]

The Winter palaces' wine cellars literally fuelled the weeks of looting and unrest in the city which followed. The largest and best stocked wine cellar known to history ^[67], it contained the world's finest vintages, including the Tsar's favourite, and priceless, Chateau de Calme 1847. ^[68] So keen were the mob to obtain the alcohol, that the Bolsheviks explored radical solutions to the problem, one of which involved piping the wine straight out into the Neva. This lead to crowds clustered around the palace drains, another consideration, deemed to risky, was exploding the cellars. Eventually the problem was solved by the declaration of martial law. It has been said that Petrograd: "perhaps with the biggest hangover in history, finally woke up and got back to some order." ^[69]

[edit] The State Hermitage Museum

[edit] The Palace today

Main article: Hermitage Museum

The Winter Palace and State Hermitage Museum

Following the October Revolution, the facility was returned, permanently to its modern role as the State Hermitage Museum. Though the Soviets were somewhat indifferent toward art, considering it bourgeois, the collections grew immensely as art collections from Russian nobles were nationalized. During World War II the building and its collections were somewhat damaged by the lengthy Siege of Leningrad. The building, however, was restored and the collections somewhat replenished by art that the Red Army brought back from Germany.

Today, the museum holds one of the world's greatest collections of art. As part of the Museum, many of the Winter Palace's 1,057 halls and rooms are open to the public. The Hermitage Museum officially has a collection of some 3 million pieces of work, but only a small fraction are on display at any time. The Military Gallery, opened in 1826, accommodates 332 portraits of military leaders of the Russian army during Napoleon's invasion of Russia.

[edit] Notes

[edit] See also (sub pages)

• User: Giano/The Malachite Room of the Winter Palace
• User: Giano/The Music room of the Winter Palace
• User: Giano/The Nicholas Hall of the Winter Palace
• User: Giano/The Great Ante-Chamber of the Winter Palace
• User: Giano/The Jordan Staircase of the Winter Palace
• User: Giano/The Field Marshall's Hall of the Winter Palace
• User: Giano/The Small Throne Room of the Winter Palace
• User: Giano/The Armorial Hall of the Winter Palace
• Military Gallery
• User: Giano/The St George's Hall, and Apollo Hall of the Winter Palace
• User: Giano/The Malachite Room of the Winter Palace
• User: Giano/The Gold Drawing Room of the Winter Palace
• User: Giano/The Grand Church of the Winter Palace
• User: Giano/The Alexander Hall of the Winter Palace
• User: Giano/The White Hall of the Winter Palace
• User: Giano/The Private Rooms of the Winter Palace
• User: Giano/The Rotonda of the Winter Palace
• User: Giano/The Arabian Room of the Winter Palace
• User: Giano/The Malachite Room of the Winter Palace
• User: Giano/The Gardens of the Winter Palace

[edit] References

• Budberg, Moura (1969). Great Palaces (The Winter Palace. Pages 194–201). London: Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd. ISBN 0600 01682 X. 

• Ward, Mrs (1775). Letters from a lady in Russia. ISBN 0600 01682 X. 

• Cowles, Virginia (1971). The Romanovs. London: William Collins,Sons & Company Ltd.. ISBN 0 00 211724 10. 

• Norman, Geraldine (1998). The Hermitage: The Biography of a Great Museum. New York: Fromm International Publishing. ISBN 0-88064-190-8. 

• Vorres, Ian. The Last Grand Duchess, London, Finedawn Publishers, 1985 (hardcover)

• The Guardian newspaper's website. retrieved 20 April 2008. Published by the Guardian. (eye witness account of the storming of the Winter Palace).

• The Great War by Orlando Figes, Cambridge University. Retrieved 20 April 2006.

• Explorations in St. Petersburg retrieved 20 april 2008.

• Massie, K. Robert. Nicholas and Alexandra. Atheneum. New York. 1967.

• Valse des fleurs by Sacheveral Sitwell] retrieved 27 April 2008.

Coordinates: 59.9404° N 30.3139° E

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Incorp this as it shows size: The 1894 wedding of Tsar Nicholas II and the Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna in in the Grand Church (16) of the Winter Palace. It was estimated 8000 - 10000 guests packed the halls and drawing rooms of the Winter palace. [1]