The Romanovs and Peter the Great: Building St. Petersburg from the Swamp

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore Peter the Great's audacious project to build a new capital, St. Petersburg, on the marshy delta of the Neva River. They discuss the city's founding in 1703 during the Great Northern War, the forced labor of hundreds of thousands of serfs and Swedish prisoners, the role of Dutch and Italian architects like Domenico Trezzini, and the symbolic meaning of the city as Russia's 'window to the West.' Lucas explains the engineering challenges of draining swamps, the high death toll, and the cultural transformation Peter enforced—from the Table of Ranks to mandatory Western dress. Luna asks about the legend of the city being built on bones, and Lucas weighs the myth against the grim reality. They also touch on the transfer of the capital from Moscow in 1712 and the construction of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The episode ties Peter's ambition to the later Romanov legacy, setting the stage for the dynasty's imperial identity. #PeterTheGreat #SaintPetersburg #RomanovDynasty #GreatNorthernWar #NevaRiver #DomenicoTrezzini #TableOfRanks #WindowToTheWest #PeterAndPaulFortress #RussianHistory #ForcedLabor #SwampBuilding #1703 #1712 #Menshikov #TsarReformer #FexingoHistory #History Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo