The Petersburg flood of 1824 is the most significant and destructive flood in the entire history of St. Petersburg . It happened on November 7 (19), 1824 .
The water in the Neva River and its numerous canals (sleeves) rose 4,14–4,21 meters above the ordinary level. It is estimated that during the flood 462 houses were destroyed, 3,681 were damaged, 3,600 cattle were killed, 200 to 600 people were drowned, many were missing, as the bodies were carried away to the Gulf of Finland .
On the walls of the houses of the city there are commemorative signs marking the water level during the 1824 flood. One of them is located at the intersection of the Cadet Line and Bolshoi Prospect Vasilyevsky Island .
Content
History
Before the foundation of Petersburg by Peter the Great in 1703, the largest flood in the Neva delta occurred in 1691 , when this territory was ruled by the Swedish Kingdom, and therefore the event was recorded in Swedish chronicles. According to unconfirmed reports, then the water level in the Neva River reached 762 cm.
Floods in the city of St. Petersburg were not uncommon in the Russian Empire due to the peculiarities of the climate and the relief of the city. The largest flood in the XVIII century occurred in 1777 .
On November 7 (19), 1824, it rained in the city, the air temperature during the day was + 8 ° C, and in the morning a strong south-west wind began to blow [1] . A sharp rise of water in the canals began, which at first attracted onlookers and was vividly remembered by all flood witnesses, as soon under the water, in some places higher than two human height (over 4 meters), almost the entire city of that time turned out. Only the Foundry, Rozhdestvenskaya and Karetnaya parts of St. Petersburg remained undrawn. Flood damage was enormous, amounting to 15-20 million rubles. The day after the flood came a rather severe frost and the flooded lower floors remained uninhabited throughout the winter of 1824–25. [2] .
Changes in water level at a measuring point in the Admiralty Canal : [3]
| Time (h) | eight | 9 | ten | eleven | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | sixteen | 17 | 18 | nineteen | 20 | 21 | 22 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water level (cm) | 124 | 163 | 198 | 264 | 305 | 320 | 361 | 325 | 244 | 213 | 201 | 198 | 175 | 145 | 114 |
In literature and art
- Pushkin ’s last poem, The Bronze Horseman . Petersburg Tale "(1833) describes the St. Petersburg flood in 1824. The poet himself during the flood was in his estate Mikhailovsky ; This circumstance caused a number of sarcastic responses in his letters.
- The day preceding the flood is described in the poem of Adam Mitskevich “Oleshkevich”, who was present in St. Petersburg at that time (included in the poem “Dzyady” ). Pushkin mentions this “beautiful” poem in the notes to The Bronze Horseman, noting its inaccuracies.
- In November 1824, Alexander Griboyedov wrote the essay "Special Cases of Petersburg Floods" .
- Poems "Message to NN about the flood of Petropolis, the former 1824 November 7" Count Khvostov ; This message is ironically mentioned in The Bronze Horseman (“The Count of Tails / Poet, loved by heaven, / sang with immortal poems / misfortune on the Neva banks”).
- In the work of Alexander Dumas-father "Fencing Master" in Chapter VIII, you can find a brief description of the floods of 1824.
- The St. Petersburg flood is mentioned in the book “Conversations with Goethe ” by I.P. Ekerman. “Before him (Goethe) there were Berlin newspapers, he reported a terrible flood in St. Petersburg and handed me a newspaper so that I could read this article myself. He said a few words about the unfortunate location of St. Petersburg and laughed, remembering the words of Rousseau, that de earthquake could not be prevented by building a city near a fire-breathing volcano. ”
- The Russian artist F. Ya. Alekseev in 1824 painted the painting “ November 7, 1824 in the square near the Bolshoi Theater” , dedicated to this flood.
See also
- Water Level Monitoring System in St. Petersburg
- Floods in St. Petersburg
Notes
- ↑ Description of the flood, which was in St. Petersburg on the 7th of November, 1824. - Saint-Petersburg: printing house of the department of public education, 1826. - p. 2. - 238 p.
- ↑ O. A. Przhetslavsky. Memoirs // Poles in St. Petersburg in the first half of the XIX century / Comp., Foreword, preparation. text memories O. A. Przhetslavskogo and comment. A.I. Feduty. - Moscow: New Literary Review, 2010. - 912 p. - (Russia in memoirs). - 1000 copies - ISBN 978-5-86793-816-1 . P.127
- ↑ Description of the flood, which was in St. Petersburg on the 7th of November, 1824. - Saint-Petersburg: printing house of the department of public education, 1826. - p. 23. - 238 p.
Literature
- Samuel Aller Description of the flood, which was in St. Petersburg on the 7th of November, 1824 . - SPb. : Printing house of the department of public education, 1826.