Admiralty Island in St Petersburg: The Beginning of Development and the First Census of Households

This article focuses on the history of the development and settlement of Admiralty Island in St Petersburg in the early eighteenth century. In November 1704, the Admiralty Shipyard was founded, which became the largest shipbuilding enterprise in Russia by the end of the reign of Peter I. Historians agree that the first inhabitants of the island were associated with the fleet and shipbuilding, but the social structure of the population of Admiralty Island, the organisation of construction work and the specifics of administrative management have been studied only fragmentarily. The study is based on published and archival materials from the Admiralty Chancellery and Menshikov’s Field Chancellery (correspondence of construction managers and the first census of buildings), as well as on handwritten drawings. The authors propose a new dating of the manuscript plan of the original Admiralty. It is shown that before the establishment of the Admiralty Chancellery (1707), construction on Admiralty Island was mainly carried out by the forces of the Admiralty Prikaz, which had a cadre of craftsmen and workers. The construction of the Admiralty Fortress was supervised by the St Petersburg Commander-in-Chief R. V. Bruce. Olonets Commander I. Ya. Yakovlev was responsible for the construction of industrial, commercial and residential buildings. Admiralty Island was the first in St Petersburg to begin regulating development. In 1705 residential buildings and barracks were built on Admiralty Island at the expense of the State Treasury. In the early years, a system of prohibitions and restrictions was developed to ensure the safety of shipyards and naval vessels from fire on both Admiralty and City Islands. The study analyses the contents of the building inventories of 1707 and 1711. It shows that their appearance was caused by the need to monitor the implementation of fire safety measures. It is established that in October 1707, the Admiralty officials made an inventory of the buildings on the City Island near the Kronverksky Canal. Analysis of the data from the 1711 inventory shows that at least 110 of the 271 households belonged to naval officers. It is important to note that the census was conducted before the royal court and government moved to the banks of the Neva and before Peter I issued decrees on earth and stone construction and the regulation of development, which changed the appearance of the original St Petersburg.