Shlisselburg Fortress.

Categories / Architecture/Architectural Monuments/Fortresses and Forts
SHLISSELBURG FORTRESS (until 1612, named Oreshek, until 1702, Noteborg), an old Russian fortress on Orekhovy Island, at the Neva's headwaters on Lake Ladoga. It was founded by Novgorod residents in 1323. In 1352, stone walls were built; in 1410, the fortress was expanded. In the late 15th to early 16th centuries the fortress was entirely reconstructed (it included ten towers, a citadel, and an inner channel-harbour). In May 1612, the fortress was captured by the Swedes after a prolonged siege. During the Great Northern War of 1700-21, Russian troops took the fortress by storm on 11 October 1702. In 1703-15, five earth-filled bastions were constructed (in 1740-65, they were rebuilt with stone, connected by curtain walls; simultaneously, a sixth bastion was erected), and the settlement on the left bank of the Neva River was transformed into Shlisselburg town. At the beginning of the 19th century, Shlisselburg Fortress lost its military significance and was disarmed. Dating back to the early 18th century, the fortress was used as a "royal prison", where disgraced members of the tsar’s family (Peter the Great's sister Maria Alexeevna, his first wife, Eudokiya Lopukhina, former Emperor Ioann VI Antonovich, killed in 1764 while in prison), disgraced courtiers (princes V.V., V.L. and I.A. Dolgoruky, D.M. Golitsyn, Duke E.J. Biron) were kept. In the late 18th century, among its prisoners were educators N.I. Novikov and F.V. Krechetov. The main places of confinement were the soldiers’ (numbered) quarters and the Secret House of the citadel (built in 1798). In 1826-34, 17 Decembrists (among them, A.A., M.A. and N.A. Bestuzhev, I.I. Gorbachevsky, V.K. Kuchelbecker, A.V. and I.V. Poggio and I.I. Puschin) were kept in Shlisselburg Fortress before being transported to Siberia. The eminent figure of Polish liberation movement, V. Lukasinsky, spent almost 38 years in solitary confinement at the fortress (1830-68). In 1854-57, M.A. Bakunin was imprisoned here. Other prisoners also included N.A. Ishutin in 1866-68, and member of the Polish Uprising of 1863-64, B. Szwarce in 1866-68. In 1884-1906, Shlisselburg Fortress served as a specially constructed solitary 40-ward prison (New prison) for the members of Narodnaya volya organization (M.Y. Ashenbrenner, G.A. Lopatin, N.A. Morozov, M.V. Novorussky, M.F. Frolenko, V.N. Figner and others) and socialist-revolutionaries (G.A. Gershuni, P.V. Karpovich, M.M. Melnikov, E.S. Sozonov, S.V. Sikorsky and others), all of them were sentenced to penal servitude. During this period, a total of 68 people went through Shlisselburg Fortress; 15 of them were executed, 15 died of diseases, three committed suicide, and eight went insane. In 1907-17, Shlisselburg Fortress housed a penal servitude prison and new detention houses were built for that purpose. Along with criminals, the new Shlisselburg held participants of the 1905-07 Revolution, representatives of all revolutionary parties (socialist-democrats, socialist-revolutionaries, maximalists, anarchists etc.). After the February Revolution of 1917, the prisoners of Shlisselburg Fortress were set free by rebelling workers of the Shlisselburg gunpowder factory and the prison buildings were burnt down. In 1928-39, Shlisselburg Fortress housed a branch of Leningrad Museum of the Revolution. From the beginning of September 1941, the fortress served as an outpost for the left Leningrad front-line and during 500 days was exposed to mass bombardments and assaults of the German Luftwaffe. In January 1943, during operations to lift the siege of Leningrad, the garrison of Shlisselburg Fortress provided fire support for military units assaulting the town of Shlisselburg. Since the 1960s, Shlisselburg Fortress has been a branch of the Museum of St. Petersburg history; the museum supervises the archaeological research, restoration works and gradual development of the museum. See illustrations on page 958.

References: На каторжном обществе: Дневники, письма и воспоминания политкаторжан "нового Шлиссельбурга" (1907-1917 гг.). Л., 1967; Узники Шлиссельбургской крепости. Л., 1978; Кирпичников А. Н., Савков В. М. Крепость Орешек: Ист.-архит. очерк. 2-е изд., испр. и доп. Л., 1979; Кирпичников А. Н. Древний Орешек: Ист.-археол. очерки о городе-крепости в истоке Невы. Л., 1980; Шлиссельбургская крепость: Очерк-путеводитель / Г. П. Игнатьева и др. Л., 1986; Игнатьева Г. П. Новая тюрьма Шлиссельбургской крепости // Краеведческие записки: Исслед. и материалы. СПб., 1993. Вып. 1. С. 68-74; Ее же. "Нумерная" казарма Шлиссельбургской крепости и ее именитые узники // Там же. 1995. Вып. 3. С. 7-16; Ее же. "Новый Шлиссельбург" в воспоминаниях, дневниках и письмах узников // Тр. Гос. музея истории С.-Петербурга: Исслед. и материалы. СПб., 1997. Вып. 2. С. 124-137.

A. D. Margolis. Ashenbrenner Mikhail Yulievich
Bakunin Mikhail Alexandrovich
Bestuzhev Alexander Alexandrovich
Bestuzhev Mikhail Alexandrovich
Bestuzhev Nikolay Alexandrovich
Biron Ernst Johann
Dolgoruky Ivan Alexeevich, Duke
Dolgoruky Vasily Lukich, Duke
Dolgoruky Vasily Vladimirovich, Duke
Figner Vera Nikolaevna
Frolenko Mikhail Fedorovich
Gershuni Grigory Andreevich
Golitsyn Dmitry Mikhailovich, Duke
Gorbachevsky Ivan Ivanovich
Ishutin Nikolay Andreevich
Ivan VI Antonovich, Emperor
Karpovich Peter Vladimirovich
Krechetov Fedor Vasilievich
Kuchelbecker Wilhelm Karlovich
Lopatin German Alexandrovich
Lopukhina Evdokiya (Eudoxia) Fedorovna, Tsarina
Lukasinsky Valerian
Maria Alexeevna, Princess
Melnikov Mikhail Mikhailovich
Morozov Nikolay Alexandrovich
Novikov Nikolay Ivanovich
Novorussky Mikhail Vasilievich
Peter I, Emperor
Poggio Alexander Viktorovich
Poggio Iosif Viktorovich
Pushchin Ivan Ivanovich
Sikorsky Simon (Shimon) Wolfovich
Sozonov Egor Sergeevich
На каторжном обществе: Дневники, письма и воспоминания политкаторжан "нового Шлиссельбурга" (1907-1917 гг.). Л., 1967
Шлиссельбургская крепость: Очерк-путеводитель / Г. П. Игнатьева и др. Л., 1986
Кирпичников А. Н. Древний Орешек: Ист.-археол. очерки о городе-крепости в истоке Невы. Л., 1980
Кирпичников А. Н., Савков В. М. Крепость Орешек: Ист.-архит. очерк. 2-е изд., испр. и доп. Л., 1979
Узники Шлиссельбургской крепости. Л., 1978
Игнатьева Г. П. Новая тюрьма Шлиссельбургской крепости // Краеведческие записки: Исслед. и материалы. СПб., 1993
Игнатьева Г. П. "Новый Шлиссельбург" в воспоминаниях, дневниках и письмах узников // Тр. Гос. музея истории С.-Петербурга: Исслед. и материалы. СПб., 1997
Игнатьева Г. П. "Нумерная" казарма Шлиссельбургской крепости и ее именитые узники // Краеведческие записки. СПб., 1995 Breaking of the Siege (1943)
St. Petersburg Museum of History
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