Tsarskoye Selo (, , ) was the town containing a former residence of the Russian

imperial family A royal family is the immediate family of monarch, monarchs and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or emperor, empress, and the term papal family describes the family of ...

and visiting nobility, located south from the center of

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. The residence now forms part of the town of Pushkin. Tsarskoye Selo forms one of the

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments. The town bore the name Tsarskoye Selo until 1918. The new Bolshevik government of

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

renamed it as Detskoye Selo (), which it held from 1918–1937. At that time, it was renamed under

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

's government as Pushkin () after the famous Russian poet and writer. It is still known by that name.

History

The area of Tsarskoye Selo, once part of

Swedish Ingria Swedish Ingria (, ‘land of Ingrians’) was a dominion of the Swedish Empire from 1583 to 1595 and then again from 1617 to 1721 in what is now the territory of Russia. At the latter date, it was ceded to the Russian Empire in the Treaty of Ny ...

, first became a Russian royal/imperial residence in the early 18th century as an estate of the Empress-consort Catherine (later Empress-regnant as

Catherine I Catherine I Alekseyevna Mikhailova (born Marta Samuilovna Skavronskaya; – ) was the second wife and Empress consort of Peter the Great, whom she succeeded as Emperor of all the Russias, Empress of Russia, ruling from 1725 until her death in 1 ...

, ), for whom the

Catherine Palace The Catherine Palace (, ) is a Rococo palace in Tsarskoye Selo ( Pushkin), located south of St. Petersburg, Russia. It was the summer residence of the Russian tsars. The palace is part of the World Heritage Site Saint Petersburg and Re ...

is named. When

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

took possession of the mouth of the

Neva The Neva ( , ; , ) is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast (historical region of Ingria) to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length of , it is the fourth- ...

, a Finnish village, Saari-mois, stood on the site now occupied by the town, and its Russified name Sarskaya was changed into Tsarskoye when Peter presented it to his wife Catherine. It was especially embellished by the tsaritsa Elizabeth. Under Catherine II., a town, Sophia, was built close by, but its inhabitants were transferred to Tsarskoye Selo under Alexander I. The railway connecting the town with St Petersburg was the first (1838) to be constructed in Russia. The

Alexander Palace The Alexander Palace (, ''Alexandrovskiy dvorets'', ) is a former imperial residence near the town of Tsarskoye Selo in Russia, on a plateau about south of Saint Petersburg. The Palace was commissioned by Catherine the Great in 1792. Due t ...

(built from 1792 onwards) was first the home of

Catherine the Great Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter I ...

's grandson, the Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich, who later became Emperor

Alexander I Alexander I may refer to: * Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon from 495 to 454 BC * Alexander I of Epirus (370–331 BC), king of Epirus * Alexander I Theopator Euergetes, surnamed Balas, ruler of the Seleucid Empire 150-145 BC * Pope Alex ...

(). After his

abdication Abdication is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority. Abdications have played various roles in the Order of succession, succession procedures of monarchies. While some cultures have viewed abdication as an extreme abandonment of ...

Nicholas II Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov; 186817 July 1918) or Nikolai II was the last reigning Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. He married ...

and his family were held there by revolutionary forces under

house arrest House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The person is confined b ...

until 13 August 1917. People built homes in the town where they also came to live when the court was in the country. The Royal Forestry School, perhaps the first such school in Russia, was founded in Tsarskoye Selo in 1803. It was moved to

in 1811 and developed as the

Imperial Forestry Institute The Imperial Forestry Institute (IFI) was a research institute founded at Oxford in 1924. Originally the Institute remained distinct from the School of Forestry, Oxford, however they were both headed by Robert Scott Troup, the Professor of Forestr ...

. According to historian

Robert K. Massie Robert Kinloch Massie III (January 5, 1929 – December 2, 2019) was an American journalist and historian. He devoted much of his career to studying and writing about the House of Romanov, Russia's imperial family from 1613 to 1917. Massie was ...

"Tsarskoe Selo was a magnificent symbol, a supreme gesture, of the Russian autocracy. At the edge of the great St. Petersburg plain, fifteen miles south of the capital, a succession of Russian tsars and empresses had created an isolated, miniature world, as artificial and fantastic as a precisely ordered mechanical toy. Inside the park, monuments, obelisks and triumphal arches studded eight hundred acres of velvet green lawn. An artificial lake, big enough for small sailboats, could be emptied and filled like a bathtub. At one end of the lake stood a pink Turkish bath; not far off, a dazzling red-and-gold Chinese pagoda crowned an artificial hillock." The two palaces stood five hundred yards apart in the Imperial Park. "Outside the palace gates, Tsarskoe Selo, was an elegant provincial town..." The town included "The mansions of the aristocracy, lining the wide tree-shaded boulevard which led from the railway station to the gates of the Imperial Park..."

Nickname for elite Soviet neighborhoods

In the decades of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, people applied the nickname "the Tsar's village" to the blocks and small neighborhoods in major cities that housed the

nomenklatura The ''nomenklatura'' (; from , system of names) were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in the bureaucracy, running all spheres of those countries' activity: ...

(Soviet elites). Their stores were better stocked, although they were still affected by Soviet-era shortages. The buildings in the neighborhoods were better designed, constructed and maintained. For instance, one such neighborhood, west of Moscow, contained less industry and more parks than any other neighborhood.Masha Gessen, (2017). ''The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia''.

Monuments

and associated park *

and associated park **

Amber Room The Amber Room (, ) was a chamber decorated in amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors, located in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg. Constructed in the 18th century in Prussia, the room was dismantled and ...

Kagul Obelisk The Kagul Obelisk () in Tsarskoye Selo is one of several such structures erected on behest of Catherine II of Russia in 1772 to commemorate Pyotr Rumyantsev's victory in the Battle of Kagul. Designed by Antonio Rinaldi, the dark grey-and-red mar ...

Sophia Cathedral The Ascension Cathedral in the town of Sophia (now a part of Pushkin) in the vicinity of Saint Petersburg, was one of the first purely Palladian churches to be built in Russia. Rather paradoxically, it may also be defined as "the first example ...

Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum The Imperial Lyceum () in Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg, also known historically as the Imperial Alexander Lyceum after its founder Tsar Alexander I, was an educational institution which was founded in 1811 with the object of educating yo ...

* Feodorovsky Gorodok

Gallery

File:Grot pavilion in Tsarskoe Selo.jpg, Grotto pavilion in Catherine Park of Tsarskoye Selo, Saint Petersburg, Russia File:Catherine Palace & Cameron Gallery (Premazzi).jpg, Catherine Palace with a view of the Cameron Gallery; Tsarskoye Selo in a watercolor by

Luigi Premazzi Luigi Premazzi, also russified as Ludwig Osipovich Premazzi. The archival records from the Imperial Academy of Arts, published as , had the surname spelled as Primazzi (). (Milan, 1814 – Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, 1891) was an Italian painter, ...

, c. 1855 File:Catherine Palace - Great Hall 01.jpg, The Catherine Palace, the Great Hall File:Sankt-Peterburg oldfoto 13687.jpg, Fire in the Catherine Palace, 1942 File:Galerie Cameron du Palais de Catherine full size.jpg, Cameron Gallery, Catherine Palace File:Sankt-Peterburg oldfoto 13625.jpg, Jubilee exhibition for the 200th anniversary of Tsarskoye Selo, 1911 File:Sankt-Peterburg oldfoto 13635.jpg, Catherine Palace at the main entrance, September 9, 1911.

Adolphe Kégresse Adolphe Kégresse (1879, Héricourt, Haute-Saône - 1943) was a French military engineer who invented the half-track and dual clutch transmission. Born at Héricourt, and educated in Montbéliard, he moved in 1905 to Saint Petersburg, Russi ...

seated behind the wheel of the Imperial "Benz". File:Sankt-Peterburg oldfoto 13685.jpg, Catherine Park, pavilion "grotto", 1910 File:Sankt-Peterburg oldfoto 13627.jpg, Catherine Park, Pyramid, 1910 File:Catherine - Parc - Palladio (01).jpg, Catherine Park, Palladian Bridge File:PalacioDeAlejandroResidenciaDelZarTsarkoieSelo--fallofromanoffsh00londrich.jpg,

, 1918 File:Automobil mit Schneeraupe und vorne Skiern - CH-BAR - 3241597.jpg, Kegresse track outside

, January 1917 File:Sankt-Peterburg oldfoto 13683.jpg , "Chapel" in Alexander Park, 1897 File:Sankt-Peterburg oldfoto 13725.jpg, Large Chinese Bridge in Alexander Park, 1910 File:Sankt-Peterburg oldfoto 13717.jpg, "Grand Caprice" in Alexander Park, 1911 File:Sankt-Peterburg oldfoto 13619.jpg, Farm outbuilding with a tower in Alexander Park, 1910 File:TsarskoeSeloEmperorStationPostcard.jpeg , Tsarskoye Selo Imperial Station/

Emperor railway station in Pushkin town The Emperor's railway station or Emperor's Tsarskoye Selo Station, known as the Emperor's Pavilion (, transliteration ''Imperatorsky pavilyon''), is a former railway station terminal in Russia, in the town Tsarskoye Selo (now Pushkin, Saint Pet ...

, 1910s

References

External links

Tsarskoye Selo, Pushkin town, historical facts of the city, map, local weather, directions from St. PetersburgThe State Museum of Tsarskoye Selo

Alexander Palace Time Machine
The Alexander Palace Time Machine
Tsarskoye Selo in 1910 – a guide to the Palaces, Park and TownLast Days at Tsarskoe Selo
Last Days at Tsarskoye Selo by Count Paul Beckendorff
Photographic views of Tsarskoye Selo, c. 2002
The Nostalgic Glass
Tsarskoye Selo Photos
Iconicarchive Gallery

{{Coord, 59, 43, 24, N, 30, 24, 57, E, display=title Palaces in Russia Gardens in Russia Royal residences in Russia World Heritage Sites in Russia Charles Cameron buildings History of forestry education Forestry in Russia Saint-Petersburg State Forestry University