Identifier: russia00dobsrich (find matches)
Title: Russia;
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Dobson, George Grove, Henry M Stewart, Hugh, 1884-1934 Haenen, F. de
Subjects: Soviet Union -- Description and travel
Publisher: London, A. and C. Black
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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earsWar. In all probability, many Mecklenburgerswould have then been found willing to leave theirdesolated homesteads and settle in a new countryunder the protection of the Protestant hero ; butthe fall of Gustavus Adolphus, at the Battle ofLiitzen, put an end to the scheme. The most important enterprise of the Swedes onthe Neva at this time was undoubtedly the establish-ment of Nyenschantz, or Nyenskantz—now Okhta—at the mouth of the small tributary of the Nevabearing that name. This took place at the sugges-tion of the well-known Swedish General l)e laGardie, whose descendants eventually entered theRussian service. A small fortress was first builton the right bank of the Neva in 1632, and a smallbut flourisliing town soon grew up in the neigli-bourliood. On the same spot there had been aRussian commercial settlement prior to 1521, inwhich year it was destroyed by sea-pirates. AX amuch earlier date Landskron, the first attempt at aSwedish settlement here, was also located in this
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5 ^ N 2 THE SWEDES AND PETER THE GREAT 49 vicinity. To-day the same site is occupied by apopulous and important suburb of St. Petersburgcalled Big and Little Okhta, Opposite to it, on theleft bank of the Neva, is Smolny, with its fineCathedral by Count Rastrelli, and Institute forDaughters of the Nobility. Not far from SmolnyInstitute is the Taurid Palace, the seat of theState Dooma, originally the mansion of Catherinesrenowned favourite and General, Prince Potemkin,the conqueror of the Crimea. In the seventeenth century Smolny was a colonyof Russian tar-distillers, from whom it derived itsname (smola, pitch). The colony was dependentupon Nyenskantz, and an interesting fact in con-nection with it illustrates the attitude of theSwedes towards the Russian colonists in generalat this period. The Russians at Smolny wereunder the religious control of the authorities of theSwedish Church. The Chief Superintendent ofreligious matters in Ingermanland was then theBishop of Narva, the learned G

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