A Southern City By the Sea

Taganrog residents are proud of their city and will likely tell visitors tales about how close the city came to being made capital of the Russian state, citing the fact that Emperor Peter the Great founded Taganrog before St. Petersburg and had great hopes for it. There is a grain of truth to this. But, alas, it was not to be.

In any event, this is how it all started.

History

In July 1696, Russian troops captured the Turkish fortress at Azov, from which incursions into the southern borderlands of Russia were constantly being launched. After this victory, the young Tsar Peter I set out with his comrades in arms to sail the coast of the Black Sea, in search of a suitable harbor. On July 27, Peter’s ship entered the old Turkish bay formed by the cape Tagan-Rog (which derives from the Russian “tagan” – trivet, and “rog” – cape, the speculation being that an easily visible beacon fire in a trivet was once set up here as an orientation point for sailors and fishermen). Members of the expedition ascended a steep path to the high shore. Their gaze fell upon steppe rutted by the occasional gully. Thickets of bulrush could be seen and a brook burbled nearby. They liked the place. It was decided that a harbor should be constructed here, with a fortress to protect it. On September 12, 1698, in Moscow, the Pushkarsky Prikaz (literally “cannon administration,” but, in terms of function, closer to an army corps of engineers) issued an order to begin construction of the new city.

The design and technology used to construct Taganrog harbor employed the most up-to-date engineering practices of that day. Construction proceeded at a pace befitting the energy of Tsar Peter. By 1699, the first Russian warships were already wintering here. Civilian life, government administrative functions and a postal service were soon in place.

The harbor was well protected. Approach from the sea was covered by a citadel on the artificial Turtle Island. On land there was a mighty fortress for defense. It covered the tip of the cape like a maple leaf, with ramparts and ravelins extending inland. Europe’s latest advances in the art of fortification were applied to the construction of the fortress. The city was designed to radiate out from a single point and its design was one of the first applications of municipal planning.

In accordance with the Treaty of Prut, concluded with Turkey in 1711, Azov was returned to the Turks and the fortress on Tagan Rog was completely destroyed.

But, just some fifty years later, the fortress and port were reborn, when the conflict between Russia and Turkey entered a new phase. Under Catherine II, Russian expansion into the areas adjoining the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea continued. In April of 1769, Russian soldiers occupied Taganrog. The fortress and harbor began to be rebuilt in accordance with Peter’s original designs. At the same time, the Azov fleet was reborn.

Toward the end of the 18th century, the boundaries of the Russian State were extending further and further south. The fortress was soon deep inside the borders and, as a result, lost its military significance. The naval fleet was moved to Sevastopol, on the Black Sea, and, by order of Empress Catherine the Great, the former fortress town was transformed into a bustling commercial port – the city of Taganrog. In 1802, by imperial decree, a gradonachalstvo was established for Taganrog, bringing it under the direct control of St. Petersburg.

The advantages of its geography, its proximity to fertile agricultural areas, and the absence of competition from the still youthful southern cities of Rostov, Odessa and Mariupol brought Taganrog significant renown in the southern Russian Empire. Its port saw lively trade with many foreign nations: Russian goods flowed to Constantinople, Athens, Livorno, Trieste, Marseille, and London. Furthermore, more than 40 percent of imports through the ports of southern Russia were brought in via Taganrog.

Anyone who came to Taganrog during those years was struck by one exotic feature of the city – the prevalence of foreigners. Just about everyone was there – Greeks, Turks, French, Italians, Dutch and Germans. The old names of the streets attest to this diversity: Jerusalem Street, Catholic Street, Italian Lane. Not for nothing one contemporary observer called Taganrog “little El Dorado.”

Architecture

The layout of Taganrog is dictated by its location at the end of a peninsula, and from the start it was designed with streets fanning out from the tip. These streets are primarily lined with single- and two-story houses adorned with columns, sculptures and decorative molding. The diversity of styles and the richness and originality of the exterior décor of many buildings long secured the old section of Taganrog the reputation as an open-air museum of architecture. Fortunately, for the most part, the older city structures have been preserved.

The famous professor of architecture, Georgy Lukomsky, upon visiting Taganrog in 1913 wrote:

This now half-forgotten city of villas looking down on a beautiful bay of the Sea of Azov is a city where entire streets are lined with houses, which are marvelous examples of building of the Alexander period. Some of them are masterworks of architecture from Russia’s early classical era. But if people would learn to value not only the architecture, but typical, everyday details of the past, this city could hold the interest of a museum, since nowhere else in Russia has such a quantity of houses, fences and gates from the beginning of the last century been preserved as in Taganrog.

One of these architectural masterpieces is the Alferaki Palace. The palace was built on Catholic Street (now Frunze) for a Greek, Nikolai Alferaki, in 1848, based on a design by the architect Andrei Stuckenschneider. Alferaki’s son, Achilles Nikolaevich, went on to become a Russian composer and statesman of note, including serving as mayor of Taganrog in 1880-1888 and then Chancellor of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in St. Petersburg. Features reflecting a variety of architectural styles are used in the palace’s décor. These include the distinct symmetry characteristic of classicism and the extravagant splendor of molding and Corinthian columns and capitals typical of the Baroque. The interior is just as striking in its opulence, featuring a staircase of white marble, a two-tone front room with original artwork, painted ceilings, mosaic parquet floors and gilded molding. Since 1927, this two-story house has been home to a museum of regional history.

Among the city’s other buildings, one stands out – a brick building at 56 Greek Street, near an ancient stone staircase. Its garret is crowned by a romantic crenelated tower, with a spire and weathervane in the form of a sailing ship, lending the house the appearance of a medieval castle. This unusual building was built in the 1870s. In 1883, it was rented by a naval officer named Ippolit Tchaikovsky, whose brother, the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, came to stay with him three times. Anton Chekhov wrote, “If I were rich I would definitely have bought the house where Ippolit Tchaikovsky lived.” Since 1974, the building has been home to a music library, a branch of the Chekhov municipal library.

The city is undoubtedly embellished by a marvelous, architecturally-original house with a striking exterior resemblance to Moscow’s Yaroslavl train station, with the same steeple-roofed towers, trapezoidal roof with a central crest and the same alternating pattern of windows with differing shapes. The building successfully integrates architecture, paintings and sculptures. It was built in 1912 and Fyodor Shekhtel, an eminent Modernist architect, is credited with the design. The building’s mosaic paneling was produced by the ceramic workshops of the famous Abramtsevo Art Colony (see Russian Life, Mar/Apr 2002), using sketches by the renowned artist, Nikolai Roerich (The Bark’s Arrival, Battles) and Mikhail Vrubel (Girl with a Flower). Since the early 1980s, the Museum of Taganrog has been housed here.

Taganrog is a city rich in theatrical tradition. The first resident theater company appeared here in 1827, and in 1866 the construction of a theater was financed by a private corporation. It is a two-story building in the neoclassical style. Its façade features a triangular pediment and rusticated walls. Alexander Chekhov, brother of Anton Chekhov recalled that “…the city theater was a truly elegant and adorable toy. The nine muses were artistically depicted on the ceiling. The paintings were fabulous, glorious. They were a pleasure for the eyes.” In 1944, the theater was named for the town’s most famous son, Anton Chekhov. In 1991, it was officially designated a Chekhov memorial.

Industry

Taganrog is an average-sized Russian city with a population of 280,000. During the Soviet era, most of its labor force worked in industry. There are three industrial giants in the city: a metallurgical plant and boiler and harvesting combine manufacturing facilities. In terms of production volume and territory, they surpass the local aviation, machine and leather goods factories. The first industrial enterprises began to appear during the second half of the 19th century.

During the late Soviet perestroika years, as in other Russian cities, workers in Taganrog were not paid for months at a time, and there began to be massive layoffs. Factories were close to bankruptcy. Technically trained blue- and white-collar workers started selling consumer goods in the markets. The number of factory workers was reduced by a third.

“What a factory it was,” recalled Irina, a former white-collar worker in the harvesting combine factory who was laid off along with many others. “The combines were sent to every corner of the Soviet Union. We had our own Palace of Culture, our own resorts and children’s health camps on the shores of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. That’s all in the past. Out of 25,000 workers, there are now barely more than 2,000. The production units stand half empty and part of the factory has been sold or rented.”

Of course, not all the factories met such a sad fate. Some were transformed into publicly held corporations which have reconnected with former suppliers and markets and are looking for new ones as well. The boilers produced by the Red Boilermaker facility are in demand for thermal power plants. In early 2005, the factory received its largest order in 100 years from the Indian national power company.

Planes created by designers at the Beriev Aviation Complex are on display at the Le Bourget Aviation Show in France. A new model of the versatile amphibious plane, the Be-200, has been developed for firefighting and dealing with environmental disasters. Taganrog aviation designers demonstrated this plane at the international air show in Farnborough, outside London.

The TAGMET metallurgical plant continues on as well, and is one of the main suppliers of steel pipes to countries near and far.

Taganrog’s commercial port also plays a major role in the city’s economy. It sits on well-traveled routes from central Russia, Siberia, the Urals and Central Asia to the Mediterranean and serves the Caspian basin countries via the Volga-Don waterway system. The port is navigable year round and can currently accommodate river- and seafaring vessels with cargo capacities of 3000-5000 tons.

Chekhov’s Birthplace

Ask any native of Taganrog what his city is famous for, and he will immediately answer that it is best known as the birthplace of the great Russian writer and dramatist Anton Pavlovich Chekhov.

Chekhov loved his native city and always spoke warmly of it. “The air of my birthplace is the most healthful. It’s a shame that I am not a wealthy man and that I must rely on my earnings. Otherwise, I would definitely buy myself a little house in Taganrog, close to the sea, where I could find some warmth in my old age,” he wrote in a letter dated March 21, 1885. And in a letter twelve years later (April 15, 1897), he wrote, “For me, as a native son of Taganrog, it would be best of all to live in Taganrog, as the smoke of our birthplace smells sweet and pleasing to us.”

Chekhov helped the residents of Taganrog create a municipal library and a historical museum and played a role in bringing the city its first pharmacy and in building a memorial to its founder, Peter the Great.

As a writer, Chekhov depicted life in provincial, 19th century Taganrog in several of his stories, including “Ionych,” “The Man in a Case,” “Ward No. 6,” “The Chameleon,” and “The Mask.”

Wandering the old streets, lined with acacia and chestnut trees, one senses the invisible presence of the schoolboy Antosha Chekhov. You can visit the little white house with green shutters standing inside a courtyard on a street bearing his name. Cherry trees bloom there in the spring. In early summer, jasmine and a small pink bush not far from the house’s entrance flower. It was here, on January 29, 1860, that the future writer was born into a merchant family. “I was born in Bolotov House (according to my mother) or perhaps it was Gnutov House… on Police Street, in a little wing in the courtyard,” Chekhov wrote on May 11, 1902. Since 1926, this building has been a memorial museum – The Little House of A. P. Chekhov – and is known worldwide as a landmark of Russian culture, a holy place for lovers of the writer’s work.

From 1869 to 1874, Chekhov’s family rented a two-story brick house belonging to the merchant Moiseev. On the ground floor there was a grocer’s shop opened by the writer’s father, Pavel Chekhov, a merchant of the third guild. A sign hung outside the entrance reading “Tea, sugar, coffee and other colonial goods.”

“I was a member of the proletariat.” Anton Pavlovich wrote, “In childhood, I sold tallow candles in our shop in Taganrog…” The second story, where the family lived, had a large, airy parlor, bedrooms and nurseries. The writer’s five “shopkeeping” years are reflected in the stories “Vanka,” “Sleepy,” “A Waste of Time,” “Choristers,” “The Bishop,” “The Head of the Family,” and “Difficult People.” At the Chekhov Shop Museum you can hear affectionate accounts of Chekhov’s childhood and adolescence, his interests and hobbies.

From the shop you will undoubtedly be sent to the Gymnasium, which is what Taganrog natives call the Chekhov Literary Museum, where the 11-year-old Anton attended school. Here you can hear about his grades, whether or not he was sent to sit in the office for breaking the rules, and about his classmates and teachers.

After leaving the Gymnasium, you can stroll down to the city garden, founded in 1806. Anton Pavlovich often wandered its shady or snowy paths, both as a schoolboy and during later visits as an adult.

To be sure you have not missed a single Chekhov site in Taganrog, stop by the municipal dramatic theater – the oldest in southern Russia – where young Chekhov learned his theatrical ABCs; sit by the shore near the yacht club where he and his brothers caught gobies; and gaze at the marvelous sculpture by Rukavishnikov, unveiled on January 29, 1960, to mark the centennial of Chekhov’s birth.

Tourism

Taganrog holds a great deal of interest for tourists. There were even plans to create a tourist route through the Don region to be called the Silver Horseshoe (analogous to the Golden Ring of historic towns east of Moscow). The highlight of this route would surely have been Taganrog. Unfortunately, the plan never came to fruition.

According to Alla Tsymbal, a researcher at the regional museum who knows the history of her native city better than anyone: “Over the 300 year history of Taganrog, Chekhov is only one of the many names of great and famous figures to be tied to the city. The actress Faina Ranevskaya was born and spent her youth here. Others who spent time here include the poet Alexander Pushkin, the composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky and the painter Ivan Aivazovsky. Their homes have been preserved, mute repositories of the lives of these men.”

The Palace of Alexander I on Greek Street cannot be overlooked. “How did it get that name?” you might ask. The Russian Emperor Alexander I stayed here on two occasions, and it was the will of fate that this should be the site of his unexpected death. The quotation “A life spent on the road, and he died in Taganrog,” is attributed to Alexander Pushkin.

“Not everyone accepts the fact that the Emperor died in our city,” Tsymbal said. “There is a legend that Alexander I did not die in Taganrog in 1825, but secretly left on a pilgrimage and turned up in distant Siberia as the monk Fyodor Kuzmich.”

From the palace, Tsymbal takes a visitor to one more site associated with Alexander I. It is the statue standing on Alexander Square, also named for the Emperor. This memorial appeared in Taganrog sixty years after Alexander’s death. “The city’s citizenry,” Tsymbal said, “donated more than 25,000 rubles for this worthy undertaking, and 32,500 thousand rubles came from members of the royal family.” This marvelous memorial is the work of the famous sculptor Ivan Matros, who created the monument to Minin and Pozharsky in Moscow. Unfortunately, the original monument to Alexander I was melted down in 1920. For the third centennial of the founding of Taganrog, the statue was recreated using the surviving plaster cast and was again unveiled at a ceremony on the square.

From the monument to Alexander, it is just a stone’s throw to the Art Museum on Alexander Street. Its rich collection of Russian paintings and graphics from the 17th to 20th centuries will attract connoisseurs of the fine arts and curious tourists alike.

Of course, the best time to visit Taganrog is in the summer. There is plenty of sun, a wealth of fruits and vegetables, and the city revels in greenery and the warm waters of Taganrog Bay. The city’s beaches are filled with vacationers from morning to evening. As if that were not enough, recently a popular water park opened, attracting locals and visitors alike.

A century ago, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov wrote that, “Wherever I may travel – whether abroad, to the Crimea or to the Caucasus, Taganrog is always on my way.” While this sleepy southern city may not be immensely easy to get to from within Russia or without, it is more than worth a prolonged stopover, more than worth putting “on your way” to anywhere else.   RL