September and October

Pushkin had a lifelong interest in Peter the Great. The tsar appears in his works as a benevolent boss and prodigious worker in The Moor of Peter the Great, as a great warrior in Poltava, and as a sinister statue come to life in The Bronze Horseman. But to these works of historical fiction Pushkin aspired to add a non-fiction history of Peter. This project was never brought to fruition, and all that is left to posterity are some fairly extensive notes describing those of Peter’s deeds that the poet considered to be of particular importance.

Some of the episodes from Peter’s life that captured Pushkin’s imagination date back exactly 300 years – to September-October 1718.

Peter arrived in Petersburg (September 3) and laid the foundation of the first tapestry maker, in imitation of the French (on Liteiny).