Olginsky Bridge

The city of Pskov as a “paperclip” between Russia and Western Europe

Photographer M.I. Gerasimov. From the collection of N.F. Levina

I want to look at Pskov from a bird's eye view. Not in the literal sense, but in the historical sense. And not from the depths of centuries, but rising above the centuries. This view, or, if you like, this point of view allows you to see the main thing behind the details and accidents - the line of life that is destined not only for people, but also for cities and entire countries.

For many centuries, Pskov and the Pskov lands resemble a membrane - cultural, political, economic. The Velikaya River, stretched from south to north, with its eastern and western banks, has become a symbol of this border - not a state one, but a mental and philosophical one. Pskov is like a sail that was filled with different winds - sometimes from the West, sometimes from the East.

What kind of wind must fill our sails today for the ship to sail *?

Lessons from the new Europe

The most significant events of the past century in Europe were class revolutions and two world wars, tragedies on a global scale that violently cut off millions of life lines and redrew the political map of the continent. They are powerhouses of hostility, hatred and destruction. The call of the trumpets, demanding to go to the barricades and trenches, was each time replaced by a funeral howl. The twentieth century has become a century of innumerable sacrifices made in the struggle for a new world order and a new way of life.

None of these victims escaped Pskov. And in this sense, we are fully involved in modern European history. I can’t get rid of the thought that when in 1969 in Pskov the Soviet authorities destroyed the Olginsky Bridge, built in 1911 and survived two world wars, in order to build a bridge named after them, monstrous in its architectural poverty. Soviet Army, they (perhaps subconsciously) destroyed the symbol of successful cooperation between Russia and Western Europe.

Now, at the beginning of the new century, we are on the margins of European life, its outskirts, its periphery. We must admit that we didn’t do anything specifically for this, that’s how the circumstances developed. But we have done and do very little, riskily little, in order to be, if not in the center, then in the context of European events.

The breath of Europe stumbles before us, as if breaking against invisible barriers.

Anyone who wants to be modern lives in two times - the present and the future. Modernity begins with an understanding of what will happen tomorrow.

The last quarter of the twentieth century brought new challenges of the Time to Europe.

Europe has revised the basic principles of its way of life. She rethought the very format of her political and economic architecture. The most important and most difficult thing in this format is to rise above the national, internal, and understand the general, European.

In just a few decades, before the eyes of just two generations, an essentially revolutionary expansion of the personal human space of Europe took place. The main lesson that Europe learned from the tragedy of World War II was that the borders of hostility and confrontation should be replaced by borders of cooperation. Rethinking the role of state borders is a fundamental event, not only political and economic, but also cultural and universal.

Immediately after the Second World War, residents of European countries could not yet say about themselves: “I am a citizen of Europe.” Today this definition most accurately reflects the way of thinking of millions of people. It is from this image that ideas, projects, and development concepts are born - in politics, business and culture.

Figuratively speaking, in modern Europe the supporting structure of society has become horizontal, not vertical. The ideas of cooperation turned out to be quite symmetrical to the ideas of competition.

A Europe of states is turning into a Europe of supranational projects, a Europe of direct contacts, when the role of authorities is to create conditions, and the role of people and corporations is to take advantage of these conditions.

And one more thing. A Europe of states turns into a Europe of regions, when issues of regional development become no less important than the development of national states themselves, when regions enter into direct cooperation and direct competition with each other - primarily for people, their intellectual potential, their intention to realize themselves here, and not somewhere else. It is through this that all other resources come to the region - ideas, investments, business. The main place for any person is the place where he himself lives, where his family lives, and not the capital of the state or some other remote and, possibly, prosperous territories. Completely paraphrasing Griboedov, we get the motto of the new Europe: “Where is it better? - where we are."

We did not notice or accept this European revolution. In Russia in general and in the Pskov region in particular, in essence, the events taking place have not yet ended the 20th century and the 21st century has not yet arrived. We live in yesterday. We are not modern. And that means we might lose.

"Equal to Rome, powerful and populous..."

If we were talking about something completely new, previously unaffected, untested, then we could say: everything is for the first time, we are pioneers, no one has solved such problems here before, and therefore we are lagging behind.

But in Pskov it’s impossible to say that. History doesn't allow it. Because Pskov from the 11th to the 17th centuries was a completely European city - of course, in the understanding of those times, those eras, those mindsets. Pskov was active , this was his characteristic feature, his lifestyle, his way of thinking. That is why he attracted statesmen, conquerors, and traders. He was appetizing, desirable, attractive. This charm of medieval cities is what practically the entire European culture grew and survived on, first of all, the culture of life, the culture of intellectual thinking, the culture of economic and political development.

Pskov did not lag behind Europe. Pskov was part of this flow, part of pan-European development, part of European civilization. Pskov was a modern city, which made its inhabitants modern people .

Politics and economics (trade primarily) went hand in hand, persistently promoting each other.

Very briefly, I will allow myself to give a number of historical illustrations, about which - which is also significant - in present-day Pskov, as a rule, only a few researchers are aware of.

Princess Olga, after her baptism in Byzantium in 957 (by the way, her Christian name is Helen, and Olga is a pagan name), already in 959 sent a special mission to Regensburg, the then residence of King Otto the First, to establish ties with the West. Olga asked to send a bishop and several priests of monastic orders for Christian missionary work among her subjects, hoping in this way to baptize Rus'. The mission with difficulty reached Kyiv, where it found Olga’s (Elena’s) son, Prince Svyatoslav, who had taken power, who was completely disinclined towards Christianity and relied on the Varangian squad. He abandoned his mother's initiative and sent the Christian mission back to Germany. Rus' was baptized, but according to a completely different way, by the youngest son of Svyatoslav, grandson of Olga (Elena) Vladimir.

The legendary Pskov prince Dovmont, baptized Timofey, a native of Lithuania (prince 1266-1299), just opened the list of Lithuanian princes in the Pskov reign. There were different people among them; the Pskovites did not love all of them, but, nevertheless, they accepted them and the whole city trusted them with the leadership of the Pskov army, without fear that they were foreigners.

Strong trade routes from Pskov to the West were established already in the 10th-12th centuries; they became especially close with Yuryev (Dorpt, now Tartu, which was sometimes defended by Russian princes from the troops of the Livonian Order) and the future Riga. Since then, many similar words have been preserved in the languages ​​of neighbors. It was from the banks of the Dvina that the first German merchants arrived in Pskov in 1200. The treaty between Pskov and the cities of the Hanseatic League (there were about 150 of them, led by Lübeck), which took place in the middle of the 13th century, opened the way for Hanseatic merchants to the Pskov market. And although there was never a separate Hanseatic court in Pskov, the market was very attractive, including due to favorable conditions for trade.

At the end of the 16th century, after the successful embassy of Zechariah Meyer in 1586, Lübeck (Hansean) merchants were allowed to pay half duties in Pskov, which caused a real trade boom. The city flourished on trade.

In Pskov there were guest courts - Bolshoi, Tverskaya, Linen, Solyanaya, and the Yard for Moscow people (Moscow merchants).

Even then, the Pskov market was largely wholesale in nature and connected traders in remote areas. Pskov merchants conducted large trade operations on the domestic Russian market, purchasing bread, flax, leather, iron, pottery, salt, fish, honey, lard, and wax at the Pskov trade both for domestic trade and for export. Frequent guests in Pskov were merchants from Moscow, Tver, Suzdal, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Uglich, Ryazan, Novgorod, Ustyuzhna Zheleznopolskaya...

The significance of Pskov’s own bread went far beyond the boundaries of the Pskov land. The chronicle for 1422 testifies: “... there was a great famine throughout the Russian land for three years: first of all in Novgorod, and in Moscow, and throughout the Moscow land, and in Tver... And in Pskov on the Krom, the cages were full of all kinds of abundance from the old ones years. And the Novgorodians, Karelians, Chuds, Vozhans, and Tverians, and Muscovites, and, more simply, from all over the Russian land, went to Pskov. And a great number of them came to Pskov. And they began to buy rye in Pskov...” Prices for Pskov bread and information about the harvest were reflected in chronicles as essential information of the era.

The largest Pskov merchants (united in professional organizations - ranks) made transactions directly in the Hanseatic cities and Livonia. Pskov was one of the largest centers of foreign trade in Russia.

In northern Pskov there was a whole Surozh trading row - merchants who traded with southern countries through the city of Surozh on the Crimean coast. In 1589, the Pskov merchants Andrei Timofeev, Andrei Korosonsky, the brothers and nephew of Timofey Semenov, as well as the Pechora clerk Ivan Ustyugov were doing business in Riga at the same time. At the slightest increase in travel duties, dozens of merchants immediately complained to the sovereign.

Pskov merchants lived in Dorpat for years, built the Church of St. George there, and enjoyed benefits and privileges. And the arrest of 25 Russian merchants in Dorpat at the beginning of the 16th century led to a war between Russia and the Livonian Order, which actively interfered with international trade.

At the Pskov Gostiny Dvors they sold and bought Italian silk, English cloth and paper, Swedish metal, products of southern countries - raisins, peppers, wine berries, vinegar... According to the Pskov customs book of 1670-1671, of the duties collected at the Gostiny Dvor, more than 53% accounts for duties on foreign goods and only about 47% on goods produced in Russia.

According to some reports, up to 100 German merchant families permanently lived in Pskov; an entire German courtyard arose on the banks of the Pskova River opposite the Kremlin, immediately after the bridge, on the left, where it is now planned to build the Golden Embankment quarter. The place was called the German Coast. In the 17th century, the German Court was moved to Zavelichye, in the area of ​​the Ioannovsky Monastery.

Active foreign trade made it possible to pay in the territory of Pskov with German coins - pfennigs, in Rus' they were called “penyazis”. Pskov's own Monetary (Coin) Court arose in 1424 and operated until 1663. Its head was traditionally one of the largest Pskov merchants.

Already in the middle of the 14th century, Pskov had about 25 thousand inhabitants - about five thousand more than Cologne. According to some reports, by the 16th century the population of the city reached 50 thousand people - a huge figure for medieval Europe, the level of the largest European capitals.

The Pskov merchants, vitally interested in good neighborly relations with the West, even took a direct part in diplomatic activities. Sources from the mid-16th century mention the merchant elder Semyon Prepobov, who took part in diplomatic negotiations with the Livonians.

Only in Pskov and Novgorod, of all Russian lands, after the Tatar-Mongol invasion, the essentially European bodies of city self-government survived and operated, actually controlling the elected city government and influencing its personnel. The Pskov Veche Republic in the 14th-16th centuries was more a European territory than any other part of Russian lands.

A widely known comparison of Pskov by the associate of the Polish king Stefan Batory, Jan Piotrovsky, in 1581 with Paris (“Lord, what a big city! Just like Paris!.. In all of Poland there is no city equal to Pskov...”), and in 1592 he was no longer a conqueror , and traveler from Germany Johann David Wunderer wrote: “Pskov, as some believe, is equal in size to Rome, almost as powerful and populated...” He also noted that the city was simply filled with foreign merchants.

The economy of the region (and not the capital's assistance!) allowed Pskov, until the beginning of the 16th century, to almost independently maintain an active military fortress, which surpassed the Moscow and Novgorod Kremlin in scale.

On Bridge

It must be recognized that the economic and political role of Pskov in medieval Europe is completely irreversible, like the medieval Russian state itself.

But this style is an infectious, ambitious and promising style of a European city, a center of politics and international business, and it is in demand today in Pskov like nothing else, like air, like the breath of life, like oxygen itself.

How can a city find its place in the new Europe?

The answer is in the question - it must be sought not only in Russia, not only within the country.

I just can’t get rid of the feeling that in all of our today’s celebration there is a huge understatement, moreover, unspokenness. The anniversary of Pskov did not sound in modern Europe, and in Russia it was marked only by cultural events - bright, joyful, enlightened, but let's face it - this is absolutely not enough to make the anniversary an event not only significant, but also impetus, resonating, productive.

In May 2004, less than a year later, the European Union, like a tide, will reach the Russian border. This means that the economic influence of a united Europe on the Pskov region (not only favorable, by the way) will increase many times over. But during the entire anniversary we have not held a single meeting on the problems of European economic development and cooperation, and this, precisely this, is of interest primarily to our Western neighbors - Pskov’s traditional historical partners. This should worry us even more, because attracting European Union resources to the development of Latvia and Estonia could lead to such a widening of the gap in living standards on opposite sides of the border that it threatens us with the loss of what little of the human potential of the region that remains .

Do we feel like Europeans or not at the beginning of the third millennium? Do we need recognition from Europe and its participation in the development of the Pskov region as a European region of Russia?

If so, then it was necessary to fight so that this year at least the Pskov Kremlin (or better yet, the entire historical center of the city) would be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, in the so-called list of the Treasures of Humanity, and not vegetate there in a long pre-queue. True, for this we need to have a completely different attitude towards historical monuments and the very landscape in the city center, for this we need to “punch through” this project literally every day, we need to talk about this with the president and the government, because this is the most infrequent issue that cannot be resolved it is shameful and even necessary to ask for any help. Because this and only this way determine the destinies of cities and regions.

Pskov, if it wants to become a successful European city, needs to create an international business center of a national level. Otherwise, no large business – neither Russian nor Western – will respond to declarations of readiness for investment and cooperation. But there is still no talk about this.

So far, Pskov’s proposals for attracting investment, with rare exceptions, look frighteningly primitive: “we need so much money.” But this is not the language of investment, this is the language of dependents. And in order to master another language, you need to regularly talk with those who speak it perfectly, and listen to these people carefully, and do as they say, without shifting the idea of ​​​​a civilized economy to some “Pskop style.” Not a single international conversation of this kind took place within the framework of the anniversary; we did not open any new “gates” or “windows” to Europe.

Until now, not a single “four-star” hotel has been built in Pskov, without which it is impossible to hold any event of international rank at a decent level. This may seem strange to many here, but by European standards there is really “no place to live” in Pskov. And what questions might there be after that...

Already from all sides of the world we are told the same thing: the Pskov region is a bridge between Russia and Western Europe, the place of dialogue of politicians, businessmen and public figures from different countries and regions, the “pilot” territory of European cooperation on the border of Eastern Europe. They will talk, and then get tired. Because we are not responding.

But almost every day we walk along the Olginsky bridge, from west to east and vice versa. And begins from the bridge itself, after all, Riga Prospekt. What other tips and fingers of fate do we need?

Our whole story, all the former prosperity of Pskov tells us where to move the city, where to direct the vector of its development, where and what is our chance.

Look at the card. Pskov, like a big clip, settled at the mouth of the Great, in the forerunner of the Great Lake and, see a little wider - the Baltic Sea. Remove the "paper clip"-and something will crumble, disperse, break up.

But today, this “paper clip” is kept only on historical and cultural memory, the guardians and carriers of which are rare representatives of the scientific world. Not ordinary citizens, not entrepreneurs, not power.

Wake up, dear fellow citizens. Nearby, at an extended hand, Europe lives - that same Europe, for the formation and prosperity of which the city of Pskov did so much, modestly and provincially celebrating its centenary anniversary. Do not flatter the visits of several government officials, a cool concert of classical music and the discovery of two monuments of the same name. We stand much more expensive, really.

We have a completely different task-we must open our city in Europe, open it in a new way as a partner and competitor, as a center of attraction of active people, as a contemporary.

This is the wind today. But in order to catch it, you need to raise the sails, you need to take risks, we must part with pessimism and indifference - godmother of inerticide. You look around - and sometimes you can no longer believe in the reality of such a gust, but look in history - you still believe ...

Do you know what we miss the most? Internal freedom and inspiration, this main building material of all time.

Peter built St. Petersburg in an empty and death place and made it an effort of the will of the Russian state of the Russian state. And Pskov, as he stood, is standing - at a “living place”, at the crossroads of Europe, near the bridge between the East and the West.

The city is waiting for him to understand, feel, will be raised. Sooner or later it will happen anyway.

... Maybe then those who find strength will grow up in Pskov to return themselves to return the city in the original appearance that our symbol and our pride - the Olginsky bridge that has died in the era of timelessness.

*The author regrets that throughout the past year the discussion on the declared topic was not supported.