It would be wrong to talk about St. Petersburg, its architecture and traditions not to mention the monument of the faith of the Lord - the Synagogue. The first Jews appeared in St. Petersburg shortly after its inception. These were the descendants of the crosses brought by Peter I to participate in the construction of St. Petersburg, and, of course, their history has no direct relationship to the history of the formation of the Jewish community of the city. All of them played an important role in the development of the Russian state and the formation of the new Russian capital, but had nothing to do with the history of the Jews of Russia and St. Petersburg proper.
Officially, by decree of Catherine I, Jews were forbidden to live not only in the capital, but in general in Russia. However, for the sake of their own benefit, some Russian rulers violated their own decrees. Thus, the Jews, whose services the court needed, could be in St. Petersburg for a short time.
Discussion about the project of the building was conducted since 1878. L.O. Gordon said that "when building their churches, Jews never adhered to a successive style, they borrowed the style of the people who dominated at that time and in the given locality," and, while maintaining the inner meaning of their faith, "paid little attention to appearance." Well-known Russian art historian V. V. Stasov, on the contrary, argued that the style of the future synagogue must necessarily be close to Moorish.
In July 1879, a competition was announced. The special jury headed by V.V. Stasov recognized the best project of Bachman and Shaposhnikov. But when in March 1880 the draft was submitted for approval to Alexander II, the resolution was followed: "To change the project on a more modest scale."
This was a blow for the community. Fortunately, the architects agreed to make a new project for free.
Finally, on May 16, 1883 Alexander III approved the outline draft of the synagogue. After the finalization of the project in 1883, construction began, which was led by the Construction Committee, headed by AA Kaufman. The architect - the manufacturer of the works was appointed AV Malov, his assistants - SO Klein and BI Girshovich. In the summer of 1883 the construction was interrupted until 1884 due to the processing of the project in the direction of its reduction in price. The curator of the project is the architect NL Benois, who enjoyed great confidence in the government and the royal family, and S. S. Polyakov was appointed chairman of the Construction Committee.
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