Peter the Great founded the capital of the Russian Empire on this day in 1703. The “second” Rome needed a clean start. Thus, Emperor Constantine the Great picked up a new location on the Bosporus. In 330 the city of Constantine (Konstaninopolis) was dedicated to Christ. The capital of the empire was transferred there from the “first” Rome along with some old elites and senate that lasted through Byzantine history until 1453. Similarly, Peter the Great selected a prime location on the Baltics. Like Emperor Constantine he needed a divorce from the old capital – Moscow. St. Peterburg, and not New York, can properly be called New Amsterdam because of the water channels and “Dutch” architecture. And here all similarities come to an end. Constantinople had centuries of Roman republican and imperial history “under its belt,” while St. Petersburg became a “Western European” city on Russian soil. Peter the Great was not interested in cultivating individual rights, but only wanted to borrow Western “know-how” for a limited period. Nevertheless, Russians proved to be amazingly swift learners, catching up with Western European culture during the eighteenth century. The results of this Euroization are Pushkin, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy to name just a few. Unfortunately, the chasm between St. Petersburg, Russia and the “real” peasant Russia, which remained in the pre-Petrine state of mind, has never been overcame. | 
