Whenever Russia wanted to be modern it looked to the leading lights of European culture. Architecture, which as the most functional of all the arts always tells future generations a great deal about a society’s level of development, has never been an exception to that rule.
In 1703 Tsar Peter I founded St. Petersburg – a new capital – and invited famous architects from all of Europe to participate. The new capital’s architecture was to become the benchmark for much of the Russian Empire.