ABSTRACT
The creation of green space in imperial St Petersburg owed much to government policy and to the actions of the City Council. But in the period before the Revolution voluntary societies also played a part in shaping the urban landscape, as did commercial developers. As already noted in Chapter 14, the second half of the nineteenth century and start of the twentieth century saw sweeping changes in the political, economic and cultural life of the Russian capital. Following the reforms of the 1860s, the development of industry and transport boosted urban growth, particularly that of St Petersburg, whose population increased four times between 1850 and 1914 to over two million people. This had a considerable effect on the development of the historic centre of St Petersburg. In some fifty years the old classical Court city evolved to become a major industrial and commercial centre. The same period accounted for 90 per cent of the stone construction in the city’s central area.
