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FORTRESS STUDY GROUP
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Casemate 77 |
Fort Alexander is one of the most impressive and powerful fortifications in the approaches to St Petersburg. It was constructed on extremely difficult ground with great effort and hardship, in defiance of the severe northern conditions, for the keeping in awe of numerous foes.
Fort Alexander from seaward, across the ice. The brick building on top is a laboratory from the plague research.
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The fort was constructed in 1838-45 on an artificial island in the Gulf of Finland close to Kronstadt, and designed and administered by engineer-colonel Fan der Veide. Its task was to cover the southern waterway to St Petersburg in combination with forts Peter I, Risbank and Kronschlot.
8. Ft Alexander; 7. Ft Peter I; 4. Risbank; 5. Ft Kronschlot
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The fort is bean-shaped and has dimensions of 90x60m; it has 4 fighting levels with 103 cannon ports and also 34 guns could be mounted on the roof, providing an all-round defence. It was commissioned on July 27, 1845 when Russian Emperor Nikolai I made a visit to the fort to approve the construction works.
This fort never took part in any military actions, but did make a big impression on Admiral Napier, Commander of the Allied fleet, during the Crimean war.
By the 1860s the fort had lost its military value, with the development and spread of rifled artillery and for a long time was used as a storehouse for mines and ammunition, being struck off the military register in 1896.
First floor; embrasure for small calibre gun, or perhaps rocket, covering the pier at the rear of the fort.
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In 1894 the plague pathogen had been identified by the scientist A Jersen, and in the same year the Special Commission for Prevention of Plague (KOMOCHUM) was established in Russia, with Prince Oldenburgski appointed as its chairman.
Fort Alexander was an ideal place to locate a research laboratory owing to its complete isolation, while at the same time it was not far from St Petersburg. On 26 January 1897 the fort was put under the administration of the St Petersburg Institute of Experimental Medicine, for the organization of a plague laboratory with Veterinary doctor M G Tartakovsky its first director. From that time on, the fort was nicknamed 'The Plague Fort'.
Second floor casemates, the 'infectious zone'; here there was an experimental menagerie and horses were stabled during the plague laboratory years. A respirator and special rubber boots are recommended (or a handkerchief moistened with carbolic acid at least).
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There were sections for infectious diseases, with a scientific research laboratory and an experimental menagerie and stables for 16 horses; the laboratory produced anti-plague serum from the blood of horses contaminated by plague. Beyond the infectious section were dwelling rooms for physicians and their families, rest and visitors' reception rooms, and a hall for scientific conferences. Admission to the fort was strictly limited and only the little steamship Microbe linked the fort with the mainland.
Work in the laboratory was extremely hazardous. Despite the strict protective measures there were two outbreaks of plague with human victims, in 1904 and 1907. The Director of laboratory Dr V I Turchaninov-Vyzhnikevich was one of those who died; bodies were burnt in the cremation furnaces of the fort.
In 1917 the laboratory was closed and its equipment removed. The fort returned to the navy; there were various warehouses and the naval guardhouse. In 1983 the fort was abandoned; all its iron parts - the armoured doors, bars, mechanisms, guns and even stair banisters have been pulled out and send to metal-working plants as scrap metal except for the remarkable survival of an astonishing cast-iron staircase (below).
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In 2005 some repair work was begun in the fort; new iron gates appeared and the first level embrasures were walled up. As far as I know, the fort has been leased by a commercial firm for an organisation business and museum centre.
(The map and illustrations in this article are from Alex's book Northern Fortress, due to appear this year. In it there are short English summaries for each fortress, captions in English and lots of colour photos. Sounds good!
I was referred to Alex's website by Stephen Cannon-Brookes and after emailing Alex he very kindly agreed to write an article for Casemate; an unusual example of a new use for a fort. His website is full of photos of a wide range of concrete and guns, with some pithy commentaries: www.nortfort.ru Ed)
