The Gulf of Finland as an Unknown Waterscape that Needs to Be Tamed Perceptions, Imaginaries and Knowledge in Imperial St. Petersburg

Abstract

The paper summarizes the study of St. Petersburg as a center of multifaceted control and management of the adjacent lagoonscape through the perspective of knowledge as a social construct. We argue that the dwellers of the Russian capital knew their surrounding environment in a variety of ways. We can distinguish knowledge based on perception, imagination, and observation, and these three societal mechanisms of dealing with the nature of the Neva inlet, the most eastern part of the Gulf of Finland, shaped the ways of development of St. Petersburg as the center of complicated network interactions that eventually created the St. Petersburg maritime empire.