Heinrich Friedrich von Storch (1766-1835). The picture of Petersburg. London: printed for T.N. Longman & O. Rees, 1801. C12325

Heinrich Friedrich von Storch (1766-1835). The picture of Petersburg. London: printed for T.N. Longman & O. Rees, 1801. C12325

Picture of more than a thousand words... Storch's Picture of Petersburg, 1792, set a standard for European accounts of the city and is still quoted today. Storch says, "One of the most important phenomena of this period [the 18th century] is without a doubt the moral and political transformation of a vast and powerful people, whose latent powers were awakened as if by an electric shock, and were transformed into the most astounding activity. Russia, which had previously been a little known and little feared empire, suddenly made an appearance among the European states at the beginning of this century and, after a short test of its strength, became the arbiter and decisive power of the North."

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