Dostoevsky’ Petersburg: Sennaia Ploshchad’

The majority of the action in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment takes place in the region of Sennaia Ploshchad’, or “Haymaker Square,” which was a well-known den of iniquity in the mid-19th century, featuring all the pubs and brothels a former student in rags could ever want. But be careful: the place was so chaotic, it’s probably not the best locale for any kind of murder plot, especially if you have a high fever.

And what exactly did it look like?

Well, first, let’s get the location down. Sennaia Ploshchad’ is located south of Nevsky Prospekt, meaning it’s on the southern side of the Neva. From metro station “Nevsky Prospekt” (generally considered the Stephen’s Green of Petersburg in terms of city orientation), it’s about kilometer walk. Here’s the googlemaps take:

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Cool. but what does the place itself look like?

Let’s go back to the 1820s for this first one. This painting is by A. Briullov. I particularly like it because you can see how the masses of humanity managed to create a lane in the middle for carriages and carts. It’s down such a lane that I imagine the drunk man being hauled in the 6th paragraph of C&P. Watch out for the little dog, though!

And now on to the 1830s. This one actually looks like an older portrayal to my eyes, and yet it comes after the innovative Briullov. Whatever the year, it seems that artistic representation has not quite advanced to the stage of being capable of depicting the place in all its wretched glory:

Doesn’t look too bad – though when you start thinking about it as a red light district, it does start looking a little creepier.

Here’s another image, this one contemporaneous to the novel, from the 1860s. Here’s where the place starts to look like it could be the setting of a Dostoevsky novel. We’ve got the crush of humanity, the chaos of the crowd (what happened to that perfect lane we had in the 1820s?), hawkers of all sorts, and people everywhere carrying different kinds of booze.

Here’s a snapshot, from sometime in the 19th century (couldn’t get a more precise date on it). While it looks post-Dostoevsky, it gives a better sense of the place. And it confirms that, indeed, hay was sold there:

Wikipedia says this next one is from 1900 on the button, but let’s take the cautious route and call it “early 20th century”.

Finally, let’s take a look at old Sennaia today. You’ll notice it looks disappointingly pulled-together. A shiny series of shops replace the “panorama of such (crazy) subjects” – and where do you go for your hay these days then?

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