Revolyutsii Ave, 8, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 195027
For two hundred years, street vendors and peddlers were an integral part of life in Petersburg. It was the Okhta milkmaids who supplied their products to the wealthy townspeople (only they could afford milk and dairy products in a big city far from rural settlements in the 18th–19th centuries).
Since the times of Peter the Great, Okhta was famous for its dairy industry. According to legend, Peter Alekseevich himself, concerned with supplying the new capital with milk, ordered the introduction of pedigree cows here. His order was addressed to Russian settlers (mainly from the present-day Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Kostroma, and Yaroslavl regions), who came here to work at the state shipyards. While the men worked as carpenters, the women, officially speaking, engaged in dairy farming.
However, there is a version that cows were kept in Okhta even earlier by the Finnish Ingrians, who did not abandon the dairy trade when they switched from Swedish to Russian citizenship. Interestingly, the enterprising Okhta women, whose businesses were especially successful in the city, bought milk from the same Chukhon people (this unpleasant-sounding word was then used to refer to the indigenous inhabitants of these lands) at "Gorushka" — the main trading square of Okhta (the market was located near house No. 14 on the modern Bolshaya Okhtinskaya Avenue). Over time, a group of Okhta milkmaids emerged who dealt exclusively in trade and did not even own their own cows.
Every morning, waking up at 4 a.m., the Okhta women hurried to the crossings over the Neva. In summer, they crossed on steamships and boat ferries; in winter, over the ice, the milkmaids with heavy jugs were ferried to the left bank, where their daily route through the city began. The work of the milkmaids was highly respected, as this trade was of great importance to the material well-being of all Okhta residents. Gradually, a vivid, recognizable image of an independent woman, the breadwinner of the family, was formed. The Okhta woman of that time was a true business lady! Her individuality was expressed both in her manner of behavior and in her appearance. The Okhta woman carried herself boldly and independently, was strong, lively, and loud. This is how the Okhta milkmaid was described by the writer of the first half of the 19th century, Pavel Vasilyevich Efebovsky, in the essay "Petersburg Peddlers": “Look how coquettishly the Okhta woman walks in winter, dragging behind her sleds loaded with jugs of milk and cream. Her outfit, especially with a pretty, fresh face flushed by the frost, is very beautiful: a jacket trimmed and often lined with hare fur, which very well shows the slenderness of the waist; a calico skirt and blue stockings with various fancy patterns and stripes. All this, together with beautiful faces, you meet among young Okhta women” (quoted from: E. V. Pervushina, Petersburg Women of the 19th Century).
The image of the Okhta milkmaid, captured in the sculpture near the "Neva" garden, is a composite. It is based on descriptions, drawings, and engravings. The inspiration came from the lines of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin from the first chapter of the verse novel "Eugene Onegin":
The merchant rises, the peddler goes,
The cabman heads to the exchange,
With a jug the Okhta woman hurries,
Under her the morning snow crunches.
The idea to create "Okhtenka" was born in 1999, when the 200th anniversary of Alexander Pushkin's birth was celebrated. Sculptors Yan Yanovich Neiman and Valentin Dmitrievich Sveshnikov, as well as architects Stanislav Makarovich Korolenko and Vladimir Ivanovich Morozov, participated in the work on the monument. Four years later, the idea came to fruition. The "Okhtenka" monument was unveiled near the "Neva" garden, not far from the intersection of Sredneohtinsky Avenue and Revolyutsii Highway, in 2003, the year of the 300th anniversary of Saint Petersburg. The solemn ceremony took place on June 6, the birthday of the great Russian poet.
It is noteworthy that the face of "Okhtenka" was given the features of a specific person — the wife of sculptor Valentin Dmitrievich Sveshnikov. The wax model of the sculpture was created within the walls of the Academy of Arts, and the funds for the expensive bronze casting were provided by a sponsor.
The figure of the Okhta milkmaid was installed on a granite pedestal, the treatment of which resembles that very crunchy snow. The area around the monument was paved with tiles. And "Okhtenka" hurries on, as before, toward the crossing over the Neva.
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