Two hundred years ago, construction began in the center of the imperial capital on the new, fourth Isaac Cathedral. On February 20, 1818, Alexander I approved the project of the grandiose temple, prepared by the French architect Montferrand. In 1818, they began preparing materials, driving piles, and laying the foundation. In the same year, a contract was signed with Samson Sukhanov for the supply of stone needed for the foundation masonry. In 1819, Sukhanov also "undertook to supply fifty cubic sazhen of granite stone for rubble masonry for the construction of Isaac Cathedral" and, at Montferrand's request, hired about a hundred stonemasons to dress the stone. The ceremonial laying of Isaac Cathedral took place on July 26, 1819. In the autumn of the following year, the dismantling of the old Isaac Cathedral building began. In 1821, contractors Samson Sukhanov, Ivan Korelyakov, and Timofey Afonin participated in the "demolition of the semicircular projections of the old church."

Samson Sukhanov recruited state peasants from the northern provinces for his brigade. Their passports were confiscated. Advances were given in such a way that the worker was always indebted to the supervisor and forced to work off the debt. Work at the quarry did not stop six days a week; on weekdays, shifts lasted 13 hours, and on Saturdays, they were let off an hour earlier. A worker's contract from 1820 who started at Sukhanov's quarry has been preserved: "If any of us by God's will becomes ill, only one day's pay shall be deducted; but if anyone does not come to work due to drunkenness or personal affairs, double the pay for one day shall be deducted." Child labor was also used. On May 21, 1820, the official Barushkevich, inspecting the progress of work, submitted a report to the commission for the reconstruction of Isaac Cathedral, stating: "At Sukhanov's site, boys are working whose strength by age and years did not correspond to the hardships of the work." However, workers labored under similar conditions at other large construction sites of that era.

A few months after Sukhanov arrived at the quarry, the commission signed a contract for the manufacture of columns with a second contractor — the Olonets merchant Arkhip Shikhin. Sukhanov's brigade had 400 workers, Shikhin's had 270. It took several months to make one column. First, workers chiseled out a rectangular block, then turned it into a cylinder...

At the same time, granite monoliths for the cathedral's columns were being quarried at the Pyuterlaksa quarries on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland. On January 27, 1819, Samson Sukhanov took on a huge contract to manufacture and deliver 36 granite monoliths for the columns of the southern and northern porticos. According to the contract, he undertook to quarry and deliver in 1819 ten columns made of "solid granite stone," in 1820 — twelve, and the rest in 1821, "each 56 feet high, about 6 feet thick with some excess." Sukhanov delivered only eleven columns; the commission for the construction of Isaac Cathedral transferred the contract for the manufacture of the remaining columns to Arkhip Shikhin, violating the contract with Sukhanov and thereby causing him irreparable losses. Sukhanov's quarry was located on a small island called Khalnemi between Friedrichshamn and Vyborg, "125 sazhen from the sea shore on the slope of a hill." After rough dressing of the columns at the quarry, they were rolled down the slope to the pier, loaded onto barges, and delivered to Saint Petersburg to a temporary wooden pier near the floating Isaac Bridge. The rolling of granite columns "from the pier to the construction site of Isaac Cathedral" in 1820–1821 was carried out by Sukhanov's artel. Up to two hundred workers of the artel worked daily on "dragging the columns." In the summer of 1821, a contract was signed with merchants Samson Sukhanov and Arkhip Shikhin to supply twenty granite bases for the columns from their own quarries. Each contractor carved ten bases. How the unloading and rolling of columns usually took place was described by an eyewitness, the future Decembrist Bestuzhev: "The unloading was entrusted to the same peasants who quarried and loaded the columns. They approached the task with their usual mechanics: they tied the vessel tightly to the shore, placed rollers, logs, boards, wrapped ropes, crossed themselves, shouted a loud 'hurrah' — and the proud colossi obediently rolled from the ship onto the shore and, rolling past Peter, lay humbly at the foot of Isaac's church." Each column weighed almost 9,000 poods. The delivery was undertaken by entrepreneur Zherbin. Two vessels were specially designed for transportation. And for unloading the columns (according to Treter's design), a temporary wooden pier was built next to the construction site where the columns were polished. This work was also done by stonemasons and was well paid. Up to 85 rubles per month; only blacksmiths earned more (100 rubles), while laborers received 35–45 rubles.

As early as 1820, errors were found in Montferrand's project. Correcting them took several years, and work at the construction site was temporarily frozen. However, this did not affect the columns — their quarrying, delivery to Petersburg, and polishing continued as usual. There were also accidents: on July 24, 1824, near the floating Isaac Bridge (which connected Vasilievsky Island with Senate Square), a cargo ship carrying two columns sank. They were promptly raised from the bottom of the Neva, involving 600 people in the operation. This was probably not the only case. Recently, underwater archaeologists discovered a sunken ship in the Gulf of Finland, and on it — two giant roughly dressed cylinders. It is possible that these are columns for Isaac Cathedral. But after 1824, columns were transported not on cargo ships but on a barge pulled by two steam tugboats — manufactured at the factory of the famous industrialist Charles Baird.

Contrary to accepted traditions, the portico columns were installed before the walls of the temple were erected. The first of the 48 colossal columns, 17 meters high and weighing about 114 tons, was raised in the presence of the royal family and guests on March 20, 1828, in 45 minutes using scaffolding and special mechanisms — capstans designed by engineer Betancourt. By August 11, 1830, all four porticos with granite columns were visible to the people of Petersburg.

Bestuzhev wrote with surprise and pride: "We seek amazing things in foreign lands, greedily read ancient stories telling us of the colossal feats of architecture of that time, exclaiming at every line: wonderful! incredible!.. And we pass by these wondrous incredible columns with the most ordinary curiosity… The enormity of the columns, the simple methods which nature itself secretly revealed to our simple people, fills my soul with a pleasant feeling, from which it seems to me that I, a Russian, have grown a whole vershok taller than foreigners, so I have no need to look at them with servile side-glances."

The temple was built over forty long years and was solemnly consecrated on May 30, 1858 — on the 186th anniversary of Peter I's birth. Due to its grandiose size, the cathedral entered the top three largest domed structures in Europe: the height of the cathedral is 101.5 m, the width is about 100 m, and the diameter of the dome is 25.8 m.

The construction of the temple was completed in 1858. In the same year, Auguste Montferrand died. Samson Sukhanov was unable to fulfill several contracts and went bankrupt. The master died in obscurity and poverty even before the completion of the cathedral.

Sources:

https://rg.ru/2020/09/15/reg-szfo/15-sentiabria-1820-goda-v-sankt-peterburg-dostavili-pervye-kolonny-isaakievskogo-sobora.html

https://к-я.рф/Portfolio/119/