The Scots who built imperial Russia

THIS story starts and ends with a concert. In between, it travels an unusual, partly uncharted path: a journey across two centuries and several continents, between staggering opulence and war-ravaged ruin, between conspicuous consumption and abject poverty.

And, most curiously of all, this story records an advert in the Edinburgh Evening Courant of January, 1784, an advert whose ramifications triggered a renaissance in imperial Russia and changed forever the architectural face of that country.

To begin with, the concert; on Saturday, March 25th, Scotland's own international piano trio, the Rachmaninov trio -- which consists of two Russians and an American -- will give a recital in St Bride's Scottish Episcopal Church in Glasgow. It is a fund-raising recital, and the group will donate the entire proceeds to the poor and hungry of St Sofia's Cathedral in Tsarskoe Selo, near St Petersburg -- formerly Leningrad.

The concert will coincide with the climax of a visit to Scotland by Father Gennady Zverev, Archpriest of St Sofia's Cathedral. By any definition, the Archpriest is an extraordinary man. Six years ago, as perestroika took hold and the Soviet regime began to collapse, Zverev led a group of Russian orthodox Christians back to what were the ruins of St Sofia, at one time one of the architectural jewels of imperial Russia.

Over the Soviet decades the cathedral had been systematically desecrated and ravaged. The communists had allowed the grounds to become a rubbish dump. The cathedral had been hammered -- though not destroyed -- by the Germans as they withdrew following the siege of Leningrad: the pillars are today still pock-marked with bullet holes. And what was left of the church was turned into an incinerator.

Only since Father Zverev's return to St Sofia has reclamation and rebuilding begun. He and his colleagues doggedly pursue this task alongside a full programme of pastoral duties with a broad congregation that embraces convicts and hundreds of alcoholics, as well as the desperately hungry in an area constantly in crisis over lack of supplies. In this work, he is supported by a group of five Scottish charities.

The restoration programme for the cathedral moves at a speed dictated by the availability of materials. Cement is virtually unobtainable, so Zverev and his aides pound the stones of the ruins, remixing the powdered mortar. That is a story in itself.

But what they are reconstructing, the magnificent St Sofia Cathedral, built at the instruction of the Empress Catherine the Great, was, in fact, the work of a Scot, Charles Cameron, whose name has been borrowed by the five supporting Scottish charities, which have formed a collective known as the Cameron Foundation.

In brief, Cameron -- who claimed to be a refugee Jacobite -- had been invited to Russia by Catherine. She had read his work on Roman Bath Houses and, in the words of one authority, "was hoovering up Europe for anything cultural".

His first commission from Catherine was the rebuilding of part of the Catherine Palace at sarskoe Selo -- "the Tsar's Village" -- which lies south of St Petersburg. A whole series of projects followed, including a Chinese village, the sumptuous Palace of Pavlovsk -- his masterpiece -- and his only church, the Cathedral of St Sofia.

And it is here that the Scottish dimension broadens. During the work on his first commission, Cameron had problems with Russian workers. Not just in the language, but in the craft. Catherine wanted her buildings in a neo-classical style, and in stone. The Russians habitually worked in wood.

So Cameron took out an advert in the Edinburgh Evening Courant of January 15, 1784 requesting specialist craftsmen to come and work in Russia. In May that year, 76 masons, smiths, bricklayers and plasterers sailed for Russia to be met by Cameron. Their arrival changed the face of Russian architecture.

Their impact and influence persists to this day. "Those who followed in Cameron's footsteps, and on that boat, included some of the first town planners and the greatest designers and engineers of the day," said David Martin of the Cameron Foundation.

"When you walk down Nevsky Prospekt in St Petersburg today, you're still walking across bridges designed by a Scottish engineer. When you go into the Great Square of the Winter Palace and look up at the angel-dominated monument, the iron work on it was produced by a man from Falkirk."

"When you look at St Isaac's Cathedral -- the second biggest in the world -- at its domes, its pillars, its ornamentation, and the rafters it sits on; all were produced by a Scot."

And their presence and influence spread. One stonemason recruited by Cameron moved on to design and build, first in Moscow, then in the Gulf of Finland where he designed several palaces. Another was appointed chief architect to the southern regions of Russia, and pioneered the technology to span bridges with cast iron. The astonishing Scottish story rolls right across Russia.

Of the original 76 craftsmen, some had taken their wives. Others -- as did Cameron himself -- met and married Russian women. On his forthcoming visit to Scotland, Archpriest Gennady Zverev will be accompanied by one of his lay assistants, who rejoices in the name Vladimir Thomson.

Thomson, who apparently has a passion for Irish and Scottish folk music, has never been out of Russia, and, until recently when he was informed otherwise by David and Christine Martin of the Cameron Foundation, believed his name was of English origin. The Martins -- passionate Russophiles -- have unearthed the original passenger list of that ship that took the 76 craftsmen to Russia. Two of them were called Thomson.

The Scottish influence comes home this week when, during their visit to Scotland, which begins this Friday, Archpriest Zverev and Vladimir Thomson will undertake a hectic schedule that includes meetings with Scottish church leaders, ecumenical services, visits to prisons, to drug and alcohol units, and to homes for children and the elderly.

The trip culminates in the charity concert in St Bride's where the phenomenally gifted Rachmaninov Trio will play music by Brahms, Schumann, and Rachmaninov to raise money that will go back with Zverev and Thomson, directly to the hungry of St Sofia.