SUMMARY:

This article studies the tsarist/imperial power discourse within the framework of the two Russian capitals – Moscow and St. Petersburg – during the late seventeenth – eighteenth centuries. The article examines the perception of royal power, its practical realization and visual display in topography and tsarist/imperial residences and throne rooms in particular.
The author finds peculiar characteristics as well as diversity in representation of royal power in the “old” (Moscow) and “new” (St. Petersburg) capitals. She demonstrates the importance of a range of binary oppositions (“left–right”, “center–periphery”, “forward–backwards”, “up–down”, “inside–outside”, “North–South”, “East–West”) and explores the semantics of the position of the royal throne, color hierarchies and emblematic decoration of the court space.
This leads to a general conclusion that Russian topographical objects comprehended in categories of power in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries coexisted in mutual and interdependent semantic relations. The mere discourse of power topography, though sufficiently altered throughout the period, demonstrates a profound continuity during the transition from Moscow to St. Petersburg or, in other words, from Tsardom to Empire.