Roman Catholics in Petersburg under Peter the Great and their participation in Russian public life

The article gives a developed analysis of the social structure of Roman Catholic communities in Petersburg under Peter the Great. On concrete examples the paper traces the Catholics' contribution to the progress of Russian armed forces, Russian town planning and arts. The author concludes that craftsmen along with naval officers prevailed among Petersburg Catholic parishioners in the first quarter of 18-th century. The paper highly estimates the role of famous artists (D. Trezzini, K.-B. Rastrelli, L. Caravaque, N. Pineaux) in the evolution of Petersburg Catholic parish, notes the fact of intensive catholic influence on the Russian spiritual sphere. It's evidently that civil servants in Petersburg formed the parish minority and they did not strong influence on processes of the state construction and social development.