The introduction is a hymn of praise to Peter the Great and his creation, Saint Petersburg. The narrator, looking back from his present (that is, sometime in the early 1830s), sees Peter as a practical visionary and a great patriot who secured Russia against any potential threat from Sweden by building a marvel of a city.

The first section of the Introduction shows the tremendous obstacles Peter faced. Before construction began, the marshy area around the Neva was just “swamp and forest” (Introduction, Line 22) where only poor Finns lived. Peter’s dream was to open a “window to the West,” (Introduction, Line 16) a phrase that reflects the tsar’s desire to create a modern, Westernized city establishing Russia as a European power.

The second part of the Introduction leaps forward a century. The poem’s narrator writes enthusiastically about the greatness of the city, which now fulfills Peter’s vision. There is a certain irony, however, in the description of the “granite-cased” (Introduction, Line 35) banks of the river—the story the narrator is about to tell will dispel the implication that the river has been subdued. In any case, the narrator emphasizes the beauty and splendor of the city. As the capital of Russia—Peter made it the capital city in 1712—it quite eclipses the old capital, Moscow.