In the late 1700s on Nevsky Prospekt lived a big businessman Abram Peretz around whom formed the first Jewish community of St. Petersburg. Its members were natives of the city Shklow which named Shklov maskilim. They were invited to St. Petersburg in 1802 as representatives of the Jewish population to create the Jewish Committee. In the same year, the Jews acquired from the Lutheran community part of its land in the Volkov cemetery for Jewish burial. By 1826 the city's population 248 Jews.