What historical event provides the setting for The Bronze Horseman?

The historical event that provides the setting for The Bronze Horseman is the catastrophic flood of St. Petersburg that occurred in 1824.1

In this poem, Aleksandr Pushkin uses the disaster as a backdrop to explore the conflict between the "little man"—represented by the character Yevgeny—and the grand ambitions of the state, symbolized by the statue of Peter the Great. The flood serves as a powerful manifestation of the river taking revenge against the tsar's achievement in building the city on such a vulnerable, marshy site.12