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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| From Leningrad to St. Petersburg |
| 2021-09-06 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. By Dmitry Steshin [KP] 30 years ago, the city on the Neva was given its historical name back The city itself, it seems, did not notice these changes. The leaden Neva was still splashing, and there was no such city dweller in nature who, at least once in his life, would not want to drown in these indifferent icy waters. As before, every autumn, because of the baric saw, the whole city could not wake up, and when he woke up, it was hard for him to live on. "Just got up - already tired" These are the lines of the St. Petersburg singer and poet Fyodor Chistyakov. But anemia and weakness proved to be deceiving. Probably, Peter himself did not believe that Petersburg was gaining world fame for itself. First, as a city of three revolutions. And then it will go down in history as a symbol of courage and self-sacrifice: the besieged Leningrad. Petersburg, although originally conceived as a complex of sea fortresses, but for a good two centuries, all the cannons of the forts rusted on the bastions. All, except one - the one that hits every day at noon from Petropavlovka, reminding the enemies that our gunpowder is dry and the gunners are not extinct. The enemies stayed at a reasonable distance from Petersburg, only the British wanted to show us something in the 19th century and during the Civil War, but they were afraid to climb into the Gulf of Finland, under the crossfire of the Kronstadt forts. Leningrad as a special person But by a strange whim of fate, it was the nation that had invested so much labor and intelligence in Petersburg, came under its walls in 1941 and tried to destroy the city for 900 days. And then she ran after three years. German propagandists, trying to save face, commented on this half-panic retreat of the Wehrmacht from Leningrad to Narva and further: "Our troops withdrew to prepared positions, having made a maneuver, the meaning of which remained unknown to the enemy." But the enemy knew everything, the bronze Peter knew everything, pointing with his hand to the West, from where for centuries sorrow and suffering came to Russia. In the post-war period, the word "Leningrader" acquired an unexpected meaning. The implication was that the Leningrader had natural courage and at the same time cultured. I remember how a neighbor scolded me in a distant southern city for some kind of prank: "Shame on you, you are a Leningrader!" And I was really very ashamed. I even tried to fix it as much as possible. Solzhenitsyn offered St. Petrograd In the 80s, I traced this moment, the word "Leningrad" was gradually replaced by the familiar "Peter". The first time, in second grade, when I heard the word "Peter", I didn't even know what it was about. The obvious was explained to me. In "Peter" was hidden some kind of inner protest, a kind of Voltaireanism-freethinking. From "Peter" was clearly drawn by the Senate Square, circles of People's Will, plundered wine warehouses and palace curtains, torn into velvet cloth for the finishing polishing of soldiers 'boots and sailors' boots. Fried chicken walking along the Nevsky was drawn from this Peter. Although the bunch of "besieged Leningrad" was still inviolable and holy. For "they would drink Bavarian" without talk and discussion, they simply uncivilizedly poked the speaker in the face until he was completely brought to his senses. But it was felt: changes were inevitable. For Leningrad, they meant a complete revolution of the wheel of history, a return to the source. There were attempts to come up with something else instead of St. Petersburg. For example, Solzhenitsyn's St. Petrograd. Or born in the bowels of the city party committee: "Let a new name, like a banner, rise up - Petro-Leningrad!" All these attempts in the face of history looked ridiculous. On September 6, 1991, the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet convocation returned its historical name to the city. St. Petersburg has finally turned into the Eternal City, solid and unshakable, measuring time for centuries, living outside of political passions. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #3 tom, I also like the imperial city which is the inner core but outside that is a Soviet city with institutional grey apartments and ugly commercial structures but then outside of that is an art deco post Soviet city that reminds me of Coral Gables Florida except for the snow |
| Posted by: Lord Garth 2021-09-06 17:26 |
| #2 Visited there in 1997. For my money still the most beautiful city on earth. |
| Posted by: Tom 2021-09-06 13:25 |
| #1 One of my favorite moments was in St P at the Winter Palace when a guide referred to an obnoxious security guard as 'is gift from Soviet Period of our history, a big man over a small space'. |
| Posted by: Lord Garth 2021-09-06 10:40 |