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| AIRSHIP TOURISTS
IN FRONT OF ADMIRALTY'S CENTRAL SPIRE. THE THREE PROSPECTS RADIATE FROM
THIS POINT. DETAIL |
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| ADMIRALTY IS A HUGE BUILDING. THE CENTRAL SPIRE IS ON THE
RIGHT, ONE OF THE TWO SYMMETRICAL WINGS IS ON THE LEFT. FLAG AND
CLOUDS TELL YOU ABOUT THE WEATHER. BIGGER AND
DIFFERENT |
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| WINTER PALACE IS UNDER WRAPS. BAROQUE, RASTRELLI, COMPARE TO
IMPERIAL SUMMER RESIDENCE BY THE SAME
ARCHITECT. |
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| GENERAL STAFF BUILDING BY CARLO ROSSI OPPOSITE WINTER
PALACE. BETWEEN THEM IS THE VAST PALACE SQUARE, THE TRADITIONAL PARADE
GROUND. |
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| SOMETHING NEW ALONG NEVSKY PROSPECT, COMPARED TO THE TIME
WHEN THE TOWN WAS CALLED LENINGRAD: EXPENSIVE SHOPS AND AN ICON THAT IS
NOT IN A MUSEUM. OUR LADY OF KAZAN IS THE MOST POPULAR VIRGIN AND
THE CHILD ICON IN RUSSIA. DETAIL |
Kazan Cathedral is a somber and pompous building on Nevsky Prospect, dedicated to Our Lady of Kazan, the most venerated icon in Russian Orthodox Church. In Soviet times it was Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism, now it is a church again. After the Patriotic War of 1812 the cathedral was perceived primarily as a memorial to the Russian victory against Napoleon. Kutuzov and Barclay de Tolly have their statues in front of the cathedral and Kutuzov's grave is inside. Kutuzov was made alive and immortal by Tolstoy in his novel War and Peace and by Bondarchuk in his epic movie. They portrayed Kutuzov as the modest, patient and realistic commander whose wisdom saved Russia. Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly descended from the Scottish Clan Barclay. During Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 he proposed the strategy of playing for time and drawing the enemy deep into one's own territory. Because Russian nobility keenly opposed the appointment of a non-Russian as commander-in-chief it was Kutuzov who carried out Barclay's advice. After Napoleon was driven from Russia, the eventual success of Barclay's tactics made him a hero. His popularity soared and his honor was restored by Alexander I. During the Finnish War in 1809 Barclay de Tolly led 3500 men over the frozen Gulf of Bothnia to Umeå on the Swedish side. For this exploit he was made Governor-General of Finland. He held that position for a short time, but his integrity and wisdom earned him a good name in history of Finland. His grave is in Helme, Southern Estonia. |
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| THE STANDARD OF NAPOLEON'S 14TH COURASSIER REGIMENT AT
KUTUZOV'S GRAVE IN KAZAN KATEDHRAL. COURASSIERS
WERE ARMOURED CAVALRY AND THE SOLDIERS OF 14TH REGIMENT WERE DUTCH. |
Nevsky Prospect, the famous main street of St.Petersburg, begins from the Admiralty spire and ends at the gate to Alexander Nevsky Lavra, a big monastery named after the 13th century Novgorod prince, canonized in 1547. Alexander Nevsky is the patron saint of St.Petersburg and the greatest symbol of Russian patriotism. In 2008 he was voted to be the greatest name of Russia, barely defeating Stalin who came third ... |
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| ENTRY TO ALEXANDER NEVSKY MONASTERY. TWO CEMETERIES FLANK
THIS ALLEY. ON THE RIGHT SIDE MANY FAMOUS MEN OF ART AND CULTURE ARE
BURIED, DOSTOYEVSKI AND TCHAIKOVSK Y AMONG THEM. THE GRAVE OF PRINCE
VICTOR KOCHUBEY, IN WHOSE FORMER PALACE WE WERE ACCOMMODATED, IS IN THE
OLDER CEMETERY ON LEFT SIDE. |
When I first met Evgeny Rukhin in 1964 I had no idea that he would soon be the primus motor of Leningrad nonconformist art movement and later a great name. He was then 20 years, 2 meters and plenty of curly hair and beard. He approached a group of students from Helsinki University in the vast restaurant of hotel Octyabrskaya along Nevsky. He took us in his home, which was something very exceptional to do, and daring of him. He studied geology and he had made some paintings that he showed us. We could see that they did not represent Socialist Realism. It was the modest beginning of his determined effort to establish contacts with people outside of the Soviet Realm. Quite soon he became the best connected of all Russian unofficial artists. I followed his career intermittently from the beginning to the early end in 1976, when he died in the fire that broke out in his studio. The circumstances remain obscure but it is believed that his death was handiwork of KGB, where Yuri Andropov was then the number one. What was Evgeny's crime? He lived his life as if he were a free man in a free country. That could not be tolerated by the Communist Party which was in control of everything else. The whole imperium would collapse if everybody acted on the same foolish idea... During one August night of 1976 two artists wrote a graffiti on the walls of Peter and Paul Fortress in memory of Rukhin: YOU CRUCIFY FREEDOM, BUT FREEDOM KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES. The letters were one and a half meters in height and easily visible to everyone on the opposite bank of the Neva. The guys were imprisoned for six and seven years.Why was Rukhin not imprisoned? Most likely because he was so well known abroad that sending him to GULAG would have caused unwelcome publicity for long time. But no amount of publicity can resurrect the dead. Artistic freedom in present-day Russia is almost unlimited. Painters are not harassed, mugged and killed. Journalists are. |
