Tag Archives: St Petersburg

Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg

Alexander Nevsky and the Great Turn East

It must have been with a sense of irony that Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg as a “Window to the West” on the banks of the Neva River, as nearly 500 years before, it was here that Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky had won a battle which signalled Russia’s turning away from Europe and looking to the east. Alexander Yaroslavich (1220-1263)…

Inspiring revolution: Chenyshevsky and “What is to be Done?”

On May 19, 1864, the well known journalist and propagandist Nikolai Chernyshevsky was led onto Mytninskaya Square in St. Petersburg, now Chernyshevskaya metro station, to the gallows. He had been found guilty of revolutionary activities and condemned to a “civil execution”. Chernyshevsky (1828-89) was born in Saratov and after studying at a seminary he moved to St. Petersburg in 1846…

The Eliseev secret of success

St. Petersburg has always been a city of trade. Throughout the centuries royalty and nobility have attracted merchants who have grown rich importing fine goods to the best families and exporting raw materials throughout Europe. Among these merchant families there are few that better known or have had a more visible presence on the city than the Eliseev family. The…

Diplomat, scholar and author led turbulent life

Winding past the Cathedral on the Spilt Blood, Kazansky Cathedral, the Singer Building with Dom Knigi, towards Sennaya Ploschad and the Fontanka River is Griboedov Canal. Thanks to the magnificence of the buildings lining the canal, it is one of the most photographed waterways in St. Petersburg – and one of the least considered. The name however is a fitting…

A city that changes and remains the same

Returning to Russia is not returning home but as Russia has played an important role in the last 14 years of my life, returning after a five year absence felt like a homecoming. I left Russia at the beginning of 2008 shortly before the financial crisis in mid winter. Snow clung to buildings and streets alike. Cold permeates everywhere and…

Russian paradox

The “fasten seatbelts” sign flashed on, signaling our final descent. The clouds that had obscured Europe for the majority of the trip, slid past the aircraft windows and opened up the view to a featureless landscape covered with snow and long shadows thrown off by a sinking sun. I began to feel that familiar sense of anxiety when the wheels…

Christmas without carols

It is December, people talk excitedly about the upcoming holidays – what they want to do, where they want to go. Travel agents advertise frenetically, trying to out do the cut throat competition for trips to exotic and warm destinations: Egypt, India, Thailand, and for the first time this year I even have heard advertisements for Indonesia.  Times change rapidly…