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July 5 – St. Petersburg

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St. Petersburg depicts at once the reason the masses revolted and the revolting mess the masses make. We spent the day in palaces of the nobility and magnificent churches in which only royal blood could worship. Driving between each, we passed through a city badly in need of maintenance with fairly modern buildings already falling apart. Ellen traveled Russia extensively in her former job and she tells me that the conditions of Moscow are worst but there are no spots of elegance as in St. Petersburg. Pity Moscow.

Our first stop was Peterhof, the summer palace that Peter the Great built but died before using. The palace sits on the Baltic with Versailles-inspired fountains leading the way down to the sea. The Russian respect for the past is somewhat odd. The Bolsheviks let most churches, at best, go to seed, and, at worst, tear them down. However, Peterhof was brought back from ruin during World War II (or the Great Patriotic War, as the Russians call it) and fully restored.

 The story of the siege of St. Petersburg by the Nazis during World War II was relayed to us in the history of Peterhof. As we drove to the palace, the guide pointed out the line at which the Russian’s held off the German army during a siege that lasted three years. The population was 3 million before the siege and 500,000 at its end. Peterhof was within the area held by the Nazis and they trashed it. There was little that remained but the walls. Fortunately, about twenty percent of the contents were taken away by the Russians before the Germans arrived and protected during the war. The rest of the contents were recreated from photos, drawings, and other records.

 

 

After Peterhof, we drove back into the city where we visited a church across the water from the Hermitage protected within the walls of a fort called the fortress of Peter and Paul. It is in this church that the remains of most members of the royal family are entombed from Peter the Great on. This was a private church of the royals and common people entered only when viewing a deceased czar lying in state.

After seeing decrepit structures throughout St. Petersburg, we now had an opportunity to witness Peter the Great’s vision through the grand palaces and buildings along the river and canals of this section of town. The Muscovites, of whom most of the early Communists were, hated St. Petersburg for all the bourgeoisie trappings it contained. Maybe so, but bourgeois is more pleasing to the eye.

 

We had lunch at a restaurant called The Last Palace, so called since the structure was considered to be the last of many palaces built in the city. A harpist played in a grand ballroom as we dined on very good Russian fare. That is saying quite a lot when the words “very good” and “Russian fare” seldom appear in the same sentence. One reason for this is that St. Petersburg food is heavily influenced by the French. Of course the obligatory shot of vodka helps. I did learn that drinking it as the Russians do helps. One quick throw back and down the hatch. It goes down very smoothly.

Two more churches to take in. The first was formally named the Church of the Resurrection and commonly know as the Church of the Spilled Blood. The later name due to the fact that Alexander II was murdered there. A monument marks the spot. It seems that murder was the common form of removing a head of state in those days. Other czars suffered the same fate. In Alexander’s case, it was thought that his reforms, such as freeing the serfs, were the cause. Apparently, such things rankled the royals of the day.

The second church was one built in the early 1800s for the singular purpose of baptizing royal children. The exterior looks like a Baptist church built by a congregation with a wildly successful building campaign. The interior is an attempt to copy the Vatican. Again, the common people could not enter. I think it was here that I really understood the underlying breeding of discontent in the masses as well as the particular disdain by the Bolseviks for religion. The countries that continue to have their monarchs such as Great Britain and the Netherlands have royals that live well, but not heads and shoulders above the common people. Windsor castle is a rambling old fort compared to the likes of Versailles or these Czarist excesses.