Today is the one on which in 1944 Russian forces were at last able to lift the murderous two-and-a-half year Siege of Leningrad which marked a turn in what Russia knows as the Great Patriotic War.
Once again known as St. Petersburg, the city is unquestionably quite wonderful as anyone privileged to have visited it will know. Built by Peter the Great to rival any western city, it is full of fabulous buildings, academies, museums, cathedrals and churches, palaces and grand houses around a river and canal system. Commencing in 1703 and aided by the best architects and artisans in the world, Peter the Great imported conscripted peasant labour from around Russia to build his new city which became Russia’s capital in 1712. The capital was moved to Moscow in 1728 but went back to St. Petersburg in 1732 where it stayed for the next 186 years.
It has rightly been said that the Siege of Leningrad caused the greatest destruction and the largest loss of life ever known in a modern city. On Hitler’s express orders, many of the palaces and other landmarks were systematically looted and then destroyed. Around 1.5 million were killed, and another 1.4 million civilians were evacuated many of which died of starvation or bombardment. Few, if any, residents of today’s city are left untouched by the events of the Siege.
Signs of the Siege can be seen most anywhere in the city and the pride the people show in its reconstruction is justifiable and clear to see. Visit, for example, Catherine’s Palace in Tsarskoye Selo on the outskirts of the city and you will see photographs of the complete destruction that was meted out to it by German forces, including the theft of the fabled and incomparable Amber Chamber, a room decorated with amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors. Like many other landmarks, the palace was extensively rebuilt to its original condition after the war and between 1979 and 2003 the Amber Room was reconstructed using fresh materials since the location of the original amber was lost.
I would love to visit St. Petersburg once again and see not only the friends I met there on past visits but also to visit once more some of its incomparable sights again. In the meantime, like many others, we have seen the city, the palaces and other buildings, the Amber Chamber and dined in the Astoria Hotel where Adolf Hitler planned to hold his victory party.
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Once again known as St. Petersburg, the city is unquestionably quite wonderful as anyone privileged to have visited it will know. Built by Peter the Great to rival any western city, it is full of fabulous buildings, academies, museums, cathedrals and churches, palaces and grand houses around a river and canal system. Commencing in 1703 and aided by the best architects and artisans in the world, Peter the Great imported conscripted peasant labour from around Russia to build his new city which became Russia’s capital in 1712. The capital was moved to Moscow in 1728 but went back to St. Petersburg in 1732 where it stayed for the next 186 years.
It has rightly been said that the Siege of Leningrad caused the greatest destruction and the largest loss of life ever known in a modern city. On Hitler’s express orders, many of the palaces and other landmarks were systematically looted and then destroyed. Around 1.5 million were killed, and another 1.4 million civilians were evacuated many of which died of starvation or bombardment. Few, if any, residents of today’s city are left untouched by the events of the Siege.
Signs of the Siege can be seen most anywhere in the city and the pride the people show in its reconstruction is justifiable and clear to see. Visit, for example, Catherine’s Palace in Tsarskoye Selo on the outskirts of the city and you will see photographs of the complete destruction that was meted out to it by German forces, including the theft of the fabled and incomparable Amber Chamber, a room decorated with amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors. Like many other landmarks, the palace was extensively rebuilt to its original condition after the war and between 1979 and 2003 the Amber Room was reconstructed using fresh materials since the location of the original amber was lost.
I would love to visit St. Petersburg once again and see not only the friends I met there on past visits but also to visit once more some of its incomparable sights again. In the meantime, like many others, we have seen the city, the palaces and other buildings, the Amber Chamber and dined in the Astoria Hotel where Adolf Hitler planned to hold his victory party.
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