Destination Insights: Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia

RUSSIA M O S C O W & S T. P E T E R S B U R G

CONTENTS MOSCOW Red Square St. Basil’s GUM The Metro Tretyakov Gallery Tsereteli Gallery Park of the Fallen Idols Around Town ST. PETERSBURG Peterhof Around Town Peter and Paul’s Fortress and Cathedral The Romanov Dynasty St. Isaac’s The Russian Museum The Hermitage Catherine’s Palace

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MOSCOW T H E

AI R POR T

MOCKBA is the spelling of M oscow in the Russian cyrillic alphabet.

Also seen greeting visitors is the image of St. George slaying the dragon.

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MOSCOW T H E

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Some signs are in English, while others like the McDonalds sign are obvious because of familiar logos...

...but in most cases, you’d better get a local guide.

We were told that half of Russians have a summer home or dacha.

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MOSCOW

ARO U N D Moscow’s origins as a symbol of Russian spiritual and political power date from 1147, so it’s no surprise that today the city of more than 10 million people (“12 million if you count the illegal immigrants”) is Russia’s major political, economic, religious, financial, cultural, educational, scientific, industrial and transportation center. “The most expensive city in the world” is home the largest number of billionaires in the world (more than 30).

And to the world’s highest divorce rate.

At 24.4 rubels per liter—about $3.70 per gallon—Muscovites were paying a little less for gas than San Franciscans.

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This gigantic billboard featured three lifesized BMWs.

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This carriage, built in 1746 of beechwood, bronze, silver, iron, glass, velvet, and gilding, was a gift to Empress Elizabeth.

Faberge eggs from the Imperial collection

M U SE U M S We enjoyed a private viewing of the Armory Museum: nine rooms of fantastically over-the-top treasures.

We were not allowed to photograph, but found a few royalty-free images to remind us of the museum’s seemingly endless collection of opulence. After seeing it, we understood why the peasants revolted!

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Elaborate thrones Cinderella-worthy carriages Intricately detailed Faberge eggs 13th century chain mail and battle helmets A shield made of rhinoceros skin and decorated with gold and pearls Ceremonial csar’s vestments Coronation dresses Shoes with 5-inch high heels Elaborate “amusement goblets” A pair of huge silver wine ja rs in the shape of snow leopards A horse’s headdress studded with 999 diamonds and a brilliant Brazilian topaz Jewel-encrusted chalices and scepters

A diamond-studded crown (far left) and a carved ivory throne are just a few of the extravagant imperial acoutrements housed in the Armory.

The ostentatious Orlov Palace in St. Petersburg was a gift from Catherine the Great to her lover, Grigory Orlov. He returned the favor with the gift of what is now called the Orlov diamond (left), said to be equal in value to the palace. Seen here in the Imperial Scepter, the 190-carat marvel is about the size of a hen’s egg.

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View of Historical Museum and Red Square from our hotel window.

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Resurrection Gate and chapel (with blue star-studded roof) at the entrance to Red Square.

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A "kremlin" is a walled citadel; all major Russian cities have one.

The Kremlin is the one in Moscow’s Red Square, which is even more impressive than I had anticipated. Some of the Red Square’s walls—which are up to 20 feet thick and 55 feet high— date from the late 1400s.

Historical Museum

The five most important buildings in the Kremlin are marked with a 5-pointed star on top. Each star is 3–3.5 meters across and weighs 1–1.5 tons.

They are lighted from the inside at night.

Nikolskaya Tower

Lenin’s tomb

MOSCOW

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SQU AR E

Inside the Kremlin walls are churches, palaces, parks, museums, and government offices.

Tsar’s Tower, named after Ivan the Terrible, is the smallest and newest of the Kremlin towers.

The Spasskaya Tower, built in 1491, is the main tower on the eastern wall of the Kremlin.

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RE D

SQU AR E Changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Alexandrovsky Garden.

An inscription on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier reads, “Your name is unknown. Your deed is immortal.”

The Borovitskaya Tower is the entrance for government officials and other VIPs.

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AROUN D

R E D

SQU AR E

The 40-ton Imperial Cannon “Tzar Pushka” was meant to fire round stones, before iron cannon balls were widely used.

Cannons used in the war against Napoleon are now trophies stacked around the Arsenal building.

The “Czar Bell,” cast in 1735, weighs 200 tons; the piece that cracked off weighs 11.5 tons. The bell was sitting on a wooden pallet when a terrible fire started; water poured on the bell to fight the blaze caused a section to crack off. The bell never rang.

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After the war with Napoleon these artificial ruins were created to decorate Alexander Gardens (since no real Roman ruins could be found in the area).

Moscow’s Coat of Arms

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This building, once used for training military horses, is now an exhibition hall.

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ARO UN D

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SQU AR E

The 17th-century Amusement Palace 9

You never know who you will see in the Kr emlin.

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S QUA R E

Saint Basil’s, Moscow’s 16th-century “stone flower,” is located at the southeast end of Red Square, just across from the Spasskaya Tower.

The Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat—commonly known as the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed or simply St. Basil’s Cathedral —was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible and consists of nine chapels built on a single foundation.

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After seeing the stunning St. Basil and its beautiful domes, Ivan the Terrible asked the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, if he could build another structure rivaling its magnificence.

When the architect answered, “Yes,” Ivan the Terrible supposedly ordered his eyes to be gouged out.

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Even inside the Kremlin you can see the effects of free enterprise and capitalism.

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We saw many Porta–Potty style toilets, with the attendent using one unit as her office.

There is lots of restoration activity in Moscow; buildings being renovated are often covered with illustrations of the final architecture.

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GUM Built in the 1890s, GUM contained some 1,200 stores by the time of the Russian Revoluton of 1917. After the Revolution it was nationalized as a department store. Today, it houses about 200 shops.

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MOSCOW G U M

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MOSCOW G U M

We had heard that the average Russian can’t afford to shop in GUM. However, we saw plenty of Russian shoppers, with markets full of produce and other items.

No shortages here.

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MOSCOW G U M

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MOSCOW

TH E

M ET R O The Moscow Metro—well known for the Soviet Realist art in many of its stations—is the world’s second most heavily used rapidtransit system (after Tokyo).

The decision was made in 1931 to build the metro system, and it opened only four years later, in 1935. The metro now covers more than 260 kilometers and includes 177 stations.

The escalators are known for being very steep, fast, and long.

MOSCOW

TH E

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M ET R O

This WWII relief of white marble is in the Spolienska station.

MOSCOW

T H E

M ET R O

• A metro ticket costs 20 rubels (about 80¢).

• The trains run every 2–3 minutes during rush hour, and every 5–6 minutes later in the day, carrying an average of seven million passengers each day.

• Train doors are open for only 25 to 30 seconds, but people didn’t seem to have any trouble getting on and off in that short amount of time.

• The stations we saw were spotless—not a single piece of litter.

• Air is recirculated three times/hour.

Moscow’s Kievskaya metro station displays frescoes of contented Soviet workers, lighted with crystal chandeliers.

MOSCOW

TH E

The best soviet artists, sculptors, and designers were invited to decorate the Revolution Square station, which opened in 1938.

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M ET R O

MOSCOW

TRET YAKOV

G AL L E R Y

The Tretyakov’s collection contains paintings and sculpture created by Russian artists from the 11th to 20th centuries.

This early 15th century icon portrays St. George and the Dragon.

Andrei Rublyov (1360–1430) is considered by many to be Russia’s greatest icon painter. His icon of The Holy Trinity (1420) is the masterpiece of the Tretyakov Gallery. This is said to be the first use of blue in icon painting.

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MOSCOW

TRET YAKOV

The State Tretyakov Gallery was established in 1856 with two paintings from the collection of Moscow merchant and art collector Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov, and nationalized after the Revolution. It now consists of more than 130,000 pieces.

Although not allowed to take photos inside, we were able to get the photos on these pages from a royalty–free source.

The painting to the right is of Empress Anna Ioannovna wearing the same crown we saw in the Kremlin’s museum. e

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G AL L E R Y

MOSCOW

TRET YAKOV

G AL L E R Y

The Aristocrat’s Breakfast by Pavel Fedotov (1849) —Fedotov’s detailed and comical style looked just like Norman Rockwell’s

Portrait of actress Eleonora Duse.

Swan Princess by Mikhail Vrubell, renowned Russian Symbolist painter.

They did not Expect Him

by Ilya Repin (1884)

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MOSCOW

TS ERETE L I

The Tsereteli Art Gallery was conceived by the extremely prolific and often controversial Russian-Georgian painter, sculptor and architect Zurab Tsereteli. Set up as part of his reform program as President of the Russian Academy of Arts, the gallery opened to the public in 2001 and includes a restaurant, meeting rooms, and a permanent exhibition of Tsereteli’s work. We were surprised and delighted at the inside of “Adam’s Apple,” a gigantic bronze sculpture inside which viewers can admire golden bas reliefs of erotic encounters.

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Many monuments to Russia’s communist-era leaders were toppled— but not destroyed— during the early 1990s. A group of independent artists created a new home for the statues (and for new ones, too) in the Park of the Fallen Idols, across the street from Gorky Park.

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R E STAU R AN T

MOSCOW

K ITEZH

R E STAU R AN T Frommer’s Guide to Moscow and St. Petersburg says, “If you have just one real Russian meal in Moscow, make it here.”

It was an adventure to find the Kitezh, but the menu featuring hot bear meat and other Russian specialties made the trek worthwhile.

MOSCOW

ARO U N D Much of Moscow’s residential area was built up during the 70s and 80s.

These buildings are generally 9–14 stories high, and have been converted into free municipal flats, for which there is a 5-year waiting list.

Catherine the Great had this canal built to drain the nearby swamps and stop flooding.

Moscow suffers from the same traffic jams as other cities.

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The ubiquitous coat check room.

Newlyweds traditionally attach padlocks to these “trees� and throw the keys into the river below to signify that they are locked together forever.

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MOSCOW

ARO U N D

Buildings in unusual shapes are popular in Moscow. The House on the Embankment (with Mercedes logo) is in the shape of a tractor, when viewed from above.

This is one of seven sk yscrapers called the Seven Sisters. The coveted “Stalin House� apartments were built with large kitchens and high ceilings, and are quite expensive.

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From Gore•tex to KFC to Sbarro Restaurants, international influence was evident in the city.

Modern buildings echo earlier architectural styles.

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Everything in Russia is big. Even the billboards.

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This monument to Peter the Great

by Zurab Tsereteli (see page 34) is the 6th tallest statue in the world.

Our guide said it was rumored to have been conceived as a statue of Christopher Columbus, but was rejected by both the U.S. and Spanish governments. Russia purchased the monument after the head was replaced with a likeness of Peter the Great.

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St. Petersburg is an exquisite city of grand palaces and innumerable canals, founded in 1703

by Czar Peter the Great as his “Window on the West.” Canals were dug to drain the marshy south bank and in 1712 Peter made the city his capital, forcing administrators, nobles and merchants to move to this northern outback and build new

H YD R OF OI L

homes there. Architects and artisans came from all over Europe, and the result is a city that remains one of Europe’s most beautiful. With a population of approximately five million, it is also Russia’s biggest transport hub, and a leading industrial, scientific and cultural center.

Before the October Revolution, St. Petersburg was graced with 365 palaces.

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S T. P E T E R S B U R G

St. Petersburg’s best-known statue, the Bronze Horseman, was cast in 1782 and bears the simple inscription: To Peter I from Catherine II. Peter is depicted as a Roman hero, with a crown of laurels. His horse crushes a serpent representing “evil forces on the way to victory.”

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Peterhof houses the monumental, Versaillesinspired Great Palace, built in 1715. Filled with gilding, mirrors, extravagant ornamentation, and flickering candlelight, the palace was famous for its grand summer balls.

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Wedding photos are popular along the riverfront.

St. Petersburg’s red rostrum columns are a nod to the ancient Roman tradition of decorating columns with the prows of captured ships. (The “prows” on these columns are replicas.)

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At times like this, we appreciated the toilet attendants.

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t This monument is the “Gate to the City.”

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This 1937 Stalin-style building was intended to be used as a seat of government, but houses business of fices today. “...we still keep Lenin statues—but not ones of Stalin—in St. Petersburg.”

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Surprisingly, many signs were in English.

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The neo-Russian style Church on Spilt Blood marks the place where Alexander II was mortally wounded by assassins in 1881. The church is covered inside and out with more than 75,000 square feet of mosaics made of smalt—glass with mineral pigments added.

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These ads apparently say something about local newscasters.

Note the Clear Channel logo at the top.

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This modern monument to Peter the Great was created by sculptor Michael Shemiakin in 1990. The face was based on Peter’s death mask.

The statue’s fingers are shiny because so many people wanted to touch the figure; Laurie chose a bolder approach.

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The St. Peter and Paul Fortress, built in 1703, never saw battle, but it became well known as a political prison, housing Peter the Great’s son Alexi (who plotted against his father) and later Dostoyevsky, Trotsky, Gorky, and Lenin’s older brother, Alexander.

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Now a museum, St. Peter and Paul’s Cathedral is the resting place of Russian czars, from Peter the Great to Nicholas II.

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Peter the Great’s crypt is covered with medals (they look like coins) he was awarded for winning the “Northern War,” and instituting many great reforms.

The remains of Czar Nicholas II and his family were laid to rest here in 1998, eighty years to the day after their execution by the Bolsheviks (under Lenin’s orders) in 1918. e

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S T. P E T E R S B U R G ROM AN OV

Mikhail Romanov: related by marriage to Ivan the Terrible. Crowned czar in 1613. Instituted serfdom.

Catherine I: 2nd wife of Peter the Great (Lithuanian orphan, military concubine, eventually ended up with Peter). An unruffled, dependable confidante to Peter.

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DYN A ST Y

Elizabeth: Daughter of Peter the Great, popular with the military men who served her father. Uninterested in governing, but did hand-pick the woman who would become Catherine the Great as a marriage partner for her son. Said to have owned 15,000 ball gowns and thousands of pairs of shoes.

Peter III: son of Elizabeth, childish and dimwitted, hated Russia. Deposed by his wife Catherine, who became Catherine the Great.

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S T. P E T E R S B U R G ROM AN OV

DYN A ST Y

Peter the Great: ambitious, courageous, curious, strongwilled, self-assured, sometimes despotic and cruel. Knowledgeable in shipbuilding, diplomacy, artillery, fortifications, mechanics, military tactics, medicine, astronomy, and other crafts and sciences.

Peter I the Great

Catherine II the Great

Catherine the Great: bright, well-educated, with good manners and a forceful personality, she benefited Russia tremendously. Also spent enormous sums of money—much of it on her lovers—and left the treasury in shambles.

Alexander II: inherited both reforms and problems; emancipated the serfs with a bold, unworkable manifesto. Liberalization of public life under Alexander II inspired terrorists, who eventually assassinated him.

Nicholas II: The last czar. Not a statesman, uninterested and unsuccessful at governing.

Abdicated during the 1917 revolution, and, along with his family, was assassinated the following year.

Alexander II

Nicholas II

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St. Isaac’s is constructed of a stone so soft it is claylike when mined. After exposure to air, the stone hardens, and will last hundreds of years. Below its gilded dome—which, at 333 feet in height, dominates St. Petersburg’s skyline—this magnificent church was nearly black (critics referred to the somber structure as “the inkwell”) until its exterior was cleaned in 2003.

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Monolithic as it is from the outside, St. Isaac’s Cathedral looks even bigger from the inside, which is adorned with unending frescoes and incredibly detailed mosaic icons and paintings. Huge columns made of malachite, lapis lazuli, and marble of red, pink, green, gold, gray, black, and white dominate the interior; its largest chandeliers are the size of a VW bug.

St. Isaac’s was originally little more than a house-sized chapel. Over the course of history it was rebuilt several times, most recently under the direction of French-born architect Auguste Montferrand, who designed it to accommodate 14,000 standing worshippers and to be one of the most impressive landmarks of the Russian Imperial capital. But the cathedral is as much the work of Russian serfs as of great architects and engineers.

Thousands of serfs worked long, hard hours—nearly 24 hours a day during the W hite Nights—were provided with poor-quality ropes and housed in cold, damp barracks, and suffered many accidents during construction.

The dome was covered with copper sheets capped with a thin film of gold and mercury, which, when heated from the inside, produced a thin, strong layer of gold. Unfortunately, it also produced mercury poisoning among the workers.

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During the 30s, St. Isaac’s was converted into an “anti-religion museum” and the white dove (representing the Holy Spirit) at the top of the dome was replaced with a pendulum. During WWII the structure was badly damaged but endured Nazi shelling, and its grounds were famously planted with cabbages to help residents survive the 900-day Nazi blockade.

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S T. P E T E R S B U R G HOT E L

A STOR I A

The Astoria opened in 1912. Hitler was so certain he would take the city that he sent out invitations to a victory party at the hotel.

Tea time at the great hotels is a time-honored tradition. At the Astoria it costs $40 per person.

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S AD KO

Sadko’s gray walls and huge red chandeliers, unpredictable singing waiters, gigantic Alice-in-Wonderlandlike plates and teapots, and spacious children’s playroom created an otherworldly effect.

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Photography is not allowed in many areas of the museum (note small sign to the right), but if one strikes up a conversation with the grandmother like guards, one might get lucky in being allowed to take a snap or two.

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These paintings are by Ilya Repin, Laurie’s favorite Russian portrait artist

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MUSEUM Founded by Peter the Great, the Kunstkamera is St. Petersburg’s oldest—and strangest—museum, with anthropological collections of clothing, musical instruments, cooking utensils, tools, fishing and farming implements, costumes, toys, puppets, jewelry, headdresses, saddles, kayaks, fabrics, and other articles representing many of the world’s cultures.

An extensive anatomical collection featuring malformed human fetuses was one of Peter’s pet projects. An exhibit explained: “striving to educate people, [Peter] combatted prejudice...

Peter’s bill, issued in 1718, encouraged people to collect human, animal, and bird malformations ... [and] censured ignoramuses, who ‘believe that such monsters are caused by diabolical spells, through sorcery and evil, which is impossible, because the Creator alone is the God of a ll creatures ...’ whereas the true reason is ‘internal damage as well as fear and the mother’s beliefs during pregnancy.’”

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The Podvorye is frequented by cultural figures and politicians. The food and entertainment were great, and the homemade vodka from the village of Verkhniye Mandrogy was free.

The Podvorye restaurant was designed in the style of Russian wooden architecture from the 16th and 17th centuries. An ice skating rink and slide are also on the grounds for winter fun.

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During the 18th century, a “hermitage” was a small garden pavilion where art was exhibited. Today, the museum’s contents are housed in five magnificent palaces designed by celebrated architects.

Amassed over two and a half centuries, the Hermitage’s collection presents the development of the world art from the Stone Age to the 20th century.

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The collection is so large that, according to a guard, it would take several years for a visitor to view each item just once.

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The Winter Palace, commissioned by Elizabeth I and designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli, was constructed between 1754 and 1762 and served as the official residence of the czars until the 1917 revolution. It has 117 staircases and more than 1,000 rooms. The original exterior survives, and, although the interior was extensively renovated, its ballrooms, throne room and concert hall are preserved in their original opulent state.

In the June of 1941 the Hermitage began to evacuate its collections. Exhibits were carefully packed and put into special boxes. For most of the items, which had come to the museum two hundred years before, it was a dangerous journey. Many masterieces, including the works of Rembrandt, were dispatched to the city of Sverdlovsk (now Yedaterinburg). Paintings were evacuated separately from their frames, and large canvases were rolled. Only empty frames remained hanging in the Rembrandt Room (page 93) in 1941.

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The parquet floors were made from more than 20 varieties of wood.

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We were treated to a private tour of the Hermitage, which hosts, on average, 20,000 visitors a day.

We will probably never again see it so uncrowded.

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This gallery took 34 years to paint. It’s a recreation of works in the Vatican by Raphael and members of the Raphael school.

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Boy with Dolphin—attributed to Lorenzetto

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Leonardo da Vinci: Madonna and the Child (the Litta Madonna)

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Doesn’t this look like a naked Mona Lisa? It’s attributed to “the da Vinci school.”

Rafael: Madonna and Child (the Madonna Conestible)

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9 Raphael: Holy Family

9 Pieter de Hooch: A Mistress and her Maid

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This room contains 360 portraits of the Russian generals who fought Napoleon.

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This is a huge f loor mosaic, at least 25 feet across.

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Oddly enough, the Soviets expanded the Hermitage’s collection to include works

by Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists Gauguin, Picasso, van Gogh, Renoir, Matisse, Cezanne, and Rodin.

Renoir: Child with a Whip

Van Gogh: Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles) Matisse: Family Portrait

Matisse: The Dance

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Matisse: Musique

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Renoir: Portrait of the Actress Jeanne Samary

Matisse: The Red Room (Harmony in Red)

Renoir: Young Woman with Fan

Renoir: Lady in Black

Renoir: Head of a Woman

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S Q U AR E

Over the past 300 years the Palace Square, or Dvortsovaya Ploshchad, has been the site of huge demonstrations and riots, cruel executions, and magnificent czarist processions.

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Electric blue with elaborate gilding and white frosting, Catherine’s Palace claims the distinction of being the world’s longest palace (984 feet).

It was built by Catherine I— Peter the Great’s second wife— and their daughter Elizabeth.

Elizabeth’s court architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli (who also designed the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg) is responsible for the baroque interiors.

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Evacuation of Catherine’s Palace began as soon as Germany declared war against the USSR. More than 70,000 exhibits needed to be protected. The personnel packed wooden boxes, loaded, and shipped priceless collections deep into the country for safekeeping. Many items were also shipped to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) where they were kept in the basements of St. Isaac’s Cathedral.

What could not be shipped was carefully packed and moved to the palace cellars. More than 30 marble sculptures were buried in the park.

In September, 1941, the town of Pushkin was taken; it was occupied for nearly three years. When Soviet troops liberated nearby Leningrad in 1944, they found in Pushkin masses of ruins, rocks and ashes, burned walls, and complete devastation inside buildings. Only 10 of the palace’s 55 unique halls partially escaped damage.

Museum personnel had also preserved archives of the ensemble history, drafts, designs, photograph collections, watercolors of the palace interiors, and sketches of the park scenery and monuments. These proved invaluable in the restoration.

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Tall fireplaces built with hand-painted, oneof-a-kind Dutch tiles warmed the rooms throughout Catherine’s palace. A wood fire inside heated up the tiles, which radiated warmth into the room.

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The Amber Room’s inlaid panels were produced in the early 1700s and sent

by Prussian King Frederick William I as a gift to Peter the Great in 1717. In 1755 Empress Elizabeth had them moved to Catherine’s Palace, where they enchanted visitors for nearly 200 years.

Most of the treasures from Catherine’s Palace were removed for safekeeping before WWII, but the amber panels were too fragile to move, so the room was preserved on site with glue, gauze, and padding. The exterior windows were cased with two layers of boards filled up with sand.

Unfortunately, the Amber Room was eventually looted

by Nazi soldiers.

The current spectacular exhibition is a restoration— requiring nearly a ton of petrified sap—of the original Amber Room.

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P A L A C E —T H E

A M B E R

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P A L A C E —T H E

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Empress Elizabeth’s green dress. The beautiful and vivacious daughter of Peter the Great reportedly owned 15,000 ball gowns and thousands of pairs of shoes. e

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Restoration is always in progress.

Note the person working above.

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P A L A C E—G A R D E N S

This private wing of the summer palace was Catherine the Great’s personal residence. Compared with the baroque opulence of the main palace—which Catherine disliked, calling it “whipped cream style”—this architecture was considered to be quite modest by her contemporaries and courtiers.

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“One’s destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things.”

—Henry Miller

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This trip journal does not necessarily represent our personal opinions, nor can I confirm historical accuracy. Photographs are by Jim Shubin or L aurie McAndish King.

For additional copies, please email Laurie at: Laurie@LaurieKing.com Laurie McAndish King—writer/photographer www.LaurieKing.com I www.TravelWritersNews.com Jim Shubin—designer/photographer www.shubindesign.com I jim@shubindesign.com

©2010 Laurie McAndish King /Jim Shubin

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