The Chronicle

Pushkin’s murky city

- ALINA RYLKO

IT’S said St Petersburg emerged from the marshlands in 1702 after Peter the Great came back from Versailles and demanded the then capital of Imperial Russia be better than anything that he saw in Paris.

Having been to both cities, I can say the similariti­es are there.

The opulent palaces and cobbleston­e streets – worn out by aristocrat­s and their groupies – are all there.

But St Petersburg has a dark underbelly. Its rambling streets of cracked arrondisse­ments bear the scars of more wars and revolution­s than any other modern city.

Choked by the Nazi occupation that starved almost a million to death, St Petersburg also houses the tombs of the Romanovs – the last of the Russian royals, executed as a family – and was used as headquarte­rs for the country’s many wars over territory and sea trade.

Indeed, St Petersburg’s history is as murky as its “louring skies of greenish pallor”, as described by 18th-century Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.

Pushkin spent three years in St Petersburg going to card parties, courtesans and balls, using his society pleasures as inspiratio­n for love poems and fairytales.

The poet’s work can be found in one of the city’s most beautiful buildings, Dom Knigi, meaning ‘house of books’.

Topped with a giant glass globe that glows like a cauldron at night, this Art Nouveau masterpiec­e implodes with gothic charm. It is a book lover’s dream, offering an entire floor to English translatio­ns of Russia’s literary giants, such as Fyodor Dostoyevsk­y (Crime

and Punishment) and Leo Tolstoy (War and Peace, Anna Karenina). A top floor coffee room in Dom Knigi takes in the views of Nevsky Prospekt, a 4.5km signature thoroughfa­re of the city.

The street adorned by marble horses, lions and sphinx statues is a route to the city’s most distinctly Russian landmark, the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood.

The colourful cupolas of the cathedral mark the spot where Alexander the Second was assassinat­ed.

Russia’s president Vlamidir Putin is also a fan of the city.

The former KGB spy graduated law in 1975 at Leningrad (as St Petersburg was called in the Soviet era) and worked at the city’s mayor’s office in the ’90s. During this time, Putin made his first TV appearance in a peculiar documentar­y promoting local governance in ‘the character’ of Stierlitz – a charismati­c and cool soviet super-spy.

Another Russian institutio­n, the ballet, also traces its roots to St Petersburg.

The famed Mariinksy Theatre continues a tradition of indulgent entertainm­ent, complete with caviar and champagne intermissi­ons, with a line-up of popular classics including Black Swan and The Nutcracker.

Watching the beautiful ballerinas is hypnotic, much like all of St Petersburg, where history and its stories – some real, some fairytale – melt into one big spell.

ST PETERSBURG’S HISTORY IS AS MURKY AS ITS ‘LOURING SKIES OF GREENISH PALLOR’.

 ?? PHOTOS: ALEKSANDAR GEORGIEV AND ALINA RYLKO ?? GRIM HISTORY: Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, where Alexander II was assassinat­ed, in St Petersburg, and, top right, Nevsky Prospekt and, bottom right, Dom Knigi, meaning ‘house of books’.
PHOTOS: ALEKSANDAR GEORGIEV AND ALINA RYLKO GRIM HISTORY: Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, where Alexander II was assassinat­ed, in St Petersburg, and, top right, Nevsky Prospekt and, bottom right, Dom Knigi, meaning ‘house of books’.
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