St. Petersburg's revival amid Russian malaise

June 27, 1999

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- The majestic splendor of St. Petersburg is daunting and superbly enchanted by the legendary White Nights bringing nearly twenty four hours of daylight during the Summer solstice. Yet, the shadows of the dreary Soviet era lurk everywhere as this once Imperial Russian capital struggles to regain its place in the world.

Founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and enhanced by Czars whose taste for Italian and French architecture make this city the Venice of the North, St. Petersburg has traditionally been Russia's window to the West.

Yet, the calamitous events of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and the forced transformation of the city into Lenin's namesake, St. Petersburg has seen a slow, steady, and shocking decline. The horrors of the 900 day Nazi siege in W.W.II and the mendacity of the Stalinist era have taken its toll. Moreover the Soviet regime which only collapsed in 1991, is well reflected in work attitudes, quality control and infrastructure.

Having refused to visit St. Petersburg while it bore Lenin's name, I'm happy to report that the city is a living monument and a testament both to the tenacity and endurance of its inhabitants. It's also upbeat place with a lively arts scene, generally well dressed people, and a series of festivals. The 200th anniversary of the great poet Pushkin's birth is being feted throughout the year.

Despite it well restored monuments and magnificent buildings, there's a tawdry and shopworn look to so many places too. Work has that undeniable slipshod chic of socialist states. So many things are kaput. Public transport remains plentiful but creaky, crowded and old fashioned. Traffic while busy, is mostly made up of the legions of little Lada's belching fumes and trucks which evoke latter-day lend lease.

There's an undeniable fin de seicle feeling in St. Petersburg. Romanticism seems to replace the dour reality of Russia's 20th century history. The Romanov double eagle is everywhere gracing the city hall which has hosted a series of enlightened mayors since 1991. Pictures of the Romanovs including the murdered Czar Nicholas II are common in a city which once carried Lenin's name.

Ask a simple question. If a mere decade ago anyone visiting Leningrad would say that in 1999 St. Petersburg the czarist double eagle and the pre-Revolutionary Russian flag would be gracing public buildings and the ubiquitous peaked hats of the military, one would be charitably described as being a victim of too much vodka.

Along the famed Nevsky Prospect, once known as the Street of Tolerance in pre- revolutionary times, Catholic, Armenian, Lutheran and of course Orthodox Churches coexisted side by side. During the Soviet regime, the churches were closed and often transformed into vegetable storage warehouses given as the cool interior provided the refrigeration. Others like the fabled Church of our Lady of Kazan became a Museum of Atheism. The German Lutheran Church's interior was literally dug out and turned into a swimming pool--only recently has this desecration been reversed and the church nave is being rebuilt.

The huge baroque Church of St. Catherine, one of fifteen Catholic churches in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg, performed its duty to the state as a vegetable storage and later as a concert hall. A mysterious fire fifteen years ago destroyed the interior and the church still remains in a state of shocking disrepair.

Recently a collapse of a Metro station ceiling killed eight people. Soon after Russians were recalling that in 1960 the communist authorities built the subway station under the desecrated and bulldozed Church of the Assumption. After the accident the Novosti Petersburg newspaper headline read "Was the Tragedy Preordained?" Mayor Vladimir Yakovlev, quoted in the St. Petersburg Times, acknowledged the destruction of the Church of the Assumption, suggested that a "vengeful God, not municipal negligence," had caused the overhang to collapse killing the bystanders.

History has been cruel to St. Petersburg for most of this century--a lost era in which two world wars, the revolution, a wicked regime, the siege, and the hopeless stupidity of the Soviet era is part of the legacy. Perhaps Churchill's advice that "Russia is the only country with and unpredictable past as they are constantly rewriting history," still holds true.

John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues who writes weekly for World Tribune.com.