July 19: last day in St. Petersburg

Dear Friends and Relatives,

Today we had a lecture overview of St. Petersburg as the cultural capital of Russia, and some of the writers and musicians who have called the city home.  The lecture was entitled "St. Petersburg as one of the European Artistic Capitals--Intellectuals of the 20th Century."  Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Mendeleev, Pasternak, and Tchaikovsky were brought up, and the dichotomy of SP as the intellectual capital versus Moscow as the forward-thinking, avant garde city in the vanguard of progressive intellectual thought was a thought-provoking one.  Our lecturer was Ksenia Egirova.  

At 10:30 Ivan, Judy and I left the hotel for a visit to an indoor farmers' market.  It being the middle of the morning, we were the only visitors, and roamed the aisles inspecting shanks of meat, vegetables, fruits, and even Matryoshka dolls.  I found some lovely nesting dolls for Alexandra,  attracted to them due to the red hair of the nesting dolls.  We also bought cherries, peaches, and other fruits from a gentleman from Azerbaijan, Armenia, and took pictures to commemorate the event.  We returned to the hotel at 11:30 and left with the group, walking to the former Sheremetev Palace, on the Fontanka Embankment, where the apartment of the poet Anna Akhmatova is located in a quiet courtyard.  She lived in this apartment for 30 years, and is considered as one of the most famous of Russia's 20th c. intellectuals.  Her poetry and her life reflected the events of her century.  She is considered the foremost chronicler of the suffering and hardship by the city during the Stalinist Terror and WW II.  

The Sheremetev Palace is one of the oldest palaces in SP, and was built in 1750.  Until the October Revolution it was the home of 5 generations of Count Sheremetev's descendants.  Akhmatova's second husband tutored the last count's children, and during that time, Akhmatova lived with him in the N wing of the palace, then lived in an apartment in the S wing with her third husband, the art historian Nikolai Punin.  She lived there until her death in 1966.  As well as Akhmatova's artifacts and furniture, the museum displays photographs, artworks, sculpture, and original manuscripts of Akhmatova.  As she refused to leave her apartment during the Siege of Leningrad, she was privy to the city's horrors.  During the purges if the 30s, she lost her son Levi and her third husband, Punin.  Her epic poem, "Poem Without a Hero," states:  "The capital on the Neva/ Having forgotten its greatness / Like a drunken whore / Did not know who was taking her."  

After a tour of her apartment, we scattered for the next 1 1/2 hours, and everyone made his or her way to places of interest.  My destination was to see the Style Moderne Singer Building as well as the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, a highly ornate, old-Russian style church which consciously mimicked St. Basil's in Moscow.  It was commissioned by Alexander III to memorialize the death of his father, Alexander II, who was killed on this site by a terrorist bomb in 1881.  The interior was not open, but the extravagance of the exterior took the breath away and endlessly astounded the eyes.

Upon return to the hotel, the bus picked us up and we drove out to the Piskarev Memorial Cemetery, a poignant reminder of the scale of the tragedy the city of Leningrad lived through during WW II, and the 900-day Siege of Leningrad.  For over two years, the Nazis kept Leningrad under siege, preventing any movement of people, food or armaments.  In spite of all this, Leningrad did not surrender.  About half a million of the individuals who died during the Siege are buried in the cemetery.  The cemetery's 186 mass graves feature slightly raised mounds which are marked by year, and a long promenade leads visitors to a monument with a statue of The Motherland, portrayed as a grieving woman.  Many SP families come to the cemetery once or twice a year to pay tribute to the city's defenders or members of their family members who died during the Siege.  Near the entrance is an eternal flame, where everyone stops and observes a moment of silence for all those lost during the Siege.  Music is played to enhance the somber moment, and at one point, as I made my way to the statue of the grieving woman, the second movement of Beethoven 3rd Symphony, the "Eroica," was playing--the famous Funeral March.  To hear a piece by a composer of the former enemy of Russia, and to reflect on the fact that that movement was the last piece I had listened to with my mother the day of and a few hours before her death, reduced me to tears several times, and the atmosphere was enhanced by a lowering sky which seemed to grieve the worst that man can do to man.  And yet...and yet...the composition of one man could deliver a pinpoint of life and hope to a world drowning in pain.  A huge moment of catharsis for me, and the equal of any religious experience that I have ever had.  

Later in the afternoon, we ventured outside SP to experience dacha life on the shores of the Gulf of Finland.  A dacha is a seasonal or year-round second home, often located in the suburbs of Russian cities.  Dachas are common in Russia.  They were originally intended only as recreational getaways of city dwellers and for the purpose of growing small gardens for food.  Today, they are used for fishing, hunting, and other leisure activities.  They originated as small country estates given by the tsar.  The first dachas began to appear in the 17th c.  By the end of the 19th c., the dacha became a favorite retreat for the upper and middle classes of Russian society.  Following the Russian Revolution, most dachas were nationalized, and some were converted into vacation homes for factory workers.  Dachas of better quality were distributed among the prominent members of the Communist Party and the newly emerged cultural and scientific elite.  

We saw several dachas in greater detail: (1) Ilya Repin's estate, called Penates.  In 1899, The painter Repin bought this estate and named it after Roman household gods, called Penates.  He lived there till his death in 1930.  It is surrounded by a large park, and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  It has been a museum since 1940; (2) Poet Anna Akhmatova's "booth," a small, cabin-like structure now occupied by another writer and his wife.  The wife came out to greet us and even showed us the interior of their home.  

From there we went to the dachas of Olga's aunt and her friend.  Each got half the group for dinner, which consisted of anchovy canapés with vodka, pastries filled with mushrooms, a Russian salad, caviar, various kinds of pickled vegetables, a kind of dim sum pocket with meat filling, and ice cream for dessert, plus coffee or tea to finish up the meal.  An amazing day, and one of many moods!  How I shall miss SP when we leave for Moscow tomorrow!  As ever, Sylvia V.