Episode 9: St Petersburg Revolutions

Last Updated on February 22, 2023 by Hannah Henderson

Murders, massacres and the end of a dynasty

First, some ideas on the increasing demands for reform which played out through the 18th and 19th centuries in St Petersburg, including the Decembrist Revolt of 1825 and the assassination of Emperor Alexander II in 1881. Then, a look at end-of-an-era St Petersburg in the early years of the 20th century, especially the Bloody Sunday Massacre of 1905 and the uprising in February 2017, which led to the abdication and, ultimately, the death of the last Romanov, Tsar Nicholas II. And finally, of course, the revolution of October 2017. A mix of facts and eye-witness accounts will leave you understanding these turbulent times – and therefore St Petersburg itself – a little better.

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More information about St Petersburg coming soon.

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Links & Reading

Useful websites for tourists
St Petersburg City Tourist Information Bureau
St Petersburg.Com (Tourist Information)

2 guidebooks to St Petersburg
Eyewitness Travel Guide to St Petersburg
Lonely Planet Guide to St Petersburg

Travel Book
Among the Russians by Colin Thubron

History
Russian History, a Very Short Introduction by Geoffrey Hosking
The Romanovs by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Caught in the Revolution by Helen Rappaport

Biography
Peter the Great by Lindsey Hughes
Peter the Great by Derek Wilson
Catherine the Great by Simon Dixon
Catherine the Great by Robert K Massie
Rasputin by Frances Welch
Four Sisters by Helen Rappaport (the 4 daughters of Czar Nicholas II)
The Diary of Lena Mukhina (A diary of the Siege of Leningrad)

Art and Culture
A Short Life of Pushkin by Robert Chandler
Nijinsky by Lucy Moore
Rudolf Nuryev The Life by Julie Kavanagh
Anna of all the Russias The Life of Anna Akhmatova by Elaine Feinstein

Anthologies
St Petersburg A Traveller’s Companion by Laurence Kelly
City Pick St Petersburg edited by Heather Reyes
Literary St Petersburg by Elaine Blair

Novels set in St Petersburg
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Siege by Helen Dunmore
The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore
The Suitcase by Sergei Dovlatov