Our exploration of St Petersburg series takes in all the main sights, from imperial palaces and grand churches to the places connected with the city’s dramatic history. We search out the Soviet era, find out what makes the city the world’s capital of ballet and explore its art, architecture and literature. Be ready to ‘meet’ such characters as Peter the Great, Rasputin and the Romanovs, Pushkin, Nureyev and Dostoyevsky.
The 17 episodes in our City Break St Petersburg series bring you all the background history and culture you need to fully understand this unique city. In short, here is all the research you’d do yourself if only you had the time.
Each episode centres around a podcast, available here or on all the usual providers. As a minimum, you’ll also find an introductory summary plus useful links and ideas for further reading. Eventually, there’ll be full blogpost with lot more information and pictures.
ST PETERSBURG : HISTORY & CULTURE
EPISODE 1: Introduction to St Petersburg
Welkom in Amsterdam! There’s nowhere quite like this lovely city, with its network of canals, pretty humpback bridges, top notch art and laid-back atmosphere. The 12 episodes in our City Break Amsterdam series bring you all the background history and culture you need to fully understand this charming city. In short, here is all the research you’d do yourself if only you had the time.
EPISODE 2: Peter the Great
The building of the beautiful city of St Petersburg at the dawn of the 18th century was all down to the willpower of one man: Peter the great. Hear how he drove tens of thousands of serfs and prisoners of war to dig into marshland on the banks of the River Neva and plant the foundations of his dream city: an elegant array of palaces and cathedrals set to rival anything he had seen on his travels to Amsterdam and London. Find out about the man who dreamed of sophistication, yet watched his henchmen torture his own son to death for opposing him.
EPISODE 3: Peter & Paul Fortress
Peter the Great’s legacy is, of course, the whole of the city of St Petersburg. But this episode focuses on some of the buildings most closely associated with him, such as the Peter and Paul Fortress, begun as a citadel, and later the site of the city’s most feared prison. Also within the walls is the beautiful Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, whose foundation stone was laid by Peter himself and whose interior is the final resting place for him and almost all his direct Romanov descendants. Finally, hear about Peter’s grandiose summer residence, the Peterhof Palace, designed by him to dazzle and delight and still doing both today.
EPISODE 4: Catherine Palace
Just as splendid as Peterhof, the Catherine Palace is St Petersburg’s other dazzling summer residence, built as a surprise for Peter the Great by his wife Catherine on land he had gifted to her. This episode tells the story of the two great empresses who made it their own, starting with Elizabeth, daughter of Peter and Catherine and moving on to her niece-in-law, another Catherine, who succeeded to the Russian throne after the timely, not to say highly convenient, sudden death of her husband Peter III. She ruled for over thirty years as Catherine the Great. Learn something of the lives both empresses lived in the Catherine Palace, and then hear a few pointers on what to look out for on a visit.
EPISODE 5: Nevsky Prospekt
Nevsky Prospekt ‘is Petersburg’ according to Gogol, writing in the 1830s, and this long road is still today the backbone of the city. We explore it, stopping off at three of its best-known buildings, starting with the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, burial ground of Dostoyevsky and Tchaikovsky. Then it’s on to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan, scene of so many imperial funerals and of the Te Deum held to celebrate the delivery of Moscow from the Emperor Napoleon. And finally, we take in the onion-domed, riotously colourful Church on the Spilled Blood, built on the exact spot where Alexander II was assassinated in 1881, and hear the story behind that.
EPISODE 6: Palace Embankment
This episode tours the many waterways of St Petersburg, looking first at some of the canals and bridges and then taking a stroll along the Neva, up the Palace Embankment, starting at St Isaac’s Cathedral, whose gleaming dome soars above the city ‘like a shining mitre’. The walk continues past the Winter Palace whose 1000+ rooms were once the home of imperial families, but which is now better known as one of the world’s best art galleries and we finish at the Summer Gardens and Summer Palace, the idyllic riverside refuge designed by Peter the Great as a venue for summer parties and outdoor frolics.
EPISODE 7: The Last Romanovs
The Alexander Palace was the family home of choice for a number of Tsars, even if they hosted big public events in the swankier Catherine Palace across the park. Nicholas II, the last Emperor, was born here, and made it a comfortable family home for his wife and 5 children, until they were taken away in the middle of the night in July 1917 and sent to their deaths in Siberia. There are reminders of them throughout the building, from the paintings and photographs they collected, to rooms like the Lilac Study, daytime retreat of the Empress Alexandra, where the family gathered to take tea every afternoon at five o’clock.
EPISODE 8: Faberge & Rasputin
The two city-centre palaces featured in this episode both tell us more about the end of the Romanov dynasty, albeit in very different ways. The Shuvalov Palace, a former glittering hub for St Petersburg’s aristocracy, is today the home of a museum housing many artistic treasures, including a collection of Fabergé eggs, which remind the visitor of the luxury enjoyed by the last imperial Romanov family. By contrast, an exhibition at the Yusupov Palace tells the story of Rasputin, the spiritual adviser, or ‘mad monk’, who exerted such an influence on Nicholas and Alexandra that he was eventually lured here by Prince Felix Yusupov and his accomplices and murdered.
EPISODE 9: Revolutions!
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.
EPISODE 10: The Soviet Era
What happened in St Petersburg after the 1917 Revolution and where can you find traces of the Soviet era in the city today? After a little history, we visit three sites with much to tell: the terrifying Trubetskoy Bastion Prison, the State Museum of Political History and the former home of the dissident poet Anna Akhmatova. After a look at metro stations designed in the 1950s as ‘Palaces of the People’, find out where you can experience Soviet culture today, whether you wish to play 1970s arcade games like Morskoi Boi (battleships!), dine in a Soviet-style restaurant on, say, borscht or draniki (beetroot soup or potato pancakes) or seek out the Donut Café where the atmosphere today still feels like ‘Stalin-era Russia.’
EPISODE 11: Siege of Leningrad
St Petersburg’s haunting Memorial to the Defenders of Leningrad recalls the dreadful 900 day long blockade of the city by German troops during the Second World War. Supplies to the city were so ruthlessly cut off that the population was starved and 800,000 people lost their lives. This episode provides a little history, some extracts from the diary of teenager Lena Mukhina who lived through it and – against all odds – survived, and an account of the day in August 1942 when the defiant remaining musicians from what had been the Leningrad Radio Orchestra staged an outdoor concert which was broadcast across the city. Finally, there are some details about the monument itself.
EPISODE 12: Music & Theatre
Hear about some of St Petersburg’s many musical connections, with potted biographies of composers from Glinka, often known as the father of Russian music, to Shostakovich, via, of course, Tchaikovsky. And not forgetting Rubinstein, whose Russian Musical Society did so much to put St Petersburg on the musical map or Stravinsky, whose ‘Rite of Spring’ delighted and outraged audiences in equal measure. Find out too about some of the city’s best-known musical and theatrical venues, from the jewel-like little theatres built for the Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine the Great to the ever-popular Mariinsky Theatre and the Shostakovich Philharmonia Halls. Learn which museums and cemeteries have most to tell you about the city’s musical heritage.
EPISODE 13: Capital of Ballet
Surely ballet is one of the first things you think of when it comes to St Petersburg. Hear a brief history, beginning with the ‘twelve little girls’ invited in 1738 by the Empress Anna to join the city’s first ballet school, held in the Winter Palace attic. Find out more about the 19th and early 20th centuries, when many of the great Russian ballets were first seen and dancers like Vaslav Nijinsky and Anna Pavlova graced the stage. Hear too what happened to ballet in the Soviet era and how Rudolf Nureyev brought such exciting new techniques from Leningrad to the west, then find out what it’s like to see a ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre in the city today.
EPISODE 14: Art & Architecture
Art lovers flock to St Petersburg’s wonderful and extensive collections in the Hermitage and of course we will look at some of the highlights to be found there. But first, a nod to the architectural styles to be found in the city, from the glorious baroque palaces of 18th century St Petersburg, via the much more Russian-influenced design of the Church on the Spilled Blood, to the designs favoured in the Stalinist era. Also, a visit to the Russian Museum, where thousands of exhibits tell the story of Russian art from the earliest icons to the twentieth century and lastly, some pointers for those wanting to see modern art Russian-style.
EPISODE 15: Pushkin
The Father of Russian Literature, Alexander Pushkin, led a colourful life of semi-debauchery in St Petersburg, and set some of his best-loved works there. Biographical details, including his schooldays at the city’s elite Lycée and his dramatic demise in a duel at the age of only 37, are followed by a review of two of his best known poems, which focus closely on St Petersburg. Then we look at his short story ‘The Shot’, a tale of pride, revenge and pistols which eerily previews his own death a few years later. Finally, we outline four places in the city today where you can go in search of Pushkin.
EPISODE 16: Gogol, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky
A look at 19th century St Petersburg through the eyes of 3 authors: Gogol, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. Hear how a long-desired new overcoat caused the demise of the humble clerk Akaky Akakievich, then wander the streets of the city following an escaped body part in another Gogol story, the absurdist The Nose. Learn of St Petersburg’s glittering social life, described in War and Peace, and find out why the author preferred Moscow. And finally, experience the seamy side of the city in the company of Raskolnikov, the student-murderer ‘hero’ of Crime and Punishment. To round off the episode, a visit to the Dostoyevsky Museum in the heart of the Sennaya Ploshchad district.
EPISODE 17: Leningrad in Literature
For the final episode in the series, we are ‘leaving’ St Petersburg to discover Soviet era Leningrad through the work of three very different authors. First, the poet Anna Akhmatova, whose writing was largely banned, but whose very Russian, free-spirited poetry made her a symbol of opposition to the state. Then Helen Dunmore, whose two novels The Siege and Betrayal are set in 1940s and 50s Leningrad, with heart-rending plots showing the difficulties of life in Soviet times. And finally, Sergei Dovlatov, whose short story collection The Suitcase casts a wry, critical, yet amusing look at the trials of being a Leningrad citizen in the 1960s.
MORE READING ABOUT St Petersburg
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
PODCASTS TO GET YOU STARTED
OTHER CITY BREAK IDEAS
LATEST ARTICLES
GALLERY
