Saint Petersburg

The Peter and Paul Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox cathedral located inside the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, Russia. It is the first... and oldest landmark in St. Petersburg, built between 1712 and 1733 on Zayachy Island along the Neva River. Both the cathedral and the fortress were originally built under Peter the Great and designed by Domenico Trezzini. The cathedral's bell tower is the world's tallest Orthodox bell tower. Since the belfry is not standalone, but an integral part of the main building, the cathedral is sometimes considered the highest Orthodox Church in the world. The cathedral is dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, the patron saints of the fortress . The current cathedral is the second one on the site. The first, built soon after Peter's founding of the city, was consecrated by Archbishop Iov of Novgorod the Great in April 1704. The current building, the first stone church in St. Petersburg, was designed by Trezzini and built between 1712 and 1733. Its golden spire reaches a height of 404 feet and features at its top an angel holding a cross. This angel is one of the most important symbols of St.
more

St. Michael's Castle , also called the Mikhailovsky Castle or the Engineers Castle , is a former royal residence in the historic centre of Saint... Petersburg, Russia. St. Michael's Castle was built as a residence for Emperor Paul I by architects Vincenzo Brenna and Vasili Bazhenov in 1797-1801. The castle looks different from each side, as the architects used the motifs of various architectural styles such as French Classicism, Italian Renaissance and Gothic. St. Michael's Castle was built to the south of the Summer Garden and replaced a small wooden palace of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. Afraid of intrigues and assassination plots, Emperor Paul I didn't like the Winter Palace where he never felt safe. Due to his personal interest in Medieval knights and his constant fear of assassination, the new royal residence was built like a castle with rounded corners in which a small octagonal courtyard is located.
more

Rastrelli began the design in 1734, and used a Muscovite style with vague French touches to the detailing. The building stands in the cdentre of a... magnificent square formed by the monastic buildings. The central dome is over 105m high.
more

The State Russian Museum is the largest depository of Russian fine art in St Petersburg. The museum was established on April 13, 1895, upon... enthronement of Nicholas II to commemorate his father, Alexander III. Its original collection was composed of artworks taken from the Hermitage Museum, Alexander Palace, and the Imperial Academy of Arts. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, many private collections were nationalized and relocated to the Russian Museum. These included Kazimir Malevich's Black Square. The main building of the museum is the Mikhailovsky Palace, a splendid Neoclassical residence of Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich, erected in 1819-25 to a design by Carlo Rossi on Square of Arts in St Petersburg. Upon the death of the Grand Duke the residence was named after his wife as the Palace of the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, and became famous for its many theatrical presentations and balls. Some of the halls of the palace retain the Italianate opulent interiors of the former imperial residence.
more

The Kunstkamera was the first museum in Russia. Established by Peter the Great and completed in 1727, the Kunstkammer Building hosts the Peter the... Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, with a collection of almost 2,000,000 items. It is located on the Universitetskaya Embankment in Saint Petersburg, facing the Winter Palace. The Kunstkamera was established by Peter the Great on the Neva Riverfront. The turreted Petrine Baroque building of the Kunstkamera designed by Georg Johann Mattarnovy was completed by 1727. The foundation stone for the Kunstkammer was laid in 1719. Peter's museum was a cabinet of curiosities dedicated to preserving "natural and human curiosities and rarities", a very typical type of collection in the period. The tsar's personal collection, originally stored in the Summer Palace, features a large assortment of human and animal fetuses with anatomical deficiencies, which Peter had seen in 1697 visiting Frederick Ruysch and Levinus Vincent. The underlying idea of their kunstkammers was to acquire full knowledge of the world. The Dutch word "konst-kamer" seems to be introduced by the surgeon Stephanus Blankaart in 1680.
more

Marble Palace is one of the first Neoclassical palaces in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is situated between the Field of Mars and Palace Quay,... slightly to the east from New Michael Palace. The palace was built by Count Grigory Orlov, the favorite of Empress Catherine the Great and the most powerful Russian nobleman of the 1760s. Construction started in 1768 to designs by Antonio Rinaldi, who previously had helped decorate the grand palace at Caserta near Naples. The combination of sumptuous ornamentation with rigorously classicizing monumentality, as practiced by Rinaldi, may be attributed to his earlier work under Luigi Vanvitelli in Italy. The palace takes its name from its opulent decoration in a wide variety of polychrome marbles. A rough-grained Finnish granite on the ground floor is in subtle contrast to polished pink Karelian marble of the pilasters and white Urals marble of capitals and festoons. Panels of veined bluish gray Urals marble separate the floors, while Tallinn dolomite was employed for ornamental urns. In all, 32 disparate shades of marble were used to decorate the palace.
more

The Old Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange and Rostral Columns, located in Saint Petersburg in the Russian Federation, are significant examples of... Greek Revival architecture. Designed by French architect Thomas de Thomon, and inspired by the Greek Temple of Hera at Paestum, the stock exchange was constructed between 1805 and 1810. The rostral columns erected on either side of the Stock Exchange were completed in 1811. The Old Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange is located at Birzhevaya Ploschad 4. The Old Stock Exchange is sited to fill the majestic sweep of the Spit of Vasilievsky Island, just opposite the Winter Palace. Thomon's design called for a peristyle of forty four Doric columns resting upon a massive stylobate of red granite and supporting an entablature of triglyphs and slotted metopes. A monumental sculptural group similar in form to a quadriga featuring Neptune, and symbolizing maritime commerce, is mounted above the portico. Both inside and outside the Bourse, a motif of the semicircle is recurrent. The interior features a large colonnaded trading hall, now divided into eight exhibition halls.
more

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich Russian pronunciation: [ˈdmʲitrʲɪj... ˈdmʲitrʲɪɪvʲɪt͡ɕ ʂəstɐˈkovʲɪt͡ɕ] was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. Shostakovich achieved fame in the Soviet Union under the patronage of Leon Trotsky's chief of staff Mikhail Tukhachevsky, but later had a complex and difficult relationship with the government. Nevertheless, he also received accolades and state awards and served in the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and the USSR . After a period influenced by Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky, Shostakovich developed a hybrid style, as exemplified by Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District . This single work juxtaposed a wide variety of trends, including the neo-classical style and post-Romanticism . Sharp contrasts and elements of the grotesque characterize much of his music. Shostakovich's orchestral works include 15 symphonies and six concerti.
more

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who... brought about the October Revolution in Russia in 1917 and later held the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. While the office of the General Secretary was officially elective and not initially regarded as the top position in the Soviet state, Stalin managed to use it to consolidate more and more power in his hands after the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924 and gradually put down all opposition groups within the Communist Party. This included Leon Trotsky, a socialist theorist and the principal critic of Stalin among the early Soviet leaders, who was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929. Whereas Trotsky was an exponent of world revolution, it was Stalin's concept of socialism in one country that became the primary focus of Soviet politics.
more

Léon Theremin was a Russian and Soviet inventor. He is most famous for his invention of the theremin, one of the first electronic musical... instruments. He is also the inventor of interlace, a technique of improving the picture quality of a video signal, widely used in video and television technology. His invention of "The Thing", an espionage tool, is considered a predecessor of RFID technology. Léon Theremin was born Lev Sergeyevich Termen in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire in 1896 into a family of French and German ancestry. He had a sister named Helena. He started to be interested in electricity at the age of 7, and by 13 he was experimenting with high frequency circuits. In the seventh class of his high school before an audience of students and parents he demonstrated various optical effects using electricity. By the age of 17 he was in his last year of high school and at home he had his own laboratory for experimenting with high frequency circuits, optics and magnetic fields.
more

  Nicholas II of Russia was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland. He ruled from 1894 until his forced... abdication in 1917. Nicholas proved unable to manage a country in political turmoil and command its army in World War I. His rule ended with the Russian Revolution of 1917, after which he and his family were shot by Bolsheviks. Nicholas's full name was Nikolay Aleksandrovich Romanov . His official title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias. He is sometimes referred to as Nicholas the Martyr due to his execution and as Bloody Nicholas because of the tragic events during his coronation and his government's subsequent suppression of dissent. As a result of his canonization, he has been regarded as Saint Nicholas The Passion Bearer by the Russian OrthodoxNicholas was determined to uphold authority yet lacked assertiveness. He was Obstinate, ineffectual, easily influenced. He had genuine affection for the people but expected them to be blindly obedient. He was as a ‘little man lost in the immensity of his realm’ The Reign of Nicholas up to 1905  He has a bad start to his regime. In 1895 Members of the Tver Zemstvo requested opportunity to express opinions to the government; Nicholas rejected them as ‘senseless dreams’. The Celebrations at his coronation contained free beer stampede, 1300 dead. Nicholas II carried on celebrations by attending a French Ball, visiting hospitals next day. This did great damage as he was seen as uncaring, reinforced on Bloody Sunday  Reform requests were rejected by Nicholas. University unrest grew, 1899 student protests suppressed and universities were closed. Many students joined the SRs who increased assassinations, e.g. Interior Minister . Russification continued. The unrest in the Countryside grew as with land hunger plus SR propaganda. Towns’ unrest e.g. 1896 St. Petersburg strike, Led Zubatov to set up a union to monitor unrest. However it failed as it became involved in General Strike in Odessa in 1903 and Zubatov was  dismissed. Father Gapon was allowed to set up ‘The Assembly of Russian Factory Workers’ to channel unrest however it Backfired and led to Bloody Sunday involvement. By 1900a Cross-section of society was discontented, Reformist / revolutionary ideas were spreading and Peasant uprisings, assassinations, strikes1906 – 14: The Dumas The October manifesto decreed that no law should come into force without the consent of the state Duma.Witte resigned just before the first duma to be replaced by Goremykin . Govt cabinet contained no progressives Duma : April to June 1906  Top parties = Labourists , Kadets Liberals had high hopes – expected to be able to debate the big issuesNot offered by the govtTsarist regime recovering after 1905Early 1906 govt had a big loan from the French Fundamental Laws restrictiveBi-cameral duma – elected lower house plus State Council Right of vetoOverall no intention of allowing the duma powerBitter mood, voiced anger, far from compliant – felt betrayedDissolved in atmosphere of violence200 deputies reassemble at Vyborg – ‘Appeal’ urging people to stop           paying taxes and disobey conscription. Reaction was scattered violence rather than passive resistance – arrested and debarred from future. No real defence of the duma…prelude to Stolypin repressionLong-term effects – Kadets never really recover from humiliation, liberals discredited, played into the hands of the extremes Duma : February to June 1907  Vyborg – Kadets lost half their seats Still no more amenable than the firstSDs / SRs over 80 deputiesStrongly anti-governmentRight-wing also significant increase, considerable disagreement between themselves as well as the govt. Still overall hostileStolypin sought to work with the duma but found his land reforms opposedTsar upset by duma attack on the way the army was runTsar accused SRs / SDs of subversion – dissolved after the duma refused to expel them Duma : November 1907 to June 1912  Tsar did not dismiss dumas altogether, good to show democracy Doctored electoral system to make it more docile Heavily dominated by the right-wing , criticism now more mutedStolypin found duma more co-operative, pursuing land reformsStill exercised the right to question ministers and to discuss state financesUsed committee system to look at modernisation of the armed servicesSocial reforms also, e.g. schools / national insuranceGood but duma totally unrepresentative of the people Duma : November 1912 to August 1914  Modern historians less dismissive of the dumas, i.e. less critical of the Tsar but still voiced themE.g. 1912 Moscow Okhrana report blamed tensions in Russia on the constant questions of the dumaAlso progressive work of the Duma – state welfareOnly blindness of the Tsar that stopped it contributing more E.g.
more

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin ; born 7 October 1952 is a Russian politician who served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the... current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when president Boris Yeltsin resigned in a surprising move. Putin won the 2000 presidential election and in 2004 he was re-elected for a second term lasting until 7 May 2008. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits, Putin was ineligible to run for a third consecutive presidential term. After the victory of his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, in the 2008 presidential elections, Putin was nominated by Medvedev to be Russia's Prime Minister; Putin took office on 8 May 2008. In September 2011, Putin officially announced that he would seek a third, non-consecutive term in the 2012 presidential election.
more

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 17 June [O.S. 5 June] 1882 – 6 April 1971 was a Russian, and later French and American, composer, pianist,... and conductor. He is acknowledged by some as one of the most important and influential composers of 20th century music. He was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the century. He became a naturalized French citizen in 1934 and a naturalized US citizen in 1945. In addition to the recognition he received for his compositions, he achieved fame as a pianist and a conductor, often at the premieres of his works. Stravinsky's compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and performed by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes : The Firebird , Petrushka , and The Rite of Spring .
more

Nadezhda Konstantinovna "Nadya" Krupskaya was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and politician. She married the Russian revolutionary leader... Vladimir Lenin in 1898. She was deputy minister of Education in 1929–1939, Doctor of Education. She was born to an upper-class, but impoverished, family. Her father was a Russian military officer, a nobleman of the Russian Empire. Nadya’s father, Konstantin Ignat’evich Krupski, was orphaned in 1847 at nine years of age. He was educated and given a commission as an infantry officer in the Russian Army. Just before leaving for his assignment in Poland he married Nadya’s mother. After six years of service, Krupski lost favor with his supervisors and was charged with “un-Russian activities.” He may have been suspected of being involved with revolutionaries. Following this time, he worked in factories or wherever he could find work until later in life when he was recommissioned just before his death.
more

George Henry Sanders was a Russian-born English film and television actor, singer-songwriter, music composer, and author. His extremely heavy... English accent and baritone voice often led him to be cast as sophisticated but villainous characters. He is perhaps best known as Addison DeWitt in All About Eve , Jack Favell in Rebecca , and the malevolent tiger Shere Khan in The Jungle Book . His career spanned more than 40 years. Sanders was born in Saint Petersburg, Imperial Russia, at number 6 Petrovski Ostrov. His English parents were Henry Sanders and Margaret Sanders . Actor Tom Conway was his elder brother. His younger sister, Margaret Sanders, was born in 1912. George was 11 when, in 1917, at the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, the family went back to England. Like his brother, he attended Brighton College, a boys' independent school in Brighton, Sussex, then went on to Manchester Technical College. After graduation he worked at an advertising agency, where the company secretary, aspiring actress Greer Garson, suggested he take up a career in acting. Sanders made his British film debut in 1929.
more

Ossip Gabrilowitsch was a Russian-born American pianist, conductor and composer. Ossip Gabrilowitsch was born in Saint Petersburg. He studied the... piano and composition at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, with Anton Rubinstein, Anatoly Lyadov, Alexander Glazunov and Nikolai Medtner among others. After graduating in 1894, he spent two years studying piano with Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna. In July 1905 he recorded ten pieces for the reproducing piano Welte-Mignon, one of the first pianists to do so. From 1910 to 1914, he was conductor of the Munich Konzertverein . He was still in Munich in 1917 and was put in jail following a pogrom. Through the intervention of the nuncio to Bavaria, Archbishop Eugenio Pacelli , Gabrilowitsch was freed from jail, and then he headed to Zürich and the United States.
more

  Nicholas II of Russia was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland. He ruled from 1894 until his forced... abdication in 1917. Nicholas proved unable to manage a country in political turmoil and command its army in World War I. His rule ended with the Russian Revolution of 1917, after which he and his family were shot by Bolsheviks. Nicholas's full name was Nikolay Aleksandrovich Romanov . His official title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias. He is sometimes referred to as Nicholas the Martyr due to his execution and as Bloody Nicholas because of the tragic events during his coronation and his government's subsequent suppression of dissent. As a result of his canonization, he has been regarded as Saint Nicholas The Passion Bearer by the Russian OrthodoxNicholas was determined to uphold authority yet lacked assertiveness. He was Obstinate, ineffectual, easily influenced. He had genuine affection for the people but expected them to be blindly obedient. He was as a ‘little man lost in the immensity of his realm’ The Reign of Nicholas up to 1905  He has a bad start to his regime. In 1895 Members of the Tver Zemstvo requested opportunity to express opinions to the government; Nicholas rejected them as ‘senseless dreams’. The Celebrations at his coronation contained free beer stampede, 1300 dead. Nicholas II carried on celebrations by attending a French Ball, visiting hospitals next day. This did great damage as he was seen as uncaring, reinforced on Bloody Sunday  Reform requests were rejected by Nicholas. University unrest grew, 1899 student protests suppressed and universities were closed. Many students joined the SRs who increased assassinations, e.g. Interior Minister . Russification continued. The unrest in the Countryside grew as with land hunger plus SR propaganda. Towns’ unrest e.g. 1896 St. Petersburg strike, Led Zubatov to set up a union to monitor unrest. However it failed as it became involved in General Strike in Odessa in 1903 and Zubatov was  dismissed. Father Gapon was allowed to set up ‘The Assembly of Russian Factory Workers’ to channel unrest however it Backfired and led to Bloody Sunday involvement. By 1900a Cross-section of society was discontented, Reformist / revolutionary ideas were spreading and Peasant uprisings, assassinations, strikes1906 – 14: The Dumas The October manifesto decreed that no law should come into force without the consent of the state Duma.Witte resigned just before the first duma to be replaced by Goremykin . Govt cabinet contained no progressives Duma : April to June 1906  Top parties = Labourists , Kadets Liberals had high hopes – expected to be able to debate the big issuesNot offered by the govtTsarist regime recovering after 1905Early 1906 govt had a big loan from the French Fundamental Laws restrictiveBi-cameral duma – elected lower house plus State Council Right of vetoOverall no intention of allowing the duma powerBitter mood, voiced anger, far from compliant – felt betrayedDissolved in atmosphere of violence200 deputies reassemble at Vyborg – ‘Appeal’ urging people to stop           paying taxes and disobey conscription. Reaction was scattered violence rather than passive resistance – arrested and debarred from future. No real defence of the duma…prelude to Stolypin repressionLong-term effects – Kadets never really recover from humiliation, liberals discredited, played into the hands of the extremes Duma : February to June 1907  Vyborg – Kadets lost half their seats Still no more amenable than the firstSDs / SRs over 80 deputiesStrongly anti-governmentRight-wing also significant increase, considerable disagreement between themselves as well as the govt. Still overall hostileStolypin sought to work with the duma but found his land reforms opposedTsar upset by duma attack on the way the army was runTsar accused SRs / SDs of subversion – dissolved after the duma refused to expel them Duma : November 1907 to June 1912  Tsar did not dismiss dumas altogether, good to show democracy Doctored electoral system to make it more docile Heavily dominated by the right-wing , criticism now more mutedStolypin found duma more co-operative, pursuing land reformsStill exercised the right to question ministers and to discuss state financesUsed committee system to look at modernisation of the armed servicesSocial reforms also, e.g. schools / national insuranceGood but duma totally unrepresentative of the people Duma : November 1912 to August 1914  Modern historians less dismissive of the dumas, i.e. less critical of the Tsar but still voiced themE.g. 1912 Moscow Okhrana report blamed tensions in Russia on the constant questions of the dumaAlso progressive work of the Duma – state welfareOnly blindness of the Tsar that stopped it contributing more E.g.
more

Tom Conway was a British film and radio actor, and elder brother of actor George Sanders. Conway was born to English parents as Thomas Charles... Sanders in St. Petersburg, Russia. His younger brother was actor George Sanders, whom Conway strongly resembled physically and facially, and also, most notably, in his speaking-voice. A younger sister, Margaret Sanders, was born in 1912. At the outbreak of the Russian Revolution , the family moved back to England, where the brothers were educated at Brighton College. The two brothers tossed a coin to decide which would change his surname to avoid any confusion with each other. Conway is remembered today for playing "The Falcon" in ten of that series' entries, taking over from his brother in The Falcon's Brother, in which they both starred. Conway also played Sherlock Holmes during the 1946–1947 season of The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, following Basil Rathbone's departure from the series. In spite of managing an uncanny similarity to the sound of Rathbone's voice, he was not accepted as Holmes by the listening audience, and was replaced in the same year by John Stanley.
more

Mischa Auer was a Russian-born American actor. Auer was born Mikhail Semyonovich Unskovsky in St. Petersburg, Russia. His name is usually seen as... Mischa Ounskowsky, Mischa being the German transliteration of Misha , and Ounskowsky being the French transliteration of his surname. Auer's maternal grandparents were Hungarian-born violinist Leopold Auer, and his Russian wife, Nadine Pelikan. Mischa renamed himself after his grandfather. He began stage work in the 1920s, then moved to Hollywood, where he first appeared in 1928 in Something Always Happens. He appeared in several small and mostly uncredited roles into the 1930s, appearing in such films as Rasputin and the Empress, Viva Villa!, The Yellow Ticket, the George Gershwin musical Delicious, the Paramount Pictures all-star revue Paramount on Parade and The Lives of a Bengal Lancer. In 1936, Auer was cast as Alice Brady's protégé in the comedy My Man Godfrey, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. From then on, he was regularly cast in zany comedy roles.
more