Parks of Leningrad (Saint-Petersburg)

May 21, 2008

I call this city by its former name, the name of those times, when I lived there.
I want to speak of its wonderful parks. At the age of twenty I spent summer in Poushkin, named also Tsar village. It is not far from Leningrad, you can go there by train from Vitebsk railway station. There are two spacious parks there: Katherine Park named after empress Katherine the second, and Alexander Park. Katherine Park is more decorated, full of statues, pavilions and grottos. Katherine Palace in baroque style reminds of Winter Palace in St-Petersburg.

It is a museum full of wonderful furniture, china, exquisite clocks and other objects of luxury.
Everywhere in Katherine Park you can see engraved lines from verses by Poushkin, the famous Russian poet, who studied in Lyceum here and wrote a lot of verses dedicated to this place.
Alexander Park is not so sunny and smart. It was rather gloomy in those days and more in romantic style. There are many ponds there, and green trees look into waters. Much later I visited this park and found it again beautiful and lively. We could hear an orchestra, playing wonderful music in the open and birds sang at the same time, supporting the musicians.

Another wondeful park is Pavlovsk park, it is the biggest of all. Its long straight lanes are very regular and impressive. There was a music pavilion there, This park wasn’t so decorated, as parks of Poushkin, being more natural. You can reach Pavlovsk also by train from Vitebsk railway station.

From Baltic railway station you can go to famous Petergoff. It is famous with its unique fountains, there are scores of them.

The biggest is Samson, a very prominent and high. There are lots of small fountains, some of them with tricks. There is also a palace there.

In Leningrad itself there are fine parks: Michailovsky, Victory Park and many others. A very fine and spacious park is in Elagin island.
It was always a place of culture with many attractions. It is on the shore of Baltic sea, there is a beach there. In my young days there was sometimes a balley on the water and many other shows. The most interesting celebrations were at the beginning and at the end of “White Nights”, usually in May and June.

In Leningrad there is a very famous Summer Garden (Letny Sad). It is near the Neva river. There are a lot of statues of Greek Gods and nymphs. In the centre of the garden there is a monument to Ivan Krylov, a famous Russian fabulist. The garden is surrounded by a long water pool named “Swan ditch”.

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LENINGRAD OF MY YOUNG YEARS - 2

March 25, 2008

Very often  after the lectures I walked about the centre and went to Hermitage, the wonderful museum, known all over the world, where I usually went first of all to see my favorite picture “Danaya” by Rembrandt. After the Rembrandt collection I turned to the neighboring room and watched the pictures of famous Italian artist Titians. I became rather well acquainted with the museum with its labyrinth arrangement. The big windows gave much light in the daytime, the halls and rooms with lots of exquisite tables, arm-chairs, mirrors, clocks made by ancient European masters, all of them guilt with gold - really not only the pictures attracted the viewer’ attention. You could see the wonderful view of the Neva embankment from the windows.
The whole picture of the city centre with Winter Palace (a part of the museum), the wide Neva river, Petropavlovsk fortress, the Admiralty and the statue of the founder of all this beauty, Peter the first (the Horseman of Brass) made the impression of grand and strict beauty.

It is necessary also to mention the suburbs: the Tsar village with Katherine Palace and park and Alexander Park, Petergoff with a great number of fountains and much greater Pavlovsk park with its long alleys and strict planning.
In that special “Socialist Paradise” of Soviet Union most of the population received miserable salary, but the culture was accessible, as the people of art also got the same small sums. We had Kirov Theatre of opera and ballet, the Philharmonic Society, the houses, that left from tsarist time.
I was last time in Leningrad 18 years ago, I hope it is still as attractive as before. 

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LENINGRAD OF MY YOUNG YEARS - 1

March 20, 2008

I was born in Leningrad.  At that time almost everybody whom I knew lived in flats, called  “communal”, which meant that each family in the flat had only one, rarely two rooms. Our family of parents and three children occupied a 18 square meter room. Then the owner of all houses was the state, there was no private living area. After the revolution of 1917 in Russia every private ownership was abolished. There were 7 rooms in our flat, and 7 families lived in it. Then, in the thirties, before the war, when I was a child, even the former owners of the flat still lived in it. They occupied two rooms, their family consisted of three generations. We lived in the centre near the famous Technological Institute. When the second world war began, our family escaped from Leningrad, which was already shouted, to a small settlement near Saratov on the Volga. After the war we returned, our life almost did not change: the same small room, the same poverty. My school was good, the teachers educated. Though I had to work for my living at the age of 16, I finished evening school in time and decided to enter the Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages, I chose English as a specialty. I liked the language and worked hard, and became one of the best students. We hadn’t to pay for the studies, the education was free, and even students, that were successful, received a small sum as an allowance. Now I had more free time, and often went by tram to see beautiful streets, the Neva embankment, pictures parks of Leningrad and its suburbs. In summer alone or with a friend I liked to go to Kirov Islands, where a big park with many attractions, such as concerts of music, dances etc. impressed with its cleanness and fine arrangement. There were beaches and sometimes, when the water was not very cold, it was possible to bathe. We also liked to go with my neighbor and friend Tanya to the beach under the wall of Petropavlovsk fortress, it was very popular with young people of the city. We often just stood near the warm wall and enjoyed the sun, which was rather rare in Leningrad with its regular rains even in summer. The water in the Neva was always cold. Sometimes we hired an oar boat together with cousin’s or friends and floated on the river or ponds.

 

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