St Petersburg

St Petersburg was founded in 1703 as Peter the Great’s ‘window on the west’, a great port without which he could not westernise Russia. The name is based on the German version of his Russian name, Piotr, and is explained by the fact that Peter’s drinking companions were mainly German and Dutch. During the First World War, St Petersburg was renamed Petrograd when anti-German feelings were running high. The city was renamed Leningrad after Lenin’s death in 1924. In 1991, Leningrad’s citizens voted by referendum to return the city to its original name, which the Mayor at that time, Anatoli Sobchak, subsequently agreed to do.

Despite the best attempts of Hitler during the 900 day siege of the city, and the subsequent rampant industrialisation of the communist era when heavy industry was brought into its heart, St Petersburg remains the most beautiful city we have lived in. We lived initially on Nevsky Prospect, the city’s main artery and along which you can find many magnificent buildings with the Hermitage, Pushkin Square, the Admiralty and St Isaac’s Cathedral all nearby. For most of our stay there we rented an apartment on Kanal Griboedova, just down from Bankovski Most, or Bank Bridge - somehow appropriate as I was working for the St Petersburg Savings Bank.

It was a fascinating, sometimes scary, time with Russia emerging from communism and huge contrasts between the newly rich, often mafia, and those struggling to cope with a collapsing state. We lost one friend to a contract killing and I narrowly avoided a gun battle in the coffee shop of one of the main hotels.

Favourite Restaurants

Koreysky Domik

Izmailovsky Prospekt

Tel. 812-259-9333

Run by Russian Koreans - only Russian spoken though

Brunch @ Grand Hotel Europe

Nevsky Prospekt

Best Sundays ever!