| Peters Great City |
2 June 2003
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St. Petersburg at 300
There was a joke in the old Soviet Union about a journalist who asked an old man where he was born. The man replied, "St. Petersburg". When asked where he married, he replied "Petrograd." When asked where he lived, he said, "Leningrad." And when asked where he wished to die, he said, "St. Petersburg." Despite a dreadful century, the man's wish has come true -- and the city is entering its fourth century with a $1.5 billion facelift.
Anyone who has seen the city in June, when the "White Nights" arrive and when the sun never really sets, has seen one of the most beautiful cities man has ever built in the best setting nature can provide. The Hermitage, Nevsky Prospekt and the canals are a glorious tribute to the millions who died building and defending it. It is the one Russian city in which non-Russians feel a bit at home.
President Vladimir Putin has, of course, used the tricentenary in his home town to rebuild his political base -- what politician would not. And it is troubling that he has chosen to spruce up the palaces and not the homes of the working man, but to be fair, one doubts whether he was ever that much of a communist.
On its 300th birthday, though, one recalls its beauty and its civilized atmosphere (cold though it is) with great fondness. And the 900 days it withstood the savage Nazi siege stands not as a testament to a set of political beliefs but rather to the endurance of simple men and women to protect their homes.
Happy Birthday, St. Petersburg, and may better days lie ahead.