July 22 – July 26, 2007, Russia : Following in the steps of Lenin, we took the train from Helsinki to Saint Petersburg’s Finland Station. There is still a statue outside the station commemorating his arrival in 1917, and “Lenin lives!” graffiti was spray painted on one wall near the tracks.
Saint Petersburg is a grand city that has become a little ragged around the edges. The scale is much larger than anywhere else we’ve been- with a population of 4.5 million people, it as big as any country we have visited except Sweden. There’s tremendous potential here – 18th and 19th century buildings that are beautiful when refurbished, a process that seems to be gaining momentum judging from the amount of reconstruction.
There’s a much more foreign feel here than in Scandinavia- little English is spoken, and most signs are in Cyrillic only. We were forced to rely on the few words Don remembered from High School Russian- just enough for navigation and lunch. Consumer society has arrived – most cars are European or Japanese, with only the occasional old Lada, and Western consumer companies like Nestle, Coca Cola, and Ikea have a large presence.
Russian Fleet Day is this week – there are banners up all over town for this, as Saint Petersburg is the birthplace of the navy. Other reminders of past wars: we saw the famous “Citizens, in case of shelling, this side of the street is more dangerous” signs painted on buildings along Nevsky Prospect from the 1941-1944 siege, and there are double or quadruple amputees from Afghanistan begging in their army uniforms around subway stations.
Traveling with children here is interesting, as there are considerably fewer kids about than in Scandinavia. According to an article in the Saint Petersburg Times, the death rate in the city is double the birth rate. Perhaps because of this, Sierra and Kade drew smiles; older women would give them their seats on the subway.
Sierra and Don went to see the ballet “Swan Lake” at the Mariinsky theatre, which is where the contemporary version debuted in 1895. Sierra loved it – she lasted through the entire 3+ hour performance. Kade’s favorite place was the train museum. They had a large number of high quality models, including some showing the Trans-Siberian railway construction and some of artillery trains from World War II. There were also paintings of Lenin urging the conductors and engineers on.