St. Petersburg: What’s in a Name? - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 150

ARCHITECTURAL STYLES
Tsar Peter's vision was a western city worthy of a great nation's capital. His first planners
and builders were Dutch and German. They planned and built as well as trained Russians in
techniques of architecture and engineering. Then came French and Italian master builders
(Le Blond and Rastelli) and the elaborate styles and facades of Baroque and rococo. The
richest and most powerful families were ordered to build their houses and palaces in the
new city. Over the years and centuries, other styles followed: Greek revival, Art Nouveau,
and with the revolution, the stolid, severe Soviet style. Many of the city's buildings com-
mand worldwide admiration: The Winter Palace (home to the Hermitage Museum), The
Admiralty, The Yusupov Palace, St. Isaac's Cathedral, and the Church of the Savior on the
Spilled Blood, to name only a small handful.
WHAT WAS THE BATTLE OF LENINGRAD?
Leningrad, as the city was called in the 1940s, withstood the greatest siege of World War
II. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler pledged to a non-aggression
pact in 1939. The pact was sealed in cynicism and double-dealing. Stalin used it to buy
time to rearm against Russia's hated foe. Germany's time bought opportunity to concen-
trate military power against France and the Low Countries and to prepare for a final assault
on Britain.
German armies wheeled east in 1941, and the siege of Leningrad was underway. Ger-
man artillery, tanks, planes, and small firearms pounded the city for 900 days. Russian de-
fense was stubborn and heroic. Bitter winter cold and meager supplies of food, clothes,
fuel, and electricity all took their toll of more than one million Russian lives; with 900
days lived in grinding, unremitting anguish, 800,000 died of starvation, 17,000 were killed
in battle, and 35,000 died of wounds. When the siege was lifted and the German armies
retreated, the city emerged in shattered ruins. Its subsequent restoration serves to memori-
alize the suffering and heroism of the city's defenders and (equally important) the artistic
skills and workmanship entailed in restoring public buildings to their former glory.