Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Take note of the open plaza area in front of Gostiny Dvor. This is a popular place for
politicalprotests
—which, in Putin's Russia, are barely tolerated. Article 31 of the Russian
constitution guarantees the freedom of assembly—a right whose legitimacy seems always
to be in question. To push the boundaries, on the 31st of every month, peaceful demon-
strators routinely seek government permission to stage a protest here, are denied, then stage
the protest anyway—only to be dutifully arrested by riot gear-clad cops. This so-called
Strategy-31 movement tries to keep the issue of free speech in the consciousness of a Rus-
sia that increasingly seems willing to let that freedom lapse.
• Continue heading up the right side of Nevsky Prospekt for one more block.
You'll soon reach
Ostrovsky Square
(Ploshchad Ostrovskogo), a gorgeous park
anchored by a statue of
Catherine the Great
(1729-1796). While Peter the Great founded
this city (and gave it his name), Catherine is arguably the one who truly made it great. A
Prussian blue-blood (born in today's Poland), Catherine married Russia's Czar Peter III,
then quickly overthrew him in a palace coup. Throughout her 30-year reign, Catherine nev-
er remarried, but she is believed to have cleverly parlayed sexual politics to consolidate her
power.
