Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
hundred thousand protestors filled Palace Sq in Leningrad. The ambivalent soldiers
sent to arrest Sobchak disobeyed orders, and instead escorted him to the local TV sta-
tion where the mayor denounced the coup and encouraged residents to do the same.
Anxiously waiting atop flimsy barricades, anticommunist demonstrators spent the
evening in fear of approaching tanks. But the inebriated coup plotters lost their nerve,
thanks in large part to the people of Leningrad.
If you can't get enough of Dostoevsky, why not tackle
The Idiot,
which
takes place both in St Petersburg and in nearby Pavlovsk. The descrip-
tions are not quite as evocative as those in
Crime and Punishment
, but
the characters are equally complex and the debates no less esoteric.
Finding the Future in the Past
In 1991, by popular referendum, the citizens of Leningrad voted resoundingly to
change their city's name once more. They chose to restore its original name, the name
of its founder, St Petersburg.
As reviled as the communist regime may have been, it still provided a sufficient
standard of living, a predictable day at the office and a common target for discontent.
The familiar ways of life suddenly changed. The communist collapse caused enorm-
ous personal hardship; economic security and social status were put in doubt. Mafia
gangs and bureaucratic fangs dug into the emerging market economy, creating con-
temptible crony capitalism. The democratic movement splintered into petty rivalries
and political insignificance. One of its shining stars, Galina Starovoitova, social sci-
entist turned human rights advocate, was brazenly shot dead in her St Petersburg
apartment stairwell in 1998. Out on the street, meanwhile, prudish reserve gave way
to outlandish exhibitionism. Uncertainty and unfairness found expression in an angry
and sometimes xenophobic reaction.
With the old order vanquished, the battle to define the new one was on. The sym-
bols of the contending parties were on display throughout the city. The nouveaux
riches quickly claimed Nevsky pr for their Milano designer get-ups and Bavarian
driving machines. The disaffected youth used faded pink courtyard walls to spray-
paint Zenith football insignias, swastikas and the two English words they all seem to
know. Every major intersection was adorned with gigantic billboard faces of prima
