We went to Kronstadt, the previously closed island ten miles off St Petersburg which used to be one of the Soviet Navy's main bases, and still has many Russian naval ships. It is a fascinating place, time-travel Soviet-style, with everything which the Red matelot might have wanted, including rather nice blocks of flats, a huge church converted into a museum and elegant gardens, only slightly trampled by the feet of the heedless proles--and now their successors, the baggy-shorted consumers with iPlugs in their ears. The whole environment was designed in order to keep the run-silent run-deep crew happy by giving them confidence that their families were being better looked-after than the rest of Soviet society. Now the isolation is not needed and a ten-mile-long causeway links the island with the north shore of the Gulf of Finland. A tunnel is being built to link it with the south shore. Part of the aim is to prevent tidal surges which could easily drown St Petersburg, and regularly floods the city as it is. For some hydro-geographic reason which I could not understand, there is no fear of the waters coming in south of the island, where there is to be no causeway, just a tunnel. We visited Robert Leitch, famous Russian website administrator, and son of Bert Leitch of Mull, the man who threatened on television to shoot next eagle he saw taking a lamb of his. Разумниц! Who needs so many eagles anyway? But Rob, who has lived in Petersburg for four years now, had never visited the island and was unaware that it was open. Doing so is therefore a rare experience, which I can highly recommend for those with a curiosity about the "touch and feel" of history.
Saturday, 9 June 2007
St Petersburg weekend
We went to Kronstadt, the previously closed island ten miles off St Petersburg which used to be one of the Soviet Navy's main bases, and still has many Russian naval ships. It is a fascinating place, time-travel Soviet-style, with everything which the Red matelot might have wanted, including rather nice blocks of flats, a huge church converted into a museum and elegant gardens, only slightly trampled by the feet of the heedless proles--and now their successors, the baggy-shorted consumers with iPlugs in their ears. The whole environment was designed in order to keep the run-silent run-deep crew happy by giving them confidence that their families were being better looked-after than the rest of Soviet society. Now the isolation is not needed and a ten-mile-long causeway links the island with the north shore of the Gulf of Finland. A tunnel is being built to link it with the south shore. Part of the aim is to prevent tidal surges which could easily drown St Petersburg, and regularly floods the city as it is. For some hydro-geographic reason which I could not understand, there is no fear of the waters coming in south of the island, where there is to be no causeway, just a tunnel. We visited Robert Leitch, famous Russian website administrator, and son of Bert Leitch of Mull, the man who threatened on television to shoot next eagle he saw taking a lamb of his. Разумниц! Who needs so many eagles anyway? But Rob, who has lived in Petersburg for four years now, had never visited the island and was unaware that it was open. Doing so is therefore a rare experience, which I can highly recommend for those with a curiosity about the "touch and feel" of history.
