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“Congratulations. You are in the most beautiful city in the world” said Julia Ivanushkina as my friends and I started our tour of picturesque St. Petersburg, Russia. “Our city was founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and is the world’s northernmost city of over one million people” she said.

As we drove to our first stop, Ivanushkina gave us some background on Russia during the Soviet Union era. “You could not hire a private guide during Soviet times” she said. “There was only one tourist firm which was owned by the state. There were only two restaurants in St. Petersburg, which was then known as Leningrad” she said. “Now there are several hundred” she added. She then explained that “Soviet” means pieces of advice in Russian. “I know it sounds ridiculous because the only advice they listened to was each others. If you were not in the inner circle of the Communist Party, you were nobody” she said. 

Driving along the city streets I noticed what looked like a memorial with fresh flowers on a building below a blue sign written in Russian. When I inquired as to what it was, Julia explained that the sign was from World War II during the German siege of the city.  “The sign says it is safer to walk on this side of the street” Ivanushkina said. “The Germans would launch rockets from the edge of the city, and they would always hit on the far side of the street” she said. “Nearly a million citizens of the city died during that siege” she added.

Our first stop was on Nevsky Prospekt, the main street in town, at the Singer Sewing Machine building. After exploring this beautiful building, which now houses a bookstore, we went to the second floor to get a panoramic view of Kazan Cathedral, a nearby church built in 1811 and modeled after St. Peter‘s Basilica in Rome. As we walked to the cathedral, Ivanushkina explained that under communism, the church served as the Museum of Atheism and Religion. After the fall of communism, the church resumed holding services before the museum moved out. “For a while, this building simultaneously served as a church and a museum to godlessness” said Ivanushkina who described herself as agnostic.

Smolny Cathedral	Kazan Cathedral	The Cruiser Aurora	Stroganoff Palace	Singer Sewing Machine Building

We then visited Stroganoff Palace, which was built in 1753 by Baron Sergei Stroganoff. “You may not know this, but the dish you know as Beef Stroganoff was invented in this palace by Baron Stroganoff’s chef” Ivanushkina said. Stroganoff would serve lunch to hundreds of people per day in the courtyard of the palace according to Ivanushkina. “If someone didn’t show up for lunch, they knew they were dead” she said with a grin. Moving on, we briefly stopped at Smolny Cathedral and Convent, a light blue colored complex built for Peter the Great’s daughter which now serves as some government offices. We then went to the Peter and Paul Fortress, which was the original nucleus of the city. As we approached the small island, we could see the brilliant gold spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which was built in 1723. “This cathedral is the final resting place of every Russian Czar since Peter the Great” Ivanushkina said. As we walked among the many crypts in the building, she pointed out that the entire family of Czar Nicholas II was buried there in 1998. “There was a great debate as to whether the remains were really the Czar’s, but most experts say they are” she said. “You should note that this cathedral was named after the patron saints of the city, the Apostles Peter and Paul, not Peter the Great” she added. “Many people make that mistake” she said. We then looked at the fantastic iconostasis at the front of the cathedral. “Iconostasis is the wall of icons that separates the nave of the church from the sanctuary” Ivanushkina said. “Russian churches are famous for the intrinsic hand painted icons” she said. After viewing the crypts of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, we paused to look at what appeared to be an ornate altar.

Tomb of Peter the Great	Tomb of Czar Nicholas II	Russian Orthodox Iconostasis	Church of the Savior of the Spilled blood	Mosaic icon in Church of the Savior	Czar's Place at Peter & Paul Cathedral

“If you will notice, there are no seats in the Russian Orthodox Church because people worship standing up” Ivanushkina said. “This thing was called the ’Czar’s Place’ because when the czar got tired, he would lean against this to rest during the service” she said.

	Leaving the fortress, we then traveled to the Church of the Savior of the Spilled Blood, which Ivanushkina said was St. Petersburg most photographed church. As we entered the building, she pointed out that all of the icons in the building, which covered almost every wall, were mosaics and not the hand painted variety found in almost every Russian church. A monument in the building marked the spot where Czar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. “That is where the reference to Spilled Blood came from” Ivanushkina said. She also pointed out that under communism, this beautiful building had been used as a pig market. “It was just another way for the communists to insult religion” she said. Our final stop of the day was at the spectacular St. Isaac’s Cathedral, another beautiful Russian Orthodox church. That evening, we were treated to a Russian folk show and dance at the Nikolayevsky Palace. While Ivanushkina thought the show was “touristy” my friends and I found it very humorous and entertaining. While performing traditional Russian dances with gusto, the dancers wore bright colored authentic costumes
Interior of St. Isaac's
A performance at the Russian Folk Show

Just before bed that evening, we strolled a couple of blocks from our hotel to have a nightcap at the Elvis nightclub, an establishment dedicated to the music of Elvis Presley. As we entered, we were confronted by a huge Confederate battle flag hanging on the wall while a local citizen sang “Blue Suede Shoes” karaoke style in broken English. “You haven’t lived until you’ve seen this” my friend commented with a chuckle.

The following morning, we were off to the countryside to see the palaces of Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo which means Czar’s Village. Our first stop was at Catherine’s Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, which was formerly called Pushkin under communism. While the palace was originally built by Empress Catherine I, Peter the Great’s wife, it was Catherine the Great who lived here. “This palace is the longest one in the world, at nearly 1,000 feet” said Ivanushkina. As we walked through the palace, Ivanushkina described daily life for Catherine. “Even though this palace is enormous, she lived in only a couple of rooms, and did not bathe during the winter months because it was so cold” she said. “That, however, did not keep her from taking several lovers here” she added with a smile. As we walked into the Great Hall, or the throne room, Ivanushkina mentioned how Catherine was also important in American history. “It was here that King George III of England sent an emissary to ask Catherine to commit Russian troops to help put down a rebellion in the American colonies. She refused, and the rest is history” she said.

Private chapel of Czar Nicholas II	Catherine's Palace	The Great Hall in Catherine's Palace	Rear view of Catherine's Palace	Gate at Catherine's Palace	Gardens of Catherine's Palace

As we walked into the Amber Room, which is the most famous room in the palace, Ivanushkina pointed out that the original amber had been removed by the Nazis during World War II. “The room was restored after the war using photographs. During the 1990s, an original piece of the amber was found in Germany and returned to us, and it was almost an exact match. That’s the great skill of the craftsmen who restored the room” she said. As we left, she explained that the name of the town was changed under communism to Pushkin, in honor of a great Russian poet. “While the name was changed back to Tsarskoye Selo after the fall of communism, many Russians still refer to the city as Pushkin” she said.
 

	We then moved on to Peter the Great’s Summer Palace, or Peterhof, on the banks of the Baltic Sea. We started in the gilded Great Palace, built by Peter the Great himself. We were in awe as we walked though this magnificent building. “If you think this palace is too grand to live in, Peter also thought so. He actually lived in Monplaisir, the small house down on the waters edge” Ivanushkina said. Walking out of the palace, we walked down along the Grand Cascade toward the boat landing. The scenery was almost breathtaking as we viewed the fountains and statues placed there by Peter the Great. “It was amazing engineering to do this back then” Ivanushkina said to our agreement. We boarded a hydrofoil to return to the city in order to visit the Hermitage Museum. Formerly the royal family’s Winter Palace and steeped in history, the Hermitage has become one of the largest museums in the world. “Hermitage means solitary corner in Russian, but this museum is anything but solitary” Ivanushkina said. As we walked through the beautiful building brimming with priceless treasures, I couldn’t help but think that the building would be impressive without the art, but together the experience was awesome. ”The Hermitage contains over three million pieces of art. If you stopped just for a few seconds to view each item, it would take you several years to view the entire collection, Ivanushkina said. Our last stop in the city was at the Yusopov Palace, where the monk Grigory Rasputin was murdered in 1916.   “The nobility feared the influence he had over the Czarina, so they killed him” Ivanushkina said.  However, he didn’t go quietly.
Cathedral at the entrance of Peterhof
Throne Room at Peterhof
Grand Cascade at Peterhof
Another view of the Grand Cascade

“They poisoned him and he didn’t die. They Shot him and he didn’t die. They beat him and tossed him into the canal, and he was still kicking under the water. He did finally die, though” she added.  After dinner that evening, we boarded the Red Arrow train for our return to Moscow. After a surprisingly good night’s sleep in our sleeper compartment, we were met the next morning at the Moscow Train Terminal by Artur Lookianov, our guide for the remainder of the trip.

Peter the Great throne at the Hermitage	Art display in the Hermitage	A Throne Room in the Hermitage	Gate at the Winter Palace	Alexander Column at the Winter Palace	The Hermitage, formerly the Winter Palace

“I would like to start by taking you to Sparrow Hill, one of the highest points in Moscow, so that you can get an overview of what we are going to see” Lookianov said. Arriving at the hill near Moscow State University, we ran into what we would discover is a uniquely Russian tradition: the Wedding Tour. In the parking lot there were several stretch limousines decorated with flowers and double rings. As we walked to the viewing area overlooking the city, we were surrounded by at least six couples, each with the bride dressed in a full white wedding gown and the groom in a suit or tuxedo. Each couple had their full wedding party with them and many were toasting with vodka or champagne, and releasing white doves. While the bottles or flasks were being passed around the wedding party in order for each member to pour a drink into a paper cup, usually a man with an accordion was providing music on request while the bride and groom danced. “This is called a wedding tour” said Lookianov. “When a couple marries in Russia, they parade around to all the famous sites in the city to celebrate. You will see these wedding tours at may of the places you will visit in Moscow” he said.

One of Stalin's Seven Sisters.	St. Basil's on the right, the Kremlin Wall on the left.	The GUM Department Store.  I took this from inside of St. Basil's	Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Kremlin	The entrance to Lenin's Tomb on Red Square.	A Small church on the edge of Red Square

 Looking over the city, Lookianov pointed out several sites that we would later see. Seven Gothic style skyscrapers were dotted around the city, each similar in appearance. “Those are called ’Stalin’s Seven Sisters’ because they were built during Stalin’s time” he said. Moving on to the heart of the city, our first stop was at the world famous Red Square, which is bordered by the Kremlin, the GUM Department Store, St. Basil’s Cathedral, the National Historical Museum and Alexander Gardens. While we were unable to walk across Red Square due to bleachers being erected for a concert, it was more or less what I had envisioned, with one exception. Growing up during the Cold War, I had seen numerous Soviet military parades through Red Square on television. While the soldiers would march and the missiles would roll by on huge trucks, members of the Soviet Politburo would watch from atop Lenin’s Tomb, which seemed several stories high. “I can’t believe the tomb is so small” I said to my friends who agreed that it is much smaller than we all expected. “The leaders were not as high up as I thought they were” I said.

	Since cameras are forbidden in the tomb, we had to check ours at an alcove of the National Historical Museum before we entered. Walking into the tomb, we were told not to talk and not to wear hats out of reverence. As we walked town a flight of stairs, it became dark with the steps dimly lit. Almost out of nowhere, a guard appeared in front of us. A grim faced man, he pointed into the darkness for us to go down another flight of stairs. Except for the eerie silence, it seemed as though we were entering a Halloween haunted house. When we reached the bottom of that flight of stairs, another solemn guard appeared and pointed down yet another, albeit shorter flight of stairs. At the bottom, we entered a large chamber with the body of Lenin laying in a glass case in the center. Steps went up and around the glass case and then out another door. The corpse looked almost as though Lenin had died the day before, not in 1924. “Incredible preservation” said my friend Jack Courson as we walked back up to Red Square on dimly lit steps. I had a terrible, gut wrenching feeling as we left. It felt as though we had come face to face with pure evil. Walking out, we would see the face of even more evil, as we passed the graves of the Soviet leadership just outside the Kremlin wall. Each marker was topped with a life sized statue of the deceased. “Every Soviet leader is buried here except Khrushchev, who left office in disgrace” Lookianov said. I addition to the leadership, many communist heroes are buried at the wall. “There are even two Americans buried here, but recently there has been talk of relocating all of these graves to a cemetery, he said.
The walls of the Kremlin along the Moscow River
An ornate Moscow subway station
A boat on the Moscow River passing Christ the Savior Cathedral

As we walked back to Alexander Garden, we stopped for a moment to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. “The changing of the guard used to take place at Lenin’s Mausoleum during Soviets times, but it was moved here when democracy was restored” Lookianov said. Next we went into St. Basil’s Cathedral, which is probably the most recognizable structure in Russia. As we walked into the ornate, colorful building, Lookianov explained that it was built in 1555 to honor a Russian military victory. “Ivan the Terrible had the architect’s eyes gouged out so that he could never replicate the beauty of this building” he said. Once inside, the church was quite different from what I expected. Instead of a large, open cathedral, the building consisted of several medieval style chambers connected by narrow stone hallways. “St. Basil’s basically consists of nine different churches under nine different domes” Lookianov said. Under one dome, we came upon an all male choir singing hymns a cappella. “I’m not quite sure what they are singing, but the sound is beautiful and the harmony is perfect” I commented to Lookianov as I bought a CD for myself. We then went to the GUM Department Store for lunch. During the Soviet era, this was a state owned store, but now is a huge shopping mall consisting of several different stores, reminiscent of an American mall. After lunch we visited Christ the Savior Cathedral, which was destroyed by the Bolsheviks and rebuilt in 1994. “This is where important people have their funeral” said Lookianov who commented that President Boris Yeltsin was eulogized here.  Our next stop was the Novodichy Convent and Cemetery.
	Interior shot of St. Basil's Cathedral
	A park in downtown Moscow
	Entrance of Gorky Park

Traveling by subway part of the way to this site, we were treated to a view of some of the most ornate subway stations we had ever seen. After a visit at the convent, we embarked on a boat cruise down the Moscow River, which afforded us a great view of many sites in the city. As we traveled down the river, Lookianov commented that the boat ride was not available to tourists in the winter months. “The river is frozen over during the winter” he said.

The following morning we left for a tour about 50 miles outside of Moscow to the city of Sergiev Posad and Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius. As we drove into town, Lookianov said that the Russian iconic nesting dolls were first made here. Pulling over on a ridge for a birds eye view overlooking the monastery, we were approached by a portly, good natured Russian woman selling the famous dolls. Holding two of the dolls up to her face she joked that they looked like her. “It would almost be a sin to not buy from her” said one of my friends with a laugh. As we went into the monastery, Lookianov explained its history and said that it was considered the Vatican of the Russian Orthodox Church. “The patriarch lived here from the 1940s until democracy was restored. Even though officially an atheist, Stalin secretly asked the patriarch to pray for victory in World War II” he said. “Many people say that is how the monastery survived during Soviet times” he added. After an extensive tour of the complex, Lookianov pointed out one big difference between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches. “In the Russian church, the priest must be married” he said. The beautiful hand painted icons being offered for sale were something of interest to me. Even though they were very expensive, I couldn’t help but purchase one of St. Nicholas to take home.

It would be a sin to not buy a Nesting Doll from this woman!	Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius	A chapel in St. Sergius	A statue of St. Sergius	A tower at St. Sergius	The All Russia Exposition Center	An old house in the town of Sergiev Posad

Back in Moscow, we visited the All Russian Exposition Center, a huge carnival style complex that had displays from each of the former Soviet republics. “This was formerly called the Exhibit of the Achievements of the Peoples Economy. It was built by Stalin to display Soviet agriculture” Lookianov said. Next we saw the Park of Sculptures, the repository of most of the Soviet statues removed from all over the city after the fall of communism. Walking up to a statue of Lenin, I joked about his lack of hair while I rubbed its head. “That would get you arrested in Soviet times” Lookianov said.
 

	Due to the limited number of Moscow guides who have a license to guide inside the Kremlin, Lookianov arranged another guide for this tour. The following morning a young lady named Elena met us at the hotel for our tour of the Kremlin. “You are very fortunate that this is a Saturday. You will get to see the Kremlin changing of the guard in person” she said. As we entered the Kremlin, Elena remarked that the Kremlin complex was actually a fortress built in the 12th century to protect the city. Moving into Cathedral Square, surrounded by a group of cathedrals dating back hundreds of years, Elena stated that the changing of the guard was only re-instated by the Russian government in 2005. “But the tradition dates back to Peter the Great” she said. We were in Cathedral Square when the Red Square clock tower struck noon. Thanks to our guide, we happened to be in a perfect position to see this fascinating ceremony. At first a full military brass band marched in, followed by what appeared to be infantry soldiers, and then cavalry, all dressed in colorful Czarist era uniforms. While the band played patriotic Russian music, the soldiers did several marching maneuvers. The cavalry then did some riding maneuvers to the delight of the crowd. After the ceremony, we entered the Cathedral of the Annunciation. Built in 1482, this cathedral was where the czars were christened and married. Next we saw the Cathedral of the Assumption, where the czars were crowned. “The patriarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church are inaugurated and buried here” Elena said. Walking past the Grand Kremlin Palace, Elena said that this building is closed to tourists and is where the Russian president receives important visitors. We then entered the Armory Museum, which housed many czarist era treasures such as thrones, Faberge Eggs, and carriages. We then went to the Diamond Fund, a building which houses the crown jewels of Russia, including Catherine the Great’s coronation crown, The Shah Diamond, presented to Czar Nicholas I by the Shah of Persia in the early 1800s, and the 190 carat Orlov diamond. Just before leaving the Kremlin, we saw the Czar Cannon and the Czar Bell, each the largest of its kind in the world, and both never used. Leaving the Kremlin, we walked to Lubyanka, the former headquarters of the Soviet KGB, and to the famous Bolshoi Theatre, home of Russian Ballet. As we walked back to our hotel, we saw a police officer standing in the median of the street. If a driver would drive too fast, or drive carelessly, the policeman would simply point a baton at the car and the driver would pull over. “What would happen if the driver didn’t pull over?” one of my friends asked Elena. “The policeman would radio for a car to pull it over” she replied. “But almost everyone pulls over, because they would be in big trouble if they didn’t she said. When I walked to the edge of the street to snap a picture of the officer, Elena became very nervous and asked me not to. “Police here are not very nice” she said. “Its best not to get their attention” she added.
The Park of Sculptures
Kremlin Changing of the Guard
The Czar Cannon
The Czar Bell
Another shot of the Kremlin Changing of the Guard
Some Buildings Inside the Kremlin

As I pondered the trip on the flight home, I had a better understanding of Russian culture, and more importantly a new respect for this great country that I had reviled as a youth during the cold War. “What a fascinating place” I said to one of my friends in summary of the trip.