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Leningrad Symphony

Leningrad Symphony

Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 in C Major (opus 60, subtitled Leningrad) was first performed in 1942 in the middle of the Second World War. Second World War

Composition

Shostakovich completed the symphony on 27 December 1941. There are conflicting accounts as to when he began work on the piece: officially he was said to have composed it in response to the German invasion, but others (e.g. Rostislav Dubinsky) say that he had already completed the first movement a year earlier. It is known that he continued writing during the Siege of Leningrad, as the German forces tried to starve the city into submission. For some of this time he worked as a fireman. The first three movements were completed in the city before Shostakovich and his family were evacuated to Kuybishev (now Samara), where it was finally completed.

Premieres

The world premiere was held in Kuybishev on 5 March 1942. The Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, conducted by Samuil Samosud, gave a rousing performance that was broadcast across the Soviet Union and later in the West as well. The symphony was premiered in the UK by Henry Wood and the London Philharmonic Orchestra on 22 June 1942, and in the US by the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini in New York on 19 July 1942. The Leningrad premiere was given on 9 August 1942 by the Leningrad Radio Orchestra under Karl Eliasberg; members of the orchestra were given extra rations to help them through the concert, and extra players were drafted in to replace those fighting, evacuated or dead. Loudspeakers broadcast the performance throughout the city and to the besieging German forces.

Reception

During the war, the work was very popular both in the West and in the USSR as the embodiment of the fighting Russian spirit. It was played 62 times in the United States in the 1942-43 season. After the war its reputation declined, being seen in the West as overly bombastic and little more than Soviet propaganda. In recent years it has again become more popular, along with the rest of Shostakovich's work, and the piece has been viewed as a condemnation of both Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism.

The music

The symphony is Shostakovich's longest (approximately one hour and fifteen minutes in length). It is best known for one episode in the first movement, in which a jaunty 18-bar march, accompanied by a repeated rhythm on the snare drum, is repeated twelve times, louder each time, somewhat in the manner of Maurice Ravel's Bolero. The march lasts for eleven minutes and was traditionally viewed as a clear representation of the fascist invaders. Béla Bartók quoted this movement in his Concerto for Orchestra; this has been variously interpreted as an accusation of tastelessness, a commentary on the symphony's over-popularity in Bartók's eyes, or as an acknowledgment of the position of the artist in a totalitarian society. In modern times scholars have argued the march actually shows Russia's destruction emanating from within, noting that the theme is formed from fragments of Russian tunes. Volkov has argued that the march's low-key beginning indicates an insidious takeover rather than the Nazis' frontal invasion. The composer's friend, Flora Litvinova, recalled him saying the work was "not just about fascism, but also about our system" (Wilson p. 159). The second and third movements are a skittish scherzo and searching adagio respectively, and are followed by a grimly triumphant finale. The work has four movements in all: # Allegretto # Moderato (poco allegretto) # Adagio # Allegro non troppo

External link

- [http://www.shostakovich.com/may2002.html London Shostakovich Orchestra] Symphony No. 07 (Shostakovich) Category:Saint Petersburg culture ja:交響曲第7番 (ショスタコーヴィチ)

Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich (Russian: , Dmitrij Dmitrievič Šostakovič) (September 12, 1906 (OS)/September 25, 1906 (NS) – August 9, 1975) was a Russian composer of the Soviet period. He had a troubled relationship with the government, which included two official denunciations of his music in 1936 and 1948; in public however he remained loyal, joining the party in 1960 and serving in the Supreme Soviet. Since his death, his response to life in the USSR has been the subject of political and musical controversy, with debate over the extent to which he may have been a secret dissident. After an initial avant-garde period, Shostakovich wrote primarily in the romantic idiom, drawing heavily on the influence of Mahler. However he combined this with atonality and on occasion even tone rows. His music frequently includes sharp contrasts and elements of the grotesque. His greatest works are generally considered to be his cycles of symphonies and string quartets, fifteen of each; other works include operas, six concertos and a large quantity of film music. Laurel Fay concludes in Grove that;

"Amid the conflicting pressures of official requirements, the mass suffering of his fellow countrymen, and his personal ideals of humanitarian and public service, he succeeded in forging a musical language of colossal emotional power."

Grove

Life

Early life

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Shostakovich was a child prodigy as both a pianist and composer. His family seems to have been politically liberal and tolerant (one of his uncles was a Bolshevik, but the family also sheltered far-right extremists). In 1918, he wrote a funeral march in memory of two leaders of the Kadet party, murdered by Bolshevik sailors. In 1922, he was allowed to enter the Petrograd Conservatory, then headed by Alexander Glazunov. However, he suffered for his perceived lack of political zeal, and initially failed his exam in Marxist methodology in 1926. His first major musical achievement was the First Symphony (1925), written as his graduation piece. After graduation, he initially embarked on a dual career as a concert pianist and composer, but his dry style of playing (Fay comments on his "emotional restraint" and "riveting rhythmic drive") was often unappreciated. He nevertheless won an "honorable mention" at the 1927 Warsaw International Piano Competition; after the competition, Shostakovich met the conductor Bruno Walter, who was so impressed by the composer's First Symphony that he conducted the premiere in Berlin later that year. After that, Shostakovich concentrated on composing music and soon limited performances primarily to those of his own works. In 1927 he wrote his Second Symphony (subtitled To October). While writing the symphony, he also began his satirical opera The Nose, based on the story by Gogol. In 1929, the opera was criticised as "formalist" by RAPM, the Stalinist musicians' organisation, and it opened to generally poor reviews in 1930. 1927 also marked the beginning of the composer's relationship with Ivan Sollertinsky, who remained his closest friend until the latter's death in 1944. Sollertinsky introduced Shostakovich to the music of Gustav Mahler, which had a strong influence on his music from the Fourth Symphony onwards. 1932 saw his open marriage to his first wife, Nina Varzar. Initial difficulties led to divorce proceedings in 1935, but the couple soon reunited. 1935 and Rodchenko rehearsing Mayakovsky's play The Bedbug]] In the late 1920s and early 1930s he worked at TRAM, a proletarian youth theatre. Although he did little work in this post, it shielded him from ideological attack. Much of this period was spent writing his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District; it was first performed in 1934 and was immediately successful.

First denunciation

In 1936 Shostakovich fell from grace. The year began with a series of attacks on him in Pravda, in particular a famous article entitled Muddle Instead of Music. The campaign was instigated by Stalin and condemned Lady Macbeth as formalist; consequently, commissions began to dry up, and his income fell by about three quarters. The Fourth Symphony entered rehearsals, but the political climate made performance impossible. It was not performed until 1961, but Shostakovich did not repudiate the work: it retained its designation as his fourth symphony. More widely, 1936 marked the beginning of the Great Terror, in which many of the composer's friends and relatives were imprisoned or killed. His only consolation in this period was the birth of his daughter Galina in 1936; his son Maxim Shostakovich was born two years later. The composer's response to his denunciation was the Fifth Symphony of 1937, which is musically conservative and not overtly political, either for or against the regime. It was a success, and is still one of his most popular works. Notably, it is at this time that Shostakovich composed the first of his string quartets. His chamber works allowed him to experiment and express ideas which would have been unacceptable in his more public symphonic pieces. In September 1937, he began to teach composition at the Conservatory, which provided some financial security but interfered with his own creative work.

War

On the outbreak of war between Russia and Germany in 1941, Shostakovich initially remained in Leningrad during the siege, writing his Seventh Symphony. In October 1941, the composer and his family were evacuated to Kuybishev (now Samara), where the work was completed. It was adopted as a symbol of Russian resistance both in the USSR and in the West. In spring 1943 the family moved to Moscow. The Eighth Symphony of that year is a long and dark work, which proved to be too dark for the authorities. It was soon banned until 1960. Shostakovich continued to compose chamber music, notably his Second Piano Trio (Op. 67), dedicated to the memory of Sollertinsky, with a bitter-sweet, Jewish themed totentanz finale.

Second denunciation

In 1948 Shostakovich was again denounced for formalism in the Zhdanov decree. Most of his works were banned, he was forced publicly to repent, and his family had privileges withdrawn. Yuri Lyubimov says that at this time "he waited for his arrest at night out on the landing by the lift, so that at least his family wouldn't be disturbed". In the next few years his compositions were divided into film music to pay the rent, official works aimed at securing official rehabilitation, and serious works "for the desk drawer". These latter included the Violin Concerto No. 1 and the song cycle From Jewish Folk Poetry. There is some dispute over whether he realised the dangers of writing the latter. Laurel Fay has argued that he was attempting to conform with official policy by adopting folk song as his inspiration; on the other hand it was written at a time when the post-war anti-Semitic campaign was already underway, and Shostakovich had close ties with some of those affected. The restrictions on Shostakovich's music and living arrangements were eased in 1949, in order to secure his participation in a delegation of Soviet notables to the U.S. That year he also wrote his cantata Song of the Forests, which praised Stalin as the "great gardener". In 1951 the composer was made a deputy to the Supreme Soviet. Stalin's death in 1953 was the biggest step towards Shostakovich's official rehabilitation. This was marked by his Tenth Symphony. The symphony contains a number of musical quotations and codes (notably the DSCH and Elmira motifs), the meaning of which is still debated. It ranks alongside the Fifth as one of his most popular works. 1953 also saw a stream of premieres of the "desk drawer" works. During the forties and fifties Shostakovich had close relationships with two of his pupils: Galina Ustvolskaya and Elmira Nazirova. He taught Ustvolskaya from 1937 to 1947. The nature of their relationship is far from clear: Mstislav Rostropovich described it as "tender" and Ustvolskaya claimed in a 1995 interview that she rejected a proposal from him in the fifties. However, in the same interview, Ustvolskaya's friend, Viktor Suslin, said that she had been "deeply disappointed" in him by the time of her graduation in 1947. The relationship with Nazirova seems to have been one-sided, expressed largely through his letters to her, and can be dated to around 1953 to 1956. In the background to all this remained Shostakovich's first, open marriage to Nina Varzar until her death in 1954. He married his second wife, Margarita Kainova, in 1956; the couple proved ill-matched, and divorced three years later.

Joining the Party

1960 marked another turning point in Shostakovich's life: his joining of the Communist Party. This event has been interpreted variously as a show of commitment, a mark of cowardice, or as having been forced. On the one hand, the apparat was undoubtedly less repressive than it had been prior to Stalin's death. On the other, his son recalled that the event reduced Shostakovich to tears, and he later told his wife Irina that he had been blackmailed. Lev Lebedinsky has said that the composer was suicidal. Around this time, his health also began to deteriorate. Shostakovich's musical response to these personal crises was the Eighth String Quartet, which like the Tenth Symphony incorporates quotations and his musical monogram. Eighth String Quartet In 1962 he married for the third time, to Irina Supinskaya. In a letter to his friend Isaak Glikman, he wrote that, "her only defect is that she is 27 years old. In all other respects she is splendid: clever, cheerful, straightforward and very likeable". In November Shostakovich made his only venture into conducting, conducting a couple of his own works in Gorky: otherwise he declined to conduct, giving nerves and ill-health as his reasons. That year saw Shostakovich again turn to the subject of anti-Semitism in his Thirteenth Symphony (subtitled Babi Yar). The symphony sets a number of poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, the first of which commemorates a massacre of the Jews during the Second World War. Opinions are divided as to how great a risk this was: the poem had been published in Soviet media, and was not banned, but it remained controversial. After the symphony's premiere, Yevtushenko was forced to add a stanza to his poem claiming that Russians and Ukrainians died alongside the Jews at Babi Yar.

Later life

In later life, Shostakovich suffered from chronic ill-health. From 1958 he suffered from a debilitating condition which particularly affected his right hand, forcing him to give up piano playing: in 1965 this was diagnosed as polio, while the following year he suffered a heart attack. Most of his later works — the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Symphonies, and the late quartets — are dark and introspective. They have attracted much critical favour in the west, as they do not pose the same problems of interpretation as the earlier, more public pieces. Shostakovich died of lung cancer on August 9, 1975 and was interred in the Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow, Russia. His son Maxim Shostakovich, a pianist and conductor, was the dedicatee and first performer of some of his father's works.Shostakovich himself left behind several recordings of his own piano works, while other noted interpreters of his music include his friends Emil Gilels, Mstislav Rostropovich, Tatiana Nikolayeva, and Maria Yudina. Shostakovich's musical influence on later composers has been relatively slight, although Alfred Schnittke has taken up his eclecticism, and his contrasts between the dynamic and the static; his influence can also be seen in some Nordic composers, such as Kalevi Aho and Lars-Erik Larsson. His conservative idiom has however grown increasingly popular with audiences, as the avant-garde has declined in influence and information about his political views has come out. According to Grove, he has now become, "the most popular composer of serious art music of the middle years of the 20th century".

Works

For a complete list, see List of compositions by Dmitri Shostakovich (by Opus number). See also: :Category:Compositions by Dmitri Shostakovich (thematical selection of works by Shostakovich). Shostakovich's works are broadly tonal and in the Romantic tradition, but with elements of atonality and chromaticism. In some of his later works (e.g. the Twelfth Quartet), he made use of tone rows. His output is dominated by his cycles of symphonies and string quartets, fifteen of each. The symphonies are distributed fairly evenly throughout his career, while the quartets are concentrated towards the latter part. Among the most popular are the Fifth and Tenth Symphonies and the Eighth and Fifteenth Quartets. Other works include the operas Lady Macbeth, The Nose and the unfinished The Gamblers; six concertos (two each for piano, violin and cello); and a large quantity of film music. Shostakovich's music shows the influence of many of the composers he most admired: Bach in his fugues and passacaglias; Beethoven in the late quartets; Mahler in the symphonies and Berg in his use of musical codes and quotations. Among Russian composers, he particularly admired Modest Mussorgsky, whose opera Boris Godunov he orchestrated in the early 1940s; Mussorgsky's influence is most prominent in the wintry scenes of Lady Macbeth and the 12th symphony, as well as in his satirical works such as Rayok. Prokofiev's influence is most apparent in the earlier piano works, such as the first sonata and first concerto. Many commentators have noted the disjunction between the experimental works before the 1936 denunciation and the more conservative ones which followed; the composer told Flora Litvinova, "without 'Party guidance'... I would have displayed more brilliance, used more sarcasm, I could have revealed my ideas openly instead of having to resort to camouflage". Key works of the earlier period are the first symphony, which combined the academicism of the conservatory with his progressive inclinations; The Nose ("The most uncompromisingly modernist of all his stage-works"); Lady Macbeth, which precipitated the denunciation; and the fourth symphony, described by Grove as, "a colossal synthesis of Shostakovich's musical development to date". The fourth symphony was also the first in which the influence of Mahler came to the fore, prefiguring the route Shotakovich was to take to secure his rehabilitation. The other early symphonies are less successful, the composer himself saying that, "of the fifteen, two are quite unworthy: the second and the third". In the years after 1936, Shostakovich's symphonic works were outwardly musically conservative, regardless of any subversive political content. However, during this time he turned increasingly to chamber works, "a field where he could compose with maximum seriousness and minimum external pressure". While these were also largely tonal, they did give Shostakovich an outlet for the darker content which was not welcomed in his more public works. This is most apparent in the late chamber works, which portray a "world of purgatorial numbness"; in some of these he included the use of tone rows, although he treated these as melodic themes rather than serially. Vocal works are also a prominent feature of his late output, setting texts often concerned with love, death and art. One prominent criticism of Shostakovich has been that his symphonic work in particular is, in the words of Shostakovich scholar Gerard McBurney, "derivative, trashy, empty and second-hand". The view has been expressed both by western figures such as Pierre Boulez ("I think of Shostakovich as the second, or even third pressing of Mahler") and by Soviet figures such as Filipp Gershkovich, who called Shostakovich, "a hack in a trance". A related complaint is that he is vulgar and strident: Stravinsky wrote of Lady Macbeth being, "brutally hammering... and monotonous", while the famous Pravda editorial Muddle Instead of Music said of the same work, "All is coarse, primitive and vulgar. The music quacks, grunts and growls". It is certainly true that Shostakovich borrows extensively from the material and styles both of earlier composers and of popular music, with the shrillness of Mahler and the vulgarity of "low" music prominent influences. McBurney traces this to the avant-garde artistic circles of the early Soviet period among which Shostakovich moved early in his career, and argues that these borrowings were a deliberate technique to allow him to create, "patterns of contrast, repetition, exaggeration" which gave his music the large-scale structure it required.

Character

avant-garde Shostakovich was in many ways an obsessive man: according to his daughter he was "obsessed with cleanliness"; he synchronised the clocks in his apartment; he regularly sent cards to himself to test how well the postal service was working. Wilson's Shostakovich: A Life Remembered indexes 26 references to his nervousness. Even as a young man, Mikhail Druskin remembers that the composer was "fragile and nervously agile". Yuri Lyubimov comments that "The fact that he was more vulnerable and receptive than other people was no doubt an important feature of his genius". In later life, Krzysztof Meyer recalled, "his face was a bag of tics and grimaces". In his lighter moods, sport was one of his main recreations, although he preferred spectating or umpiring to participating (he was a qualified football referee). He also enjoyed playing card games, particularly Patience. Both light and dark sides of his character were evident in his fondness for satirical writers such as Gogol, Chekhov and Mikhail Zoshchenko. The influence of the latter in particular is evident in his letters, which include wry parodies of Soviet officialese. Zoshchenko himself noted the contradictions in the composer's character: "he is ... frail, fragile, withdrawn, an infinitely diret, pure child... [but he is also] hard, acid, extremely intelligent, strong perhaps, despotic and not altogether good-natured (although cerebrally good-natured)". He was diffident by nature: Flora Litvinova has said he was "completely incapable of saying 'No' to anybody". This meant he was easily persuaded to sign official statements, including a denunciation of Andrei Sakharov in 1973; on the other hand he was willing to try to help constituents in his capacities as chairman of the Composers' Union and Deputy to the Supreme Soviet. Oleg Prokofiev commented that "he tried to help so many people that... less and less attention was paid to his pleas".

Orthodoxy and revisionism

Shostakovich's response to official criticism is disputed. It is clear that outwardly he conformed with the state, reading speeches and putting his name to articles expressing the government line. It is also generally agreed that he disliked the regime, a view confirmed by his family, his letters to Isaak Glikman, and the satirical cantata "Rayok", which ridiculed the "anti-formalist" campaign and was kept hidden until after his death. What is uncertain is the extent to which Shostakovich expressed his opposition to the state in his other music. The revisionist view was put forth by Solomon Volkov in the 1979 book Testimony, which was claimed to be Shostakovich's memoirs dictated to Volkov. The book claimed that many of the composer's works contained coded anti-government messages. It is known that he incorporated many quotations and motifs in his work, most notably his signature DSCH theme. His longtime collaborator Yevgeny Mravinsky said that "Shostakovich very often explained his intentions with very specific images and connotations". The revisionist perspective has subsequently been supported by his children, Maxim and Galina, and many Russian musicians. More recently, Volkov has argued that Shostakovich adopted the role of the yurodivy or holy fool in his relations with the government. His widow Irina supports the general revisionist thesis but denies the authenticity of Testimony. Other prominent revisionists are Ian MacDonald, whose book The New Shostakovich put forward more interpretations of his music, and Elizabeth Wilson, whose Shostakovich: A Life Remembered provides testimony from many of the composer's acquaintances. Many musicians and scholars (notably Laurel Fay and Richard Taruskin) contest the authenticity (and debate the significance) of Testimony, alleging that Volkov compiled it from a combination of recycled articles, gossip, and possibly some information direct from the composer. More broadly, they argue that the significance of Shostakovich is in his music rather than his life, and that to seek political messages in the music detracts from, rather than enhances, its artistic value.

Notes

# Grove p. 280. # Elizabeth Wilson, Shostakovich: A Life Remembered p. 183. # Allan Ho and Dmitry Feofanov, Shostakovich Reconsidered p. 390. # Manashir Yakubov, programme notes for the 1998 Shostakovich seasons at the Barbican, London). # Wilson p. 340. # Dmitri Shostakovich and Isaak Glikman, Story of a Friendship: The Letters of Dmitry Shostakovich to Isaak Glikman p. 102. # Finnish Music Information Centre, [http://www.fimic.fi/fimic/fimic.nsf/mainframe?readform&7118B64EF463A14FC22566A5003B5FB7 Kalevi Aho in Profile] Accessed 18 November 2005. # Musicweb International, [http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Aug03/Larsson_concertinos.htm Lars-Erik Larsson] Accessed 18 November 2005. # Grove p. 300. # Laurel Fay, Shostakovich: A Life pp. 119, 165, 224. # Grove pp. 288, 290. # Wilson p. 426. # Grove p. 289. # Glikman p. 315. # Grove p. 290. # Grove p. 294. # Grove p. 300. # Gerard McBurney, [http://www.geocities.com/kuala_bear/articles/mcburney.html Whose Shostakovich?] Accessed 18 November 2005. # Michael Ardov,Memories of Shostakovich p. 139. # Wilson pp. 41–45. # Wilson p. 183. # Wilson p. 462. # Quoted in Fay, p. 121. # Wilson p. 162. # Wilson p. 40. # Wilson p. 139.

Media

Listening

- [http://www.epitonic.com/artists/dimitrishostakovich.html Epitonic.com: Dimitri Shostakovich] featuring tracks from Written With The Heart's Blood
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/discoveringmusic/audioarchive.shtml Archive of BBC's "Discovering Music" radio show], featuring Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5, Symphony No. 10, String Quartet No. 8, and Cello Concerto No. 1.
- [http://www.classiccat.net/shostakovich_d/index.htm Classic Cat - Dimitri Shostakovich]: An overview of free downloadable Shostakovich music on the internet by Classic Cat - the free classical music directory.
- [http://www.jmc.co.il/livecon2003/chamber3.html The Aviv String Quartet and Guest]: String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, op. 110.
- [http://www.classicalarchives.com/main/s.html#SHOSTAKOVICH Various pieces of him in streaming media by Classical Music Archives]
- [http://www.violinmp3.com/ ViolinMP3.com - Streaming webcasts of Piano Quintet Op.52 and Romances on Verses by Alexander Blok Op.127]

References

- Ardov, Michael (2004). Memories of Shostakovich. Short Books. ISBN 190409564X.
- Fay, Laurel (2001). Dmitri Shostakovich in Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Macmillan Publishers.
- Fay, Laurel (1999). Shostakovich: A Life. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195134389.
- Ho, Allan and Feofanov, Dmitry (1998). Shostakovich Reconsidered. Toccata Press. ISBN 0907689566.
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- MacDonald, Ian (1990). The New Shostakovich. Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1555530893.
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- Shostakovich, Dmitri and Glikman, Isaak (2001). Story of a Friendship: The Letters of Dmitry Shostakovich to Isaak Glikman. Cornell Univ Press. ISBN 0801439795.
- Shostakovich, Dmitri and Volkov, Solomon (2000). Testimony (7th edition). Proscenium. ISBN 0879100214.
- Volkov, Solomon (2004). Shostakovich and Stalin: The Extraordinary Relationship Between the Great Composer and the Brutal Dictator. Knopf. ISBN 0375410821.
- Wilson, Elizabeth (1994). Shostakovich: A Life Remembered. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691044651.
- Shostakovich, Dmitri Shostakovich, Dmitri Shostakovich, Dmitri Shostakovich, Dmitri Shostakovich, Dmitri Shostakovich, Dmitri Shostakovich, Dmitri Shostakovich, Dmitri Shostakovich, Dmitri Shostakovich, Dmitri ja:ドミトリ・ショスタコーヴィチ th:ดิมิทริ โชสตาโควิช

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and Petrograd (Петрогра́д, 1914–1924), is a city located in Northwestern Russia on the delta of the river Neva at the east end of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. Founded by Tsar Peter the Great in 1703 as a "window to Europe", it served thenceforth as the capital of the country during the imperial period of its history until 1918. With about 4.7 million inhabitants (2002), today it is Russia's second largest city, Europe's fourth largest city, a major European cultural center and the most important Russian Baltic Sea port. St. Petersburg is the northernmost city in the world with over one million people. The city centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site; the city, which for over 300 years was Russia's political and cultural centre, is impressive even today and to honor it people often call it "the Northern Capital" (северная столица, severnaya stolitsa). St. Petersburg is the administrative center of the Leningrad Oblast (while being a separate region) and the Northwestern Federal District (Северо-западный федеральный округ, Severo-zapadnyi federal'nyi okrug).

Landmarks and tourist attractions

The majestic appearance of St. Petersburg is achieved through a variety of architectural details including long, straight boulevards, vast spaces, gardens and parks, decorative wrought-iron fences, monuments and decorative sculptures. The Neva River itself, together with its many canals and their granite embankments and bridges, gives the city a unique and striking ambience. These bodies of water led to St. Petersburg being given the name of "Venice of the North". Venice St. Petersburg's position near the Arctic Circle, on the same latitude as nearby Helsinki, Stockholm and Oslo (60° N), causes twilight to last all night in May, June and July. This celebrated phenomenon is known as the "white nights". The white nights are closely linked to another attraction — the nine drawbridges spanning the Neva. Tourists flock to see the bridges drawn and lowered again at night to allow shipping to pass through the city. The historical center of St. Petersburg, sometimes called the outdoor museum of Neoclassicism, was the first Russian patrimony inscribed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

The palaces

St. Petersburg has been known as the city of palaces. One of the earliest of these is the Summer Palace, a modest house built for Peter I in the Summer Garden (1710–1714). Much more imposing are the baroque residences of his associates, such as the Kikin Hall and the Menshikov Palace on the Neva Embankment, constructed from designs by Domenico Trezzini over the years 1710 to 1716. A residence adjacent to the Menshikov palace was redesigned for Peter II and now houses the State University. Probably the most illustrious of imperial palaces is the baroque Winter Palace (1754–1762), a huge building with dazzlingly luxurious interiors, now housing the Hermitage Museum. The same architect, Bartolomeo Rastrelli, was also responsible for three residences in the vicinity of the Nevsky Prospekt: the Stroganov palace (1752–1754, now a wax museum), the Vorontsov palace (1749–1757, now a military school), and the Anichkov palace (1741–1750, many times rebuilt, now a palace for children). Other baroque palaces include the Sheremetev house on the Fontanka embankment (also called the Fountain House), and the Beloselsky-Belozersky palace (1846–1848) on the Nevsky Prospekt, formerly a residence of the Grand Duke Sergey Alexandrovich. Fontanka at right.]] Of Neoclassical palaces, the foremost is St Michael's (or Engineers') Castle, constructed for Emperor Paul in 1797–1801 to replace the earlier Summer Palace. The Tauride palace of Prince Potemkin (1783–1789), situated nearby, used to be a seat of the first Russian parliament. Just to the left from the Hermitage buildings is the Marble Palace, commissioned by Count Orlov and built in 1768–1785 from various sorts of marble to a Neoclassical design by Antonio Rinaldi. The Michael Palace (1819–1825), famed for its opulent interiors and named after its first lodger, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, now houses the Russian Museum. Also built in the Neoclassical style are the Yusupov palace (the 1790s), where Rasputin was killed; the Razumovsky palace (1762–1766); the Shuvalov palace (1830–1838); and the Yelagin Palace (1818–1822), a sumptuous summer dacha of the imperial family, situated on the Yelagin Island. The last important residences were built for Nicholas I's children: the Maria Palace (1839–1844), located just opposite St Isaac's Cathedral and housing a city council, the Nicholas palace (1853–61), and the New Michael Palace (1857-1861). city council

The churches

The church buildings mostly belong to the Russian government. The largest church in the city is St Isaac's Cathedral (1818–1858), one of the biggest domed buildings in the world, constructed for 40 years under supervision of its architect, Auguste de Montferrand. Another magnificent church in the Empire style is the Kazan Cathedral (1801–1811), situated on the Nevsky Prospekt and modelled after St Peter's, Vatican. No tourist can miss the Church of the Savior on Blood (1883–1907), a gorgeous monument in the old Russian style which marks the spot of Alexander II's assassination. As Peter the Great forbade building onion spires, this church is exceptional in the city with its onion-shaped tower. The Peter and Paul Cathedral (1712–1732), a long-time symbol of the city, contains the sepulchres of Peter the Great and other Russian emperors. Apart from these four principal cathedrals, which operate today primarily as museums, there are numerous other churches. Of baroque structures, the grandest is the white-and-blue Smolny Cathedral (1748–1764), a striking design by Bartolomeo Rastrelli, but never completed. It is followed by the [http://img-2004-04.photosight.ru/22/468550.jpg Naval Cathedral] of St Nicholas (1753–1762), a lofty structure dedicated to the Russian Navy, the outside being covered with plaques to sailors lost at sea. The church of Sts Simeon and Anna (1731–1734), St Sampson Cathedral (1728–1740), St Pantaleon church (1735–1739), and St Andrew Cathedral (1764–1780) are all worth mentioning. plaque in Russia.]] The Neoclassical churches are too numerous to count. Many of them are intended to dominate vast squares, like St. Vladimir's Cathedral (1769–1789), not to be confused with the church of Our Lady of Vladimir (1761–1783). The Transfiguration (1827–29) and the Trinity Cathedrals (1828–1835) were both designed by Vasily Stasov. Smaller churches include the Konyushennaya (1816–1823), also by Stasov, the "Easter Cake" church (1785–1787), noted for its droll appearance, St Catherine church on the Vasilievsky Island (1768–1771), and numerous non-Orthodox churches on the Nevsky Prospekt. The Alexander Nevsky Monastery, intended to house the relics of St Alexander Nevsky, contains two cathedrals and several smaller churches in various styles. It is also remarkable for the Tikhvin Cemetery, where many notable Russians are buried. The city has two small churches in the early Gothic Revival style, those of St John the Baptist (1776–1781) and the Chesmenskaya (1777–1780), both designed by Yury Velten. The late 19th-century and early 20th-century temples are all constructed from Russian Revival or Byzantine Revival designs. The cathedral mosque (1909–1920), reputedly the largest in Europe, is built after the model of Timurid temples in Samarkand. A Buddhist temple funded by subscriptions of the Dalai Lama and Russian and Mongolian Buddhists was completed in 1914. Together with its neighboring guesthouse and hospital it was a valuable resource to transient Buryats and Kalmyks during World War I. It survived until 1935 when the lamas passed into the Gulag and the temple and its grounds used for secular purposes. It reopened in 1991.

Public buildings

Kalmyk on the Neva river]] The Peter and Paul Fortress, formerly a political prison, occupies a dominant position in the center of the city. A boardwalk was built along a portion of the fortress wall, giving visitors a clear view of the city across the river to the south. On the other bank of the Neva, the spit of the Vasilievsky island is graced by the former Bourse building (1805–1810), reminiscent of a classic Greek temple, with two great Rostral Columns, decorated with ships' prows, standing in front of it. Undoubtedly the most famous of St. Petersburg's museums is the Hermitage, one of the world's largest and richest collections of Western European art. Its vast holdings were originally exhibited in the Greek Revival building (1838–1852) by Leo von Klenze, now called the New Hermitage. But the first Russian museum was established by Peter the Great in the Kunstkammer, erected in 1718–1734 on the opposite bank of the Neva River and formerly a home to the Russian Academy of Sciences. Other popular tourist destinations include the Museum of Applied Arts (1885–1895), the Ethnography Museum (1900–1911), the Suvorov Museum of Military History (1901–1904), and the Political History Museum (1904–06). Suvorov The imperial government institutions were housed in the General Staff building on the Palace Square (1820–1827), with a huge triumphal arch in the centre, the Senate and Synod buildings on the Senate Square (1827–1843), the Imperial Cabinet (1803–1805) on the Nevsky Prospekt, the Assignation Bank (1783–1790), the Customs Office (1829–1832), and the splendid Admiralty (1806–1823), one of the city's most conspicuous landmarks. Most of these buildings were designed either by Giacomo Quarenghi, or by Carlo Rossi. The former imperial capital is rich in educational institutions. Saint Petersburg State University occupies several buildings on the Vasilievsky Island, including the spacious baroque edifice of Twelve Collegia (1722–1744). The Academy of Arts (1764–1788), an exceedingly handsome structure, overlooks a quayside adorned with genuine Egyptian griffins and sphinxes. The Smolny Institute (1806–1808), originally the first school for Russian women, was picked up by Lenin as his headquarters during the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Catherine Institute (1804–1807), also designed by Quarenghi, has been affiliated with the Russian National Library. Another Neoclassical building by Quarenghi, a roomy Horse Guards Riding School (1804–1807), was recently designated the Central Exhibition Hall. Some of the city shops and storehouses are landmarks in their own right. For example, the monumental New Holland Arch (1779–1787) and adjacent walls of the New Holland isle are occupied by commercial enterprises. The Merchant Court on the Nevsky Prospekt (1761–1785), also designed by Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe, houses a large supermarket, several coffee bars and a metro station. Nearby is the Circular Market, erected in 1785–1790. Other department stores, built in the majestic Art Nouveau style, line the Nevsky Prospekt and include the Eliseev emporium, the House of Books, and the Passage. St Petersburg is a home to many theatres. The Alexandrine Theatre, built in 1828–1832 by Carlo Rossi, was named after the wife of Nicholas I. Much more famous outside Russia is the Mariinsky Theatre (formerly known as the Kirov Theatre of Opera and Ballet), which has been styled the capital of the world ballet. The city conservatory, the first in Russia, was opened in 1862 and bears the name of Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov; its alumni include Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich.

Public monuments

Shostakovich Probably the most familiar symbol of St Petersburg is the equestrian statue of Peter the Great, installed in 1782 on the Senate Square. Considered the greatest masterpiece of the French-born Etienne Maurice Falconet, the statue figures prominently in the Russian literature under the name of the Bronze Horseman. http://www.sppiter.narod.ru/index1.html Bronze Horseman poem The Palace Square is dominated by the unique Alexander Column (1830–1834), the tallest of its kind in the world and so nicely set that no attachment to the base is needed. A striking monument to Generalissimo Suvorov, represented as a youthful god of war, was erected in 1801 on the Field of Mars, formerly used for military parades and popular festivities. St Isaac's Square is graced by a monument to Nicholas I, which was spared by Bolshevik authorities from destruction as the only equestrian statue in the world with merely two support points (the rear feet of the horse). The public monuments of St Petersburg also include the circular statue of Catherine II on the Nevsky Prospekt, fine horse statues on the Anichkov bridge, a Rodin-like equestrian statue of Alexander III, and the Tercentenary monument presented by France in 2003 and installed on the Sennaya Square. Some of the most important events in the city's history are represented by particular monuments. The Russian victory over Napoleon, for example, was commemorated with two triumphal arches, one at the Narva, another at the Moscow gates. Following this tradition, the Piskarevskoye Cemetery was opened in 1960 as a monument to the victims of the 900-Day Siege.

Suburbs

St Petersburg is surrounded with imperial residences, some of which were inscribed in the World Heritage list together with the city. These include Peterhof, with the Grand Peterhof Palace and glorious fountain cascades; Tsarskoe Selo, with the baroque Catherine Palace and the neoclassical Alexander Palace; and Pavlovsk, which contains a domed palace of Emperor Paul (1782–1786) and one of the largest English-style parks in Europe. Much of Peterhof and Tsarskoe Selo had to be restored after being dynamited by the retreating Germans in 1944. Other imperial residences have yet to be revived to their former glory. Gatchina, lying 45 km southwest of St Petersburg, retains a royal castle with 600 rooms surrounded by a park. Oranienbaum, founded by Prince Menshikov, features his spacious baroque residence and the sumptuously decorated Chinese palace. Strelna has a hunting lodge of Peter the Great and the reconstructed [http://www.konstantinpalace.com/ Constantine Palace], used for official summits of the Russian president with foreign leaders. Other notable suburbs are Shlisselburg, with a medieval fortress, and Kronstadt, with its 19th-century fortifications and naval monuments.

History

Kronstadt, Peter the Great envisaged boats and coracles as principal means of transport in his city of canals. No permanent bridges across the Neva were allowed until 1850.]] Tsar Peter the Great founded the city on May 27 (May 16, Old Style), 1703 after reconquering the Ingrian land from Sweden. He named it after his patron saint, the apostle Saint Peter. The original name of SanktPiterburh was actually Dutch; Peter had lived and studied in that country for some time. The Swedish fortress of Nyen and later Nöteborg had formerly occupied the site, in the marshlands where the river Neva drains into the Gulf of Finland. Since construction began during a time of war, the new city's first building was a fortification. Known today as the Peter and Paul Fortress, it originally also bore the name of SanktPiterburh. It was laid down on Zaiachiy (Hare's) Island, just off the right bank of the Neva, a couple of miles inland from the Gulf. The marshland was drained and the city spread outward from the fortress under the supervision of German engineers whom Peter had invited to Russia. Peter forbade the construction of stone buildings in all of Russia outside of St. Petersburg, so that all stonemasons would come to help build the new city. Serfs provided most of the labor for the project. According to one estimate, 30,000 died. The first person to build a house in Saint Petersburg was Cornelis Cruys, commander of the Russian Baltic Navy. St. Petersburg was founded to become the new capital of Russia. By virtue of its position on an arm of the Baltic Sea, it was called by Pushkin a "window on the West". Russia would be a major British trading partner for years to come. It was also a base for Peter's navy, protected by the island fortress of Kronstadt, built soon after the city. In the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, Russia's elite built lavishly in the city, leaving many palaces that survive to this day. But the city also suffered from terrible floods, one of which was described by Pushkin in his Bronze Horseman. Bronze Horseman.]] Alexander II's emancipation of the serfs (1861) caused the influx of large numbers of poor into the city. Tenements were erected on the outskirts, and nascent industry sprang up. By the end of the century, St Petersburg had grown up into one of the largest industrial hubs in Europe. With the growth of industry, radical movements were also astir. Socialist organizations were responsible for the assassinations of many royal officials, including that of Alexander II in 1881. The Revolution of 1905 began here and spread rapidly into the provinces. During World War I, the name Sankt Peterburg was seen to be too German and, on the initiative of Tsar Nicholas II, the city was renamed Petrograd on August 31 (August 18, Old Style), 1914. 1917 saw the beginnings of the Russian Revolution. The first step (the February Revolution) was the removal of the Tsarist government and the establishment of two centers of political power, the Provisional government and the Petrograd Soviet. The Provisional government was overthrown in the October Revolution, and the Russian Civil War broke out. The city's proximity to anti-revolutionary armies, and generally unstable political climate, forced Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin to flee to Russia's historic former capital at Moscow on March 5 1918. The move may have been intended as temporary (it was certainly portrayed as such), but Moscow has remained the capital ever since. On January 24 1924, three days after Lenin's death, Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honor. The central committee's reason for renaming the city again was that Lenin had led the October revolution. Deeper reasons existed at the level of political symbolism: Saint Petersburg had stood as the head of the Tsarist empire. After Moscow it was the largest city and the change gave great prestige to Lenin. The renaming to Leningrad emphatically symbolised the upheaval that had occurred to the social and political system. The government's removal to Moscow caused a reversal of the mass immigration of the latter 19th century. The benefits of capital status had left the city. Petrograd's population in 1920 was a third of what it had been in 1915 (see table below). During World War II, Leningrad was surrounded and besieged by the German Wehrmacht in the Siege of Leningrad from September 8 1941, until January 27 1944, a total of twenty-nine months. A "Road of Life" was established over Lake Ladoga (frozen for a large part of the year), but it was open to airstrikes; only one out of three supply trucks that embarked on the journey reached its destination. Another route was opened on January 18, 1943 after the Red Army had succeeded in securing a narrow break-through of the Wehrmacht encirclement of the city. Some 800,000 of the city's 3,000,000 inhabitants are estimated to have perished. For the heroic tenacity of the city's population, Leningrad became the first Soviet city to be awarded the title Hero City. Hero City According to some historians, Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin delayed the breaking of the siege and stymied the evacuation of the city with the intention of letting its intelligentsia perish at the hands of the Germans. Many of those Leningraders who were evacuated to distant corners of the Soviet Union never returned to their home city. The war damaged the city and killed off many of those old Petersburgers who had not fled after the revolution and did not perish in the mass purges before the war. Nonetheless, Leningrad and many of its suburbs were rebuilt over the following decades to the old drawings. Though changes in the social fabric were more permanent, the city remained an intellectual and arts centre. After the collapse of the Soviet Union on September 6, 1991, a bare majority (54%) of the population agreed to restore "the original name, Saint Petersburg"(see above). As well as the city, 39 streets, six bridges, three Saint Petersburg Metro stations and six parks were renamed. Nevertheless, some, especially older people, still use the old names and, for example, use the old addresses on letters. The name releases positive associations particularly in connection with the siege - so that on holidays even authorities call places connected with World War 2 "Hero city Leningrad". Among young people the name Leningrad seems to be a vague protest against the new society. One of the most successful bands in Russia, a Ska punk band from Saint Petersburg, called themselves Leningrad (not to be confused with Leningrad Cowboys from Finland). After a popular vote the name of the Oblast (administrative province) of which the city is the capital remained Leningrad Oblast. Leningrad Oblast

Population

According to results of the last census (October 9, 2002), St. Petersburg has 4,159,635 inhabitants. That amounts to roughly 3 per cent of the population of Russia as a whole. The average monthly salary 2003 was 6179 rubles (about 176 euros). Since it was founded, the city has seen strong social contrasts, the situation of many people hardened after the Perestroika. Beggars and old women selling what they brought from the countryside now can be seen frequently. About 15 per cent of the population lives in kommunalkas. People can only move to St. Petersburg if they can show they have a room and a job or if they are married to an inhabitant of St. Petersburg. Probably many people don't have this registration and are living thus on an illegal or semi-legal status (and they are not included in the census). The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates there are up to 16,000 children living on the street (as of 2000). Officially the city is inhabited to 89.1 per cent by Russians. 2.1 per cent Jews, 1.9 per cent Ukrainians, 1.9 per cent Belarusians follow up, as well as substantial numbers of Tatars, Uzbeks, Vepsians, Finns, and peoples from Caucasus (with many illegal immigrants). As for religions most are Russian Orthodox, while many others are atheist etc.

Population development

The following charts show the numbers of inhabitants. Until 1944 these were mostly estimates, but the figures for 1959 to 2002 come from census returns, and the figure for 2005 is an estimate. 2005

Economy

2005 The city is a major center of machine building, including power equipment, machinery, shipyards, instrument manufacture, ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy (production of aluminium alloys), chemicals, printing, and one of the major ports of the Baltic Sea. The Saint Petersburg Mint (Monetny Dvor) is apart from Goznak in Moscow the only place in Russia that mints Russian coins, medals and badges. Ford Motor Company began producing the Ford Focus automobile here in 2002. Toyota is building its plant in one of the suburbs.

Transportation

The city is a major transport hub. It is the center of the local road and railway system, and has a seaport (in the Gulf of Finland of Baltic Sea) and river ports (in the delta of Neva). It is the terminus of the Volgo-Baltic waterway which links the Baltic with the Black Sea. Saint Petersburg has regular railway connections to Helsinki, Finland via Vyborg (on the Russian side) and Kouvola and Lahti (on the Finnish side). Three beautiful, old-fashioned trains - the Sibelius, the Repin and the Tolstoi - operate exclusively on this route. The city is served by Pulkovo Airport, which carries both domestic and international flights. The Saint Petersburg Metro (subway/underground) system began operation in 1955 and now includes four lines.

Administrative divisions

:Main article: Administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg The city has numerous islands on which many historically important parts of the city are located. Vasilyevsky island is the largest of them and forms the whole Vasileostrovsky Administrative District. Petrogradskaya, Krestovsky, Yelagin, and Kamenny islands form Petrogradsky Administrative District.

Culture

Music in St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg has always been known for its high-quality cultural life. The world-famous Kirov Theater (known now by its pre-revolution name of Marinsky Theater) is home to first-class ballet and opera. St. Petersburg's Philharmonia is one of the best in Russia. St. Petersburg has also been home to the newest movements in modern music. For example, in 1972 mathematics student Boris Grebenshchikov founded the band Aquarium, an underground rock group that grew to huge popularity in the 70s and 80s. St. Petersburg was similarly home to Kino, headed by the legendary Viktor Tsoi. Today's St. Petersburg boasts many pioneering musicians. From Leningrad's Sergei Shnurov to the group Tequilajazzz.

St. Petersburg in the movies

Tequilajazzz (see also Cinema of Russia and Soviet Union) The end of the cultural predominance of St. Petersburg (and Moscow being chosen as the new capital) coincided with the dawn of film industry in Russia. Only few films achieved international acclaim and other international productions from Western countries couldn't film there. Lenfilm was the Soviet film studio based in St. Petersburg, however films that became known internationally were often based on famous literary works, such as quite a few Anna Karenina (a Russian and a French film, each of 1911; the first Western Anna Karenina has been shot in Petersburg after the end of communism) or several versions of Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot (the first one, Russian, in 1910). Several Films deal with the complex history of the city many of which have propaganda purposes. Outstanding is the film Noi Vivi (Italy, 1942, [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035130/ see noi vivi at imdb]), based on the novel We the Living by Ayn Rand, a film that comments on Italian politics by way of showing the October Revolution. Anastasia has been shot several times, famous especially the one from 1956 with Ingrid Bergman and Warner Brothers' musical (USA, 1997). Giuseppe Tornatore plans a film about the Siege of Leningrad in 2005. The Russian Ark, shot in the Winter Palace (now the Russian State Hermitage Museum), let the audience meet various real and fictional personages from 300 years of Russian history, including the present. Der Untergang was also filmed in Petersburg because of similarities of the historical city center and the center of Berlin of 1945. St. Petersburg also is seen in Interdevochka (also Интердевочка or Intergirl) by Pyotr Todorovsky in 1989 featuring impressive shots of the city. The cult comedy Irony of Fate (Cyrillic: Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром!, English title: Irony of Fate) even if mostly shot at Cheremushki, Moscow) plays in St. Petersburg (showing some very nice pictures of St. Petersburg) and pokes fun at Soviet city planning. Fiction movies are e.g. GoldenEye (1995) or the action movie Midnight in St. Petersburg (UK, 1996). Onegin (1999 featuring Liv Tyler) is based on the Pushkin poem and shows many tourist attractions. The International Film Festival in Saint Petersburg is held annually since 1993 during the white nights.

St. Petersburg in literature

1993.]] It was said that St Petersburg was the head of the Russian Empire, whereas Moscow was its heart. "The most purposeful city in the world" (as Dostoyevsky referred to it) frequently appeared to Russian writers as menacing and unhuman mechanism. The grotesque and often nightmarish image of the city is featured in Pushkin's last poems, the Petersburg stories of Gogol, the novels of Dostoyevsky, the verse of Alexander Blok and Osip Mandelshtam, and in the symbolist novel Petersburg (by Andrey Bely).

Notable people

:Main article: List of People in St. Petersburg Numerous Russian and international aristocrats, politicians, artists, and scientists were born and/or have lived in Saint Petersburg. These include many of the Russian emperors, the novelists Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Vladimir Nabokov, the composers Modest Mussorgsky, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Igor Stravinsky and Dmitry Shostakovich, the painters James McNeill Whistler and Kazimir Malevich, the scientists Leonhard Euler, Mikhail Lomonosov, Heinrich Schliemann and Alfred Nobel, the ballet dancers Vaslav Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, George Balanchine and Rudolf Nureyev, and the politicians John Quincy Adams, Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, and Vladimir Putin.

Sister Cities

- Turku (the first one, since 1953)
- Manchester (since 1962)
- Zagreb (since 1968)
- Saint Petersburg, Florida "twin city"
- Osaka (since 1979)
- Melbourne (since 1989)
- Lansing, Michigan, USA (since 1992)
- Esfahan (since 1999)
- Los Angeles
- Milan
- Debrecen

External links

- [http://www.spb.ru/eng Official web site of St. Petersburg]
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- several hundred photo albums by Peter Sobolev
- [http://www.nevsky-prospekt.com/ Many pages about St.Petersburg's archtecture and history with hundreds of images]
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- [http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/ The famous museum, the Hermitage]
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- [http://www.russialink.org.uk/charity/ non-governmental Organizations in St.Petersburg]
- [http://www.tcaup.umich.edu/stpetersburg/index.html St. Petersburg in Architecture, from University of Michigan]
- [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=59.943466,30.329819&spn=0.309849,0.473579&t=k&hl=en Satellite photo, via Google Maps]
- [http://www.reksoft.com/visitors-info/ Visitors Info] The stuff you need to know on planning a trip to Russia and St. Petersburg. Category:Cities and towns in Russia Category:Coastal cities Category:Federal cities of Russia Category:World Heritage Sites in Russia als:Sankt-Petersburg ko:상트페테르부르크 ja:サンクトペテルブルク

1942

This article is about the year. For the 1984 Capcom arcade game, see 1942 (video game). 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January

- January 1 - World War II: The term "United Nations" is first officially used to describe the Allied pact.
- January 2 - World War II: Manila is captured by Japanese forces. The Japanese Admiral stays in Solvec (owned by Charles Henry de Silva), Philippines.
- January 5 - Amy Johnson disappears in flight over River Thames estuary - assumed drowned
- January 6 - Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to have a flight go around the world.
- January 7 - World War II: Siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins
- January 11 - World War II: Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies.
- January 11 - World War II: The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur.
- January 12 - President Franklin Roosevelt creates the National War Labor Board.
- January 13 - Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car
- January 16 - Airplane crashes near Las Vegas. Dead include Carole Lombard and her mother
- January 19 - World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma.
- January 20 - World War II: Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin decide that the "final solution to the Jewish problem" is relocation, and later extermination.
- January 25 - World War II: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom
- January 26 - World War II: The first American forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.

February

- February 9
- World War II: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.
- Daylight-saving time goes into effect in the United States.
- February 11 - Operation Cerberus - Flotilla of Kriegsmarine ships dash from Brest through the English Channel to northern ports; British fail to sink any one of them
- February 15 - World War II: Singapore surrenders to Japanese forces.
- February 19
- World War II: 242 Japanese warplanes attack Darwin, Australia.
- World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066 allowing the United States military to define areas as exclusionary zones. These zones affect the Japanese on the West Coast, and Germans and Italians primarily on the East Coast.
- February 20 - Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace
- February 22 - World War II: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defense of the nation collapses.
- February 23 - Japanese submarine I-17 fires sixteen high-explosive shells toward an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, causing little damage.
- February 24 - Propaganda: The Voice of America begins broadcasting.
- February 25 - Princess Elizabeth registers for war service
- February 26 - Coal dust explosion in Honkeika mine in China - 1549 dead
- February 27 - World War II: the USS Langley, the first United States aircraft carrier, is sunk by Japanese warplanes off Java.

March

- March 9 - The Secretary of War reorganized the United States Army into three major commands - Army Ground Forces, Army Air Forces, and Services of Supply, later redesignated Army Service Forces

April-June

Army Service Forces.]]
- April 3 - World War II: Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. Bataan fell on April 9 and the Bataan Death March began.
- April 5 - Second World War: Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy Cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.
- April 9 - Second World War: Japanese Navy launches air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the country's East Coast.
- April 27 - World War II: A national plebiscite is held in Canada on the issue of conscription.
- May - first test of an undersea oil pipeline in Operation Pluto
- May 6 - World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
- May 8 - World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end. This is the first time in the naval history where two enemy fleets fought without seeing each other's fleets.
- May 8/May 9 - Second World War: On the night of 8/9 May 1942, gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebelled. Their mutiny was crushed and three of them were executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.
- 1942 - World War II: Second Battle of Kharkov - In the eastern Ukraine, the Soviet Army initiates a major offensive. During the battle the Soviets will capture the city of Kharkov from the German Army, only to be encircled and destroyed.
- May 15 - World War II: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.
- May 20 - First colored seamen taken into US Navy
- May 27 - World War II: Operation Anthropoid - assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague
- June 4 - World War II: Reinhard Heydrich dies in Prague due to the assassination by Czechoslovak paratroopers (Operation Anthropoid)
- June 4-June 7 - World War II: The Battle of Midway.
- June 7 - World War II- Japanese forces invade the Aleutian Islands. This is the first invasion of American soil in 128 years.
- June 9 - World War II: Nazis burn the Czech village of Lidice as reprisal for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich.
- June 10 - World War II: the Gestapo massacred 173 male residents of Lidice, Czechoslovakia in retaliztion for the killing of a Nazi official.
- June 12 - Holocaust: Future essayist Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
- June 13 - The United States opens its Office of War Information, a center for production of propaganda.

July

- July 1 - July 27 - World War II: the First Battle of El Alamein
- July 9 - Holocaust: Anne Frank's family goes into hiding in an attic above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.
- July 13 - World War II: German U-Boats sink three more merchant ships in Gulf of St. Lawrence.
- July 16 - Holocaust: On order from the Vichy France government headed by Pierre Laval, French police officers round-up 13,000-20,000 Jews and imprison them in the Winter Velodrome.
- July 16 - Georges Bégué and others escape from Mauzac prison camp
- July 18 - World War II: The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jets for the first time.
- July 19 - World War II: Battle of the Atlantic - German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the last U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast positions in response to an effective American convoy system.
- July 22 - Holocaust: The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begins.
- July 31 - The Oxford Committee of Famine Relief (OXFAM) founded

August-September

- August 7 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal begins - US Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with a landing on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
- August 8 - World War II: In Washington, DC, six German would-be saboteurs are executed (two others were cooperative and received life imprisonment instead).
- August 8 - Quit India resolution was passed by the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), which led to the start of a historical civil disobidience movement across India
- August 9 - Indian leader, Mohandas Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces.
- August 13-14 night - In London instruments detect a massive burst of cosmic rays
- August 16 - Polish-Jewish teacher Janusz Korczak follows a group of Jewish children into Treblinka death camp
- August 19 - World War II: The Dieppe Raid - Allied forces raid Dieppe, France.
- August 22 - World War II: Brazil declared war on Germany