Re: Koporye Fortress near St.Pete

From: Vello (vellokala_at_hot.ee)
Date: 08/18/04 

Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 05:36:36 +0300

"Andrey Frizyuk" <frizyuk@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:5534a4c5.0408171202.66133b16@posting.google.com...
> Padraig Breathnach wrote...
> > Is it not "Petrograd" to Russians? Except when it was "Leningrad"?
>
> No. As the name St.Petersburg isn't particularly poetical, Russian
> poets (Derzhavin, Pushkin, etc) invented Greeko-Slavic names for the
> capital: Petropol(is), Petrograd, Nevograd, etc. When the WWI started
> 90 years ago, there was a discussion if the name should be changed to
> Petrograd or to Nevograd. The former version proved more popular in
> official circles, because it was first used by Pushkin in "The Bronze
> Horseman". The popular nickname has always been Peter.
>
> > I spoke last night with a family member who has just come
> > back from a visit there. She tells me that it is very impressive,
> > but many of the fine buildings are in a worrying state of
> > dilapidation and, unless something is done, they might be ruins
> > in forty years.
>
> Overcentralization of the Russian state resulted in the fact that the
> capital accumulates 90% of the national finance. After the capital was
> moved to Moscow in 1918, the older city rapidly overtook Leningrad in
> population and well-being. Even now, in financial terms Petersburg is
> little more than an average oblast centre. It is sometimes compared to
> Venice, for having lost his power, its imperial edifices are slowly
> succumbing to indifference and decay.
>
> Best wishes

You are probably too pessimistic about fate of Petersburg. Today's Venice is
just small touristic object in Italy, Piter still is city no 2 in Russia.
But for centralization you are right for sure. Still I hope thing are
changing in Russia and "geopolitically" Piter stands good on western border,
close to EU trade road.

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