Restoring Piter

A current joke in St. Petersburg has it that there is just one street off Nevsky Prospekt that is not torn up by reconstruction work. But its name is being carefully guarded to protect the street from jackhammers and bulldozers.

All of St. Petersburg seems to be na remonte (under repair). Scaffolding hangs from hundreds of prominent buildings and there is a city-wide race to complete all restoration work before St. Petersburg’s tercentennial in May 2003.

This rush to restoration is a tradition with deep roots. In 1913, when the Romanov dynasty was celebrating its 300th anniversary, many of the city’s architectural and historical monuments were renovated. In Soviet times, reconstruction seemed to only be undertaken on the eve of some congress of the Communist party or a round anniversary of Lenin’s birth. As a result, for a century, much-needed restoration in St. Petersburg has been continually delayed. In the absence of an opportune anniversary, stop-gap “maintenance” of dilapidated historic landmarks had become the norm.

But the tercentennial is not just another minor anniversary. And this is, after all, the new Russian President’s hometown. So, in 2002, the Russian government allocated R2 billion (approximately $66 million) for renovation of a number of “priority” sites, including Smolny Cathedral, Sheremetiev Palace, Shuvalov Mansion and Peter and Paul Fortress. Private donors, international aid organizations and foreign governments were also successfully lobbied for financial support. As a result, a reconstruction boom has St. Petersburg firmly in its grasp.

The Peter and Paul Cathedral was built in 1733 by architect Domenico Trezzini and has since served as a necropolis for the imperial family. Its 122.5 meter tall clock tower is the highest point in St. Petersburg and is crowned by a statue of a guardian angel and a cross—a figure which is something of a symbol for the city. The angel was recently taken down for renovation, even though it had been restored just six years previous. Apparently, the 1996 renovation of the weather vane mechanism did not hold up and the gold leaf—supposed to last for 30 years—was peeling off.

Gold plating is also proceeding apace at Catherine the Great’s palace in Tsarskoye Selo. By the time of the city’s jubilee, all of the palace’s sculptured molding will be covered in gold leaf. According to Tsarskoye Selo Museum Director Ivan Sautov, President Vladimir Putin personally okayed the allocation of 140 kilograms of gold to the palace’s restoration effort.

While St. Petersburg’s facelift is being closely watched by the Kremlin, several monuments are being restored with local taxpayers’ money. The Alexander Column on Dvortsovaya Square (Palace Square) is one example of this. Raised in commemoration of the Russian army’s victory over Napoleon, the column is presently covered with scaffolding, with the promise of an April 2003 unveiling.

The nearby Chariot of Fame (Kolesnitsa Slavy) is in a more complicated situation. Installed over the Arch of the General Staff in commemoration of the Russian army’s victories in the mid-19th century, reconstruction work was begun in 1999, funded by Interros Holding Company. In late 2000, the first stage of restoration was completed and Nika, the Goddess of Victory, was ready to make her appearance before Petersburgers. But the freshly-restored monument was hit by a stray rocket during New Year’s firework celebrations on Palace Square. It caught fire, leaving behind only a metal carcass. Hermitage Museum Director Mikhail Petrovsky compared the incident with the 1837 fire which destroyed the Winter Palace.

The original statues in this monument were made of copper and hammered to just one millimeter thick, so as to keep the weight of the chariot and its horses from overburdening the arch. The modern fabricators will now seek to rebuild the monument with a more solid construction that adds no additional weight. Meanwhile, by a special resolution of the St. Petersburg government, fireworks have been banned from Palace Square.

Working Privately

The participation of private capital in restoration efforts is noteworthy. Silovye Mashiny (a part of Interros Holding) has earmarked over R1.5 million ($50,000) for a face lift of the sculptures decorating the portico of the Konogvardeysky Manezh, a former military stable that houses an exhibition hall. The first stage of restoration was completed in December 2001. Restorers used a modified technology of covering the sculptures with wax, which will help the sculptures retain their magnificence even when subjected to the harsh ecological conditions of modern city life.

The restoration of sculptures and buildings in Letny Sad (The Summer Garden)—where Pushkin’s Onegin loved to stroll (as did the imperial family)—is being financed by North-West Bank. And Baltoneximbank put up $120,000 to upgrade the famous Klodt’s Horses. The four sculptures were installed on Anichkov Bridge over the Fontanka in 1850. Over the ensuing century, the horses left the bridge just once: during WWII they were buried at Anichkov Palace to escape Nazi bombs. So it has been rather unusual to see the horses replaced by ads for the bank paying for their restoration. But it was for the best, as restorers thoroughly cleaned the dirt and discoloration from the statues, covering them with a special mixture which will help them “withstand the neighborhood”—meaning the non-stop traffic on Nevsky Prospekt.

Other firms have put in their “two kopeks” in revamping Peter’s creation. Thus, one of the buildings in the St. Petersburg University complex is being restored by the Lapin Enterprise. And Aeroflot allocated R735,000 ($24,000) for the restoration of urban sculptures.

But the most original project being financed by a private company is that undertaken by Sela. That company is commemorating the city’s 300th anniversary by putting up 300 basketball hoops throughout the city.

Meanwhile, at least one political movement has jumped on the restoration bandwagon, perhaps seeing a chance to score points with the electorate, given that elections to the city’s legislature are scheduled for this winter. In June, Volya Peterburga (“St. Petersburg’s Will”), headed by St. Petersburg native Sergei Mironov, chairman of the Federation Council, spearheaded the restoration of the city’s monument to Mikhail Lomonosov.

Outside Help

Foreign countries have also been inspired to finance restoration efforts in the Northern Venice. Germany is underwriting the restoration of a unique organ in the Big Hall of the St. Peterburg Conservatory. The organ was created by the sons of the famous German master Eberhardt Friedrich Walker, and will set Germany back 1.3 million euros.

Sweden, once the formidable rival of Peter the Great, is not sitting idle: it is restoring a downtown corner where Swedes settled in Peter’s time. When the reconstruction is complete, several non-descript building on Shvedsky lane will be modernized into business centers and restaurants. In the nearby kirche, religious services are held on weekends, but during the rest of the week the kirche hosts a school for gymnasts and acrobats that has been here since the Soviet era.

Around the corner, the Finnish Church, refurbished under communism as the House of Nature, has been somewhat luckier than the kirche. Today, the church has been completely reconstructed with money from the Finnish government and is fully at the disposal of local church-goers.

Unlike the Swedes or the Finns, Norwegians did not settle in large numbers in Russia. But that does not mean Norway has been indifferent to its Baltic neighbor. It has earmarked 500,000 kroner to the reconstruction of the central hall of the Literary Museum of Fyodor Dostoevsky. Work is due to be completed by May 2003.

International organizations, such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Union have also made significant contributions. Thanks to their financial assistance, residents can rediscover the courtyards of the city Capella and Nevsky Prospekt was graced with yet another top-flight hotel– the Radisson SAS, located on the corner of Nevsky and Liteyny avenues. This was, by the way, once the site of a bohemian, Soviet-era café, the popular “Saigon.” Crowds of artists, musicians and literary scholars flocked here. Rock star Boris Grebenshchikov used to gather here with his loyal fans over a 28 kopek espresso. Saigon was also the birthplace of the non-conformist art movement “Mitki,” and the St. Petersburg writer Sergei Dovlatov used to drop in here frequently before his emigration to the US. Today, one can still find a good espresso at the corner of Nevsky and Liteyny, though the price is a bit higher than 28 kopeks.

During perestroika, the idea was born to organize a museum of non-formal art or a café-club on the basis of the Saigon, but then the Saigon building was closed for renovation. The museum of non-conformist art was finally opened on Pushkinskaya street and the Saigon Club reopened on Nevsky Prospekt. At first, the new Saigon was reminiscent of its predecessor, but today it looks like just another St. Petersburg café-club.

By Rail or by Foot

The unrequited nostalgia of local rock fans for the real Saigon is understandable, but then the city got a new, modern hotel in the bargain. And this is something it badly needs, as the problem of accommodations, particularly during the upcoming celebrations, has become a real headache for the city. Total hotel capacity is estimated at just 31,000 beds (with only about half offering “decent international standards”).

Faced with huge demand for hotels during the tercentennial, Governor Vladimir Yakovlev has resorted to Soviet-style management, issuing an injunction to the city’s best hotels not to book rooms in late May to early June 2003. The plan is to lodge official guests of the festivities in the city’s limited number of 4- and 5-star hotels. Those not holding a gubernatorial invitation will have a hard time finding decent lodging during the peak week of the jubilee. What is more, at a recent meeting with the directors of the city’s institutes and the university’s governor, Yakovlev suggested moving exams forward so that student dormitories could be freed up for visitors by late May. Apparently, the city is convinced that even the prospect of such improvised housing will not keep away foreigners eager to witness the tercentennial.

Transportation issues are also being addressed in reconstruction efforts. Four of the city’s five railway stations are “bedecked” with scaffolding. By May 2003 their interior decors will be changed. The Moscow (Moskovsky) Railway Station is in the limelight, as it greets trains from the capital. But there is also the new Ladozhsky Railway Station being built to ease traffic into the Moscow and Finland stations. Its location does not allow for a railway square, so designers have conceived “a railway station-bridge,” whereby most of the station’s buildings will be placed over the railways.

Meanwhile, Warsaw (Varshavsky) Railway Station is being fully closed to both train and commuter train traffic. The building was supposed to house a museum of railway transportation history, though some have argued for an even more original project: to turn the building into an art exhibition hall, akin to Paris’ Musee d’Orsay.

There have also been dramatic changes on several downtown streets which were converted into pedestrian zones. Malaya Sadovaya was the first. After several years of reconstruction, this rather dull and gloomy corner of the downtown was truly transformed. It now has numerous cafés, fountains and monuments—including one to a street photographer and to a cat.

Another pedestrian zone was created on Malaya Konyushennaya street, where tourists can have their picture taken standing by the Gorodovoy (Russian policeman), a statue set here on the initiative of a St. Petersburg militia boss. Zakharievskaya street will also soon be joining the ranks of pedestrian zones.

Monumental Changes

Speaking of new statues, it is worth noting some of the amusing monuments that have been sprouting up in the city in recent years. There is a bronze statue of the Fonarschik (“Lantern Lighter”). In a courtyard on the Petrogradskaya Storona you may run into a monument to a funny rat. Participants in the traditional humor festival Golden Ostap (named after the main character of Ilf & Petrov’s books) unveiled a bronze statue of Ostap Bender on one of the central squares of the city, next door to a restaurant of the same name.

And then there are the two miniature monuments dedicated to two other literary heroes. On Voznesensky avenue one can touch the famous nose from Nikolai Gogol’s short story (in this Russian classic, a nose abandoned its master’s face and went for a promenade about the city). Another monument refers to a funny song every Russian child knows: “Chizhik-Pyzhik, gde ty byl – Na Fontanke vodku pil” (“Little Siskin Bird, where have you been –Drinking a bit of vodka by the Fontanka”). This monument on the Fontanka, the city’s smallest, portrays the Chizhik-Pyzhik bird. Passersby toss coins and wishes into the Fontanka, while beggars slip into the river at night and collect up the change.

If Petersburgers were given a wish, many would surely ask for a speedier end to the reconstruction. This is especially true for drivers. It is now virtually impossible to get around the city by car, as all the major roads are under repair. And road work is being conducted on several parallel streets at the same time. Authorities have promised that work will be done by May 2003, but residents don’t take their word for it. After all, repairs on Sennaya Square have been going on for ten years, with no end in sight.

Then there is the case of the Savior on the Blood Cathedral. The church was built on the site of the assassination of Emperor Alexander II, but in the Soviet era it was closed and turned into a vegetable warehouse (and dubbed by some the “Savior on the Potato”). In later years, the church became a warehouse for theatrical decorations.

The decision to restore the church to its original grandeur was made back in 1970. It took two years to empty the church, and restoration work began in 1972, lasting for a full quarter century. The church was not opened to visitors until 1997. And restoration work continues in and around the church to this day.

Other architectural treasures included on the federal list can’t wait so long for attention, nor can such long terms of reconstruction be afforded. Particularly since there is no guarantee that funding for restoration will extend beyond May 2003. So residents put up with the dust and disruptions of traffic caused by reconstruction, knowing they have to take advantage of government largesse when they can get it. After all, there will only be one 300th birthday party.

Boris Khodorovsky is a correspondent with the St. Petersburg daily Smena. His article on Putin’s Places appeared in the September/October 2002 issue of Russian Life.