Passage Report No. 91 St Petersburg - to Russia with Love and Good Luck

Passage Report: 91

St Petersburg

"To Russia with Love and Good Luck"

A dome sparkles, dominant, yellow, silver, in pearly, morning light. Sahula passes, entering the bay.

Ahead, an horizon, a wall - massed suburban apartments, high, ugly, concrete - rise, unyielding - accompanied by industries silhouette - set against a brown, polluted blue.

"...the Paris of the north..." is nowhere. Yet it is there.

Until recently, a forbidden city to foreign yachts, restrictions apply, only the CRYC (Central River Yacht Club) provides berths (35 euros).

The Cruising Association yacht Rally has been allocated a wharf - arrangements are made for a week of guided tours, lunches and a final dinner.

 

 

Its imposing, modern, clubhouse belies the decay, insecurity, inhibition, paranoia, with overt, material, capitalism, that make modern Russia.


Mega motoryachts pack the marina. Sahula is amongst small sailing yachts. 30 - 40 "middle class" yachts are few.

Harbourside, expensive, restaurants attract the glitterati in large black, chauffered, cars/4WDs. Helicopters noisely, decant the impatient. Long legged, high heeled, scantily clad, beautiful blondes, parade in expectation.

Every afternoon, some 50 metres of royal red, "oligarchical," superyacht, splendour (interior in gold, "Czarist" baroque, insignia "Crown"), departs. A foredeck cannon, announcing its return.

A squat, serious, broad, suited owner swiftly disembarks, followed by four, dark suited, bulky, unsmiling, humanoids - entering, a royal blue, silver, open top, Rolls Royce, road cleared, swiftly departs, trailed closely, by a large, blackened, dark, Range Rover, 4WD.

In the Club and restaurant, the enriched and beautiful, enjoy Russia's success. Good luck!

"...it looks to me there'll be another Revolution..."

"...the toilet smells... there is no paper..."

Overgrown, potholed bitumen, gravel, dirt, dust; pavements, space, roads, minimally maintened. Nearby, rust red, bygone, industry, windows another era.

A 24 hour gatekeeper, wizened, dislevelled, uniformed, poor; sourly, grunts response to a foreign "good morning."

Tension pervades the air. This is not a people "happy in their skin." History bears heavily.

Timeless river Neva carries racing hydrofoils (Kronstadt ferries), roaring, amongst, new riche, jetskis.

Opulance contrasts decadence. Across the river (Neva), "mountains" of bland, suburban highrise accommodate the massed, aspiring. Their bay view: tourism's "army" disembarking from massed "liners" for their 72 hour visit (no visa required).

Bus 135, (25 roubles), jauntily old, conveys "up river," revealing, slowly, baroque, beautiful, Czarist, decaying, St Petersburg.

 

"...it is a new city, only some 300 years, originally by Peter the Great...he built (lived) the Peter and Paul (his son) Fortress...

A large, enlightened, man (6ft 7 ins), he travelled, learnt boat building in Holland (he loved Holland - rearranged the Dutch flag for Russia's white, blue, red), government in London. He consolidated his dynasty as a nation, he understood his people, state, but died early. His "home" palace, small, set in ornate summer gardens contrasts his dynastic, absolutist, successors opulence (Elizabeth I's had 15,000 dresses, avoiding clothes bugs by a daily change).

Splendidly arrayed along the River, opposite the revered, Peter's Fortress, his daugther, Catherine the First's massive, ornate, autumn green, white, baroque, "winter" palace (Hermitage - 3 million works of art, sculpture, artifacts - "...she combed the world... not one piece but the lot...), forms the core of the many sycophantic, royal, nobles, merchants, residences. These "lesser" elites, resided in no less imposing, colonnaded, statued, gold baroque, palaces.

 

 

 

It is a city of magnificence, built in a sea of, peasant, poverty. It projects power, reeks envy. Revolution seems inevitable.

Venician like canals (68), of many bridges (400), calmly cleave canyons of beautiful architecture.

 

 

Every street is lined with baroque (some later, art deco) palaces, businesses, mansions, residences. Their ornate exterior, pastel coloured (palaces: yellow, white, statued, embellished in gold) emphatically announcing wealth, position, ambition centered around the Czar.

Massive, marble, domed cathedrals, Russian Orthodox christian (Kazan, St Isaac's); golden baroque interiors, pronounce religions adjunct to imperial power.

 

 

 

 

 

Inside, queueing, devout, kiss gold icons, uplifted by choral, organ, gloriousity.

St Petersburg is, was, a living theatre playing to the extremes.

Golden "onion tops" (symbolic candle fire), in-spire the city. Colourful, many topped, Church of the Saviour on (where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated) the Blood, encapsulates the genre.

Crowded streets, traffic, noise, tourists, locals, maintenance, paint deficit, buildings - the new reality post Soviet , brimming from rising, resource rich, Russia.

"Gozprom" - a small gold plaque - a neat painted exterior, huge glass entry - Russian gold - oligarch owned gas and oil - large black vehicles line the street; suited, bulky, chauffers, lounging, await.

Understanding Russia is complex. No other country has experienced such turbulence - imperial dynasties, revolution (1918), civil war( Reds v Whites), famine (WW I - 2/3 starved), Soviet idealogy, World Wars, Stalinist repression (1930's), peace, economic collapse, capitalism (1991).

"...for 100's of years, it was rare for a generation not to be torn apart by a calamity, uprooting family, career, property and savings..." (Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Vision ... - Richard Stites)

"...I went to a Soviet school...I didn't know I wasn't free...I was happy..." -Guide.

It the "unlucky" nation, deserving of a "break"?

Russian Museum of Political History portrays this context. It is honest, sobering, overwhelming, almost unbelieveable - a battle between utopia, idealism, realism, people and state.

Behind the towering, imposing white colonnades of the yellow, Mikhailovsky Palace, masterpieces of Russian 11 - 21st century, art, depict the long agonies of incessant war, harsh winters, peasant struggle, survival, court splendour, upperclass frivolity, impressionists, modernity.

The Rally bus passes silent, forested Dachas (large homes) of each generation of Russian elite - equality denied.

Skipper visits the forest home and studio of Ilya Repin, icon of Russian, 19th century, artists. Here amongst forests and gardens, he created grand works of pre-revolutionary Russia (in Hermitage).

Russia's magnificent, artistic creators gave hope. From them, the bell tolled.

If Nicholas II, had listened to advice "...pass reforms..", would he have been the last Czar? If the Whites (middle, upper class, country) had not lost to the Reds (Bolshieviks, Communists, city, youth), if WWII had not "excused" Stalin's repressive, "State," idealogy?

Stalin's idolatory has been removed, Lenin's bronzes stand tall.

"...he is left to history..."

"...if it is bald, it is Lenin, if hair it is Puskin..."

"...what has each (especially, aged) citizen experienced; what marks explain the personal, national character...can youth, so free, so modern, seemingly oblivious, rise above, to make modern Russia...?"

Is the past agony, so deeply ingrained, that faith in government, in stability, a future, is unattainable?

"...in Russian DNA...belief that catastrophy is inevitable...unavoidable...for risk aversion, resistance to change, longing for stability..." (Stites).

The political portends do not bade well. "...Putin...ignored, tolerated...he is of the past...we get on with life..."

Crew visits the Hermitage ("...I am palaced out...") and flies home to the "lucky" country

"...I have had... amazing adventures...I will never forget..."

Skipper's daughter (attending G20 Young Entrepreneurs Conference, Moscow) boards Sahula. Optimism, frission - youthful future.

"...I just love Russia, the people are so lovely...Moscow was great...our hotel was marvellous, dinners, bars, clubs, entertainment...I would enjoy working here..."

On Novosky Prospect, (St Petersburg's main shopping venue) she blends in crowds of well dressed, high heeled, middle class.

Cossack dancers, brightly, traditionally, colourfully, leap in suspended impossible flight; beautiful, ballet dancers - Tcaichovsky's 'Swan Lake," opera - "Madame Butterfly" - performed for tourists in three splendidly, ornate baroque, palace theatres - cultural, magnificent Russia.

 

 

40 km distant, Peterhof, "summer" palace - "temple" of golden, baroque, excess - Czarist escape - set in French "Versailles" gardens, waterfall, dripping, gold leafed statues - the ultimate, kitsch - lakes, canal, stretching, through tree, gardened parks, promenading to the bay.

"...she insisted it was for her family..."

As in the French Revolution, a debate ensued whether to destroy or retain evidence of "Royal" history. Much was lost, much retained.

"...it was created, designed, built by the artisans, tradespeople, labourers, peasants..."

Tourist millions test its resilience "...the parquetry floor was replaced two years ago..." (Peterhof - Summer Palace).

In 2006, Nicholas II, his family (two children are to be interred later) and servants, were reinterred from a Siberian forest to the St Peter and Paul Cathedral within St Petersburg birthplace fortress (flowers are ritually place by persons unknown, on Royal tombs).

 

 

 

"...can we photograph on the yacht...a bride and groom, perch lovingly...interesting locations is a Russian wedding ritual.

Final days: an evening boat cruise through the canals - champagne flows, heads down - under ornate, low slung, bridges - past endless palaces - crowds wave - there is a sense of exuberant relief.

A final dinner thanks the Rally's Russian organiser, and yachtsmen. It is time to leave.

"... they may fine you...he said one million rubles, I asked if serious...just joking...

"...you are free to go...Director of Customs...there is another level, Drug control...the officer says you must stay...he has an arrangement with Kronstadt...the drug tests are coming..."

"...you are free to go...the officer agrees...are you going to Moscow?"

Prudence demands departure with the Rally fleet. Sahula sails to Kronstadt. Crew list, papers, passport stamped.

Astern, sunlight flashes, immutable, beautiful, Kronstadt Navy, Cathedral dome - nothing changes.

At midnight, Skipper raises an imaginary wine glass, "...free..." - Sahula sails into Finland waters.

Nearby, a large, black, Russian naval patrol, boat, machine gun on deck, silently, ominously, menancingly, shadows, at close quarters, Rally motorboat "Martha Gunn," for an hour, turning at the Finland border.

"...we thought of you, Sahula..."

In the early morning, Finland's Haapasaari Border Post, welcomes Sahula; passport stamped, she leaves for nearby Kotka.

For three days Skipper, gathers lifes strands, relaxes with Rally friends, in a pleasant, beautiful town, before departing for anchorages in Finlands myriad archipelago - a swim, read, paint, skype friends - life is good.

Skipper thanks Crew, organisers and fellow yachts crew of the Cruising Association, St Petersburg Rally, good friends all, for their support during a challenging time and enjoyable Rally.

In particular, Skipper and Crew thank, Vladimir, Cruising Association St Petersburg "representative," for his superb support and assistance, which denied, what at times seemed, a opportunity to visit the Kremlin basement.

A true friend.

Goodbye Russia, love and good luck.

Next Report 92 - Relaxing in Finland.

Best

David

2nd July, 2013

Kotka, Finland.