St. Pete: Day 19 (The Political History Museum)

The Political History Museum in St. Petersburg recently made the front page of The St. Petersburg Times for its' popularity. The photo to the right, of Dallas and me, was not published in it. The Times is my favorite newspaper here for two reasons: it's in English, and its free. I read it every week. The museum is located within a stone's throw of Rabbit Island, the site of the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the first construction in St. Petersburg and the burial place of Peter the Great (which is notable, because almost every other Tsar is entombed in a church within the walls of Kremlin). Anyways, the museum has a bunch of cool stuff. We had a tour guide, and saw the whole museum. The exhibits were pretty cool. The building that hosts the museum was originally a state building during the Imperial days, and was stormed during the 1917 revolution (more on that later), and was, for about 3 months, the site of Lenin's office. One thing you might notice in my photos (and also, I've found, in Russian and Soviet History and Culture, really) is that there are a very select few individuals (Alexander Nevsky, Peter the Great, Vladimir Lenin, Yuri Gagarin...) that are deified, either figuratively or literally. In some ways, these figures have been idealized to such an extent that many of their characteristics and their real-ness has fallen away with the passing of time, and what is left is a list of perfect characteristics and values that they embodied. This has been the subject of much discourse between the students here. Like the palaces, and the Hermitage, pictures are far better documentation than my words, so below are some of the great exhibits:

This is the entrance to to the Museum. It says "[The] State Museum [of the] Political History of Russia"

These two photos are totally different, but I thought they looked interesting side by side, and I'll explain why.

On the left is a stained glass image of Lenin, which is in the Lobby of the Museum. I liked this because it reminded me of something I heard at the Phi Theta Kappa Honors Institute this fall. A professor from Eastern Shore Community College in Melfa, Virginia came to speak about "Power and Religion", although the topic could more comfortably fit into a multi-volume series of books. In his lecture he said something profound that I had never thought about before: One recurring theme was that every society had a Godhead of some kind. But what about a Marxist or Leninist Communist state? In such case, he explained, the state replaced other figures as the Godhead. So, the reason I liked this stained glass is because it is reminiscent of old Churches and Cathedrals, BUT instead of Jesus or Mary, it's Lenin. So, I thought this was a vivid way of demonstrating the speakers' point of the State replacing religion as a societies' Godhead.

On the right is Tsar Nicholas II. If you look closely (double click to open the image fullscale if you'd like), you see several vertical lines in the portrait. When the building that houses the Museum was stormed by revolutionaries in 1917, the portrait was slashed. The painting was restored, and the holes mended, but the marks were left because they are easily as historically pungent as the painting itself. Fate gave Nicholas II the short end of the stick. A horrible accident, known as The Khodynka Tragedy marred his coronation, where thousands of peasants were trampled to death by a crowd of 50,000. Then, famine and war exacerbated his reign. His only son, Alexei, was plagued by Hemophilia, which led him to seek the aid of Rasputin (not someone an Imperialist wanted to be associated with). Nicholas II abdicated his throne in February, 1917, giving up all power and right to the Russian Empire. But then, even after he abdicated, he and his family moved to a secluded home in Ural Mountains, where he and all his children (4 daughters and 1 son), his wife, 3 servants, and his physician where taken into the basement and shot, multiple times in the head and chest. The order to execute came from the Supreme Soviet, with the explanation that mounting white imperialist powers were approaching Yekaterinburg and would try to restore them to the throne. The bodies were found in 1991, and were reburied twice (1991 - state burial, 1998 - Christian reburial in the Peter and Paul Cathedral) after extensive DNA testing. The bodies of Tsarevich Alexei (Tsarevich, literally "son of the Tsar", is used to denote the heir to the throne) and The Grand Duchess Anastasia were never found. Which, along with interesting results of autopsies, led to doubt of the events as reported, and the legend of Anastasia, which sparked a movie by Disney. Like I said, fate gave Nick II the short end of the stick.

(I'm pretty sure that diversion rivals Mr. White, both on length and... factiveness)

Now, the reason I put these side by side is because I think it shows a contrast of the old and the new. The old (Nicholas Romanov II) stepped down from power when the new (Vladimir Lenin) took power in 1917. The images look very different, but the two men were born less than two years apart. You can also see the stylistic difference between the two, Nick's portrait was lifelike and artistic, Lenin's was very stylistic, saturated, and vivid. Just a thought.




The museum was filled with old propaganda posters, which the RSFSR (The palindromic name of the USSR between 1917 and 1922) and the USSR churned out like ball bearings (which were then melted down, and made into other ball bearings). I bought a small print of a poster similar to this in the giftshop, which has a smiling communist baby and reads "Happy ones are born under the Soviet Star!"





This was a podium used by the President during press conferences during soviet times. Who could resist this photo-op?






This was super cool. In this display is the passport, ID, and Uniform of Yurii Alexeiivich Gagarin. Gagarin was, and is, one of Russia's greatest heroes. He was the first person in outer space, and the first to orbit the earth. He survived, and became a legendary figure. He is buried in the wall of the Kremlin (a very elite privilege), and is on some 2 ruble coins.





What can I say? Brezhnev was a passionate, passionate man.







In one part, there was a telephone that would tell you jokes in Russian. I have no idea what it is in relevance to, and I only got parts of the jokes, which made them that much funnier. On the left are Jesica and MaryMichelle.




I was going to send this to my Mom, with the caption 'My Dorm'. This was one of the exhibits, showing what things were like during the soviet days.








This wasn't in the museum, just on the way back to the Metro. I'm standing outside a huge, beautiful Mosque. Many people don't realize that Muslims make up about 10% of the Russian population (although they are mainly located in the Volga and Caucasus regions). The rest of the population is almost entirely Russian Orthodox, although most subscribers of Russian Orthodox do not practice.