Living in Saint Petersburg Now

Hey y'all,

I'm on a study abroad program abroad in Saint Petersburg Russia for the next few months. Obviously a lot of WWII history here, so I will be posting pictures as soon as I get the chance... that is, sometime in between homework and metro stops!

peace,

- Huff

 

Enjoy.

 

Good to hear, we"ll be waiting for the pictures

 

Da, comrade.

Make sure you visit a lot of the battlefields and take lots of photos. "Then and now" photos from the Eastern Front are hard to come by, especially if outside of the cities.

If you have time, Helsinki is a great place to visit as well. On the way there you'll pass through some of the sites of the Winter War and Continuation War -- fascinating and often overlooked aspects of WW2.

EDIT: Apologies for the typos -- the keyboard on my phone was sticking this morning at DIA.

 

I am a huge fan of studies abroad programs and think St. Petersburg a fine location. Reading about the Russian winter will have new meaning !! I read Harrison Salisbury's "900 Days " about the siege of Leningrad as a young man and always wanted to visit the city.

Keep us in mind !

Gaines

 

Have fun! Great city with loads of history! I don´t think you can get bored there...

 

I hope that you packed your woolies. It's gonna get real cold soon up there.

 

Isn't it a little late in the year to be going into Russia? That's been tried before and it didn't turn out very well.

Hope you have a great time there, Huff!

 

Thanks everyone! Yeah Tommy it is a little late... Napoleon and others can testify But so far it's been excellent weather wise, it'll get cold here really soon though.

I'm currently engaged in studies but I will try and get some photographs uploaded as soon as vozmozhno!!

 

Hey guys! Update. I've seen a few traces of WW2 around here (naturally) but I am going to the massive military cemetery at Pskaryoskoye this afternoon (and I'm bringing my camera!) to pay homage to the dead. I'll write back later tonight with photos of what I've seen so far along with a general update!

 

At the same time you could perhaps pay homage to the Ingrian (Finnish/Finnic) people(s), the original inhabitants of the area in and around nowadays St.Petersburg, who lost their homeland and many of them also their lives when forced to build the new city for the Russian invaders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyenschantz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish%E2%80%93Novgorodian_Wars

If you have time, maybe you could also visit the battlefields of the Winter War and the Continuation War north of St.Petersburg on the Karelian Isthmus, which used to be part of Finland. Also Viipuri/Wiborg/Vyborg, the ex-capital of the Finnish Karelia and the ex-2nd largest city in Finland might be worth a visit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karelian_Isthmus

 

Don't waste too much time with history. Instead, find yourself a pretty Russian girlfriend.

Russian babes!

 

My friends and I are actually planning on visiting Vyborg (Viipuri) sometime next week!

As for today, I just got back from the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery... quite an experience. Pics after dinner with my host mom.

 

I was going to suggest visiting with some forum members from that region while you are there, but Tamino's suggestion sounds like a better sidetrack.

 

Above all, Love! The only thing that can genuinely fulfill a man with joy is to find a woman to love and stay with her until the end of the life. Anything else is a surrogate. Perhaps this sounds old fashioned, maybe I am an old fool, but this is essentially the truth.

Back to the theme: This link could be an interesting source for you. Someone has superimposed Leningrad’s wartime photos over the contemporary images. The result is indeed spectacular.

 

Tamino, I love this series of photos, every time they seem to hit me differently... It's strange knowing that I walk past a few of these places on my way to school every morning.

Speaking of photos!

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The third pic translates (roughly):

Here lie Leningraders. Here are townspeople, men, women, children. Beside them are Red Army soldiers. With their whole lives they defended you, Leningrad, the cradle of Revolution. It is impossible for us to list their noble names here. So many of them beneath the eternal protection of granite, but know this, hark these stones: Nobody is forgotten and nothing is forgotten.

Pretty powerful place... puts the entire war in perspective for me.

 

Thats clever Tamino....would be nice to see other ww2 locations round world in same manner....A move on from then and now pics..

 

Yes, I hope he does too!