REVOLUTION WAS IN THE AIR

Strikes and uprisings were becoming common and Nicholas II created a fake democratic parliament known as the Duma and when the first world war started, talk of revolution was on everyone’s lips.
The first World War saw huge casualties and weak leadership brought more hardship to Russia. By 1917 Nicholas II had to leave for his own safety and of his family and move to Ekaterinburg which is beyond the Urals, where the Romanov dynasty spent the rest of his days. Communism was now in force and to last for the next 70 years.

More repression resulted during Stalin’s rule, and St. Petersburg changed its name to Leningrad. The worst hit city in the World War II was St. Petersburg (renamed Leningrad) where over 1 million starved to death. The Germans besieged the city for almost 3 years. In the middle of Moskovskii Prospekt is the Victory Monument and also there is the Blockade museum and also the mass graves at Piskarevskoe Cemetery. The beautiful St. Isaacs Cathedral has still scars from the World War II.

With the passing of Stalin in 1953 and next up was Krushchev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev and then Yeltsin brought Russia in 1993 into the new world of Capitalism.

The city of Leningrad was in 1991 renamed St. Petersburg against Gorbachev wishes.
Although there still is poverty within the city, the cultural life of the city is thriving.

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