Saint Petersburg

Romanov Dynasty

Peter the Great and his palace at Peterhof.

The statue of Peter the Great at the headquarters of the Baltic Fleet in Kaliningrad. I was there in 2005 with a Russian professor.

• The city of Saint Petersburg was created by the Romanov Czar Peter the Great. Here is the Wikipedia page about him. His portrait shown here is from this Wiki page. He was born in 1672 as a grandson of the first Romanov monarch. He ruled Russia from 1682 until his death in 1725.
  1. He moved the capital city of Russia from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. His purpose was to open up the road to the Western world.

  2. He imported the ship-building technology from England and started building the Russian navy in order to dominate the Baltic Sea. In 2005, when I was in Kaliningrad, I had this photo with a Russian professor in front of his statue at the headquarters of Russia's Baltic Fleet.

  3. He visited Paris, and Russians started importing Western arts and music. There he noticed an art of song-and-dance being developed among the members of the French royal family. He imported this art and developed it to the Russian ballet.

  4. He set up the Russian Academy of Sciences and imported many scientists from Europe. By 1900, Russia started producing many creative scientists.

  5. He lived at his Peterhof Palace 20 km west of the city, but later Czars transformed the place to the present form.

  6. Like all monarchs during his time, he had more than one wife. The most prominent one was the Polish woman who came to Russia as a made to prominent families. She could not read or write but she had a brain. She gave him many bright ideas.

     For instance, Russia was in constant war with Ottoman Turkey on the sourthern border, draining the treasury. She advised Peter to stop the war by arranging a cease-fire treaty with Turkey.

• Catherine, together with Peter, lived in the Gatchina Palace about 20 km south of St. Petersburg. This is a humble-looking structure, but they started building the city from nothing.
  1. Catherine I succeeded Peter the great after his death, and ruled Russia for two years. She had two daughters but no sons.

  2. Her maternal grandson (called Peter III) was mentally retarded, but was arranged to marry the princess of an obscure province of Prussia [now Szczecin (Poland)]. This Prussian-born bride became Ekaterian II, known as Catherine the Great.

• The city took its present form during the reign Catherine the Great (1762-1796).
  1. She invited Italian architects to remodel the Winter Palace at the center of the city.

  2. She remodeled the Summer Palace in the suburban city called Pushkin, 25 km southeast of the city center. She changed the the palace to the Palladian style.

  3. She invited many artists, scientists, and scholars from France, Germany, and England. She built Western-style offices and houses for them. She collected many art items, The Hermitage Museum started with her collections.

  4. She was quite fond of Voltaire's writings and democratic ideals contained in his writings. Perhaps, she knew the brain is more powerful than anything else in this world. This is also my belief.

  5. One way to measure how Russia grew culturally during the era of Catherine the Great is to look at this photo of this French piano made in St. Petersburg. By 1800, there was enough demand for pianos in Russia that the French company set up a manufacturing plant in Spb.

  6. She built many new cities and polished up the existing cities. She liked Moscow, and Moscow continued growing during her reign.

  7. She also made a trip to the Volga city of Kazan, and set up a university there. Did you know Leo Tolstoy and Vladimir Lenin studied there, even though they were expelled from there. She knew Kazan was the gateway to the eastern lands. She extended the Russian territory all the way to Alaska.

     Alexei Orlov was Catherine's first prominent lover (top). Grigory Potemkin was the lover in her late years.

  8. She also annexed the eastern half of Poland and gained the control over Crimea.

  9. She was not happy with her husband known as Peter III, and she had a number of male friends. Among them were Alexei Orlov and Grigory Potemkin.

  10. Orlov was handsome and strong. He helped Catherine in consolidating her position in the Romanov clan. She was not regarded as a proper Russian because of her Prussian family origin.

  11. Later, while extending the Russian boundaries, she needed a man with a brain to formulate and foreign policies. Potemkin was the right man for this job. He remained her lover until she died. Potemkin formulated the military strategy against Ottoman Turkey, resulting in the Russian control of Crimea.

  12. She was succeeded by her son named Paul I who reigned Russia for five years from 1796 to 1801. Some people suspect Paul's father was Catherine's boyfriend named Orlov because she was not happy with her husband.

      Paul had three sons. His first son was Catherine's first grandson. She thought this grandson so much that she raised him directly, and he became Alexander I. Paul's youngest son became became Nicholas I who succeeded Alexander I.

• Alexander I reigned the Russian Empire for 25 years from 1801 to 1825. He was brilliant man well groomed by his grandmother, Catherine the Great.

  Alexander and Napoleon met at a town near Kaliningrad (1807). Napoleon's Gate in Moscow. His troops came through here and left through here.

  1. Alexander I thought the land road to Europe was becoming important, and visited Berlin 1805. Berlin's main square is named after him, and this place is still called Alexander Platz.

     At that time, Prussia was not a significant country, and Germans had a complex toward a better-established neighbor called France. It was a great honor for Germans to host the Russian Czar. They also knew his grandmother was from Prussia.

  2. In 1807, Alexander met Napoleon at a place near Kaliningrad for possible military alliance against Austria, but they became suspicious of each other.
     This artwork was painted by a French artist named Jean-Baptiste Debret (1768–1848), and Napoleon is more prominent in this painting.

  3. In 1812, Napoleon's Grand Army entered the Russian territory and reached Moscow. However, Alexander's strategy was to let Napoleon's troops to spend one cold winter month in Moscow, which had been completely evacuated and burnt earlier. Napoleon was forced to withdraw his troops from Moscow.

     Alexander's Russian horsemen then chased Napoleon's defeated army all the way to Paris. Russian troops in Paris wanted fast meals, and said the Russian word "Bistro" (means fast) whenever they went to Paris restaurants. As a consequence, the Bistro became a fast restaurant in France.

  4. One of Alexander's foreign policy failures was to attempt to invade China. From the beginning of 19th Century, China's Qing Dynasty started declining, but was strong enough to stop Alexander's army in northern China.

  5. Alexander I did not have children, and his youngest brother succeeded him. He was Nicholas I.

  Destruction of the Turkish fleet by Russians during the initial stage of the Crimean War, but Russia lost the war due to the intervention of the Western powers (France, Germany, and England).

• Nicholas I reigned the Empire from 1825 to 1855. He was Alexander's youngest brother. Alexander I did not have a son to inherit the throne.
  1. Nicholas I completed the construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral. The construction of the Cathedral was started during the reign of Alexander I, but it took the Romanov Dynasty 40 years to complete the project. Nicholas I's statue is at the center of the St. Isaac Plaza in St. Petersburg. He is facing the Cathedral, and the Mariinsky Administration Building is behind him.

  2. He started the Crimean War in 1853. He noted that Ottoman Turkey was declining, and he thought he could occupy the Holy Land. But the Western Powers (England, France, and Germany) did not like the expansion of Russia's influence into the Mediterranean Sea. They sent their troops to aid Turkey.

  3. Nichols I died in 1855 before the war ended in the same year, his son became the Emperor. He is known as Alexander II.

• Alexander II reigned the Russian Empire from 1855 to 1881. He was an enlightened Czar, and initiated various reforms.

  Russian mother and daughter in Nice (2006) Alexnder II was bombed at this spot, now inside the Cathedral of Resurrection.

  1. In 1855, he concluded the Crimean War, even though Russia was the loser, and Russia lost the entire Black Sea fleet. Russia's attempt to eatables the Black Sea route to the Mediterranean Sea was blocked.

     However, Alexander II opened a more peaceful road to the Mediterranean world. He completed the Russian railway system extending from from Moscow to Berlin. He then had a train ride all the way from St. Petersburg to the French Mediterranean coastal city of Nice. He found this city beautiful and encouraged Russians to move to that city.

  2. There still is a Russian community in Nice with a big Russian church. You can meet many Russians there, including a Russian Orthodox cathedral.

     You In 2006, I met there these two Russian ladies there. They were very happy to talk with me because I know about their country.

  3. His most important accomplishment was the emancipation of Russia's farmers in 1861. Farmers in Russia had been slaves.

     As in the case of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, Alexander II made many political enemies. As a consequence, he was bombed to death at the spot where the Church of Resurrection stands.

  4. In 1867, he sold Alaska to the United States for 7 million US-Dollars. Since Lincoln was assassinated in 1967, most of the negotiation took place during Lincoln's presidency.

  5. He then turned his attention toward the Pacific Ocean. He was interested in the Korean Peninsula. He started building a Russian city called Harbin in northern China. By this time, China's Qing Dynasty was powerless to stop the Russian venture to Far East.

     To most of you, it is the first time to hear this story, but I am not the first one to see this. Queen Victoria realized that Russia's eventual aim was the Korean peninsula which can be used as Russia's base toward the Pacific Ocean. In order to block the Russian attempt, Queen Victoria sent two Presbyterian missionaries from Scotland to a small village of Wuchang just south of Harbin. These two clergy men started translation of the Bible into Korean, leading to the first Presbyterian church in Korea. You will be interested to know that I was infant-baptized at this church. Click here to see how this happened.

• After his death in 1867, his son, Alexander III, became the Czar. He started building the Church of Resurrection to express his sympathy to and respect for his father. He also started the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway. However, Alexander III worked against the domestic reform programs initiated by his father. If he had continued those programs, Russia could have avoided the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.

  Liaodong Peninsula was, for a brief period, Russia's Crimea for the Pacific Ocean.

  Popov developed the wireless communication system for the Russian navy. Togo's Japanese navy sank Russia's Baltic Fleet at the Battle of Tsusima in the Korean strait.

• Nicholas II took over the throne after Alexander III died in 1894. He was Alexander's son. He was the last Czar in the Romanov Dynasty which ended in 1917.
  1. His only notable contribution to the family was the completion of the construction of the Church of Resurrection. On the other hand, in so doing, he completely depleted the country's treasury, and it was the beginning of the end of the Romanov Dynasty. The Dynasty had to collect more taxes, and was getting separated from the people.

  2. By 1890, Russians completed the Trans-Siberian railway, and started building military bases in Manchuria. By 1895, Russia's influence extended to the Liodong Peninsula, which could serve as the non-freezing seaport toward the Yellow Sea and thus to the Pacific Ocean, just like Crimea as the sea port in the Black Sea and then to the Mediterranean Ocean.

     The expansion of Russian influence to Manchuria did not sit well with Japan'a ambition toward China. The consequence was the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5. Bloody battles took place near the city of Dalian located at the tip of the Peninsula.

  3. During the same war, Russians attempted to send their Baltic Fleet of eight battle ships to Russia's eastern naval port of Vladivostok. The fleet's original route was to go through the Suez Canal. However, British authorities did not allow the fleet to enter the Canal. Thus, those ships had to return to Gibraltar, and then go all the way down to Capetown to reach the Indian Ocean, and then another long journey to the Korean strait (sea opening between Japan and Korea).

     We should note at this point that Russians were able to send their fleet to far away places thanks to Popov's invention of the Russian system of wireless communication.

     However, all those ships were destroyed and sank by the Japanese navy in the Korean strait in 1905. After those long journeys, Russian sailors became to tired to operate their ships and guns. Russians do not talk about this, and young Russians do not know about this sad chapter of their history. Japanese on the other hand is quite proud of the commander of the Japanese navy at that time. His name was Togo Heihachiro, or Togo Genui (Marshal Togo).

  4. This Russo-Japanese War ended with the Portsmouth Peace Treaty arranged by the U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. For this, Roosevelt got the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize.

  5. In 1914, Russia joined other countries the war against Germany. It was too much for the Russian Empire, and the Romanov Dynasty collapsed in 1917. Nicholas II abdicated himself and his son.

  6. Moscow then became the capital city of Russia under the communist rule, Saint Petersburg became Leningrad. The city recovered its original name after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

     In 1703, the capital city moved to St. Petersburg because it was gateway to the Baltic sea route to Europe. By 1880, Russia and Europe developed an extensive railway system, and the sea routes became insignificant. While serving as the starting point for the Trans-Siberian Railway, Moscow became the central point for the Euro-Asian land transportation system whose potential is still being exploited. These days, consumer products made in Japan and Korea reach Berlin and Paris through this rail system.

  7. This KIA sedan was displayed at the domestic departure lobby of Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport (June 2014). I asked the attendant whether it was assembled in Kaliningrad, where KIA maintains an assembly line. He said No. The KIA luxury cars are still made in South Korea, and this car had a trans-Siberian train ride from Vladivostok to Moscow.

  8. Like to have a train ride along this railway system? Click here for this entertaining video.

Interesting Places in Saint Petersburg.

• Catherine's Summer Palace is 25 km southeast of the city of St. Petersburg. This webapge contains many photos of this summer palace.
  1. I was there in the summer of 2003. Many tourists come to this place, and their was a Russian band playing music to please international visitors.
     • For Americans, they played Stars and Stripes Forever,
     • Gunkan March Japanese visitors, and
     • La Paloma Spanish tourists.

  2. I asked them to play a Russian military march: Proschanie Slavianki which is known to every Russian, but totally unknown to Americans. This has been and still is my favorite march since 1948 when I entered my middle school in Korea.

  3. Happy Musicians. The band musicians became quite pleased with my request, as you can see from this photo. They later greeted me with the same music when I was coming out from the Palace.
  4. Polish Lady is listening to the music with me. She is from Warsaw.

  5. Ekaterina II known as Catherine the Great in her mirror room in the Catherine Palace. With her is Grigory Potemkin, who was one of her favorite boyfriends. They maintained intimate relations until Catherine died.
  6. One of her dresses. in a glass box.
  7. Portrait of Catherine the Great. One admirer is standing in front this portrait.

• Catherine's Winter Palace is at the center of St. Petersburg. In front of the palace building is a large area called the Palace Square. The back of this building is the Neva River. The building together with its extensions serves as the Hermitage Museum. While this Wikipedia page contains many interesting photos, I can add some more.
  1. The Palace building on Sunday morning, with a large empty area in front of the building.

  2. The Palace Square. The tall column in the center is the monument dedicated to Czar Alexander I who defeated Napoleon's Grand Army 1812. Here is a photo of the square taken from the Palace building taken by Walter Smith.

  3. The Palace seen from the Neva River during the day and during the night.
  4. The Palace A close-up daytime view from the Neva River

  5. A photo of myself at the rotunda of the Hermitage Museum. I was not allowed to take photos in the exhibition rooms.
  6. Catherine's golden wagon outside the exhibition room.

  The Cathedral in 1941, during the siege of Leningrad by German troops.

• Saint Isaac's Cathedral is within a walking distance from the Catherine's summer palace.
  1. This is of course a Russian orthodox church, but its architecture is in Italian style.

  2. The statue of Czar Nicholas I is at the center of the church plaza. He is facing the Cathedral.

  3. Behind him is the Mariinsky administration building.
  4. The Mariinsky Building is also a beautiful art work.

  5. The golden dome is visible from the fifth floor of the Ambassador hotel about 1 km away from the Cathedral. I stayed there in November of 2010 on my way home after attending a conference in Kazan.

  6. Thus, it could have served as the ideal target from the German air attacks during the siege of Leningrad which lasted 872 days starting September 8, 1941. The dome was painted to grey color at that time.
  7. This is a 1941 photo of the Cathedral and two anti-aircraft guns. I did not take this photo.

• Nevsky Prospect is the main blouvard running from the Palace Plaza to the western end of the city. There are shops, restaurants, theaters, churches, offices, and everything else.
  1. During the evening hours, the Prospect is bright.
  2. During the siege of Leningrad, in 1942.

  3. Entrance to one of the subway stations, and rush-hour crowd.
  4. One of the Department stores. There are many.

  5. In addition to those expensive stores, there are many fast-food stores, including the McDonald's. always crowed in Russia.

  6. Bistro in Russian means "fast." During the Napoleonic War of 1812, Russian troop went all the way to Paris. They went to Paris restaurants demanded food fast, by saying Bistro. This is how the Bistro became the word for a French restaurant, not necessarily fast these days. This is my favorite French Bistro in Washington, DC, U.S.A. There are many interesting people on this street. It is fun to meet them and have a photo with them.
  7. with two interesting people, I had a photo. I met them near the Anichikov Palace. This Palace has its history, but I am not able to explain it. In 2003, I attended a conference held at the Palace, and I was told that Czar Nicholas II spent his childhood years there.
  8. At the Anichkov Bridge, I met this tall lady, and had a photo with her. This Bridge allows continuation of the Nevsky Prospect across the Fotanka River, and has

  9. Off-duty Aeroflot lady. I met this young lady at one of the ice-cream shops on the Nevsky Prospect. She was not able to speak English, and we were able to communicate in Russian and French. I do not speak those languages well, but we were able to communicate. She said English is not needed because she works only on the Moscow-Geneva line.

  10. Kazan Cathedral is just south of the Nevsky Prospect on the bank of the Criboyedova Canal. I am not able to explain the history of this church. Please read this the Wikipedia article for details. Three blocks north of the Canal is the Church of Resurrection.

• Church of the Savior on Blood is the only building constructed in the traditional Russian style. This church is also called the Cathedral of Resurrection. This church was built on the spot where Czar Alexander II was bombed in 1881.
  1. Here is the spot in the Cathedral Alexander II died.

  2. This Cathedral is on the bank of the Criboyedova Canal. Here is a photo of the Canal and Cathedral.
  3. This photo is taken from the opposite side.

  4. Interior walls are like this.
  5. Image of Jesus about to raise Lazarus from the dead.

  6. This is one of the bridges over the Canal. There are many canals and rivers in the city, and thus many beautiful bridges.

  7. The main altar of the Cathedral looks like this. Here is a closer view of the altar.
  8. The is the ceiling above the alter. Jesus in the heaven is looking at you.
  9. This is a photo of the back of the altar taken outside the church.

  10. Mother and daughter from Khavarovsk. It was indeed a pleasure to meet these Russian ladies in the Cathedral. Do you know where Khavarovsk is? Khavarovsk is a Siberian city directly north of Korean Peninsula. When I was in Korea (before 1954), I used to pick up the Radio Moscow signals from relay stations located there, but I never thought I could meet anyone from there.

• Neva River connects the city with the Baltic Sea. This River used to serve as a natural defense line against invasions from Finland and Sweden many years ago. These days, the city is built on both sides of the River. The visit to St. Petersburg is meaningless without a cruise on this river. In 2003, I had a daytime cruise. In 2014, I had a night-time cruise.

  In 2003, my camera battery did not allow me to take too many photos, but I took some. In 2014, thanks to the technological innovation, my camera was equipped with a rechargeable battery, and I took many photos.

  1. This daytime photo shows the golden dome of St. Isaac Cathedral. A church dome is also seen. I do not know which church that is.

  2. Catherine's Winter Palace looks OK from the River.
  3. Day-time and night-time views of the Winter Palace.

  4. St. Paul's Cathedral: Day-time photo (2003), Night-time photo (2014). St. Petersburg's night is not dark at 11:00 PM during the summer months.

  5. Samsung and Russian Telecom signs seen from the River.

  6. Smolny Convent seen between the trees. This convent has an interesting history.

  7. Modern buildings on the northern bank of the River.

  8. Sunset at 11.30 PM, and Sunrise at 3:30 AM.
  9. At 2.00 AM, the city enjoys the dark night. Bridges open up for tall commercial ships to sail through the river.

Music in Saint Petersburg

• Glinka's Statue near the Theatre. How do I look with him. Mikhail Glinka was the first Russian composer who established the Western-style music in Russia. Here is the Wikipedia page about him.
  1. Glinka is well known from the overture to his opera entitled "Ruslan and Lyudmila." The story was originally written by Alexander Pushkin, and I do not understand the story well, but I like the music. Here is the video for this opera.

  2. At the Kremlin Theater in Moscow, there was a performance of the Ruslan and Ludmila (1992). I took this photo at the conclusion of this opera.
  3. Russian music lovers coming to this theater were well-dressed. They seem to have a great respect for Glinka as the father of Russian music.

  4. I was there with Paolo Tombesi, Margarita Man'ko, Roy Glauber, and Daesoo Han.

• Two blocks from the statue is the entrance to the Mariinsky Theater. I am happy to share with you photos I took during my visit to this theater in 2010. There was a a performance of Prokofiev's ballet "Romeo and Juliet."
  1. Front View of the Theater.
  2. viewed from its front-right.
  3. Mercedes-Benz passing through the front ground of the theater.

  4. Upper Tiers.
  5. Stage Curtain down.
  6. Chevaliers. Telescopic view.
  7. Mother and Daughter from Novosibirsk, the science city in Siberia. I thought they are sisters.
  8. with J. S. Bach, and music lovers from Switzerland. The gentleman is a physicist.
  9. Mariinsky Administrator. I met this lady at the SPB airport while waiting for an AirBirlin flight to Dusseldorf. She works on exhibitions for the Mariinsky company. According to her, Moscow's Bolshoi is not the worst ballet in the world, but it is basically wrong to compare the Mariinsky with Bolshoi.

Interesting People I met in Saint Petersburg

• In 2014, I went to St. Petersburg to attend a conference on Hadrons held at the Spb Nuclear Physics Institute in Catchina about 20 km south of the city center. I was very happy to meet my old friends and to make new friends.
  1. When I arrived at the Spb airport in 2014, a number of Russians came to welcome their guests. I asked them to welcome me even though I am not their guest. They did, and I had a photo with them. This photo was taken by one of the members of this group. I could not leave her out. I had a separate photo with her.

  2. I met Victor Kim, Anna Dubnicikova, and Stanislav Dubinicka at the Gatchina conference. I met Dubmicikova in Zakopane (Poland) in 1995 while attending a conference there. I met both Dubinicka and Kim in 1990 at the Joint Institute of Nuclear physics (Dubna). At that time, Dubinicka was the director of the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics. Victor Kim was a young post-doc. He is now a big boy among the Russian community of high-energy physics. He spends most of his research time at the Hadron Collider Lab in CERN (Switzerland).

  3. This young lady is a graduate student at the University of Maryland. Her father is a physicist and was among the participants of the Gatchina conference. They came to the night-time cruise on the Never River arranged by the conference. I asked her what she is studying, and she said "business administration." I told her to make a large amount of money, and treat he father nicely. The father said "I appreciate your advise very much." We all laughed.

• In November of 2010, on my way home after attending a conference in Kazan, and I met some interesting people.
  1. Mother and son on a Spb airport bus. They were coming from Novosibirsk, and they became happy when I told them I am a physicist. Novosibirsk is a science city in Siberia. They were coming to Spb to see their relatives.

  2. Mother and daughter from Khavarovsk. It was indeed a pleasure to meet these Russian ladies in the Cathedral. Do you know where Khavarovsk is? Khavarovsk is a Siberian city directly north of Korean Peninsula. When I was in Korea (before 1954), I used to pick up the Radio Moscow signals from relay stations located there, but I never thought I could meet anyone from there.

  3. Outside the Cathedral, I met one man and two ladies. The man was Peter the Great, and on woman was Ekaterina who was Peter's mistress, wife, and then the Empress. The other lady is there to collect money for having photos with them.
     • This is my photo with Ekaterina.
     • This is my photo with the business manager. I paid her, but I do not know how much I paid. She said this photo with her was free.

  4. with J. S. Bach, and music lovers from Switzerland. The gentleman is a physicist. I met them at the Mariinsky Theater during the intermission. We were there for Prokofiev's ballet "Romeo and Juliet." The gentleman is a physicist.
  5. Mother and daughter in the Theater. We were in the same box.
  6. Mariinsky Administrator. I met this lady at the SPB airport while waiting for an AirBirlin flight to Dusseldorf. She works on exhibitions for the Mariinsky company. According to her, Moscow's Bolshoi is not the worst ballet in the world, but it is basically wrong to compare the Mariinsky with Bolshoi.

• In 2003, I was in Saint Petersburg the 3rd International Conference on Physics and Control. The city was in a festive mood to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the city's founding by Peter the Great. I was very happy to join the citizens for the celebration of this historic event. There were many interesting people and I took many photos. I am pleased to share some of them with you.
  1. With two interesting people, I had a photo. I met them near on the Nevsky Prospect near the Anichikov Palace where the conference took place.

  2. Anichikov Bridge. While I was standing on this historic bridge, I met many interesting Russians. I met this tall lady and started talking. We then decided to have this photo.

  3. Students of Korean Ancestry. Naturally, I become very happy whenever I meet Korean students. They are Russians born in Russia. Their grandparents came to Kazakhstan in from Vladivostok near the Korean border, and developed agriculture on the land of Central Asia.

  4. Both father and daughter are physicists. A very rare combination. I met them at the conference. The daughter in the middle is holding her umbrella skilfully for this photo.

  5. Two young Russian couple while waiting on line at the Catherine's Summer Palace.

  6. Two vacationers from Hong Kong. They said they were very happy to be away from their jobs. They were very cheerful, and they even sent me an email after returning to Hong Kong. It appears that I was an interesting boy to them. I am very happy if they felt in that way.

  7. Jim Yorke is my colleague at the University of Maryland. It was indeed a pleasure to meet him in St. Petersburg. A young Russian physicist joined us in this photo.

• During the 2003 conference, the Organizing Committee was nice enough to introduce this young lady to me. She spent one day with me to visit interesting places in St. Petersburg. She was a tourism professional and was able to explain well to me the history of the city. We used the public transportation system to travel around the city, and we had many photos together.
  1. Cathedral of Resurrection. I spent one day with this young lady and visited important places in the city. We started with the Museum Square. We then walked along one of the canals. Here we stopped for a photo with the Cathedral of Resurrection in the background.
  2. Close-up View. She is the most courteous lady I have ever met in my life. Her name is Daria Lomagina. I have only a son and never had the pleasure of having daughters. I can now understand why people spend that much money for raising their daughters.

  3. In front of Pushkin's Statue. We paused here, and she explained many things to me.

  4. Mariinsky Ballet Theatre. I told her I like to visit the Kirov ballet theatre. She told me the original name of the Kirov ballet is "Mariinsky Ballet" and it recovered its original name after the communists were gone.

  5. Stalin Organ. I told her I like tanks and like to visit a tank museum. She told me she does not like military stuff, but her father was a gun man on T-34 tank or Stalin tank during the Great Patriotic War (WW-II). The only possible place is the artillery museum, and we went there. I was interested in producing another photo like this which I took in Kharkov (Ukraine 2000). There were many guns, but we could not find the Stalin tank there. We decided to have a photo with another dreadful war machine carrying Stalin's name: Stalin Organ.