To practice my Russian I translated some article I found—it's quite fun, actually. Hope you like it.
Fifteen peculiarities about Petersburg
1 St. Petersburg is located at 651 kilometers from Moscow and 159 from the Finnish border at 59-56’ altitude and 30-18’ longitude. Petersburg is the most northern of the big cities and the biggest of the northern cities. The 60 degree parallel, on which Petersburg is situated, goes through Chukotka, Alaska, Greenland, Magadan and Oslo. More northern than Petersburg are Reykjavik, Moermansk, Petrozavodsk, Archangeldsk, Vokruta, Norilsk, Yakutsk, Ankoridge, Helsinki. Nearby the 30 degree line are Kiev, Odessa, Cairo, Chartum and Pretoria.
2 Although the River Neva is 74 kilometers long, it only assembles water from over a territory a bit smaller than Italy. The Neva delta includes Ladoga lake, Onega, Saima, Ilmyen, Svir, Volchov and Vuyoksa. The world knows only one hydro system a like the Neva, that is the territory of the Big Lakes in the USA. The Neva brings along as much water as the rivers Don and Dnyepr together.
3 In the 5th century BC the Neva took its form and course to the Finnish Gulf. The Neva river and Ladoga lake used to be named as a whole, the Swedish called it Nyu and the Finnish Aldea. Different names were given only in 1264.
4 Petersburg is the biggest ‘second’ city in Europe. It’s bigger than Barcelona, Krakow, Birmingham, Munchen, Milan, Charkov. In the beginning of the 19th century Petersburg was the fourth biggest city by population in Europe, and it still is. Paris: 9,8 million. Moscow: 9,3 million. London: 6,8 million. Petersburg: 4,6 million.
5 White Nights. 22nd of June in Petersburg lasts for 18 hours and 50 minutes. From the 26th of May until the 16th of July the depth of the setting of the sun doesn’t come higher than 7 degrees.
6 Champion of palaces. Only the palaces that were owned by the imperial family count in Petersburg to 20, Winter, Summer, Michailovski, Novomichailovski, Zapasnoi, Yelagin, Kamennoostrovski, Marble, Anichkov, Aleksey Aleksandrovich, Nikolay Nikolaevich, Mariinsky, Aleksandr Michailovich, Leichtenbergski, Sergey Aleksandrovich, Michail Aleksandrovich, Vladimir Aleksandrovich, Oldenburgski, Mecklenburg-Strelinski (Karlovy).
7 European Champion of Bridges, Vice Champion of Canals and Islands. In Petersburg there are 48 canals and rivers, 160 kilometer of embankments, 800 bridges. In Venice they have more canals (157) and islands (118) but less bridges (378).
8 Feniks bird. On Petersburg over the past 100 years twice a neutron bomb fell, during the civil war and during the blockade. In 1917 in Petersburg lived 2,5 million people, in 1920, 0,6. In 1941: 3,4 million, 1943: 0,6.
9 Deepest metro in the world. Because Petersburg is build on swamps the metro lines had to be built under those swamps. The metro rides 70-80 meters underground. This didn’t prevail the bursting of one tunnel in 1995.
10 Capital of trams. The city streets have more than 600 kilometers of tramline. This is written down in the Guinness Book of Records.
11 Four times renamed. Petersburg until 1914, Petrograd until 1924, Leningrad until 1991 and again Petersburg in 1991.
12 Dangerous city. Czarevich Aleksey Petrovich, three imperators (Peter III, Pavel I and Aleksandr II), two ministers of Domestic Affairs, three famous princes were killed in this city. It also saw four revolutions and five times change of rule. Nine leaders of communist organizations were shot, one of them (Kirov) under suspicious circumstances. The first mayor of the city (Sobchak) had to flee the city and hide for 1 ½ years in Paris. In the city center the vice-mayor Manevich was killed as well as state deputy Starovoitova. Not anyone who headed the city since 1917 could make a political career in Moscow.
13 Without elephants. Petersburg is the only big city in the Europe with a zoo without elephants. The last one, Bobo, came in 1957 from Rotterdam, but was sold to Tashkent in 1975, but soon after arrival in the Uzbekistan capital, died. The scull of Bobo can be seen in the Zoological Institute. Also the city lacks a hippodrome, aqua park, ring road and under the main city street there are only two underground pedestrian crossings.
14 The biggest piece of Malachite in the world is in possession of the Mine museum. The piece weighs 1504 kilogram and was taken from the Ural and put in the museum in 1787.
15 Biggest old city in Europe. In Petersburg living houses made out of stone from before the revolution are almost fully preserved. Of those there are 18.000 buildings. From the Obvodny Kanal towards the Big Neva and from the Aleksandr Nevsky monastery towards the harbor the city looks almost the same as it did in 1917. Such a high percentage of preserved buildings cannot be seen in any of the big cities in Europe or America. There is no place in the world where there is to be seen classical, eclectically, modern and retro perspective building styles.
Kalendar, 12-25 May 2003
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