Sunlight at Midnight

For Russians, St. Petersburg has embodied power, heroism and fortitude. It has encompassed all the things that the Russians are and that they hope to become. Opulence and artistic brilliance blended with images of suffering on a monumental scale. Climate and comfort were not what Tsar Peter the Great had in mind when, in the spring of 1703, he decided to build a new capital in the muddy marshes of the Neva River delta. Located 500 miles below the Arctic Circle, this area was so unattractive that only a handful of Finnish fishermen had ever settled there. Bathed in sunlight at midnight in the summer, it brooded in darkness at noon in the winter, and its canals froze solid at least five months out of every year. Yet to the Tsar, it had the makings of a 'paradise'. His vision was soon borne out. In this book, revolutionaries and labourers brush shoulder with tsars, and builders, soldiers and statesmen share pride of place with poets. For only the entire historical experience of this magnificent and myserious city can reveal the wealth of human and natural forces that shaped the modern history of it and the nation it represents.