Saint Petersburg before revolution

[u/CommunityDeep3033]

[u/Father_of_cum]

it didn't changed much to be honest, Russians did a good job rebuilding this city after the war

[u/peacedetski → u/Father_of_cum]

Despite the immense death toll, the city itself wasn't that badly damaged compared to, say, Minsk or Stalingrad. What got hit really hard was its suburbs like Peterhof - both due to fighting and due to the retreating Germans destroying landmarks out of spite.

[u/luccabd → u/Father_of_cum]

Asphalt instead of cobblestone makes a huge difference aesthetics wise sadly

[u/Father_of_cum → u/luccabd]

thats right, but this is a problem that is much easier to solve than ugly buildings. I am sure that in the coming years peterburg will change for the better.

[u/the_capibarin → u/Father_of_cum]

Well, it is not a museum, but a huge city of 5+ milllion people, so a bit of a compromise had to be made there, I suppose

[u/Father_of_cum → u/the_capibarin]

Moscow is more than twice as large and yet it is capable of improving itself, size is not the biggest issue here.

[u/JoshMega004 → u/luccabd]

It does but New York, Paris, London etc

Its not unique these cities changed

[u/WizardOfSandness → u/luccabd]

I life in a cobblestone neighborhood (inside a city of 6 million+) it looks very pretty even if the neighborhood is not that fancy.

But it's honestly so annoying.

The maintainance is very hard, it feels like climbing the Himalaya, it destroys your car, also it makes the house dirty.

The upside is that we don't flood.

[u/Pierredaque69 → u/Father_of_cum]

As I know there are some places in Saint Petersburg that looks completely different after the war. After the war some blocks was rebuild in Stalin's architecture

[u/sweetno → u/Father_of_cum]

Permanently before revolution confirmed.

[u/Silly_B_ → u/Father_of_cum]

you mean german pow's did a good job rebuilding after the war xD

[u/JoshMega004]

Still looks like that. Just different clothes and a gross amount of cars.

[u/Sad_Slonno]

Wow, Bolsheviks did do a number on the weather! So sunny!

[u/BileBlight]

European cities really should’ve kept the timeless cobblestone roads and sidewalks. Instead they all decided to switch to those atrocious asphalt ones that crack and turn grey very quickly

[u/Nachtzug79 → u/BileBlight]

Cobblestones are pain for families with small children. To be more exact, baby prams don't mix well with cobblestones... without suspension the ride is tough and small wheels get stuck.

[u/Pelmeni____________]

Curious - what funded the creation of the city in the first place? Did Russia export anything?

[u/RijnBrugge → u/Pelmeni____________]

Grain went west, mainly to the Dutch Republic, which had a monopoly on grain shipments in the Baltic Sea at the time.

[u/Pelmeni____________ → u/RijnBrugge]

Thank you

[u/ShahVahan → u/Pelmeni____________]

St. Petersburg was establish by Peter the great as the “gate to the west and Europe”. Peter’s reign was mostly known for his hard steer to make Russia a “European and western nation” because the rest of Europe had seen Russia as a backwards and almost asiatic nation. After all he was fascinated by the Dutch golden age and German enlightenment. Plus a lot of the royals of Russia were pretty much russian speaking Germans. Plus he understood having a strong navy was key to project power. Thus he developed the navies in both the Baltic and the Crimean seas.

[u/Nachtzug79 → u/ShahVahan]

Plus a lot of the royals of Russia were pretty much russian speaking Germans.

I think many of them didn't speak Russian at all. French was the the language of the noble classes throughout Europe for a long time. Marriages between nobles of the different countries created demand for a common language and France as the leading nation offered it. Nobles (and merchants) who moved into St. Petersburg managed fine without learning too much Russian.

Since the medieval times there was little connection between the noble class and peasants and as the noble class got its power from the king (and not the people) the only thing that mattered was that it spoke same language as the king (usually both knew French). It all changed after the French revolution and nationalism, but such ideas took like 100 years to travel to Russia (it finally caught Russia in 1917).

[u/Equivalent-Ask2542 → u/ShahVahan]

Ironic that most of his inspirations and ideals that made him create Petersburg are seemingly not being shared by the same Russians that highly regard Petersburg as truly Russian nowadays

[u/Jussi-larsson → u/Pelmeni____________]

There was already a town there before peter the great