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Cruise Around St Petersburg
St. Petersburg has more than 40 picturesque islands, more than 60 canals, and hundreds of lovely bridges, and it is considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world. On our <Cruise Around St Petersburg> The canals pass the palaces and grand houses of the rich and famous, famous landmarks and stunning architecture.
Day 5 July 4: -Yusupov Palace -Grand Choral Synagogue -Ballet
Today is <July 4 Independence Day>. After breakfast the captain , officers and the passengers raised the “Stars and Stripes” and played the U. S. National Anthem. While the “Star Spangled Banner” played, nearby ship stopped what they were doing to watch. The captain said this would have been impossible just a few years ago.
Yusupov Palace
After the July 4th ceremony we went on a tour of the <Yusupov Palace>. The palace was once owned by one of the wealthiest families in Russia. The 19th-century Palace stands on the embankment of the Moyka River, beyond the “Bridge of Kisses.” Built by Vallin de la Mothe in 1760, the palace is where Prince Yusupov murdered Grigory Rasputin, the most controversial figure in Russian history, in 1916. One of the palace highlights is its magnificent private theater, one of the most beautiful of its kind in all of Europe. After seeing ornately decorated rooms we descended to the basement where the Prince murdered Rasputin. The rooms have been restored to evoke the eerie atmosphere of the night of the murder.
<Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin> was a Russian peasant, mystic and private adviser to the Romanovs, who became an influential figure in the later years of tsar Nicholas. This was especially the case after August 1915 when the Emperor left Petrograd for Stavka at the WWI front, leaving his wife Alexandra Feodorovna to act in his place. It appears that Rasputin's personal influence over the Tsarina became so great that it was he who ordered the destinies of Imperial Russia, while she compelled her weak husband to fulfill them.
There is much uncertainty over Rasputin's life and influence, as accounts are often based on dubious memoirs, hearsay and legend. The English writer Colin Wilson said in 1964 that "No figure in modern history has provoked such a mass of sensational and unreliable literature as Grigory Rasputin. More than a hundred books have been written about him, and not a single one can be accepted as a sober presentation of his personality.”
The murder of Rasputin has become something of a legend, some of it invented, perhaps embellished or simply misremembered. There are very few facts between the night he disappeared and the day his corpse was dredged up from the river. The official police report, with details gathered in two days, and stopped with the idea the murder was solved, is unconvincing. What is left are the memoirs of the murderers, the Prince Felix Yusupov (29-years-old) and conservative politician, Vladimir Purishkevich (47-years old). "Unfortunately, after the Soviets came to power, many of the documents that formed part of the official secret investigation have either been destroyed, or have disappeared.
Grand Choral Synagogue of St. Petersburg
The building permit for the St. Petersburg Synagogue <Great Choral Synagogue> was obtained on September 1, 1869 from Tsar Alexander II. Tsar Alexander II allowed Jews who were retired soldiers, people with academic degrees, 1st guild merchants, specialty craftsmen, and technicians to reside in St. Petersburg. By 1870, there were about ten Jewish houses of worship in St. Petersburg, however, there was no Grand Synagogue to serve the entire Jewish community in the Russian capital.
The land plot for the first synagogue was bought in 1879 for 65,000 rubles but construction was subject to many conditions and restrictions. For example, there could be no Christian churches or government roads used by the Tsars near the synagogue. The height of the building was limited to 47 meters, instead of the 65 meters proposed by the architects. In St. Petersburg no building could be higher than 23 meters, the height of the Tsar's Winter Palace. Exemptions were only given for bell towers and domes.
The Great Choral Synagogue was consecrated in 1893.