Sunday 11 September 2011

Petrozavodsk

To start, I'll tell you a little about the city in which I find myself.


Petrozavodsk (or Петрозаводск for those Russian speakers amongst you) is the capital of the Republic of Karelia in the north-west of Russia. This region borders Finland and has a rich history in the mingling of both Russian and Finnish culture, having been fought over by the two states over the centuries. To this day there is a region of Finland named East Karelia, there is a Karelian language that is sometimes considered a dialect of Finnish, and, not far from the magnificent Karelian National Musical Theatre, is the more contemporary Finnish theatre.


The city was founded by Peter the Great in 1703 as a cannon foundry to provide for his Baltic fleet; the name itself comes from Petrovsky Zavod (Петровский завод), meaning Peter's factory. It sits on the bank of the enormous Lake Onega (Онежское Озеро), upon which are 1,650 islands, including the UNESCO world heritage site Kizhi (Кижи) where, during the 1950s, the Russian government moved over 80 wooden buildings and structures from all over Karelia to form an open-air museum. Hopefully at some point I will visit it and be able to tell you more.



As the twin sister of St Petersburg (Санкт-Петербург), which Peter the Great founded as an attempt to modernise the old-fashioned nobility of Russia and made his capital in 1712, Petrozavodsk is unique amongst the other towns of the region and of northern Russia in its European, neo-classical style of architecture, and as you wander along the expansive main street Prospect Lenina (Проспект Ленина) you are struck by the elegant and majestic buildings on either side of you, brightly painted and beautifully designed. If you follow this street right to the end, you come to the lake, along the bank of which are a collection of post-modernist sculptures given to the city by its sister-cities around the world. Whilst not being to everyone's tastes, these offer an interesting walk along the beautiful lakeside. The soviet era has also left its mark on the city, both in buildings such as the main train station and the State University (Петрозаводский Государственный Университет), that blend the neo-classical herritage of the city with symbols of the regime, and in the concrete, grey and somewhat shabby-looking appartment blocks that house the majority of the city's 263,000 residents.


So, history and background aside, what can I say of the city in which I have lived for the past week? The best conclusion I can come to is that Petrozavodsk is a city of stark contrast. There is a contrast between the old and the new, the beautiful and the ugly, and a remarkable contrast in what is cared for and what is not. As I have previously stated, the main street Prospect Lenina is home to some truly magnificent buildings, worthy of the architectural centres of the world, yet these are mingled amongst Soviet tenements, badly laid pavements and signs of disrepair. Popping our head into the Musical theatre revealed a magnificent hallway of marble, immaculately polished mirrors and glistening chandeliers, yet stepping back outside the door it was impossible to ignore the abandoned and rotting remains of a a factory. Even sat at this desk, in a room that is immaculately kept, well furnished and tastefully decorated in a way that echoes the rest of the flat, I only have to look to my left to see the grubby concrete, corrugated-iron clad balconies and dreary external of the block of flats in which I live.


Does this make Petrozavodsk an unpleasant place to live? Not at all. In fact, the city is far more welcoming, comfortable and homely than I had expected. Certainly, Petrozavodsk is not a tourist hotspot; there is a cinema, various theatres and music halls, but none of the magnificent sights that attract the crowds to St Petersburg or Moscow. Nevertheless, the city is, like many regional capitals, charming and comfortable in a way that makes you feel like you're living in a large town rather than a major city.

A buzzing metropolis it may not be, but I am delighted that it is this city in which I get to spend the next four months of my life.

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