St. Isaac’s Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox Church completed in 1858; the biggest cathedral in Russia at the time.

Saint Petersburg was the last capital of Czarist Russia; it’s where the, Bolshevik Revolution took place. Now it’s the 2nd biggest city of Russia that attracts tourists with its beautiful natural environment with Gulf of Finland and river Neva and ample cultural heritages such as Hermitage Museum and the house of Dostoevsky, etc.

Saint Petersburg is the most youthful and dynamic city in Russia.

Saint Petersburg is at the center of Russian art and history as well as the most dynamic city in Russia. In 2010, Hyundai Motor Company Russia plant opened here. Upon completion, the Russian prime minister, Vladmir Putin (Current president) attended the building dedication ceremony. It received the ‘Russia national quality award’ Grand Prix in 2014, which was a first for a foreign enterprise.

Hyundai Motor Company is loved by the Russian people with its customized models.

Hyundai Motor Company Russia plant has produced around 1.5 million for the past 7 years. According to Saint Petersburg governor Poltavchenko, ‘1 out of 5 cars in Russia is produced by Hyundai Motor Company. Their representative models include Solaris, global small SUV Creta, Kia Rio, etc. The ‘locally customized’ models that carefully considered the snow storm, coldness, and the local driving culture are loved by the Russian people.

Nevsky Avenue, located in the center of Saint Petersburg, means ‘a road to the monastery’

But this beautiful, vibrant city where history and modernity come together didn’t even exist 300 years ago. In the past this place was just a swamp, surrounded by reeds. Russia’s revolutionary leader Czar Peter the Great filled up the swamp with rocks to get closer to Europe. It was the first step towards the plan of building a large-scale city.

Saint Petersburg, with its many canals and bridges, is called 'Venice of the north'

Numerous canals and 500 bridges connect the city as one, and glamorous marble buildings started to rise. That’s how Saint Petersburg became Czarist Russia’s new capital.

Czarist Russia’s glamorous palace culture remaining in Saint Petersburg

Hermitage Museum is one of the 3 big museums in the world; it displays around 2.7 million works.

Saint Petersburg used to be the capital of Czarist Russia. If you wish to know how glamorous the life of Czarist Russia House of Romanov was since the times of Czar Peter the Great, visit Hermitage, which was called the Winter Palace. This building, which shows the essence of Baroque architecture, is now a museum.

The gold peacock clock was made so that it would move 7pm every Wednesday.

Hermitage Museum has such a large collection, it’s named one of the 3 best museums in the world. It has around 2.7 million works. If you spend 1 minute for each work, you would need 5 years in total to look around the whole museum. It’s interesting to see, not only for its displayed works but also for its varying interior that differ by room.

Summer palace in Peterhof was built after the palace of Versaille.

If you liked the glamor of the winter palace Hermitage, the summer palace located in the city of Peterhof near Saint Petersburg is recommended too. It’s said to have imitated the Versaille Palace in France. It’s where the Russian emperors, the ‘czars’, spent their summers.

Summer palace’s fountain garden has a 7-floor stair type waterfall and golden statues.

The highlight of the summer palace is the fountain garden. There are a 7-floor stair type waterfall and golden statues around. In the center, a 20m tall water stream shoots out. It’s so exquisite when the golden statues and waterdrops shine under the sunshine.

You can see wax figures that re-enact the Rasputin assassination in the Moika Palace underground.

There’s another palace worth visiting. It’s Moika Palace located in the Moyka riverside, Saint Petersburg. This palace was the residence of the house of Count Yusupov. Count Yusupov was the nephew in law of Nikolai II, the last emperor of Czarist Russia. You can see the glamorous lifestyle of the Russian royalty back in the days in the mansion.

Books about Rasputin on display, the very person who led Czarist Russia to disintegration

And in the underground floor, Rasputin, the wicked monk who controlled the emperor and put the whole country of Russian in chaos, was assassinated. You can see wax figures that re-enact the past in the Moika Palace underground. It’s where you can really feel the chaos of the last Czarist Russia years.

Leningrad, a city of revolution

Russia soldier posing for the citizens

Saint Petersburg is also a city of revolution. The extravagance of the emperors and royals we have seen before starved the laborers and the peasants. Finally, in January 1905, the laborers marched to the Winter Palace. It was a peaceful march, but the army fired guns against the innocent people. It was the firing that announced the beginning of a revolution.

In October 1917, Cruiser Aurora fired blanks, notifying the beginning of the revolution.

Since this incident, dubbed the ‘Bloody Sunday’, another revolution in February 1917 took down Nikolai II, and Czarist Russia is lost forever in the history books. In October same year the cruiser Aurora fired blanks. Vladimir Lenin began the first ‘socialist revolution’ in the world based on Marxism. The Bolshevik administration moved the capital to Moscow, and the city was named Leningrad. It changed its name back to Saint Petersburg in 1991 when USSR was disassembled.

Memories of Victor Choi; we want change.

There are still many people in Saint Petersburg who remember and love Victor Choi

Saint Petersburg is also the place where Russia’s legendary rock star Victor Choi played in. Victor Choi was a 3rd generation Goyreo descendant, with a Goryeo father and a Ukranian mother. With Perestroika, Gorbachyov’s socialism reformation policy taking effect in 1987 that took Russia by storm of changes, he sang songs that represented the desires of Russian youths of the time.

“shadow sets on the burning city./ Change! Our hearts demand./ Change! Our eyes demand. / To our laughter, tears, and beating heartbeats, change!/ We demand change”

(From Victor Choi, ‘We demand change’)

People who love Victor Choi gather in Club Kamchatka and play music to commemorate him.

He died in 1990 at the young age of 28, but the whole country of Russia still listens to his music. The underground boiler room where he once worked as a boiler engineer became Club Kamchatka. This is where people who still love Victor Choi get together to play music. In the entrance, you can see a commemoration stone, and inside the club his keepsakes are displayed.

Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is the city that never stops seeking newness. This city was a challenge against nature, a desire for new history, and the symbol of change and reformation. Imagine the future and not the past when you are traveling Saint Petersburg. That’s the perfect way to understand this city.

Article and photography by Hyo-jeong JeongShe is a broadcasting writer who participated in many program productions, and also a travel writer who published ‘Silkroad to you’ and ‘Santiago, in search of men’.