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This morning we take the taxi for a ride to the Lenin Palace (Smolny Institute) and the Aurora Cruiser.

The coat of arms of St. Petersburg.

The smolny institute, built in 1764, was a building dedicated to the education of young girls, based on the Ecole des Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr in France. During the Russian revolution of 1917, it was in this palace that Lenin settled to foment and launch the famous insurrection / revolution of October which launched the movement (I will come back to it a little later). Then the building served as the headquarters of Lenin before the transfer of power to the Kremlin in Moscow.
It is also in this same building that sees the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934 launching the Moscow trials and the great Stalinist purges.

We continue a quick taxi ride (always the same, good driver and friendly), with very soviet buildings and a statue for the football world cup that was soon to begin here.

Just before we get to our next stop, our taxi gets stopped by the police. One of the agents asks our driver to go out talking while we are told to stay in the cab, but to show our papers. after a few minutes our driver comes back in the taxi, a little whiter than before, and leaves without saying anything. We understand that our driver was very legally racketed by police officers. Since he was carrying tourists, he would logically have a tip, which the agents rushed to collect in advance. 500 rubles (about 7 €), which does not seem huge for us (the gesture remains shameful), except when we know that the average salary here is 500-600 €. And that kind of thing happens every day ...
Here we are now at the dawn cruiser. Protected cruiser of pallada class of 126m long and armed with 14 guns of 152 and torpedo tubes, it is launched in 1900 in the presence of tsar Nicholas II and his family. He will participate in several battles in the Baltic Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It served during the first world war until October 25, 1917 when, drawing a blanked, it gives the signal of the Bolshevik assault on the winter palace (hermitage) of the tsars. He will spend the Second World War moored at a dock of Orianenbaum, disarmed (his guns serving on the ground on the front), and bombed September 30, 1941. He will finally get out of the water and repaired in 1947 and moored at the wharf. Petrogradskaya in St. Petersburg where it is currently located, serving as a museum and monument to the great October Revolution.

A small photo in a retro style.

While everyone goes to the Museum of Russian Art, I will visit the Kunstkamera Museum (Museum of Ethnography and Anthropology of the Great Stone of the Russian Academy of Sciences). first museum built in Russia. It was built under the orders of the peter the great, with his personal collection in 1727. The zoological wing will become autonomous and moved a few tens of meters in 1832.

The museum is very large and filled with ethnographic curiosities, there is a whole wing dedicated to the natives of northern Russia, a wing for Japan and China, there is even a wing for teratology (the monsters).

Right next to it is the zoological museum of St. Petersburg, whose official name is the zoological museum of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which is enormous! Spanning 6,000 m² and containing more than 30,000 rooms, the museum consists of 3 parts.
A party dedicated to more than 10,000 insects (first floor), pinnipeds (walrus, sea lions, etc ...) and cetaceans (including one of the largest blue whale skeleton in the world).

The second part is dedicated to amphibians, fish, reptiles, birds and 3,000 marine invertebrate specimens.

The third room, finally, is dedicated to mammals, including several mammoths, including the famous little Dima found in the permafrost. Unfortunately pressed by the time and the size of the museum, I finish this part with no charge.

After finding everyone, head for the lunch, with the menu, rice with carrots, a little meat, salad and ... vatrouchki for dessert. Vatrouchki are a kind of brioche bread, in the round, with fresh cheese sweetened in the middle and baked. It's super good and rather light (in addition to not being too expensive).

The afternoon will be held first at the cathedral of Saint-Isaac (right next to the park and Alexander Admiralty). It is a Russian Orthodox Cathedral built between 1818 and 1858, under the reigns of Emperors Alexander I, Nicholas I and Alexander II. It was inspired by St. Paul's Cathedral in London and was designed to accommodate 14,000 worshipers. It is one of the largest domed cathedrals in the world with 111m long, 97m wide and 102m high (about 11'000m² and 300'000 tonnes). The construction required 400kg of gold, 1 ton of bronze, more than a hundred different granites, marbles and malachites and 500kg of lapis lazuli. It also includes 300 statues and 6'500m² of mosaics and 2 large bas-reliefs (the resurrection of Christ and Isaac of Dalmatia) made by the sculptor Henri Lemaire (the same one who made the final judgment on the pediment of the church of the madeleine in Paris).
During the 1917 revolution, the cathedral was pillaged by the Bolsheviks, confiscated objects and melted bells. it was closed by the communist authorities until 1931 when it was transformed into a museum of atheism until 1937. It was not until 1990 and the close end of the USSR to see the resumption of religious services. It was not until December 2012 that the cathedral found a bell (10 tons!) At one of its bell towers.

A small ice break on a bench and we set out again for the last museum of the day.

On the way, we stop at the store of the second day, Dom zingera. Inside, it's luxury, it's full of luxury vodka, caviar, etc ... There is even a vodka with a gold tank inside! One of the famous T-34-85 of which the Russians are so proud. The first version, the T-34, served to slow down the German thrust during the operation barbarossa, although in small numbers but supported by massive KV1. Its latest version, the T-34-85, thanks among other things, the constant improvements and balance between its mobility, its armor and its firepower is considered one of the best tanks of the Second World War. Medium tank, 30 tons and armed with a 85mm gun for a frontal armor of 45 to 90mm, it was launched in 1940 and built until 1958, but it is still in service and widespread (with more than 84'000 units produced)! Some T-34 captured also served for the wehrmacht to the design of the famous Panther tanks!

And here is the last visit of the day (but what a visit!) Where are pieces of silverware known worldwide: the Fabergé eggs!
We are at the Fabergé Museum in St. Petersburg. Opened in 2013 in the Shuvalov Palace thanks to the Russian billionaire Viktor vekselberg to repatriate in Russia the lost objects of high cultural value for the so-called russia.
The museum has more than 4,000 works of decorative arts, including gold objects, silverware, paintings, porcelain and bronzes. But especially 9 imperial Easter eggs made by fabergé for the last two Russian tsars as well as for other Russian people or not. The delicacy of the engravings, sculpture and in a more general term, the work of goldsmith realized is absolutely fascinating so the details are tiny!

To begin with, the imperial Easter Eggs (offered by Alexander III to his wife Maria Feodorovna and Nicholas II to his wife Alexandra Feodorovna) on the occasion of the Easter holiday.
The chicken egg, which started the story of faberge eggs.

The rebirth egg (which would have contained the purple egg, now lost).

The rosebud egg (also called the rose egg, donated by Tsar Nicholas II to show his love to his wife).

The coronation egg with its golden carriage and ruby inside.

Egg with lily of the valley.

Cuckoo egg.

Egg of the 15th anniversary, all in extremely fine details.

Laurel egg (the most beautiful with the egg rose, in my opinion).

And the egg of the order of saint-georges.

Then come faberge eggs that were not made for the Russian imperial family.
First, the egg of Chantecler, which looks like the egg of the cuckoo.

Here is the egg of the Duchess of Marlborough.

The egg of the resurrection.

The egg of the hen of kelch.

And finally the Scandinavian eggs and spring flowers that I did not take a picture. But the museum, as I say, has many beautiful and fine pieces:

As well as everyday objects, or more specific (like this solid silver plate, and gold).

And paintings (including a rather particular, because it is a painting of Saint-Cyr-lapopie, not far from my home!).

Even the toilets are design!

We take the metro for the return where we will eat at the apartment. A cat poster overtakes me during the long climb of the escalators ...

Finally the bed, pfou! Tomorrow, last full day in Russia for a last imperial palace.

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