ST PETERSBURG: HARES AND ‘CHIZHIKS’
By Philip Marriott The Moscow News
Moscow News (Russia)
September 1, 2004
Spending a few days in St. Petersburg can present you with a
difficult choice as far as sightseeing goes; there is just too much
to see and wonder at that it’s hard to know where to start. Anything
located in the centre will shake Moscow out of the hair, certainly
looking at the architecture or other visual attractions. And then of
course further afield are Peterhof, or Repino.
Take one of the canal trips through the city centre and you will
learn why Petersburg has been described in the past as a floating
city between two worlds. Without a doubt this is the best way to see
the city as you pass by former palaces of the tsarist elite,
barracks, and gardens like the Letny Sad or Summer Garden containing
antique sculptured figures from classical mythology along with
allegorical figures of such notions as wisdom, truth etc. The Summer
Garden is right next to Marsovo Polye or Mars Field with its monument
to the Unknown Soldier. The boat takes you across the Neva to show
you the battleship Aurora and Petropavlovskaya Krepost – Peter’s
castle, the original core of St. Petersburg. Some things you won’t be
able to see from the boat however are the beautiful Armenian and
Catholic churches on Nevsky Prospekt (Nevsky Avenue). The Armenian
with one of the latest additions to the town, a fountain in the form
of a tree bearing pomegranates, the Catholic one under renovation and
with a very informative display about the history of the church
itself and some of the horrors it and its congregation have gone
through.
Recent additions to the monuments in the city include two charming
bronze sculptures, one of which is the Hare atop a wooden pillar just
under one of the bridges leading to Zayachy Ostrov (Hare Island). You
can also see living compatriots nearby in the zoo – a good option if
you are with kids. The other monument on a small scale is the Chizhik
or bird sculpture on the wall of the Fontanka canal and opposite the
famous house of the same name – a former palace of Sheremetyev and
later where Anna Akhmatova lived and received her famous visitor
Isaiah Berlin. The bird commemorates the fact that former students of
the law school nearby were called Chizhik-Pizhiks because the colors
of their uniform were the same as the bird. A rhyme grew up on the
theme of the students secretly going to a notorious nearby drinking
place. ‘Chizhik-Pizhik, gdye ty byl: where have you been? Drinking
vodka by the Fontanka. I had one, I had a few and now…I’m drunk!’
It gets lost in translation!MN