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St. Petersburg : madness, murder, and art on the banks of the Neva / Jonathan Miles.

by Miles, Jonathan, 1952- author.

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New York : Pegasus Books, 2018.

Saint Petersburg (Russia) -- History.

Saint Petersburg (Russia) -- Civilization.

Saint Petersburg (Russia) -- Politics and government.

Saint Petersburg (Russia) -- Intellectual life.

Saint Petersburg (Russia) -- Kings and rulers.

9781681776767 (hardcover) :

1681776766 (hardcover)

592 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 24 cm

First Pegasus Books hardcover edition.

Twilight on the Nevsky 1993 -- Part I. Emperors 1698-1825 -- Havoc in London -- Dangerous acceleration -- Oblivion and rebirth -- Dancing, love-making, drink -- The city transformed -- Madness, murder, and insurrection -- Part II. Subjects 1825-1917 -- A new kind of cold -- Discontent -- Dancing on the edge -- Dazzle and despair -- Part III. Comrades & citizens 1917-2017 -- Red Petrograd -- A city diminished -- Darkest and finest hour -- Murmurs from the underground -- Broken windows onto the West -- Mirage 2017.

St. Petersburg has always felt like an impossible metropolis, rising from the freezing mists and flooded marshland of the River Neva on the western edge of Russia. It was a new capital in an old country. Established in 1703 by the sheer will of its charismatic founder, the homicidal megalomaniac Peter the Great, its dazzling yet unhinged reputation was quickly cemented by the sadistic dominion of its early rulers. This city, in is successive incarnations--St. Petersburg, Petrograd, Leningrad and, once again, St. Petersburg--has been a place of perpetual contradiction. The city was a window to Europe and the Enlightenment, but so much of Russia's unique glory was also created here: its literature, music, dance and, for a time, its political vision. It gave birth to the artistic genius of Pushkin and Dostoyevsky, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich, Pavlova and Nureyev. Yet, for all its glittering palaces, fairytale balls, and enchanting gardens, the blood of thousands has been spilled on its snow-filled streets. The city has been a hotbed of war and revolution, a place of siege and starvation, and the crucible for Lenin and Stalin's power-hungry brutality. In this volume, the author recreates the drama of three hundred years in this paradoxical and brilliant city, bringing the reader up to the present day, when its fate hangs in the balance once more. This is an epic tale of murder, massacre and madness played out against an unforgettable portrait of a city and its people.

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