«Please accept my heartfelt congratulations to you all on the radiant feast day of the Nativity of Our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ,» His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia addressed Christians in his Christmas Message. Readers of the Russian Mind magazine live in various countries – both where snowdrifts are now outside the window and where palm trees grow… But, as we know, all of us are dependent on time, which gives us wonderful festive occasions: New Year’s Eve and Orthodox Christmas. It is not in vain that they say these days: «Make a wish for new happiness, but don’t lose the old one!»
As always, there will be many stories on historical subjects in this issue. They include the foundation of the Russian Academy of Sciences by Peter the Great (exactly three centuries ago the first Russian Emperor signed a decree on its establishment), and a tribute to Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin: the great satirist was born exactly 200 years ago. Besides, we will speak about Nikolai Leskov and Ernest Beaux, Nikolai Rubtsov and Osip Mandelstam…
We will not forget about St Isaac’s Cathedral in St Petersburg: in early January the 240th anniversary of the birth of its architect Auguste de Montferrand was celebrated. This cathedral is the fourth largest in the world: only the Cathedrals of St Peter in Rome, St Paul in London and St Mary in Florence are larger. Its building project that covered forty years was an epic! The heavy building needed wooden piles, 10,762 of which were driven into the swampy ground! A process that lasted five years. Residents of St Petersburg even began to joke: “We hammered a pile – it went into the swampy ground; we hammered a second one – and it disappeared… A dozen more logs were hammered in, and then a letter arrived from New York: ‘You’ve spoiled an American pavement! There is the stamp of the Gromov and Co. St Petersburg’s timber exchange at the end of a log sticking out of the ground.’»
Enough of historical anecdotes though! Especially as winter is not to be trifled with. As a Russian saying goes: «January is strong with frosty weather, and February with blizzards.»
Happy New Year, dear readers! Merry Christmas!
By Kirill Privalov
