DEPARTED GLORY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 3 January 1924, Page 5

DEPARTED GLORY.

PETROGRAD IN THE SHADOAVS

Professor Charles Sarolea has been to Russia, a.nd, writing in the Scotsman, describes "the death of Petrograd—one of the world's most wonderful cities." "The removal of the capital to Moscow meant a. sentence of death against Petrograd. for Petrograd was an entirely artificial city," he says. "AVith. out any advantages, built on a maiishy swamp, periodically devastated by floods., she only owed her existence to the fiat of Peter the Great. She could only survive as a city of luxury and pleasure, as a centre of the Court and of society, of the bureaucracy and of the army. Other European cities, like Trieste, Riga, and Vienna, after the . war have seen the currents of commercial life diverted from them. But their prosperous days are sure to return. "On the contrary, Petrograd, once j she has lost her political importance as [Capital of an empire, can never recover it. She can neither be revived nor transformed. She can never adapt her. self to the new conditions. In the near future tourists will view the ruins of Petrograd as our forefathers would contemplate the ruins of mediaeval Rome. After six years of Soviet rule Petrograd is already a dying town. And the death of Petrograd is the death of one -of the world's most wonderful cities, for Petrograd was built on an even more colossal scale than Moscow. Even more than Moscow she is a city of palaces and granite embankments, of spacious parks and treasures of art. "Whereas the population of Moscow has vastly increased, the population of Petrograd is little over one-third of what it was before the war. Except for the main avenues, the streets are deserted, the grass is growing between the cobble stones, tramways are running half empty, and most of tbe shops and restaurants are closed. The harbour is lying still. A drive through the town is a melancholy experience. The stately mansions of the aristocracy are tumbling down, either because, being built on piles, like the houses of A 7enice or Amsterdam, the foundations are collapsing, or because the basement has been flooded, or because the roofs have been torn down and the woodwork of the window frames removed for fuel. The parks are turned into wildernesses. The villas and the 'Datchas, 1 which were once the scenes of a gay life, are but a heap of ruins. The factories in the suburbs of the town have shared the fate of the palaces in the centre.*"