Stanbul. The Ottoman Centuries

Mehmet the Conqueror began at once to rebuild and re-populate the city. He saw himself as the successor to the glories and powers of Constantine, Justinian and the other great emperors who had reigned here. He built a mosque (Fatih Camii) on one of the city’s seven hills, repaired the walls and made İstanbul the administrative, commercial and cultural centre of his growing empire.

Süleyman the Magnificent (1520-66) was perhaps İstanbul’s greatest builder. His mosque, the Süleymaniye (1550), is İstanbul’s largest. Other sultans added more mosques, and in the 19th century numerous palaces were built along the Bosphorus: Çirağan, Dolmabahçe, Yıldız, Beylerbeyi and Küçük Su.

As the Ottoman Empire grew to include all of the Middle East and North Africa as well as half of Eastern Europe, İstanbul became a fabulous melting pot. On its streets and in its bazaars, people spoke Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish), Russian, Arabic, Bulgarian, Romanian, Albanian, Italian, French, German, English and Maltese.

However, the most civilised city on earth in the time of Süleyman eventually declined, as did the Ottoman Empire, and by the 19th century it had lost some of its former glory. But it continued to be the ‘Paris of the East’ and, to reaffirm this, the first great international luxury express train, the famous Orient Express, connected İstanbul with Paris.

Republican İstanbul

Atatürk’s (1881-1938) campaign for national salvation and independence was directed from Ankara. (For more details see The Turkish Republic in the History section of Facts about Turkey.) The founder of the Turkish Republic decided to get away from the imperial memories of İstanbul and to set up the new government in a city that could not easily be threatened by gunboats. Robbed of its importance as the capital of a vast empire, İstanbul lost much of its wealth and glitter. From being the East’s most cosmopolitan city, it relaxed into a new role as an important national, rather than international, city.

During the 1980s and ‘90s İstanbul began to regain something of its former role. Easier to live in than Cairo or Beirut, more attractive than Tel Aviv, more in touch with the Islamic world than Athens, it is fast becoming the capital of the eastern Mediterranean again.

Text 2. ORIENTATION

Assignment. Read Text 2 and compare it with Text 1. What is emphasized in Text 2? How does the style change in accordance with its purpose? Find the props for the tourist that can help them find the place they are looking for.

İstanbul is divided from north to south by the Bosphorus, the wide strait connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, into European and Asian portions. European İstanbul is further divided by the Golden Horn estuary. Governmentally, the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi) is divided into 15 smaller municipalities (belediye).

The historic heart of the city on the south shore of the Golden Horn, once called Stamboul by foreigners, is now the belediye of Eminönü. This name also applies to the district centred on the Yeni Cami (New Mosque) at the southern end of the Galata Bridge, which can lead to some confusion. On the north side of the Golden Horn is the belediye of Beyoğlu.

Lonely Planet publishes a comprehensive İstanbul City Map, which has detailed maps of the city at varying scales.

Old İstanbul

Old İstanbul is ancient Byzantium/Constantinople, called Stamboul by 19th-century travellers. It’s here, from Seraglio Point jutting into the Bosphorus to the mammoth city walls 7km to the west, that you’ll find the great palaces and mosques, the Hippodrome, monumental columns, ancient churches and the Kapalı Çarşi (Grand Bazaar or Covered Market). The best selection of budget and mid-range hotels is also here, with a few top-end places as well. The heart of the old city within the walls is now officially the belediyes of Eminönü and Fatih.

Beyoğlu

North of the Golden Horn is Beyoğlu, the Turkish name for the two ancient cities of Pera and Galata, or roughly all the land from the Golden Horn to Taksim Square. Here you’ll find luxury hotels; airline offices and banks; the European consulates and hospitals; and Taksim Square, the hub of European İstanbul.

Under the Byzantines, Galata (now called Karaköy) was a separate city built and inhabited by Genoese traders.

Under the sultans, the non-Muslim European population of Galata spread up the hill and along the ridge, founding Galata’s sister city of Pera. In recent times this part of the city has been the fastest growing and has stretched far beyond the limits of old Galata and Pera. Beyoğlu’s main street is the pedestrianised istiklal Caddesi, formerly known as the Grande Rue de Péra.

Old İstanbul and Beyoğlu are connected by the Galata Bridge at the mouth of the Golden Horn. Near the bridge are the docks for Bosphorus ferries.

Asian İstanbul

The Asian part of the city; on the eastern shore of the Bosphorus, is of less interest to tourists, being mostly dormitory suburbs such as Üsküdar (Scutari) and Kadıköy (Chalcedon). One landmark you’ll want to know about is Haydarpaşa station, right between Üsküdar and Kadıköy. This is the terminus for Anatolian trains, which means any Turkish train except the one from Europe via Edirne. If you’re headed for Ankara, Cappadocia or any point east of İstanbul, you’ll board at Haydarpaşa.

Text 3. HISTORY OF OSLO.

Assignment. Read Text 3 carefully paying special attention to the names of places, people etc. and the spelling of these names. Explain the peculiarities. Using reference books find the traditional Russian equivalents to these names.

The name Oslo is derived from the words Ás, the Old Norse name for the Norse Godhead, and lo, which meant ‘pasture’, yielding roughly ‘the fields of the gods’.

The city was originally founded in 1048 by King Harald Hardråda (Harald Hard-Ruler), whose son Olav Kyrre (Olav the Peaceful) set up a cathedral and a corresponding bishopric here. In the late 13th century, King Håkon V created a military presence by building the Akershus Festning in the hope of deterring the Swedish threat from the east. After the mid-14th-century bubonic plague wiped out half of the country’s people, Norway united with Denmark and, from 1397 to 1624, Norwegian politics and defence were handled from Copenhagen. Oslo slipped into obscurity. In 1624, it burned to the ground. It was resurrected by King Christian IV, who rebuilt it on a more easily defended site and renamed it Christiania, after his humble self.

For three centuries, the city held on as a seat of defence. In 1814, the framers of Norway’s first constitution designated it the official capital of the new realm, but their efforts were effectively nullified by Sweden, which had other ideas about Norway’s future and unified the two countries under Swedish rule. In 1905, when that union was dissolved, the stage was set for Christiania to flourish as the capital of modern Norway. It reverted to its original name, Oslo, in 1925 and the city has never looked back.

Oslo’s central train station (Oslo Sentralstasjon or Oslo S) sits at the eastern end of the city centre, with the Galleri Oslo Bus Terminal not far away to the northeast. From Oslo S the main street, Karl Johans gate, forms a ceremonial axis westward through the heart of the city to the Royal Palace. Most sights, including the harbourfront and Akershus Festning (Fortress), are within a 15-minute walk of Karl Johans gate, as are the majority of hotels and pensions. Many of the sights outside the centre, including Vigeland Park and the Munch Museum, are just a short bus or tram ride away. The Bygdøy Peninsula is a mere 10-minute ferry ride across the harbour.

The tourist offices distribute a detailed and free city plan. Unless you’re heading out to the suburbs, it should be sufficient. On the reverse side is a map of the T-bane system and an inset covering Hoknenkollen.

Text 4. VITSEBSK (ВИЦЕБСК)

Assignment. Read Text 4 carefully paying special attention to the names of places, people etc. and the spelling of these names. Explain the peculiarities. Using reference books find the traditional Russian equivalents to these names as well as their new Belarusian equivalents. How can you account for the double name of the text? What is the reason of the emphasis of the “national” coloring of the text?

Vitsebsk (Vitebsk in Russian), 277 km north of the capital, is in some ways the most intriguing and dynamic Belarusian city outside Minsk, mainly due to its artistic heritage. Marc Chagall was born here, studying under an unheralded master, Yudel Pyen, who opened the country’s first art school here in 1897; the artists Vasili Kandinsky, Ilya Repin and Kasimir Malevich also spent some time in what was then a dynamic city.

Aside from this, the city boasts what even Minsk cannot - a sense of the past. Several small areas of pre-WWII houses lend a delicate elegance to the relatively hilly city sitting at the confluence of three rivers, the dramatic Dvina, and the smaller Vitba and Luchesa.

Its past, however, is as painful as that of other Belarusian cities. Its history goes back to the 6th-century Varangian explorers from Scandinavia who settled here. Part of the Princedom of Polatsk, Vitsebsk was also pulled into the sphere of Kyivan Rus, then fell under the Lithuanian and Polish umbrella before being finally pinched by Moscow.

It was burned to ashes by Ivan the Terrible in the mid-16th century, and was savagely razed in WWII, when only 118 people out I of a prewar population of 170,000 survived. Each year on 26 June, the city celebrates the day in 1944 when the Red Army liberated it from the Nazis. Though less developed than Minsk, Vitsebsk has a down-to-earth quality that visitors will appreciate.

The remnants of the old town lie along a picturesque, steep ridge about 2km northeast of the train station and across the Dvina River. Heading due east from the station is the main thoroughfare, vul Kirava, which becomes vul Zamkovaja after it crosses the river, and vul Frunze after it crosses vul Lenina, the main north-south axis.

Immerse yourself in what distinguishes Vitsebsk from other Belarusian cities: art. Nowhere else in the country will you get such a concentrated dose of quality art! Absolute musts are the Chagall-related museums. The grand halls of the Art Museumare decked out with mainly local art, both old and new. There are numerous 18th- to 20th-century works, including those by Repin and Vladimir Egorovic Makovsky. A highlight is the collection of very moving realist scenes of early 20th-century Vitsebsk street life by Yudel Pyen. Of the 793 paintings he donated to the city before he died, only 200 have survived, most of them held here.

A few houses away, past the town halldistinguishable by its clock tower, is the Regional Museumwhere you are guaranteed something interesting and thought provoking. There are up to five temporary exhibitions (usually paintings and photography) plus a permanent one full of 11th- to 14th-century artefacts from the city and region.

From here, taking a walk up vul Suvorava and exploring the surrounding side streets is a pleasant way to experience what’s left of old Vitsebsk, with some fine 18th and 19th-century buildings and a laid-back old-world ambience.

The Museum of the Belarusian Army, set up by veterans of the Afghan War, has some touching exhibits on the history of war on Belarusian soil from the 6th century, as well as of Belarusians participating in foreign wars. The museum is difficult to find on your own; take a BR8000 taxi from the centre.

While Vitsebsk does not have many churches of note, there is a pair of very different Orthodox churcheson the eastern bank of the Dvina, near the main bridge on vul Zamkovaja. These are reconstructions built in 1998 of 10th- (wooden) and 13th-century (white stone) styles. Both hold regular services; the atmospheric wooden church is especially worth visiting.

Text 5. ST PETERSBURG (САНКТ-ПЕТЕРБУРГ)

Assignment. Read Text 5 carefully paying special attention to the names of places, people etc. and the spelling of these names. Explain the peculiarities. How can you account for the double name of the text? Do you agree with all the variants of rendering the Russian xenonyms in the text

Locals call it, simply, ‘Piter’. In its time - some 300 action-packed years - it has been known by several other names, all more resonant of its pivotal place in Russian history. But whatever it’s called there’s no denying that St Petersburg is one of the most glorious cities in Russia, if not the world. This grand dream of Peter the Great is like one gigantic museum: look up from the banks of the Neva River and the canals that meander through the heart of city and you’ll gaze upon a showcase of 18th- and 19th-century palaces and mansions. Inside these you’ll discover a mind-boggling collection of museums, culminating in the truly breathtaking Hermitage.

It’s small wonder that such an environment has nurtured some of Russia’s greatest artists and cultural movements. St Petersburg is the birthplace of Russian ballet, home to literary giants, including Pushkin and Dostoevsky, and musical maestros such as Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff. Creativity continues to throb through the city’s veins manifesting itself in a hedonistic and experimental club and performing arts scenes, as well as, lately, a delicious crop of restaurants. Also make time to journey out of St Petersburg to at least one of the splendid old tsarist palace estates, such as Petrodvorets and Tsarskoe Selo. Many other rewarding day trips await those who choose to make the city their base for longer.

Not everything is perfect: St Petersburg’s splendour goes hand in hand with corruption, crime, decay, squalor and pollution. If anything, though, this gritty reality makes the city’s dazzling facades and lightness of spirit seem even more magical. St Petersburg’s beauty is one with a human face and all the more appealing for that.

History

The area around the mouth of the Neva River may have been long fought over. Alexander of Novgorod defeated the Swedes here in 1240 – earning the title Nevsky (of the Neva). Sweden retook control of the region in the 17th century and it was Peter the Great’s desire to crush this rival and make Russia a Eurorean power that led to the founding of St Petersburg. At the start of the Great Northern War (1700-21) he captured the Swedish outposts on the Neva, and in 1703 he began his city with the Peter & Paul Fortress.

After Peter trounced the Swedes at Poltava in 1709, the city he named, in Dutch style, Sankt Pieter Burkh (after his patron saint) really began to grow. Canals were dug to drain the marshy south bank and in 1712 Peter made the place his capital, forcing grumbling administrators, nobles and merchants to move here and build new homes. Peasants were drafted as forced labour, many dying of disease and exhaustion; it’s still known as the city built upon bones. Architects and artisans came from all over Europe. By Peter’s death hi 1725 his city had a population of 40,000 and 90% of Russia’s foreign trade passed through it.

Peter’s immediate successors moved the capital back to Moscow but Empress Anna Ioanovna (1730-40) returned it to St Petersburg. Between 1741 and 1825, during the reigns of Empress Elizabeth, Catherine the Great and Alexander I, it became a cosmopolitan city with a royal court of famed splendour. These monarchs commissioned great series of palaces, government buildings and churches, turning it into one of Europe’s grandest capitals.

The emancipation of the serfs in 1861 and industrialisation, which peaked in the 1890s, brought a flood of poor workers into the city, leading to squalor, disease and festering discontent. St Petersburg became a hotbed of strikes and political violence and was the hub of the 1905 revolution, sparked by ‘Bloody Sunday’ on 9 January 1905, when a strikers’ march to petition the tsar in the Winter Palace was fired on by troops. In 1914, in a wave of patriotism at the start of WWI, the city’s name was changed to the Russian-style Petrograd. The population at the time was 2.1 million.

In 1917 the workers’ protests turned into a general strike and troops mutinied, forcing the end of the monarchy in March. Seven months later Lenin’s Bolshevik Party had prevailed and the Soviet government came into being. The new government moved the capital back to Moscow in March 1918, fearing a German attack on Petrograd. The privations of the Civil War caused Petrograd’s population to drop to about 700.000, and in 1921 strikes in the city and a bloodily suppressed revolt by the sailors of nearby Kronshtadt helped to bring about Lenin’s more liberal New Economic Policy.

Petrograd was renamed Leningrad after Lenin’s death in 1924. A hub of Stalin’s 1930s industrialisation program, by 1939 it had 3.1 million people and 11% of Soviet industrial output. Yet Stalin feared it as a rival power base and the 1934 assassination of the local communist chief Sergei Kirov at Smolny was the start of his 1930s Communist Party purge.

When Germany attacked the USSR in June 1941 it took them only two and a half months to reach Leningrad. As the birthplace of Bolshevism, Hitler swore to wipe it from the face of the earth. His troops besieged the city from 8 September 1941 until 27 January 1944 but Leningrad survived and, after the war, was proclaimed a ‘hero city’. It took until 1960 for the city’s population to exceed pre-WWII levels.

During the 1960s and ‘70s Leningrad developed a reputation as a dissidents’ city with an artistic underground spearheaded by the poet Joseph Brodsky and, later, rock groups such as Akvarium. In 1989 Anatoly Sobchak, a reform-minded candidate, was elected mayor. Two years later as the USSR crumbled the city’s citizens voted to bring back the name of St Petersburg (though the region around the city remains known as Leningradskaya oblast).

During the 1990s St Petersburg became notorious for its levels of corruption and high rates of criminality. At times it seemed the local ‘Mafia’ were more in charge than the elected officials. In 1996 Sobchak was succeeded by his deputy Vladimir Yakovlev, and later ended up in comfortable selfexile in Paris after charges of corruption and fiscal mismanagement. Yakovlev’s first act after his victory was to change the title from mayor to governor.

Romanov ghosts returned to the city on 17 July 1998, when the remains of Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, three of his five children, their doctor and three servants were buried in the family crypt at the SS Peter & Paul Cathedral within the fortress of the same name. Five years later the legacy of the tsars came further under the spotlight during St Petersburg’s tricentenary celebrations. With millions of dollars having been spent on restoration and refurbishment the city looks better now probably than at any other time in its history - a source of great pride to President Vladimir Putin who wastes no opportunity to return to his birthplace and show it off to visiting heads of state and other dignitaries.

In 2003 Putin lured Yakovlev into federal government (sidelining him as the envoy to the federal district of the South, including the hot potato of Chechnya), leaving the way clear for the president’s ally Valentina Matvienko to assume office. She has continued to capitalise on the injection of foreign interest in Russia and business in the city is booming. Overused as the term may St Petersburg has, in fact, reestablished itself as Russia’s window on the West.

Orientation

St Petersburg sprawls across and around the delta of the Neva River, at the end of the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Finland. Entering St Petersburg at its southeastern corner, the Neva first flows north and then west across the middle of the city, dividing into several branches and forming the islands that make up the delta. The two biggest branches, which diverge where the Winter Palace stands on the south bank, are the Bolshaya (Big) Neva and Malaya (Small) Neva; they flow into the sea either side of Vasilyevsky Island.

The heart of St Petersburg is the area spreading back from the Winter Palace and the Admiralty on the south bank, its skyline dominated by the golden dome of St Isaac’s Cathedral. Nevsky pr, heading east-southeast from here, is the main drag, along and around which you’ll find many of the city’s sights, shops and restaurants.

The northern side of the city comprises three main areas. Vasilyevsky Island is the westernmost, with many of the city’s fine early buildings still standing at the eastern end - the Strelka. The middle area is Petrograd Side, a cluster of delta islands whose southern end is marked by the tall gold spire of the SS Peter & Paul Cathedral. The third, eastern, area is Vyborg Side, stretching along the north bank of the Neva.

Street names

In the early to mid-1990s, the city changed the Soviet-era names of dozens of its parks, streets and bridges back to their prerevolutionary names. Ten years on, only their ‘new’ names are used, though ‘Griboedova Canal’ will probably never revert to its tsarist-era moniker, Yekaterinsky (Alexander Griboedov was a 19th-century playwright who lived in a house on this canal).

St Petersburg has two streets called Bolshoy pr: one on Petrograd Side, one on Vasilyevsky Island. The two sides of some streets on Vasilyevsky Island are known as lines (linii), and opposite sides of these streets have different names - thus 4-ya limi (4th line) and 5-ya linia (5th line) are the east and west sides of the same street – which collectively is called 4-ya i 5-ya linii (4th and 5th lines).