♪ ♪ (Rudy Maxa) My Russian isn't so hot, and the crowds down here are serious, but this remarkably beautiful subway suggests good things to come.

I'm on my way up from the deepest metro station in the world to discover Russia's window on the West, St. Petersburg.

(woman) "Rudy Maxa's World," proudly sponsored by The Leading Hotels of the World.

Quests for travel begin at LHW.com, where you'll discover a collection of nearly 450 unique hotels worldwide... including the distinctive family of Taj hotels, resorts, and palaces.

♪ ♪ Every quest has a beginning-- online at LHW.com.

Additional funding for "Rudy Maxa's World" provided by: Medjet.com, medical evacuation membership protection for travelers.

Take trips, not chances.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [symphony orchestra plays in waltz rhythm] ♪ ♪ With a Russian soul and European look, St. Petersburg is and always has been Russia's young upstart and its great beauty.

♪ ♪ In the year 1703 in a swamp near the Gulf of Finland, Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, built a city unlike any other in Russia.

He built it to rival the great capitals of Europe.

He built it to escape the conservatism and backwardness of Moscow.

He built it to bring Russia into the modern world.

St. Petersburg is a city of ghosts, of literary giants and their characters, of murdered czars and princes of bloody revolution, war, starvation and despair.

The haunting past and modern life live side by side.

Never in the history of the world has there been as beautiful a city, nor one more artificial, built on the whim of a czar.

Freezing in winter with brief luminous summers, St. Petersburg embraces the Neva River at the mouth of the Gulf of Finland.

Hundreds of bridges span the city's many waterways and cross to dozens of islands.

Locals simply call this city Peter, and Peter's main drag is Nevsky Prospekt.

It's a grand boulevard meant to rival the finest in Europe.

All roads lead to Nevsky Prospekt.

It's the main thoroughfare, a home to wealthy shoppers and street merchants.

Teeming crowds push past palaces and shops.

Modern life and the past meld seamlessly here.

People talk of Peter as an old friend.

Their city seems a set for a costume drama, and art is everywhere.

Yet contemporary life rolls on by.

St. Petersburg is going places, and Peter would be pleased.

Much has changed in Russia in the past decade.

People can mostly say what they please and go where they please.

Statues of Communists have been taken down, with some exceptions.

Formerly forbidding government plazas are now inviting parks.

Let's talk about that American concept of freedom.

I was born in the Soviet Union, but I was very young.

There is almost nothing I remember from that time.

But my parents were telling me a lot of things, and I know that they would never be able to imagine that life could change that much.

There's still a certain image of Russia that persists.

How are the people of St. Petersburg different than when you first came here in '98?

Well, when you think about it, when I came back here in '98, there was still a lot of visible mafia and things of that sort, and it was kind of unpleasant.

But the economy has risen, and those guys have gone legit.

They own security companies now.

When you think about the amount of private property that changed hands without a war here, it's amazing that you only had that little bit of criminality in the early '90's, and it's changed so much since then.

It's much safer.

(Rudy) St. Petersburg is a city of canals, and nowhere does it appear more enchanting than from the deck of a boat.

Hiring a private water taxi is the way to go, and you can even bring along champagne and caviar.

[mandolin plays in bright rhythm] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ St. Petersburg is inseparable from Peter the Great, Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov.

The young prince born in 1672 discovered a small sailboat a Dutchman had made, a boat completely unlike the flat-bottom barges known in Russia.

That little boat sparked a passion that built a city and changed Russia forever.

The boat also led Peter to travel to the west, something no other czar had ever done, except for battle.

The boat inspired him to build a Navy, conquer the Swedes for access to the Baltic Sea, and erect a city based on the glories he'd seen in Europe.

Now, Peter didn't plan just to emulate Europe.

"We need Europe for a few decades," he wrote, "then we can turn our back on her."

Peter made St. Petersburg the capital, and then forced reluctant nobles to relocate here.

Much of St. Petersburg is steeped in the past, but the young people in this city march to a very different beat.

(Rudy) I contacted one of St. Petersburg's rising stars, Iva Nova.

This all-girl band plays a raucous blend of folk and punk with no holds barred.

They invited me to their practice studio.

How has the music scene changed St. Petersburg, or how is it reflected over 10, 20 years?

In my opinion, we have less underground music now because all music is free, so you can play everything.

You can talk about everything, but 10 years ago, it was different.

[playing in syncopated rock rhythm] ♪ ♪ [singing in Russian] ♪ ♪ As a compromise between the KGB and rock bands in 1981, the Leningrad Rock Club was formed in an amateur theater.

Songs were still censored to a degree, but bands could survive and perform.

♪ ♪ (Rudy) During its tenure as Leningrad, St. Petersburg suffered from poverty and neglect, but native son Vladimir Putin changed that when he became president.

Pumping money into the city, he stimulated the economy and restored many a crumbling facade.

But troubles persist.

Russia has several dozen billionaires, but the average income remains low.

Life expectancy for men is 59.

One recent study showed half of young people under 29 favor strong Government over civil liberties.

In mid 1992, about 70% of a family's income went to pay for food.

By 2005, that figure was 37%.

The Kuznechny Market caters to upper- to middle-class families looking for fresh vegetables and specialties.

One day, 2 day, 3 day.

Wait a minute!

This pickle's one day old, 2 days, 3 days?

3 days, yes.

A day makes a difference?

5 day, 10 day.

Okay, what is this?

One day.

So it's been marinated for one day?

Yes.

Like a cucumber.

2 day.

2 day.

A little saltier cucumber.

3 day.

3 days.

Tasting more like a pickle.

5 day.

5 day.

Whoo-ooh!

Sharp!

And 10 day.

The famous 10-day pickle of St. Petersburg.

Okay!

Whoo, nice bite!

Very good!

Who knew about the precision of the pickling of pickles?

Here shoppers pick up caviar for a dinner party, fresh sour cream for beef stroganoff, and honey right off the honeycomb.

Fast food isn't the norm in Peter, with one exception.

All over town, stands and restaurants are whipping up blinis, small pancakes stuffed with everything from chocolate to caviar, and in this case, mine's caviar.

And in this case, mine's really good.

Blini date to pre Christian times when they were baked to welcome spring.

People told fortunes on the dough and jealously guarded blini recipes.

Gorbachev's Glasnost, that period of openness in the 1980's, relaxed restrictions on religion.

Today young and old can be found in the city's Orthodox churches.

The Church on the Spilled Blood stands on the spot where Czar Alexander III was slain in 1881 by revolutionaries.

Ironic since he was the czar who finally emancipated the enslaved peasants, the serfs.

The interior of the church is covered with rich, colorful mosaics depicting biblical scenes.

♪ ♪ The church took 24 years to build and nearly 30 to restore.

♪ ♪ The seeds of enlightenment and progress that Peter planted here eventually came home to roost.

Socialist uprisings led to the Bolshevik Revolution and the end of monarchy in Russia.

Nevsky Prospect leads to the Winter Palace and the expansive Dvortsovaya Ploshchad, or the Palace Square.

Here troops fired on protesters on Bloody Sunday, sparking the 1905 Revolution, and Bolsheviks stormed the Winter Palace in 1917, the start of the long communist regime.

In 1991, thousands rallied here to change the name of the city back to St. Petersburg from Leningrad.

The opulence of the Winter Palace, the home of the Romanov rulers from Peter to the last Czar Nicholas II, certainly bespeaks the great wealth of the ruling class.

Here dignitaries ascended the Jordan staircase to the staterooms where the czars held audience.

One of the world's finest collections of art resides here in the Hermitage Museum.

The Hermitage treasurers are so extensive that only 1/5 of the collection can be displayed at one time.

Catherine the Great, Russia's powerful, progressive empress in the 18th century, collected art with a passion.

The Hermitage was originally a small pavilion where she retreated for peace and where she hung her collection of art.

She began her extravagant hobby with the acquisition of 225 old Masters and over time assembled the most astonishing collection of Dutch and Flemish Masters anywhere.

The glory of the Hermitage is the Impressionist collection.

Part of it comes from art confiscated by the communists from wealthy Russian collectors.

The rest comes from Germany where the Russians had their revenge by seizing the Nazis' Art.

The Matisse Collection is the largest in the world.

Souvenir stands are ubiquitous in Peter.

A large tourist market near the onion dome, the Church on the Spilled Blood, offers quality knickknacks, artisan chessboards, Soviet memorabilia, nesting dolls, and lots of hats.

Dad will be very proud.

Colonel Maxa.

This is a Russian general.

A Russian general?

General Maxa, I like that even better!

Finally, I have hair!

Finally!

Yes, it's good!

[laughs] Amber is another popular souvenir.

Of all the amber deposits in the world, the largest is from the Baltic region.

It represents some 80% of the world's known amber.

Some people think that amber is a stone, but actually, it's not a stone.

It's a liquid from the tree when they cut a tree.

Oh, resin from the tree.

Yeah, resin.

Many years ago, it drops into the sea, and Baltic Sea is very rich in amber.

[acoustic guitar & mandolin play softly] (Rudy) While the Hermitage has some of the best European art in the world, St. Petersburg's Russian Museum preserves national treasures.

Much of the art on display comes from the collections of wealthy nobles whose art was confiscated by the Communists.

Striking are the rooms of Russian icons-- painted symbols used for Orthodox worship.

Peter the Great battled against what he saw as fanatic and superstitious faith.

On his return from Europe, he forced the nobles to adopt European dress and customs.

A collection of paintings by a group called the Wanderers shows populist themes and realism, a rebellion against the conservative art in the mid 18th century.

The painters broke with the Imperial Academy of Art and their exhibits travel-- thus the name "Wanderers."

Among their themes were the peasantry and the Russian landscape.

♪ ♪ During World War II, German troops surrounded this city.

For 900 days beginning in 1941, the citizens of Leningrad, as it was then called, heroically fought starvation and disease.

The Germans looted and destroyed many palaces.

People traded precious gems for bread.

Nearly a million citizens of Leningrad died in the siege, most by starvation.

In January 1944, the Red Army finally broke the siege, and the Germans retreated.

St. Petersburg has an English language newspaper, and the hot topics seem to be smoking.

About 65% of Russian men are still doing it.

The exercise craze is ultimate Frisbee.

And don't get a flat tire in St. Pete.

It costs about 21% more to have that tire changed now than it did a year ago.

I'm in a literary frame of mind this morning.

So many of the Russian greats hailed from this town or came here to live and work-- Dostoevsky, Gogol, Vladimir Nabokov, but for Russians the national literary hero is Alexander Pushkin, born here in 1799.

Catherine the Great commissioned the icon of this city, a statue of Peter the Great on horseback, but Pushkin immortalized it in his poem "The Bronze Horseman."

The poem tells the story of a poor man whose love is lost in one of St. Petersburg's legendary floods.

The hero comes to the statue to shake his fist at the city's founder, and the statue bursts into life and chases the poor man across town.

In the same poem, Pushkin extols his young city this way.

"The Neva is clad in granite.

Bridges hang poised over her waters.

Her islands are covered with dark green gardens.

And before the younger capital, ancient Moscow is pale like a purple clad widow before a new empress."

Pushkin's last home here is preserved as a museum.

A prodigy, Pushkin found fame early, but his poems often displeased the czars, and at times, he was exiled.

A savage wit, bon vivant, and womanizer, Pushkin could be intensely cynical and rapturously lyrical, both at the same time.

He married a beauty half his age and died in a duel with a Frenchman who openly flirted with her.

The Frenchman planned to shoot Pushkin's leg, but the poet was angry.

He spun quickly and was shot in the stomach.

Pushkin died from his wounds on the divan in his office 3 days after the duel.

All of Russia mourned him.

Pushkin and his pals downed many a vodka.

It's de rigueur in this town.

Now, vodka translates loosely as "little water," but there's nothing watery about this stuff, and the locals say, "Sipping is for sissies.

You just knock it back".

Like that!

♪ ♪ Russians swear you'll never get drunk if you snack with your vodka, and the Caviar Bar at the Astoria's sister hotel, the Angleterre, is the place to snack.

And we have all these accoutrements here.

Now, how do I do this?

The combination, in Russia serving the caviar, blinis, Russian pancakes, sour cream...

So, I take a blini, then what do I do?

Pour some butter on it, just a tiny little bit of butter.

Little bit of butter, okay.

Yeah, there's some shallots, chopped shallots, goes with it.

Some egg yolks?

Egg yolk, right.

Separates, and the whites.

The whites of an egg?

Okay.

Then with a special knife, the caviar, especially the caviar is not as good as traditional in Russia.

So this is Mother of Pearl?

Mother of Pearl, the caviar must be.

Which should I have first?

You can have the sturgeon caviar please.

The sturgeon.

Okay, put it right on, like that?

Yeah.

Okay.

How's that?

Mmm, very good!

The Astoria also has its share of ghosts.

Famous ballerinas, world leaders, movie stars-- even Vladimir Lenin descended this staircase.

Truman Capote famously danced his way down.

The historic hotel opened in 1912 and retains much of the elegance of that era.

The views of landmark St. Isaac's Cathedral, spectacular!

And I'm crazy about their borscht, a Russian beet soup.

During World War II, Adolf Hitler was so certain he'd take Leningrad that he actually sent out printed invitations to a victory celebration here at the Astoria.

Fortunately, that party never happened.

The czars approached Peter the Great's summer palace by water.

Today a hydrofoil delivers visitors the same way.

Peter the Great built Peterhof after a visit to Versailles.

In typical Peter fashion, he decided to outdo the French.

The grand cascade and water avenue dance with over 100 fountains, some of which Peter himself dreamed up.

He imported thousands of trees from Europe over and over again because storms and floods kept killing them.

Peter's chief architect for the city, a Frenchman named Le Blond, designed most of the playful fountains and waterfalls.

50 kilometers of pipe and 18 lakes feed this frenzy of fountains.

♪ ♪ All the monuments of St. Petersburg attract "just married" couples and their entourage.

Russians tend to marry quickly and divorce even faster.

The country has one of the highest divorce rates in the world.

In Peter the Great's time, women were locked away from society.

He changed all that, forcing St. Petersburg society to emulate the French, and women suddenly enjoyed new freedom and respect.

It's dinnertime at a popular St. Petersburg restaurant called simply Restaurant.

What's before me is a very typical Russian dinner, has been for generations.

You got boiled potatoes.

You've got herring and sardines with raw onion.

This is salted wild mushroom, again with onions.

And on the wooden platter, pig fat with a stewed tomato on the side.

And then of course, there's fresh cranberry juice, which is a chaser to the obligatory vodka.

But everything here is just the starter.

The main course is beef stroganoff.

(waiter) Yes please.

(Rudy) Thank you very much!

♪ ♪ On summer evenings in St. Petersburg, people gather at the theater.

Ballet and Russia are synonymous today, but that's again, thanks to Peter.

Ballet was introduced in Russia during Peter the Great's westernization program in the early 1700's.

Ballet greats Rudolph Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov trained in St. Petersburg.

♪ ♪ The Mariinsky and Alexandrisky Theaters both host ballets... and the ghosts are here too, applauding hundreds of years of performers dancing on the stage.

[applause] ♪ ♪ With each passing year, the number of visitors to this enchanted city grows.

For the moment Peter's future seems bright indeed.

Who could say it better than Alexander Pushkin.

"Be beautiful city of Peter.

Stay as unshakable as Russia, and let no vain wrath ever trouble the eternal dream of Peter."

♪ ♪ To Peter and his eternal dream, Reporting from St. Petersburg, I'm Rudy Maxa.

Do svidanija!

(woman) For information on the places featured in "Rudy Maxa's World," along with other savvy traveling tips, visit... To order DVDs of "Rudy Maxa's World" or the CD of world music from the series, call or visit... ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Cc--Armour Captioning & Twin Cities Public Television ♪ ♪ "Rudy Maxa's World," proudly sponsored by The Leading Hotels of the World.

Quests for travel begin at LHW.com, where you'll discover a collection of nearly 450 unique hotels worldwide, Including the distinctive family of Taj hotels, resorts, and palaces.

Every quest has a beginning, online at LHW.com.

Additional funding for Rudy Maxa's World provided by Medjet.com, medical evacuation membership protection for travelers.

Take trips, not chances.

And by... Yokoso!

Or "Welcome to Japan."

And by Delta--serving hundreds of destinations worldwide.

Information to plan your next trip available at delta.com.

[orchestral fanfare] ♪ ♪