As the spring semester was winding down in St. Petersburg, my fellow classmates and I all wanted to have one last stroll around the city. Luckily for us, SRAS had another idea in mind: a boat tour! Our local coordinator informed us that we’d have an hour tour that would take us around the canals […]

The Museum of Soviet Arcade Games (Музей советских игровых автоматов) is a private museum founded by friends Alexander Stakhanov, Alexander Vugman, and Maxim Pinigin in 2007. Initially this was just thier hobby and they made the restored and working games open only by reservation on Wednesdays. However, the games proved wildly popular. Eventually, they had […]

Saint Petersburg has been called home for several renowned artists and musicians, including figures in classical music. Admirers of Russian opera and orchestra should pay a visit to the apartment museum of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, a prolific composer and member of the “Russian Five.” This nationalistic group of 19th century composers, which included Mily Balakirev, Modest […]

We asked three participants of our Art and Museums in Russia program in St. Petersburg: “Where in St. Petersburg have you felt the greatest amount of inspiration?” Here are the students and inspiring cityscape locales they chose:   Sophia Fisher Sophia Fisher is currently studying Russian as a Second Language with SRAS Saint Petersburg, Russia. […]

Kizhi Pogost and the island on which it stands function as an architecture museum, hosting a number of wooden structures built with traditional Russian designs and construction methods. Restoration and preservation efforts are currently underway at the facility to protect the structures, some of which date to the 17th century. Most tourists arrive to the […]

We asked three participants of our Art and Museums in Russia program in St. Petersburg: “If you could introduce everyone to 3-5 pieces of Russian art, what would those pieces be?” Here are the students and the essential art works they chose:   Kimberly Gordy Kimberly Gordy is a student at the University of Texas […]

Anna Akhmatova is Saint Petersburg’s most beloved female poet. Her home, tucked behind the portal of a common leafy courtyard, serves as a place of pilgrimage for legions of literary admirers. A literary museum, Akhmatova’s apartment operates as a museum of witness of her complicated and often tragic life as a writer struggling to speak […]

I’ve been reading works in which Petersburg is mentioned for the past few weeks in order to prepare for this amazing city. It’s been fantastic reconnecting with my love for Russian literature, but things have been feeling slightly off. Every time I walk somewhere, I am just in so much awe at the beauty of […]

Tucked neatly away within Staraya Derevnya just outside the centre of Petersburg sits the Restoration and Storage Centre of the State Hermitage. While it may be only a short metro ride from the bustling Nevsky Prospekt, the Hermitage Storage Building itself is quiet and spacious, entirely free of the crowds that make the main Hermitage […]