“The Bronze Horseman” starts with a prologue giving background to Peter the Great and St. Petersburg. A young child, Yevgeny, is pointed out to be a hero in the story and save the town. As the story continues, St. Petersburg is destroyed by the great storm and flood. Every man-made object in the town is destroyed including cabins, town halls, and many others. Even people of the town were killed in the disaster. The story kept going back to Yevgeny and I anticipated a wondrous act that would save the town from such disaster. The girl that Yevgeny is in love with was killed in the storm. Yevgeny could not do anything to stop this or save something important to him. He becomes very angry and lives in anguish for a year following it. The story doesn’t end with a tremendous event that saves the town of St. Petersburg from the wrath of nature. The relationship between nature and humans is completely one sided. Humanity cannot stop nature and the weather that can whipe out an entire town in one night. Nature has all the power in the relationship and can choose to assert it whenever.

I noticed that the architecture of St. Petersburg was different that of Moscow. The Cathedral in Moscow had the pointy, tear drop structures more often in the architecture. The palaces in St. Petersburg are massive and beautiful. It is interesting to see the difference in architecture between St. Petersburg and Moscow.