Winter Palace

You are in charge of the weather in your own head, however selfish that sounds, okay? Because we're gonna surround ourselves with positive emotions, buffer away the negative ones, be thankful, be grateful, and dwell on the beautiful things in life, however cheesy that sounds.

So this is the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, and I could think about the horrors of the former Soviet Union, the uprisings in this square, the massacres, the overthrowing of the Tsars, and get very bitter and hateful about it, which is going to cause me stress and depression and anxiety.

Or I can stand here and I can think, it's a sunny day, I'm healthy, I'm alive, I'm very lucky to be here.

I've got people that love me and people that I love that I can enjoy such delights as this amazing city of St. Petersburg.

The very reforms which made the glory of the beginning of his reign were now wrecked wholesale by means of bylaws and ministerial circulars.

A return to manorial justice and serfdom in a disguised form was openly expected in the old camp, while no one could hope at that time that the main reform, the abolition of serfdom, could withstand the assaults directed against it from the Winter Palace itself.

All this must have brought Karakasov and his friends to the idea that a further continuance of Alexander II's reign would be a menace even to the little that had been won, that Russia would have to return to the horrors of Nicholas I if Alexander continued to rule.

Great hopes were felt at the same time.

He made arrests in all classes of society, ordered hundreds of searches, and boasted that he would find the means to render the prisoners more talkative.

He certainly was not the man to recoil even before torture, and public opinion in St. Petersburg was almost unanimous in saying that Karakov was tortured to obtain avowals, but made none.

State secrets are well kept in fortresses, especially in that huge mass of stone opposite the Winter Palace, which has seen so many horrors only in recent times disclosed by historians.

It still keeps Muraviev's secrets.

The very reforms which made the glory of the beginning of his reign were now wrecked wholesale by means of bylaws and ministerial circulars.

A return to manorial justice and serfdom in a disguised form was openly expected in the old camp, while no one could hope at that time that the main reform, the abolition of serfdom, could withstand the assaults directed against it from the Winter Palace itself.

All this must have brought Karakasov and his friends to the idea that a further continuance of Alexander II's reign would be a menace even to the little that had been won, that Russia would have to return to the horrors of Nicholas I if Alexander continued to rule.

Great hopes were felt at the same time.

He made arrests in all classes of society, ordered hundreds of searches, and boasted that he would find the means to render the prisoners more talkative.

He certainly was not the man to recoil even before torture, and public opinion in St. Petersburg was almost unanimous in saying that Karakasov was tortured to obtain avowals, but made none.

State secrets are well kept in fortresses, especially in that huge mass of stone opposite the Winter Palace, which has seen so many horrors only in recent times disclosed by historians.

It still keeps Muraviev's secrets.

Without her and without her absurd fears, it is likely that the first Duma would not have been dissolved.

Without her entreaties, it is probable that the troops composing the garrison at St. Petersburg would not have been commanded to fire at the peaceful population of the capital on that January day when, headed by the priest Gapon, it had repaired to the Winter Palace to lay its wrongs before the Tsar, whom it still worshipped at that time.

She was at the bottom of every tyrannical action which took place during the reign of Nicholas II.

And lately, she was the moving spirit in the campaign engineered by the friends of Rasputin to conclude a separate peace with Germany.

The princess Golitzin, her mistress of the robes.

Out of a feeling of personal dislike, or rather hatred, against one of the signatories of this document, which, on account of the consequences that followed upon its composition, became historical, Princess Golitzin explained to the sovereign, at the head of whose household she stood, that this appeal in favor of a liberal system of government ought to be discouraged, if not crushed, at once.

Alexandra Fedorovna was then beginning to acquire the absolute power over her consort's mind, which she was never to lose in the future, and she spoke to him of the matter suggested by the princess, on the very day that different deputations, coming from all parts of Russia to express their good wishes to the young imperial couple, were about to be received by them in the Winter Palace.

Nicholas II has never in his whole life had an opinion of his own, but he has shown himself enthusiastic for all those that have been suggested to him.

This was the day that both Peter and Catherine had been waiting for, and soon afterwards Peter was crowned as Tsar Peter III, Emperor of Russia, whilst Catherine was given the title of Empress Consort or Tsarina.

They now moved from their marital home in Oranienbaum to the famous Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, but despite Peter's accession to the throne, he showed no desire to change his drunken, carousing ways or an inclination to become a more sober and mature ruler of the nations.

Discontent towards the new emperor first manifested itself when Peter decided to support Prussia's Frederick the Great, who, despite previously trying to establish good relations with Russia under Elizabeth, had ultimately ended up at war with Russia as part of the Seven Years' War.

a conflict in which an alliance led by Britain and Prussia was fighting one primarily consisting of France and Austria.

Many of the malcontents were plotting with Catherine, a much abler and intelligent woman than her reviled husband and someone who was viewed as a potential ruler in her own right given Russia's recent history of female monarchy.

Peter seems to have been oblivious to the threat which was developing around him and foolishly decided to leave St. Petersburg in July 1762 along with many of his German-born courtiers and relatives for a short break at his old residence at Oranienbaum.

Catherine stayed behind at the Winter Palace And it was at this juncture that speculative talk of removing Peter coalesced into a concerted plot to do so.

After Peter left the capital, Catherine and her allies won over the elite Izmailovsky regiment of the Russian army to their cause.

If you will listen now, I may tell you many other things which I have seen in Russia," she said.

She began, "In St. Petersburg, which is the capital of Russia, there is a large palace called the Winter Palace.

This palace is the largest building in Europe.

In it, there are large rooms called state rooms.

Sit down then, if you will listen now I may tell you many other things which I have seen in Russia, she said.

She began, In St. Petersburg, which is the capital of Russia, there is a large palace called the Winter Palace.

This palace is the largest building in Europe.

In it there are large rooms called state rooms.

A battleship and several cruisers, including the Aurora, had reached Petrograd from Kronstadt and were anchored with their guns trained on targets in the city.

The provisional government inside the Winter Palace received an ultimatum calling for surrender of its members under threat of bombardment of the palace by Aurora and by the guns of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

It was only 9.40 p.m. that the Aurora was ordered to fire and discharge one blank shell.

The main effect of this was to accelerate the thinning out of the cadet defenders of the palace who had already begun to dwindle.

The women soldiers who had formed part of its defense force also left before the palace was invaded.

At 11 p.m., some live shells were fired and the palace was slightly damaged.

The story of the dramatic storming of Winter Palace, popular with Soviet historians and in the cinema, is a myth.

Around 2 a.m. on 26 October, a small detachment of troops, followed by an unruly crowd led by two members of the MRC, Military Revolutionary Committee, entered the palace.