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Russian history: 4th week of January

Thursday 23, January 2014, 12:18 pm Red

The end of January comes with very interesting historical facts. In the last week of January, almost 200 years ago, Russia discovered the last continent on Earth. We will also talk about the event that happened in the city of St. Petersburg in different years: the day the city was renamed after Lenin’s death and the end of its siege during World War II. And speaking of warfare facts, the last week of January witnessed the first sinking of a ship by torpedo and the biggest attack of a Soviet submarine fleet. Finally we will remember the opening day of the first American fast-food restaurant in Russia, which also happened in the last week of January.

St. Petersburg is renamed… again

On January 26, 1924, five days after Lenin's death, the Soviet government decided to rename the city of Petrograd to Leningrad. The city of St. Petersburg, which was called Petrograd only for 10 years (between 1914 and 1924), became Leningrad and kept this name until 1991, when it took back its original name. It is the second largest city in Russia and is the seat of the Constitutional Court of Russia. Also the city center constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

leningrad
Mariinsky Palace, seat of the city’s Legislative Assembly

End the Siege of Leningrad

World War II, the last week of January 1944, to be precise January 27. The radio stations of the city broadcast the announcement of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front: the siege of Leningrad has been finally lifted. After the Operation "January’s thunder" the Soviet army pushed the Nazis 100km away from the city of Leningrad. The siege had lasted 29 months and killed an estimated one and a half million people. The civilian population was reduced by a third due to air raids and lack of food. The Germans soldiers who were not captured fled mostly to Finland, which had signed a peace treaty with Russia.

"The attack of the Century"

We continue with World War II. Soviet commander Alexander Marinesko aboard the submarine S -13 sinks the German hospital ship "Wilhelm Gustloff" on January 30 1945. Considered by Russian media as the attack of the century, this was the largest ship sunk by the Russian submarine fleet which also caused greatest number of casualties: approximately 9,500. This German ship was part of the operation Anibal, personally designed by commander Karl Dönitz to evacuate Germans at the Prussian Front, away from the Red Army. A total of 1,100 ships were used. About 160 were attacked and sunk but eventually more than one million people were evacuated.

First sinking by torpedo

We now go back in time. On January 25, 1878 a Russian torpedo shot from a Russian boat hits a Turkish ship and becomes the first sinking by torpedo in history. Russian admiral Stepan Makarov designed the boat from which the torpedo was launched and supervised the attack. This admiral also completed two trips around the world and designed, built and guided the first modern icebreaker ship in history.

Discovery of Antarctica

Imperial Russian navy’s office Fabian Gottlieb von Bellinghausen official led in 1820 an expedition to circumnavigate Earth aboard the corvettes Vostok and Mirny. On January 28 a historic event occurs: the expedition discovers Antarctica, the last continent which remained unexplored. Although some Spanish, English and Dutch historians claim that their countries arrived first there, it seems clear that while they came to the islands surrounding Antarctica, Russians were the first to set foot on land beyond the 60th parallel, the place which is already considered as the Antarctic continent.

antarctica
von Bellinghausen expedition

The first Russian Mcdonald’s

January 31, 1990: At the Pushkin Square in Moscow the first Mcdonald’s restaurant opens in Russia. With 700 seats, it became the largest restaurant of the company. On the opening day, a queue of 5,000 people waited outside for the restaurant to open. In total 30,000 clients were served that day.

mcdonalds
Mcdonald’s opening day

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