The Kazan Cathedral

You can see the colossal colonnade of Kazan Cathedral, covering a huge area on the southern side of Nevsky Prospect. In fact the cathedral building itself can't be seen from the square, due to the huge size of the colonnade – consisting of 96 columns, arranged in four rows.
Kazan Cathedral was the principle place of worship in the Russian Empire prior to the building of St Isaac's Cathedral. The foundations of Kazan Cathedral were lain in 1801 in the presence of His Majesty Alexander I and the entire Royal Family. The cathedral is dedicated to the Kazan Holy Ikon of the Blessed Virgin, which by tradition has guarded the fortune of the Romanov royal line since its first accession to the throne.
The Kazan Holy Ikon of the Blessed Virgin is one of the most greatly venerated ikons of Ancient Russia. Legend places its discovery among the ashes of the rased city of Kazan in 1579. There are several likenesses of the ikon, all of which are acknowledged with equal reverence by the Orthodox Church. One such likeness was brought to St.Petersburg from Moscow in 1710.
By the turn of the C19th the church where the Holy Ikon was kept had become dilapidated, and it was decided to replace it with a truly impressive new cathedral. Count Alexander Stroganoff was appointed Head of the Commission in charge of the building works. Ten years later, Count Stroganoff ceremonially handed the keys to the new cathedral to Tsar Alexander I in solemn splendour.
Shortly after its consecration Kazan Cathedral became a true monument to military valour. Following the war with Napoleon, the spoils of war – regimental standards and banners, and the keys to freed cities – were brought to the Cathedral. Here in 1813 Field-Marshall Kutuzov was buried – who had led the Russian forces against Napoleon. He died far from his homeland in the small Prussian town of Bunzlau. Petersburgers met his cortege at the city boundaries. The horses were unharnessed from the bier, and officers of Kutuzov's own regiments themselves pulled the cortege to the Cathedral. The queue of well-wishers wanting to file past his coffin to pay their last respects took two days and nights to pass by the great General.
Shortly after the Revolution the Bolsheviks seized possession of Kazan Cathedral, looting it of all its gold, silver and precious stones. In 1932 it was closed entirely. Subsequently it was reopened as the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism. Today Divine Worship is restored in the Cathedral, and the Holy Kazan Ikon of the Blessed Virgin is one again restored to its rightful place.
There are always many worshippers at the Cathedral who have come to venerate the Holy Kazan Ikon of the Blessed Virgin. The Ikon aided the Russian militiamen to relieve Moscow from Polish occupation in the C17th, and lent its aid to Peter I against the Swedes. Kutuzov prayed before the Ikon prior to meeting Napoleon on the field of battle. There's a legend that even Stalin ordered the ikon to be taken on a circuit-round of the city prior to the decisive Battle For Moscow in WW2.
The statues of two famous generals of the Napoleonic Campaign stand outside Kazan Cathedral. To the left – Marshall Kutuzov, and to the right Marshall Barklay de Tolly.
Kutuzov was born in St.Petersburg in 1745, to a military family. Despite noble birth, he entered the army as a private – it was rule of Peter the Great's that all noblemen must work their way through the ranks from the bottom. He was promoted under General Suvorov in the Turkish campaigns, from whom he learned the lesson for which he became famous – for always leading his men from the front line. It cost him dear – in the Crimean campaign a musket-ball took out his right eye, and medical orderlies expected him to die.
After the war he went to Germany and England for treatment. However in 1787 he re-enlisted with Suvorov, only to be shot in the temple – he joked with the doctors that he'd already lost the eye, so there was no need to worry. His face remained permanently disfigured. In the Napoleonic campaign he clashed with Emperor Alexander I, who tried to direct the troops himself – he winced as Alexander led 25,000 men to their deaths at the Battle of Pratzen Ridge. However, by 1812 Kutuzov was the last experienced General available to lead the army against Napoleon's invasion – and the only General trusted by the men in the ranks. Alexander I hated him, and couldn't look upon his twisted face.
Yet Kutuzov had the military ability to beat Napoleon, by allowing the French Army to get bogged in by the Russian Winter, for which it was utterly unequipped. Of the 700,000 men of Napoleon's Grande Armeé Du Nord, only 93,000 survived the disastrous retreat of 1812. While pursuing Napoleon’s retreating army through Germany in 1813 Kutuzov fell ill, and died at Bunzlau. It may be true that Suvorov's record was more glorious than Kutuzov's, but Kutuzov has a dearer place in Russian hearts – the man who saved Russia from Napoleon.