The Eagle and the Fasces

As I've been going through pictures and posting way too much to my blog on this trip - blame some generally dreary weather and the lack of English language options on St. Petersburg TV - I've started thinking about some interesting pictures that I've taken over the years. I'm not talking about brilliant pictures or even profoundly important shots, but those occasional shots that you look at later and think that they're interesting, often in spite of themselves. This is a shot I took earlier today, and it was not an accident because I intentionally framed it this way, but it is an odd justaposition of icons in one short section of railing. The picture was taken on a sidewalk leading up to a bridge - in the background is the Peter and Paul Fortress, where St. Petersburg had its origins. In the center of the railing section is Peter the Great's famous two-headed eagle, looking both to the east and to the west (up until Peter's time, obviously, the Russians had not shown much interest in looking to the west - and hence the term "westernization" that we always associate with Peter). The other recurring icon in the railing, serving as a support, is the old Roman symbol the fasces, which is ironic when you consider the twenty-five million Russians who lost their lives in World War II fighting a movement that took it's name from the old Russian symbol, fascism. However, to be fair, the symbol was pretty universal - it's displayed prominently on Lincoln's chair in the Lincoln Memorial, for instance. Nothing profound, just one of those things that jumps out of you on another cold, rainy day in St. Petersburg.