Show Leningrad Was Begun in inthe inthe inthe the Eighteenth Century I nID nd Leningrad formerly St Sl Petersburg capital of the czars was begun be In the Eighteenth century by Peter the Great GreaL i lie Ile wanted wante a window to Europe and I selected the marshlands of the l' l Neva ova I where that short river empties Into the thc Gulf of Finland I as the site The finest Oneat planners and architects of the day laid the city out on ground filled In ID by tens teDs of ot thousands of serfs says a writer In inthe tho the Detroit Free Freo Press Stately buildings and broad boule boule- boulevards boulevards Yards and parks were built during the i ensuing century that made St Sl Petersburg Peters Peters- Petersburg burg bur a veritable city of palaces I i The palaces and great architectural groups Croup of public buildings S are still I there the tho parks park far from being beIne dis dis- disturbed disturbed have been enlarged Hut But there Is 18 a decided change from the old days drys d ys Most Moat of the palaces are now museums Nothing of the beauty of another day has bas been disturbed The Marble pal pol- palace palace ace are palace pal pal- palace palace ace the Catherine palace and many mODY others have been beeD preserved with mell meticulous meticulous culous ulous care In charge of curators and historians The famed tamed Hermitage museum mORum with I Its priceless canvases of Rubens Rubena Va- Va Raphael Rembrandt Titian opens Its doors to a continuous stream I of visitors The city Is s the Soviet unions onions cen cen- center center center j i I ter of science and learning One hun bun hundred hundred dred and fifty scientific Institutes have their headquarters there more than 20 universities and aDd technical schools en en- enroll enroll roll roil students from throughout the Soviet So So- Soviet viet union |