The interior of the old Passage in the 1850s.

The Passage (Russian: Пассаж, Passazh) is an elite department store on Nevsky Avenue in Saint Petersburg, Russia, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1998. Parenthetically, the Passage premises have long been associated with the entertainment industry and still remains home to the Komissarzhevskaya Theatre. A department store is a retail establishment which specializes in selling a wide range of products without a single predominant merchandise line. ... Nevsky Prospect, or the Neva Avenue (Russian: Íåâñêèé ïðîñïåêò), is the main thoroughfare in the city of St Petersburg. ... Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and Petrograd (Петрогра́д, 1914–1924), is a city located in Northwestern Russia on the delta of the river Neva at the east end of the Gulf of Finland... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

19th century

The site where the Passage sprawls had been devoted to trade since the city's foundation in the early 18th century. It had been occupied by various shops and warehouses (Little Gostiny Dvor, Schukin Dvor, Apraksin Dvor) until 1846, when Count Essen-Stenbock-Fermor acquired the grounds to build an elite shopping mall for the highest echelons of the Russian nobility and bourgeoisie. The name came from a vast gallery between Nevsky Avenue and Italianskaya Street which provided the main passage through the mall. The gallery was covered over by an arching glass and steel roof, thus giving it a claim to be the world's first shopping mall. (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Great Gostiny Dvor in St Petersburg, 1802. ... 1846 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota — the third-largest in the world. ... Bourgeoisie (RP [], GA []) in modern use refers to the wealthy or propertied social class in a capitalist society. ... Look up Passage in Wiktionary, the free dictionary This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

The three-storey building of the Passage opened its doors to consumers on May 9, 1848. It was one of the first structures in Russia to employ gas for lighting. Another innovation was an underground floor, where an electric station would be installed in 1900. Although the store specialized in jewellery, expensive clothes and other luxury goods, crowds of common people flocked to see the most fashionable shop of the Russian Empire. A fee of 50 kopecks had to be introduced in order to limit admissions. May 9 is the 129th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (130th in leap years). ... 1848 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A gas is one of the four main phases of matter (after solid and liquid, and followed by plasma), that subsequently appear as a solid material is subjected to increasingly higher temperatures. ... 1900 (MCM) is a common year starting on Monday. ... Jewellery (Jewelry in American spelling) comprises ornamental objects worn by persons, typically made with gems and precious metals. ... Imperial Russia is the term used to cover the period of Russian history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great, through the expansion of the Russian Empire from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposal of Nicholas II of Russia, the last tsar, at the start... 1998 Russian Federation one rouble coin. ...

Stenbock-Fermor conceived of the Passage as more than a mere shopping mall, but also as a cultural and social centre for the people of St Petersburg. The edifice contained coffee-houses, confectionaries, panorama installations, an anatomical museum, a wax museum, and even a small zoo, described by Dostoyevsky in his extravaganza "Crocodile, or Passage through the Passage". The concert hall became renowned as a setting for literary readings attended by the likes of Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and Taras Shevchenko. The term panorama originally referred to panoramic painting, but today means any high aspect ratio or wide screen image or film format, especially suitable for landscapes, where a lot of scenery can be taken in at a glance. ... A wax museum or waxworks consists of a collection wax figures representing famous people from history and contemporary personalities exhibited in lifelike poses. ... Free monkeys islands at the São Paulo Zoo Panda enclosure at Chiang Mai Zoo Visitors feeding and petting tamed marmots at the Parc Animalier des Pyrenées Aquarium with a dolphin at the Barcelona Zoo Sea lions at the Melbourne Zoo For other uses of the term Zoo... Fyodor Dostoevsky. ... Ivan Turgenev, photo by Félix Nadar (1820-1910) Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (Ива́н Серге́евич Турге́нев, November 9, 1818 - September 3, 1883) was a major Russian novelist and playwright. ... Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko, Ukrainian: , (March 9, 1814 - March 10, 1861) was a Ukrainian poet, also an artist and a humanist. ...

Within the renovated Passage, 1902.

20th century

In 1897 the ownership of the Passage passed from Stenbock-Fermor's heirs to Princess Nadezhda Boryatinsky. A great fire in 1898 necessitated a major renovation, funded by the Crédit Lyonnais, a bank which leased a large portion of the store as its offices. In 1900, the building was revamped, with the addition of a further storey, and refaced in Radom sandstone. The new owner transformed the former concert hall into a theatre employing Vera Komissarzhevskaya as its artistic director. To draw even more consumers to the store, the Soleille, one of the largest cinemas in the Russian capital, was opened in the complex in 1908. 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Crédit Lyonnais is a French bank. ... A bank is an institution that provides financial service, particularly taking deposits and extending credit. ... Sandstone near Stadtroda, Germany Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-size mineral or rock grains. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Vera Komissarzhevskaya Vera Fyodorovna Komissarzhevskaya (1864, St. ... 1908 (MCMVIII) is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

After the Russian Revolution and the following several years of disorder, the store was reopened as the Passage Supermarket in 1922. It continued in this capacity until 1933, when the municipal authorities declared the Passage a "model department store", the only one in Leningrad (as the former St Petersburg was then known) and one of only three such stores in the Soviet Union. The renovated "palace of Soviet trade" (as the media touted it) opened in 1934 and offered about 30,000 types of goods, all manufactured in the USSR. The Children's World section became especially popular with the inhabitants of Leningrad. Russian Revolution can refer to the following events in the history of Russia: The Russian Revolution of 1905 was a series of riots and anti-government violence against Czar Nicholas II The Russian Revolution of 1917, which included: February Revolution, which resulted in the abdication of Nicholas II of Russia...

The Passage remained a showcase of the Soviet industry until the onset of the WWII. During the Siege of Leningrad, the shop was closed but the majority of employees chose to remain day and night. The building's glass roof was subjected to intensive bombing, but amazingly the interior sustained little damage. The Passage was restored and reopened for business in 1947. Since 1961, this historic department store has been specializing in goods for women. German soldiers at the Battle of Stalingrad World War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the worlds nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. ... Combatants Germany Soviet Union Commanders Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb Georg von Kuechler Kliment Voroshilov Georgy Zhukov Strength 725,000 930,000 Casualties Unknown 16,470 from bombings and estimated 1 million from starvation The Siege of Leningrad (Russian: блокада Ленинграда), during World War II, lasted from September 8, 1941, to January 18... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

See also

• Petrovsky Passage
• Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

The Petrovka Passage is an elite department store opened on Petrovka Street in downtown Moscow in 1906. ... Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Piazza del Duomo entrance The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is a covered arcade situated on the northern side of the Piazza del Duomo in Milan, connecting to the Piazza della Scala. ...

Reference

• Пассаж. Санкт-Петербург. 1848-1998. Исторический очерк. Saint-Petersburg, 1998.

External link

• History of the Passage (from official website)