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FIELD OF MARS
Formerly the Poteshnoye pole (old Russian for "Field of
Fun"), the Field of Mars came into being in 1710. Later,
when Empress Elizabeth built her palace on the site of
the present Engineer's Castle, the field came to be known
as Tsaritsyn lug ("Tsarina's Meadow"). Paul I, a great
lover of military formations, made it into military
parade and training ground, from which the name "Field of
Mars" arose. During the 1917 February Revolution a bunch
of people were heroically killed here which led the
Bolsheviks (who never needed much encouragement to build
monuments glorifying the Revolution) to construct the
existing memorial and eternal flame and to rename the
field "Victims' of the Revolution Square." The name did
not catch on and after a few years the square once again
became a field. The Bolsheviks buried here are less
famous than those resting in Moscow's Red Square but were
important enough to have had some factories and streets
named after them.
Metro: Nevsky Prospekt/Gostiny Dvor and then trams 2,
12, or 34, or a ten minute walk.
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