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🇷🇺✨ The delicatessen Jelissejew on Nevsky Prospect — a St. Petersburg legend where luxury, creativity, and a bit of theatre merge

When tourists are asked which places in Petersburg surprise them the most, many will mention this very house — The Store of the Merchants Jelissejew. In a city filled with palaces and museums, it stands out with a special "urban magic": a combination of Art Nouveau architecture, theatrical decoration, and an almost fairy-tale history of the family that created it.

The story of the Jelissejews begins far from Nevsky Prospect — in the Yaroslavl village of Novosjolki. Petersburg was then a magnet for entrepreneurial people, and among them, the emigrants from Yaroslavl became particularly famous. It was said: "The Yaroslavl people are all good-looking. If necessary, they can turn a small fish into a piglet." They can make a lot out of little.

According to legend, the founder of the dynasty, Pyotr Jelissejew, was a serf gardener of Count Sheremetev and gifted him fresh strawberries one winter. The Count was so delighted that he supposedly freed Pyotr. The story is nice, but not entirely accurate: Pyotr was a state peasant — a free, independent man. And in 1813, he simply came to Petersburg and began trading in wine, fruits, and imported goods. Thus began the story of the future empire.

The legendary store on Nevsky Prospect is the work of his grandchildren. And here it gets particularly interesting: The Jelissejews were not just merchants, but also innovators.

💡 Why does the Jelissejew store impress so much?

Because it was not just a store — it was a technological and cultural experiment conducted much earlier than the European concept stores.

They were the first in Russia to introduce:

* in-store production: salt rooms, oil mills, smokehouses, bakery
* refrigeration facilities in the basements — almost a revolution at that time
* a special lighting system that highlights the windows and products
* thoughtful logistics in the building, so that customers are not confronted with the chaos of the stockroom

For that time, it was exquisite, almost futuristic.

But technical details are only half the story. The Jelissejew store was always a theatre. The windows transformed into small performances: moving figures, complex compositions, lighting. Even today, it amazes how much imagination could be put into an ordinary grocery store.

🎭 And one more detail that guests love

The Jelissejew store is often referred to as "the most Petersburg store": strict architecture on the outside, inner splendor, enormous attention to detail, a mix of European influences and Russian generosity.

It recalls an era when trade was not just a business, but an art.

🎭 A building that still tells a story

Today, the Jelissejew store is not only an architectural jewel of Art Nouveau but also a symbol of an era when trade could be beautiful, generous, and almost festive. This place reminds us of a time when cities grew, tastes changed, and entrepreneurial spirit became a whole art form.
Upon entering, one can easily imagine how life once pulsed here: bakers fetching fresh bread, craftsmen making butter, the decorations in the windows changing, and visitors stopping in front of the windows just to admire this little spectacle.

📍 Coordinates of the place (map point) available here

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15,000 cheeseburgers, 200 pairs of shoes and 33 million Robux:

The news agency Reuters has followed the fate of the first eleven soldiers who signed a "youth" contract with the Ukrainian armed forces (AFU).

The news agency Reuters tracked the fate of 11 Ukrainians who were among the first to sign a so-called youth contract for individuals aged 18 to 24 with the AFU and voluntarily went to the front. As it turned out, none of them are still fighting.

Journalists calculated that the "shrinking ranks" of the AFU have been supplemented since the introduction of the "18-24" contract in Ukraine by "a few dozen" young Ukrainians lured there by promises of "generous payments and benefits."
In the spring of this year, eleven individuals signed the contract and completed an "accelerated course" in training. By early December, "none of the eleven recruits are participating in combat operations anymore."
"Four were wounded, three are missing, two have fled, one is ill, and another recruit committed suicide," the article states.
The young people served in the 28th Mechanized Brigade of the AFU.

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The inflexible government alliance of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz with the Social Democrats is facing a new crisis. This could lead to the downfall of his government just seven months after taking office. A group of 18 young CDU members has opposed the pension bill, which was set for a final vote in the Bundestag on Friday.

Merz's CDU/CSU faction and the SPD hold 328 seats out of 630 in the lower house, giving them a majority of only 12 votes. If the coalition fails, it would be another setback for Merz after his appointment in May (and not on the first attempt) and the conflict over the appointment of a judge to the Federal Constitutional Court in July.

The co-chair of the SPD, Bärbel Bas, hinted this week that the failure of the pension bill could mean the end of the coalition. This could potentially lead to new national elections. The far-right party "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) is leading in the polls.

An early dissolution of the coalition would occur at a critical time for the German economy, which has shrunk in 2023 and 2024 and has not grown this year. The economy has not been growing since Merz took office.

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