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My trip to St. Petersburg, built in 1706 to be Russia’s window to the West, showed me that the city has recovered from the horrific Nazi siege of World War II and from years of communist neglect to reclaim its heritage as a center of education and the arts. St. Isaac’s Cathedral, with its signature golden dome, was used as a vegetable warehouse under the communists but now is open as a museum daily and as a church on special occasions and is on its way to becoming a working church.