Monday, April 03, 2017

St. Petersburg Metro Blasts




Two explosions have been reported April 3, 2017, on the underground metro system, on the blue line, in the Russian city of St Petersburg.

It occurred as Russian President Vladimir Putin was in the city holding a meeting with the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko.

The blast happened at 2.30 pm local time.

Three metro stations have now been closed, local media report.

Fourteen people were killed during two explosions on the line.

I had just been reading early, early this morning of how Mark Twain used "St. Petersburg" for "Hannibal, Missouri," in his Mysterious Stranger story regarding the Devil's name being "44." (4/4 = April 4.)

Then a correspondent emailed me, alerting me to these St. Petersburg blasts.

Update by Red Dirt Report:
One hundred years ago, on April 3, 1917, much was going on in Petrograd (aka "St. Petersburg - and later Leningrad) "Lenin returns to Russia with the assistance of the German government. On arrival he delivers a speech at Finland Station, which forms the basis of the April Theses."
And from today's New York Times, about Lenin's return and the April Theses: "He detailed this new approach in his 'April Theses,' but had to fight hard to persuade the Bolshevik party. Denounced by some for turning his back on accepted Marxist doctrine, Lenin would quote Mephistopheles from Goethe’s Faust: 'Theory, my friend, is gray, but green is the eternal tree of life.' An early supporter was the feminist Alexandra Kollontai. She, too, rejected compromise because, she believed, none was possible. Source.



(h/t to SL and RS for special info)

3 comments:

Andrew said...
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Andrew said...
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PDXWiz said...

Meanwhile, in the US, on SUnday 4/3, there was another ramming incident, only a few blocks from where I live.

http://www.kptv.com/story/35052746/police-driver-in-custody-after-trying-to-run-over-group-in-se-portland-2-hospitalized?autostart=true

http://www.kptv.com/story/35054861/man-accused-of-driving-into-crowd-in-se-portland-identified

He was 22 years old (half of 44), and he was driving a 2016 Chevrolet Impala. The Impala originally was produced from 1958 until 1985 (58 and 85 are mirror images of each other), and then the company brought in back in 1994 until 1996, then from 2000 till the present. From when the company first brought the car back in 1994 till his car's model year, 2016, is 22 years. 22 + 22 = 44.

He was found at the nearby Chestnut Tree Inn motel by police, which is just across the I-205 freeway from where my older son works. Their telephone number? 503-255-4444.... Apparently they aren't part of a chain, though I haven't found who owns them.
http://www.chestnuttreeinn.com/

His name is Henry Nikila II, and while Nikila is reminiscent of the Russian name Nikita, apparently it is a girl's name meaning Woman of Magdala (where Mary Magdalene, from the Bible, is from) but also is a name in Tamil, spoken in India, with symbology of the lotus or a triumphal archway; it is denoted by the Scorpion and Water. According to this site... http://www.nameslist.org/indian/names-meaning/Nikila And it's number is 11; since April is the 4th month, 4 x 11 = 44.

Gordon Long