I spent a lot of time in Russia 20+ years ago. It is actually a beautiful place in spring and fall, pretty hot in the summer and to be avoided at all costs in the Winter...just ask Napoleon. I visited a hospital once in St. Petersburg that was reserved for military officers getting over battle wounds during the various 19th military adventures. The walls were three feet thick to keep the heat in and cold out. I'm not sure it worked either way.Have you ever been in a room or a place that had its history alive to the point you could feel it? This was a place like that. It probably had to do with the feeling of the walls or the stone tiled floors in some of the public access parts. More than that was feeling like I was in a hole; a shoebox in which you bury your pet parakeet.
Moussorgsky, the composer of the piece below, suffered, particularly in the Russian winters, from Melancholia. He served in that hospital during his stint in the military about the time of our civil war. No wonder.