These are photos of Leningrad taken from photo albums of foreign tourists who visited the city from the late 70s up to 1991. Some of them you might see on our website, here they are randomly collected in one post.
Rush hour in Leningrad.
Taking a break from work.
Is this Strategy-31? (A series of civic protests in support of the right to peaceful assembly in Russia.)
1987.
‘Photography’ photo shop on Vladimirsky Avenue.
Nevsky Avenue and the Admiralty building.
1991.
1983.
The Triumphal Arch on Moskovsky Avenue.
1985.
1988.
Sadovaya Street, 1988.
A tram, 1985.
A fire department.
1985.
A bus, 1988.
1977.
The 25th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1991.
It was very interesting for tourists to study everyday life of citizens of Leningrad.
People at that time were kind-hearted and sort of naive.
‘The Most Charming’ in Molodezhny Movie Theater.
Nevsky Avenue.
Foreigners like taking pictures of lines.
A line to a liquor store.
In 1991, shelves were empty even in Leningrad.
A farmer’s market.
People are still happy.
It was some kind of an attraction to weigh oneself on the street.
Russians drink a lot. This may be vodka.
‘Soft drinks’.
The last picture is appealing …
An excellent collection.
Last picture shows the way Russia went after they abandoned our glorious Soviet ideology: youth gangs, mafia and reckless crime!
Yeah because the Soviet Union never had problems with any of that under your beloved Soviet ideology. May i make a suggestion? Don’t believe everything you read. Especially when it’s all being published under the watchful eye of government editors.
Oh, you mean the US with its Patriot Act!
The problems during Soviet rule were a lot less than after Soviet rule (for Russians, lol), so STFU about things you don’t know.
They had those but a lot a lot less, I understand it is hard to accept it for the types like you.
ROFLMAO
The glorious Soviet ideology filled with corruption on an unimaginable scale that bankrupted the country
You should be a comedian, maybe you are
this is not vodka in an old man’s hand, this is soda or something else fizz
Interesting looking at the streets in these older photo’s. As big as they are, there’s hardly ever any cars.
That’s what happens when you have unrealistic central planners making decisions for society at large based on ideology. Now all you see is cars parked everywhere they shouldn’t be, because they never planned for parking beyond the needs of a few.
You expect 300 years old streets being built with cars in mind?
He’s talking about the streets of neighborhoods developed during the 60s and 70s. I lived in one for a long time and the proportion of cars to parking spaces was like 10 to 1.
Pretty sure that’s Michael Palin in the farmer’s market picture.
the picture that shows and old man drinking from a glass with the ironic description “Russians drink a lot. This may be vodka.” is just sparkling water or lemonade from those ugly soviet era public “vending machines” you can see behind.
… sometimes i wonder if the editor of this website ever lived in USSR/RUSSIA.
Those vending / drink dispensing machines always blow my mind. They can’t possibly be hygienic and what stopped everyone from just taking the glasses home and starting a collection? Even the Soviet
Union had it’s dishonest people, they’re only human too, heck the government was full of them! lol
that is just “soviet russia” for u
Yeah I know, it still blows my mind.
As an American you would have stolen those, eh?
“25th Congress of the Communist Party” – Wow that sign is over the top ostentatious for a socialist communist party meeting!
Love the 2 girls in the blue and white dresses just below the sign. That’s some hip 1976 fashion Soviet style! Too cool.
I can attest to these photos. I lived in Leningrad in 1979, and when I look at the over 400 photos I have, I am also amazed at how big most of the streets were then BUT almost entirely EMPTY — no cars, hardly any people (Nevsky was sort of an exception)
You amazed how wrong those pics are from your memories?
Simply great.
Nice collection – in my mind I was seeing Leningrad during the horror of the
Nazi siege 1941-1944 as I watched the bright colors and good looking people – women NOT wearing blue jeans – and yes, how nice to see streets NOT choked with traffic. (yes, I drive a car, in Seattle)