Today the Soviet Union is forgotten, a terrible construct from history. From this time originate the photographs, which are certainly a rarity and are otherwise only usually preserved in the form of postcards. These recordings have been post-processed and were preserved as slides on Orwo negatives.

In these days there was the supposedly so happy Soviet man, who strolled along the magnificent boulevards of the capital of the revolution of 1917. Nobody was really happy in the Communism experiment, but the culture was abundantly provided for.

 

Leningrad was a city rich in history. To each era. Leningrad has always been a place of culture and international understanding, whether during the time of the tsar or the communists.

 

 

Library Saltykov-Shchedrin Leningrad, 1970, kasaan media, 2020

 

Tavritchesky Palace, Leningrad 1970, kasaan media, 2019

And a city with countless problems. The pollution of the environment reached extraordinary levels. There was more and more resistance against the all-powerful Communistic Party.

 

Finland Leningrad Station,1970, kasaan media, 2020

Much of the cultural heritage had been destroyed during the siege of the German Wehrmacht in 1941.

Now, 30 years after the war, when these pictures were taken, the shock of what had happened in the more than 1000-day blockade of Leningrad was still deep. The generation of those who had experienced the days of famine kept the memory of the Great Patriotic War alive.

Battlecruiser Aurora, Leningrad 1970, kasaan media, 2020

 

The all-determining personality cult around Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, called Lenin, took on grotesque characteristics.

Like a fetish, the places of activity that had led to the Russian Revolution were presented.

As in every dictatorship, the heroic deeds of the Russian Revolution were fed by rumours and

Legends that had undoubtedly led to another totalitarian state, the Soviet Union. Lenin was certainly not the saviour who freed the people of Saint Petersburg from bondage, as it was called at the time of the Tsar. On the contrary.

 

Study-Lenins, kasaan media, 2020

 

The ordinary Soviet man lived in fear and in long queues due to the supply shortages in the country. The then ruling Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, who ruled with a form of concrete-head communism, was never able to get food shortages under control. Only the Politburo and the functionaries were living in havoc.

 

 Anitschkow Bridge, 1970, kasaan media, 2020