This was actually Matthew's second visit to the city.
As a young schoolboy he visited when it was know as Leningrad.
I'll let him tell you all about it.
I've been to... Russia. Once in 1988 and again in 2013...
My second visit was on our recent Baltic cruise, which Selena has been reviewing. For me, it was a return visit, although my previous visit had been a very different experience. Back in 1988 the words “Glasnost” and “Perestroika” (openness and restructuring) were becoming well known in the western world as President Gorbachev edged the Soviet Union towards its inevitable dissolution.
Despite this, Russia was still resolutely communist and the State still subsidised school tours to the country to show western kids how great their political system was. So, despite a slight concern that I’d end up on a government list and so would never be Prime Minister, I signed up for a seven night trip to the USSR.
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| How could you turn down that itinerary? Or those prices! |
We flew into Moscow and even the immigration process was designed to show the importance of the State. One by one, we stepped into a small booth, and as the door slammed shut behind us, we were inspected by an immigration officer who sat behind glass on an elevated platform looking down on you. The isolation from your travelling comrades was no doubt intended to intimidate, but as the officer spoke no English, all he could do was glare at you for a moment before stamping you through. On our recent visit, I was oddly delighted to see that the immigration booth had been retained, even if the officer now wore a much less militaristic uniform.
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| All photos are scanned from prints made 25 years ago, so please excuse the quality. Aeroflot, unfortunately known as Aeroflop at the time. |
I remember Moscow very well. We saw the all the usual tourist highlights, including Red Square, St Basil’s and the spectacular underground system. We weren’t able to see Lenin himself, who was (and still is) on display in a mausoleum in Red Square. The official explanation was that he was receiving a new coat of embalming fluid, although you could never be completely certain of the accuracy of the information you were given. The guides were very careful to maintain the party line when talking publically, but would relax a little and give you a slightly different perspective if you asked them questions in smaller groups.
After four days in Moscow, we caught the overnight train to Leningrad (as it was called until 1991, when it was changed back to its pre-Soviet name of St Petersburg). Leningrad came across as much more relaxed than Moscow, a feeling that was amplified by the fact that the nervous energy we’d expended in Moscow and a general lack of sleep meant we were all exhausted by the time we reached Russia’s second city.
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| The Hermitage from the same spot we started our tour 25 years later. |
Unsurprisingly, given that St Petersburg is a city of architectural splendour, many of the experiences of our recent trip were fundamentally the same as they’d been 25 years earlier. St. Isaac’s cathedral was just as imposing and the Hermitage was just as astonishing (although there’d been far less people there a quarter of a century ago!). We didn’t go to the Church of the Spilled Blood in 1988 (and I don’t remember even having seen it), and we didn’t go inside the Kazan Cathedral (although I have photographic proof we went past it).
Communism wasn’t keen on religion, and many churches were converted to Museums of Atheism during the Soviet years. I suspect that taking a group of youngsters from a Church of England school into a decommissioned church to explain how misguided we all were to believe in a supreme being was a step to far even for the Communist propaganda department.
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| The Leningrad Museum of Atheism, or the Kazan Cathedral as its better known. |
Despite the cult of Communism, it was impossible to deny the significance of Peter the Great to the City. The statue of him on his horse was an important stop, and we spent an entire day at his summer palace in Petrodvorets (as it was called in 1988 – the name had changed to Peterhof by 2013).
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| Peter the Great |
When you also consider the treasures on display in the Hermitage, the Communists could not hide their imperial past. The “party line” was how irresponsible it had been for the aristocracy to be wasting its resources on lavish frivolities when the majority of the population was living in poverty. That may be a valid point, but we all agreed that the exquisite imperial craftsmanship was vastly more interesting than the post-imperial achievements we’d seen in the various museums of Soviet agriculture and industry.
I could talk about a hundred more memories from the trip – the greyness of the concrete buildings; the empty shops; the long queues that appeared from nowhere whenever one of those shops received a delivery. I vividly remember the crowd that gathered to look at the Westerners leaving their hotel each morning - due to hotel renovations, we stayed in University accommodation in parts of the cities that had never previously hosted Westerners.
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| View from the Hermitage |
I could talk about a hundred more memories from the trip – the greyness of the concrete buildings; the empty shops; the long queues that appeared from nowhere whenever one of those shops received a delivery. I vividly remember the crowd that gathered to look at the Westerners leaving their hotel each morning - due to hotel renovations, we stayed in University accommodation in parts of the cities that had never previously hosted Westerners.
I wasn’t converted to communism by my visit – quite the contrary in fact. However, in one specific way, I preferred visiting the communist city of Leningrad of 1988. Capitalism has brought wealth, which has attracted the cruise ships, which bring tourists. Lots of tourists. Visiting Leningrad was an intimate experience, where the focus was on the city itself. Visiting modern St. Petersburg was all about seeing what we could before the sheer weight of people spoiled the experience. I was one of those cruisers, so I can’t really complain, but I did find myself yearning for the tranquility and quirkiness I’d experienced in 1988.
It is so interesting to see the same photos from his trip in 1988 at the young age of 17.
I tried to get him to post a few of himself but he wouldn't.
I love when he guest posts and I hope you do too!!
You can find all of the posts about our day in St. Petersburg here...
