Leningrad 1961 year in color

• Leningrad in color 1961 year

Western photographers using the Internet gcosserat nickname, tells about his impressions after a visit to Leningrad in the early 60s: "In the summer of 1961 I was in Helsinki and decided to take the opportunity to sit down on one of the steamers" Baltic Line ", to a couple of days to spend in Leningrad. These were the times of the Cold War, when the propaganda machines on both sides of the Iron Curtain to convince ordinary people how harsh and hard life "on the other side." And then I was struck by the fact that in Leningrad, people just live a normal life, even though subconsciously trying to photograph something that could strengthen my prejudices. "

Leningrad port.

Groups and met a passenger steamer. Who met, I did not recognize.

The cruiser "Aurora" - a symbol of the 1917 October Revolution.

Peterhof - the summer palace and a favorite vacation spot of townspeople and then and now.

Just Photo. Trams and cars in front of the Winter Palace, where there is a delightful Hermitage.

whether life was in Russia for ordinary citizens such a harsh, as we are led to believe? This street scene then you can see in any city in Europe.

Department.

Street tray.

Contrary to my expectations, the food could be bought fairly quickly and without huge queues.

Automatic water. All residents looked quite decent. I was expecting that they would be dirty and frightened!

The press, of course, subjected to strict censorship. Or maybe it was another myth, which fed us during the Cold War?

At least, the streets were clean, even if the women "were forced to work as street cleaners."

Now, some women drivers of trams is full, but in those years, such a scene shocked me, with my male prejudices. When I was last in St. Petersburg, about 10 years ago, I'm sure that went through the streets of the same trams.

Women's labor was still a rarity in the West. This image asphalted road women was yet another attempt to support my conviction that life was hard in Soviet Russia.

But in most cases, Soviet life in Leningrad was the usual course, and the couple on the street - proof.

We in the West believed that the Soviet Union - is a police state, so I took this picture.

The beach on the banks of the Neva crowded on a hot summer day.