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A Secret Look at Leningrad Street Views Through a Rare 1950s Soviet Photo Book

A Secret Look at Leningrad Street Views Through a Rare 1950s Soviet Photo Book

During one of my recent book scavenges, I’ve come across a fascinating photo book published in the USSR in 1957, an anniversary of some sort celebrating the city of Leningrad’s 250th birthday. The hefty book (340 pages) contains hundreds of black-and-white photographs of street scenes, grand architecture, monuments and parks. Because of its limited run, the photographs in the book have hardly been seen by anyone, including probably current residents of today’s Saint Petersburg.

This particular copy was hand-inscribed as a gift to Clark Eichelberger, a famed American peace activist and one of the creators of the United Nations, as a “memory of hist stay in Leningrad” in September 1958
The book is set entirely in Russian and each photograph is individually captioned in Russian
Facade of Winter Palace (left) and The Alexander Column (right)
Nevsky Avenue (left) and Stroganov Palace (right)
Nevsky Avenue by Moyka River (top) and Kazan Cathedral (bottom)

Buy this book: Available on The Curious Desk


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