Leningrad Seemed A Happy City

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32274, 17 April 1970, Page 2

Leningrad Seemed A Happy City

The people of Leningrad were out and about in considerable numbers, enjoying themselves at restaurants, parks, museums, and various entertainments when Mrs Susan Lojkine visited the city last year.

The shops, too, were crowded “morning, afternoon, and evening with people spending money.” Mrs Lojkine said at a meeting of the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Federation of University Women, recently. “I didn’t see anyone who looked poor,” she said. “The counters were lined with people waving their little tickets waiting to be served. It’s certainly a scramble—you can't stand back, you have to scream at the assistant with the rest to get anywhere at all.”

Consumer goods seemed in fairly good supply. Fashion clothes, however, went into the shops and out again almost immediately. While Mrs Lojkine was in Moscow she saw a “tremendous” queue outside a store which stocked women’s clothing. Everywhere Mrs Lojkine went in Leningrad there were

crowds, particularly on the buses. She was agreeably surprised at the number of private cars on the city’s wide streets, but most people still used public transport. 1 One evening she was waiting at a bus stop with. 15 persons. A bus pulled up, crammed with passengers, and two got out. Everyone at the stop gathered together, hurled themselves through the doorway, and all got on. “It was all done in a most friendly spirit. You have to get your own ticket, and money and tickets were being handed back and forth over heads, all with good humour," said Mrs Lojkine. Mrs Lojkine found the people friendly and interesting. She did not discuss polities with her friends, one of whom was a student of English, and another a lecturer, but gained the impression they were not well informed about the outside world.

“They read everything they can get, and were keen for me to bring books. They ask for a tremendous mixture of the intelligent and the trashy.”

Mrs Lojkine showed slides illustrating the architectural styles of Leningrad (the capital of Tsarist Russia under the name of St Petersburg). “The palaces of the nobility are now public buildings. It is a very beautiful city, built on the River Neva, and divided by canals. The water is often silky smooth, beautifully reflecting the buildings which are kept well painted in white, and shades of pale green, blue, and ochre. There is constant coming and going by hydrofoil and ferries.

Statutes of Lenin were to be found in parks and gardens everywhere. “I was touched to see there were always three or four wreaths by monuments to Pushkin,” said Mrs Lojkine. Much of her time was spent in the huge Hermitage Museum, and the slides showed the magnificent settings in which the collections were displayed. “I was struck by the number of housewives and working men visiting the Hermitage, all studying the paintings seriously, and many taking notes,” she said.