There was little if any Western pop music to be heard publicly in Leningrad in 1985. But this song was overheard playing on the single-channel radio set in my room.
Previously: Euro Pilgrimage ’85, Ch. 14: Meet the Finns — and hop a bus to Leningrad.
At last: Leningrad. It was the first of August, more than a month past the peak nocturnal glow of northern lights, but with ample illumination to occupy roughly 70 hours on the ground in one of the USSR’s ranking “hero” cities.
A scant four months prior to the Travela tour group’s arrival in Leningrad, something of epochal significance occurred. I don’t recall it being mentioned. On March 11, 1985 following the death of the doddering Konstantin Chernenko, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party.
Obviously it was too early for anyone to make much of Gorbachev’s ascension to power, or for the USSR’s new leader to accomplish anything beyond working to consolidate his position amid the country’s bureaucratic mafia system. And yet, a tremendous upheaval soon would commence.
All I’ll say is that any American who still believes Ronnie Ray-Gun singlehandedly defeated the Evil Empire a la “High Noon” is mistaken. He gave the edifice a nudge, of course. But it was Gorbachev’s ill-fated effort to reform the system from within that exposed the terminal rot beneath the USSR’s façade. The ensuing teardown of the Bloc could have been bloody and catastrophic.
In large measure, it wasn’t, and you can thank Gorby for that. That it would eventually lead to Vladimir Putin is unfortunate, but that’s another story.
In 1985, I had no way of knowing that return trips to the USSR would take place in 1987 and 1989. Now, four decades later, I’m just happy to have taken advantage of these opportunities. After all, there are no do-overs when a country ceases to exist.
Upon our arrival at the hotel the group members were issued rudimentary maps, fed a brown bag snack that included a hard-boiled egg pickled in rust and a well-oiled salami portion, then placed back aboard the bus for an orientation drive.
We were not compelled to shelter in place. As adults, there were no restrictions on our movements through Leningrad, other than remaining within city...Read more
