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Witness History: From Leningrad to St Petersburg

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From Leningrad to St Petersburg

08/04/2021 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, From Leningrad to St Petersburg

How the people of Russia's second city dropped the great communist leader's name

In a hugely symbolic act, Leningrad voted to drop Vladimir Lenin's name, abandoning its communist heritage, and returning to its historic name of St Petersburg in 1991.

As the communist system in the former Soviet Union was collapsing in 1991, the people of Leningrad voted to drop Vladimir Lenin's name abandoning the city's revolutionary heritage and returning to its historic name of St Petersburg. Dina Newman spoke to Ludmilla Narusova, wife of the first St Petersburg mayor, Anatoli Sobchak, who campaigned for the hugely symbolic change.

This programme is a rebroadcast - it was first aired in 2018.

Photo: Communist campaigners demonstrate against the name change in Leningrad in 1991. Credit: Sobchak Foundation.

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