Leningrad on the other hand

This mosaic of Lenin, while not an artistic achievement, at least is in the Finland Station, where Lenin returned to Russia from Switzerland in a sealed boxcar in April of 1917.

Here is a statue of Lenin outside the Smolny Instutitute, a 19th century palace for the "Society for the Education of Noble Maidens" which served as the Bolshevick headquarters during the revolution. These images are fine because they are historical. To have a mosaic of tractors harvesting wheat in a moscow subway is just dumb.

Now, more importantly, what do they eat in Leningrad.

Pickles and anything pickled.
Honey
more fresh soft cheese

all types of fruit compotes to mix with the soft cheese in Blintzes.
Those pictures were taken in a large indoor market. But the best markets are when indivual women (or sometimes men) from the countryside set up on a sidewalk with a few sprigs of dill, maybe a head of garlic, or I even saw as little as one pint of blueberries.
That is the modern Leningrad. If you wonder why I'm not calling it St. Petersburg, it is mostly so you don't think I'm in Florida, but also because of Vsevolod Pudovkin's 1927 film classic.
I must make a quick comment here. One of my MANY readers might find this story interesting. In Poland workers don't wear shirts in the heat. Today while walking around Warsaw (I am a bit behind on blogging) I saw four young male construction workers building a sidewalk topless. I really wanted to photograph this to have on my blog and please a loyal reader. However, I felt that if they saw me cross the street and come after them with my camera I might be in a bit of trouble. This story is absolutely true and I apologize.