logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2021
9m 57s

From Leningrad to St Petersburg

Bbc World Service
About this episode

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.

Up next
Jul 11
The man who said ‘no’ to Disney
In 1941, Walt Disney made a tempting offer to a fellow pioneer of the animation industry, Quirino Cristiani - the author of the first animated feature film.Cristiani was an Italian immigrant raised in Argentina who built a career creating animated political satires in the early d ... Show More
9m 55s
Jul 10
Ni Una Menos women’s movement in Argentina
On 3 June 2015, tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital, Buenos Aires, and in dozens of cities and towns demanding an end to violence against women. There were demonstrations in Chile and Uruguay in solidarity too. Argentina was reporting a female murder rate of one e ... Show More
9m 31s
Jul 9
Argentina’s national genetics bank created to identify stolen babies
In 1982, Argentine geneticist Victor Penchaszadeh was living in exile in New York when he received a call that would change the course of his career. Two founding members of the campaign group, the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, were asking for his help to find their kidnappe ... Show More
10m 41s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2010
Russian revolutionary plate
Neil MacGregor's history of the world as told through things that time has left behind. Throughout this closing week he is examining some of the major social and political movements that have helped shape our contemporary landscape. Today he tells the remarkable story of a Russia ... Show More
14m 5s
Nov 2017
The Russian Revolution: The Bolsheviks Take Control
Eye-witness accounts from the Russian Revolution of October 1917; the first dog in space; Sabah, one of the biggest 20th-century stars of the Middle East; the last journalist to interview Osama Bin Laden; and horror and heartbreak: memories of the First World War.Picture: Bolshev ... Show More
49m 59s
Feb 2022
Joseph Stalin | Intellectual and Killer
The great revolutionary's body lay in a red coffin as it wound its way through the streets of Moscow toward the House of Trade Unions. Six men carried it, surrounded by a phalanx of guards, through the gathered throng of mourners—some genuine, others paid. Each hoped to succeed V ... Show More
22m 18s
Dec 2017
The Climbers of Leningrad
Mountaineers risked their lives to camouflage churches and palaces in the great Russian city during World War Two. The city was besieged by the Germans and under bombardment. The climbers used paint and canvas to conceal the landmarks from enemy attack. Mikhail Bobrov was just 18 ... Show More
9m 36s
Jan 2024
Sowjetunion - Lenins Tod
Er war Revolutionsführer, Gründer der Sowjetunion und verfolgte seine Gegner mit brutaler Härte: Bei seinem Tod mit nur 53 Jahren hinterließ Lenin ein machtpolitisches Vakuum. Sein Nachfolger wurde – gegen Lenins Willen – Stalin.**********Ihr hört in dieser "Eine Stunde History": ... Show More
47m 28s
Oct 2023
How Russians Survive the 900-Day-Long Siege of Leningrad
The first year of the siege of Leningrad that began in September 1941 marked the opening stage of a 900-day-long struggle for survival that left over a million dead. The capture of the city came tantalizingly close late that year, but Hitler paused to avoid costly urban fighting. ... Show More
47m 9s
Apr 2017
49 – St. Petersburg
In this terrible time let's bring more beauty to our lives. Text: Санкт-Петербург – это один из самых крупных городов России, а также её культурная столица. У него несколько прозвищ: Северная столица, Северная Венеция, Северная Пальмира. Обычно мы называем его просто Питер. Основ ... Show More
19m 46s
Feb 2022
Peter Kropotkin
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Russian prince who became a leading anarchist and famous scientist. Kropotkin (1842 - 1921) was born into privilege, very much in the highest circle of Russian society as a pageboy for the Tsar, before he became a republican in childhood and dr ... Show More
51m 53s