Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1955
The first seven stations of the city's metro open 15 years after construction began, hampered ini-
tially by war and then by the marshy earth under the city, making the metro a technical marvel.
1956
After the death of Stalin, party leader Nikita Khrushchev makes a 'Secret Speech' denouncing Stal-
in, thus commencing a period of economic reform and cultural thaw.
1960
A collection of 186 mass graves, the Piskaryovskoe Memorial Cemetery opens in northern Lenin-
grad, with almost 500,000 civilian and military casualties from the blockade.
1964
A coup against Khrushchev brings Brezhnev to power; the Years of Stagnation begin. Poet and fu-
ture Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky is called a 'social parasite' and exiled.
1982
The Leningrad musical underground is lit up by the arrival of Viktor Tsoi's band Kino, who begin to
perform live and release their first album, 45.
1985
Reformer Mikhail Gorbachev defeats Leningrad boss Grigory Romanov and is elected general sec-
retary of the party with policies of perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness).
1990
St Petersburg recovers from the mid-century war and benefits from industrial and economic devel-
opment. In the last decade of the 20th century, its population tops five million.
1991
On Christmas day, Gorbachev announces the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Leningrad's name re-
verts to St Petersburg after a referendum on the issue.
