A story by a person who spent half of his life in a socialist paradise

Forward to the Past

By Leon Weinstein
Thursday, October 22, 2009

I was born in the Soviet Union, in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, majestic St Petersburg. I knew it was majestic because all the history and guide books were telling the same thing – that St Petersburg is a jewel of the world, it is beautiful beyond imagination and has no comparison anywhere.

My grandfather was telling me about the city as well. How beautiful it was when he came into it in after graduation from the law school in 1916 to practice law. I believed him more than all the history books combined.
In fact, St Petersburg of my youth was a gray, quite boring and enormously dirty city. All it’s palaces, sculptures and other wonders were covered by a thick layers of dust and corrosion. We lived in a historical center of the city and my grandfather (in Russian you call your grandfather for short “Dedaâ€