The Left Chapter: Ulyanovsk

Showing posts with label Ulyanovsk. Show all posts

Saturday, December 1, 2018

The Rising Right, Farley Mowat, the CBC, Horwath & more -- October and November on The Left Chapter in review

October and November saw 71 posts of various kinds on The Left Chapter.

Included among these were a look at Liberal cynicism in Trudeau's "progressive" farcical climate change hypocrisy continues, new installments in our look at the USSR in the late 1980s like The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic 1987: Photos, Culture, Economy, History & more -- Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union Series, Natalie's recipe for a hearty fall classic Beef Barley Soup w. Kale, Parsley & Carrots, an Open Letter Re: The Closing of the Saskatoon Office of the Provincial Archives at the University of Saskatchewan, we posted 11 historic anti-war posters in honour of the 100th anniversary of the end of the great imperialist slaughter WWI including Peace - Poster by Tran Mai, Vietnam, 1985 and art posts such as Yuri Pimenov, People's Artist of the USSR (1903-1977) w. 50 Colour Plates.

Two of our most widely viewed and shared posts are from our ongoing series of posts of vintage leftist leaflets and vintage postcards.

Thanks very much to all our readers and contributors.

If you have an article, editorial, analysis, recipe or story you would like to contribute there are details on how to do so on our Submissions page as well as at the end of this post.

Without any further ado, here are the top six posts, in terms of hits, from October and November.

1) The rising of the hard right in Canada

What a difference four months can make.

Since June we have witnessed what is becoming a seismic shift in the political landscape.

Read more!

2) Farley Mowat Speaks Out on Canada's Role in Vietnam, 1966

Published in 1966 this leaflet flowed out of a conference that was held in Toronto in opposition to the war in Vietnam and looking at Canada's role in it. The conference was organized by several anti-war groups.

Read more!

3) The CBC notes the victory of fascism in Brazil by how it could benefit Canadian business. Seriously.

The extraordinarily dangerous proven racist, misogynist and outright fascist Jair Bolsonaro has won the Presidency in Brazil.

Friday, October 5, 2018

20 Panoramic Views of Soviet Ulyanovsk 1969 -- Lenin's Birthplace

Today we are taking a look at a postcard folder with 20 panoramic views of the city of Ulyanovsk on the Volga. These date from 1969 during the Soviet era.

We have looked at Ulyanovsk before in the post Ulyanovsk -- 18 Soviet Postcards of the USSR Tourist Destination and Lenin's Birthplace.

As we noted there Ulyanovsk's claim to fame during Soviet times was that it was the birthplace of V. I. Lenin who was, of course, born Vladimir Ulyanov. As a result the city was renamed from the original Simbirsk in 1924. Ironically Simbirsk was also the birthplace of Alexander Kerensky

Ulyanovsk was a major tourist destination while the USSR still existed. It had museums at all of the three residences that Lenin's family owned at various points.

What is interesting about these photos is that they are panoramic with no "portrait" formats. I am particularly fond of how this format works out in the views of the Garden on Lenin Street and of the Volga Riverside Station.

(Click on images to enlarge)

Monument to V. I. Lenin

The Garden on Lenin Street

Note the Tatra T-3 tramcars in the background

Square by the Railway Station with a

bust of Volodya Ulyanov

Monument to I. N. Ulyanov

Ulyanovsk Railway Station

Karamzin Garden

View of the Volga near the

40th Anniversary of the Komsomol Park

Riverside Station

I. A. Gontcharov's House

I. A. Gontcharov Museum of Arts and Local Lore

Novy Venets Boulevard

No. 21 Ulyanov Street, the House Where Lenin Spent His Youth

On the Right: V. I. Lenin Regional Library

On the Left: I. N. Ulyanov Pedagogical Institute

Monument to Karl Marx

Music School

The Former Gymnasium Where Volodya Ulyanov Studied 1879-87

Lenin Memorial Museum

Branch of the Central Lenin Museum

Garden of the Ulyanovs

Lenin Square

See also: Visit the USSR - A look at the Soviet Union in the late 1960s from Intourist (w. photos)

See also: Sochi 1978 -- A Postcard Visit to a Soviet Resort City

Saturday, April 21, 2018

Visit the USSR - A look at the Soviet Union in the late 1960s from Intourist (w. photos)

Published in the late 1960s by Intourist, the Soviet tourist bureau and company, this comprehensive brochure encouraging people to visit the USSR reads almost like a "State of the Union" leaflet.

A really fascinating glimpse into the Soviet Union of the time (as well as how it saw itself) it has a very detailed section on Moscow and its attractions, then looks briefly at all the other major cities of the USSR, and follows all of this with sections on labour conditions, country life, and finally overall standards of living, education and rights and freedoms of citizens.

Full of interesting facts and photos, it shows a society bursting with energy and optimism after decades of turmoil, war and civil war.

(Click on scans to enlarge)