This silent movie from the “Wonders of the World Travel Series”, depicts sightseeing in the USSR’s capital cities of Moscow and Leningrad, with footage from 1935-36. A general sightseeing tour of Leningrad is shown, starting with a ship’s arrival to the Leningrad Trade port. The footage includes travel to the imperial palaces of the Tsarskoye Selo. Some of these sights were destroyed during WWII. (Some palaces were also used as orphanages during that same period.) Besides the usual Moscow sights, some other buildings are shown including the Central Telegraph building, the Komsomol and the Plevna Memorial, the Gorky Park Parachute Jump tower, and the first former American Embassy building on Mokhovaya Street.

00:29 Lumber storage in the Leningrad Trade port, located in Vyborg city

00:47 Leningrad Port International Terminal (built in 1910s, demolished in 1972-1973)00:55 A panorama towards the Admiratly Building, people boarding a 1934 model NATI-ZIS-8 or a ZIS-8 bus another one is seen on the opposite side of the street driving towards the Admiraly, together with a GAZ-A

1:00 Monument to Nicholas 1st

1:23 Saint Isaac’s Cathedral in its incarnation as the Museum of Scientific Atheism

1:35 Peter the Great’s statue – The Bronze Horseman

1:44 Saint Isaac’s viewed from 38 Millionnaya street by the side of the Hermitage Museum and Palace

1:59 The Atlants caryatid group at the most famous Hermitage entrances.

2:23 Alexander’s Palace of the Tsarskoye Selo (called Detskoye Selo from 1918 to 1937, because of the presence of numerous WW1 evacuees, public resorts and the Russian Civil War orphanages). People can be seen fishing in the palace’s decorative ponds, picnicking.

2:59 Catherine’s Palace wrought iron main gate and entrance.

3:17 Young women queueing to one of the entrances of the palace.

3:35 – Peterhof Palace with the Church of the Grand Palace

3:48 early Mercedes S class or (more probably) Buick 32-20 passing by

3:54 – Peterhof Grand Cascade fountain

4:13 One of the Adam fountains from the Adam and Eve sculpture group. Many of those were damaged during World War 2.

4:23 Grand Cascade

4:35 Fountain of the merpeople before The Grotto

4:40 Grand Cascade and Samson and the Lion

5:45 Samson and the Lion

6:00 Moscow streets, GAZ-A, GAZ-AA, Single-axle F-series tram in a multi-carriage configuration.

6:30 (possibly) Buick-32-20 soft top, moving past a policeman

6:36 Ilyinskiye Gate Square GAZ-AA trucks, GAZ-A cars, AMO-4 or GZA series bus and a KM-series double axle tram in a two-carriage configuration

6:44The Plevna Chapel, commemorating the battle during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878

6:47 Iliyinskiye Gate Square, seen from the by the side of the constructivist building housing the Central Bureau of the Komsomol

7:07 Kursky railway station

7:16 F-series tram, line A,

7:28 The Bolshoy Theater and street traffic in front of it.

7:49 Central Telegraph Building. and the people on the Maroseyka, Arbat or Kuznetsky Most street.

8:07 Metropol Hotel, Moscow Hotel

8:43 The Mokhovaya street, 13, building of the American embassy in Moscow, 1934 to 1953

9:05 The old Moscow State University building, also on the Mokhovaya street

9:30 Gorky Park

9:30 the « Oar girl 1st version, meaning that this footage is from 1935, as the 1st version of the statue was installed in 1935 and removed the same year.

9:42 A statue of 2 drunks which doesn’t appear in the park any longer.

10:00 Flower bed portraits of Maxim Gorky and Vladimir Lenin.

10:27 Parachute jump tower. Originally built in 1932 as a leisure observation tower, was repurposed from September 1933 as a parachute jump one.

10:40 playground

11:18 Teaching the girls to sew using Singer machines

11:23 Sculpture of Joseph Stalin and Gelya Markizova

11:48 Schoolboys intrigued by the camera

11:55 pre-kindergarteners

12:07 An young woman volunteer gardener from Zelenstroy (an organization dedicated to greenery and improving the USSR gardens ), carrying a shovel as a counterpart to the emancipated « Girl with an Oar » in the background, followed by more elder women with shovels,

12:13 a public snack booth worker on break, sitting on a bench to roll a cigarette

12:15 horse-drawn cart.

12:18 Some street footage, an ambulance.

12:38 Entrance to the Tretyakov gallery

13:00 Kremlin from the bridge, repair works on a partially-collapsed embankment.

13:17 Red Square

13:22 Lenin’s mausoleum

13:28 People and streets

14:04 Countryside shot from the train

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com