became a bastion of communism. Not five years ago. on my first trip to the Soviet Union, I wouldn't have gotten past the guards. Now I just walked in and headed for the staircase.

became a bastion of communism. Not five years ago. on my first trip to the Soviet Union, I wouldn't have gotten past the guards. Now I just walked in and headed for the staircase.

The Lensoviet, the city council, was meet­ing beneath a row of toga-draped marble stat­ues in the rotunda, as if this were a Roman senate The deputies relished the chance to push the buttons of their new electronic voting system, watching tote boards flash:a, in favor, orproliv, against.

"We must raise the city from its crisis," Deputy Anatolii Golov told me during a break Besides shortages of everything from soap to flats, he cited the plight of Leningrad's 1.2 mil­lion elderly, many living on bare-subsistence pensions. "But up to now we do not have a plan for anything," he confessed.

Elections last year replaced the rock of com­munism with a handful of pebbles Democrats dominate the 400-mcmbcr council, but they are fissured into half a dozen parties with such names as Democratic Union and Democratic Russia The communists also broke into fac­tions, ranging from standpat to moderate

Like most deputies, mathematician Golov is a political novice. These novicesenthusiasti- cally united to defeat communism in elections last March; whether they can unite to govern a city of five million is still unclear. After dec­ades of central control " the city is not ready for a democratic system," Golov said. He hoped a strong leader would guide the deputies "We got accustomed to this in the past."

Nevertheless, the deputies have been feud­ing with their chairman. Anatolii Sobchak, a strong man indeed — one of Russia's most out­spoken liberals. Exasperated by the lack of cohesion, he has characterized the deputies as "street rally types.. ready for destroying but incapable of creating." Working democracy has a long way to go in Russia

T

o MANY CITIZENS Leningrad is still "Peter," a nickname that harks back to the city's founding in 1703 as St. Petersburg In World War 1 Rus­sia junked the German "burg," switching to the Russian equivalent, Petrograd. Since 1024 the city has honored Vladimir flyich Lenin -

Mother Russia on a Sew Course

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