Details: Barley and Wicklow take the night train to Leningrad (now St Petersburg, of course) to meet ostensibly to meet the new American publishing partner of Abercrombie & Blair (Barley’s publishing house) – Jack Henzigger of Potomac Books. This is the cover for the real reason for the trip: Katya has arranged for Barley to meet Dante in one of three possible locations in St Petersburg.
The scene opens with Barley and Wicklow on the train, looking out the window on to the Russian countryside. Various scenes of countryside, settlements and dachas are shown passing by; then, to show we have arrived at St Petersburg, we are shown a tourist hydrofoil crossing the Neva towards the Winter Palace.
We are then shown various street scenes from St Peterburg: The Hermitage museum (the building propped up by columns of sculptured male figures, bearing the weight of the building on their shoulders), St Isaacs cathedral, Nevsky Prospekt passing by Kazansky cathedral, boulevards with images of heroic workers displayed on bill boards, apartment blocks, Cathedral of Christ the Saviour on the Spilt Blood, Palace of Soviets on Moskovskaya square
and finally arriving at the Pribaltiskaya Hotel.
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Notes:
The night train between Moscow and Leningrad used to be the Red Arrow, Krasnaya Strela, sleeper, whereas Barley and Wicklow appear to be on the day time train “Yunost” or Youth.
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