Leningrad Rock Club at 13 Rubinshteyna Street, Leningrad/ St Petersburg.

Serving as a counterexample to Tsoi’s Wall on Arbat Street, the Leningrad Rock Club (1981-1991) remained a cultural landmark in St. Petersburg for roughly twenty years after its closing. Located in the former Theatre of People’s Art (Teatr narodnogo tvorchestva) at 13 Rubinshteyna Street in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), the club’s headquarters features a prominent wall of graffiti at its back entrance in the building’s courtyard. 

 

For most of the 1990s and early 2000s, the wall featured an array of self-replicating inscriptions dedicated to the USSR's most revered rock-music collectives. In 2010, the wall was painted over in 2010 by the building’s new proprietor. The loss not only of the wall, but also public access to the venue itself, caused an outcry from both rock fans and the many surviving Soviet-era musicians. Together, these groups sought to preserve the LRC's legacy and designate the wall, and the building itself, a historical landmark. After years of lobbying, a memorial plaque to mark LRC’s location is currently being developed by activist groups and municipal authorities in St. Petersburg. Even under the conditions of market economy, it seems a symbiotic working relationship between the rock music community and the city’s officials persists to this day.