Moscow

As I did in the "Leningrad" section, I have to apologize for the quality of most of these photos. Most of these photos were taken, developed and printed by me or one of my friends. Many of my photographs got water-damaged over the years in storage.

History of Moscow

After a year in Leningrad, sttitle.jpgudying Russian language and studying basic Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics in Russian, we arrived in Moscow to study Metallurgical Engineering at Moskovksii Institut Stali i Splavov - MISIS (Moscow's Institute Of Steel and Alloys).

After the initial group of 15 boys, Pakistan Steel Mills sent another batch of about 45 boys. They were divided among Leningrad, Moscow, Zhdanov and Donetsk. Since I was in Moscow, practically all the photos only include the Pakistani students who were in Moscow.

The college used to organize dances at the dorm. They used to occasionally have live bands. One night, the band didn't show up. The people organizing the dance were in a bind. Knowing I had a good collection of music, asked me if I would play my tapes and records using their PA system. I agreed. That started many years of my DJ'ing for the college dances. Later on, I added what was called a "Pop Culture Club". The Russian students, and the people in general, were like a dry sponge when it came to information from the west. One a month, I would pick a popular band to do a "report" on. I had magazines from London that had articles and pictures about current bands. I would translate the articles into Russian. A friend of mine would photograph the pictures and convert them into slides. Then, while I played that band's songs, I'd read the translated articles while my friend would display the slides. I also made my own posters announcing the dance, using photos and such, cut out from magazines, and my own art work. These posters became collectibles. I had to make a plea that the posters not be stolen until the end of the dance.

I apologize if there are many photos of one event, but unfortunately that's what was left to work with. I lost many photographs and their negatives over the years, otherwise I would have loved to give a more varied picture of life in USSR.

This is the college (MISIS) where I studied

First day at college. We were assigned our groups and here are a couple of photos with classmates and teachers.

Photos of Pakistani students around the dorm.

Scenes from the dance I used to DJ

A friend's birthday party

and at the end of the birthday party:

From college we went for practicals to a steel mill. These are scenes showing us leaving on the train, at the steel mill, around the fields and town where the steel mill was located.

These following two photos are a humorous set. It was very funny to see two of my buddies try to lift a third one, who was quite heavy and muscular. Then the guy they were trying to lift, turns around and lifts them both up....easily.