Gorky - A Closed Soviet City

I have mentioned previously that places which have changed their names will feature in this blog. Nearly all of these places, including today's, will be from the former USSR.
Gorky was the name given to Nizhny Novgorod from 1932 until 1990 when it reverted back to its original name.
I'm actually quite surprised to find that these cards exist as from the end of the Second World War until the dissolution of the USSR, Gorky was one of the Soviet Union's many closed cities.
Westerners were not allowed to enter the city, meaning it was used as a place of exile for Soviet dissidents such as Andrei Sakharov.
The town did not appear on any maps and although it was a popular tourist spot for many Russians, street maps were not sold until the mid 1970s which makes it all the more surprising that this set of postcards(some of which have street names on the back), published in 1973 exist.

This one depicts a good view of one of the entry points of the town which could have proved dangerous should it have fallen into the wrong hands.

Here we have the station which would have been another strategic position.

Here we have some later ones from 1982, one showing the Kremlin and another showing popular department store "Children's World" None of the cards have been sent, which is a shame as it would have been interesting to know who bought and received the cards.

Unlike some cities since the dissolution, the Lenin Statue does still stand, though it was nearly destroyed by a man last year who managed to tear off the left arm before being stopped by police.