The littlest space cadet shows off his uniform on his
first day at the academy.
The Peter the Great Military Space Acadamy opened its doors to cadets on Cosmonauts' Day, once a proud celebration of Soviet achievement now relegated to near-obscurity.
The academy is part of a program run by the Mayor's Office called "Cadet Corps," designed to help underprivileged youths in the city.
Nearly half of the new cadets are orphans, wards of the state or come from disadvantaged families.
The Mayor's Office funded the renovation of the academy in the center of the city and promised similar programs. It established the Navy Cadet Corps last fall.
The rest of the city spent a fairly uneventful Cosmonauts' Day, although Yuri, a physics researcher at St Petersburg State University, said his Young Cosmonauts Club still meets every year on April 12.
He said that all boys dreamed of becoming cosmonauts.
And now, "although none of us has ended up a cosmonaut," the conversation at their get-togethers often strays to the stars.
Less celebral were the musical offerings at the city's Ten rock club, where the famous band Prepinaki invited the city's Gargarin enthusiasts to an Astronauts concert.
The majority of the songs were about the great man and his space odysseys, though some fans commented that the travel in question was all in the musicians' heads. (SPP)