Hey Brian, interesting story. I did a sort of reverse of this story. I moved over to Russia for work reasons 26 years ago and have been here since. This photo absolutely looks like a typical winter's night in St. Petersburg--although given the lay out of новостройки it could be anywhere! )) If I could see the exchange rate, I would tell which year.

https://medium.com/@brian.kean/lesson-3-my-czar-my-father-3791bb4f2e

You might find this essay interesting )