Soviet ‘Thaw’ Of The 1960s Through The Lens Of Vladimir Lagrange
Happy workers from the staged, ideologically verified photos were replaced by reporting footage of the real life. The quasi thaw in Soviet politics led to a thaw in photography, as well. The official propaganda shots faded into the background and were replaced by vivid moments of real life. Continue reading »
How Soviet Propaganda ‘Taught’ People To Raise Children
Soviet children were taught to never lie, always help their parents and study hard, in order to then be able to effectively work for the future of the working class and socialist paradise. Continue reading »
“The New Past”: Artist Makes Vintage Surreal Collages Crafted From Soviet Books
Dutch artist Tamara Stoffers’s whimsical collages, made from Soviet-era books, have travelled to Brussels, Rotterdam, and Stockholm. Her current exhibition at Moscow’s Lumière Center of Photography, The New Past, is the first time her collages have been exhibited in the New East. Continue reading »
“We Were Born To Make The Fairy Tale Come True!”: 51 Sensational Soviet Space Posters
In the 1950s and 1960s the Soviet Union assured the great unwashed that ploughing fortunes into the space race was good for them.
“Glory to the workers of Soviet science and technology!”
Artists from the Soviet Union looked to the skies and foresaw a Utopia in space. The Communists would bring peace and prosperity not only to the people of Earth but also to the technology-enabled, God-free Great Beyond. The artists created Soviet Space posters, vivid, energising and inspiring visions of the rosy-fingered dawn to tomorrow. They’re terrific. Continue reading »
“Out Of This World”: Photographer Egor Rogalev Visits The Museum Of Soviet Space Travel
Egor Rogalev was born in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) in 1980. He has earned degree at the Department of Journalism at the Saint Petersburg state university. Egor mixes landscape photography with street portraiture exploring how people in post-Soviet countries correspond with transformation of urban and social environment. Continue reading »
The Weirdest Monuments Of The Communist Era That Are Still Standing
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sowrey/2104529616/
After the fall of the Soviet Union, many Communist statues and sculptures were destroyed, while others were moved to statue parks or museums. But many of them remained in the same place for the last 20 years, while the former Soviet areas were transformed into modern countries. Here are thirteen of the most incredible ones. Continue reading »
Soviet Jet Train Able To Reach 160MPH Was Supposed To Change The Future
It would be wrong to say that only bad things came out of the Cold War because that would discount all of the amazing advancements that happened during that time. Some of those we see implemented into our everyday lives today, yet some, like this turbojet train, have been left out to gather rust. Continue reading »
There Was Sex In The USSR: Soviet Car Advertising From The Past
An advertisement for the Soviet GAZ-24 ‘Volga’. The Volga was the main dream of every man and many women in the Soviet Union.
There were times when the VAZ-2101 ‘Zhiguli’ was advertised as an exclusive car, and even photographed with giraffes while the GAZ ‘Volga’ was the dream of every citizen, and sausage was considered a delicacy. Continue reading »
Soviet Anti-Alcohol Posters In The 1970s And 1980s
Alcohol presents an exhaustive collection of previously unpublished, Soviet Anti-Alcohol posters. The book includes examples from the 1960s through to the 1980s, but focuses on those produced during the Mikhail Gorbachev campaign initiated in 1985. Continue reading »
House Of The Forgotten Machines: The Superb Soviet Dieselpunk Concept Art By Andrey Tkachenko
Nizhiy Novgorod-based freelance artist Andrey Tkachenko (previously) created series of illustrations depicting Soviet cars as “dieselpunk” machines and robots. Continue reading »
This Soviet Carpet Beach Towel!
Because let’s face it: no beach outing is really complete without one. Continue reading »
Soviet Fashion: Style Pages From 1980s U.S.S.R.
Were Soviet women dressed in drab, utilitarian garb – not according to their fashion magazines.
I recently came across some Soviet fashion magazines from 1987-1989 and thought I’d share. Like most Americans, during the Cold War, I pictured all Soviet women as homely and hardened by their harsh life, dressed in drab utilitarian garb. As these pages prove, that was far from the case – and certainly not in the last years before the break up. What we find are fashions not so different to a JC Penney catalog of the same period. Let’s have a look… Continue reading »
This Photographer Spent 10 Years Recording The Post-Soviet Discos Of Lithuania
Born in Seattle to Lithuanian parents, Andrew Miksys first reconnected with his roots on a voyage to his ancestors’ country in 1995, before setting off for a year-long expedition in 1999. One night, in a remote village in Lithuania, Andrew discovered an old night club. Immediately taken with the venue and its regulars, the photographer went on to make these social hubs his prime area of focus for the next ten years. Continue reading »
This Soviet Dog Spacesuit Is The Cutest Dog Costume You Will See Today
Made out of cotton, nylon, rubber and aluminium, this suit is believed to have been worn by Belka and Strelka, the first two dogs to return from space back in 1960. It was used for the USSR’s Korabl-Sputnik 2 mission during the training phase, where the dogs strapped into capsules wearing the suits and launched 262,500 feet in the air before returning to the ground on parachutes. The training was meant to test the effects of low gravity and high-speed launches on the animals. Continue reading »
The Vintage Beauty Of Soviet Control Rooms
Just for the pleasure, a selection of vintage control rooms dating back to the Soviet era! A beautiful collection of control rooms filled with large buttons and analog dials, long before the democratization of computers and screens. Continue reading »
Life In Soviet Russia: Private Moments
Are you ready to make an immersion into the glorious life of Soviet Russia? If yes scroll down, this one today differs from other retrospective series we had before by the manner of compilation – it’s not a one collection but is assorted mix came from different sources. Continue reading »
“The Struggle For Utopia”: Everyday Soviet Life In Magnificent Photos By Semyon Friedland
Semyon Osipovich Friedland was a soviet photographer from Kiev. He was born in 1905 into a family of Jewish shoemakers. He began his career as a journalist, but then left the profession because of the censorship. In 1932 he graduated from the photography department of the State Institute of Cinematography. In 1950 Friedland worked as an editor-in-chief for the photography department of the famous “Ogonyok” (Russian: Огонёк, lit. “little flame”), which is one of the oldest weekly illustrated magazines in USSR and is published even today in Russia. Continue reading »
Beautiful And Never Seen Vintage Soviet ‘Antonov’ Plane Ads
A few photos of Soviet vintage ‘Antonov’ airplane ads target to Western buyers. Because the managers of the company was reasonably thinking that most of the buyers of the planes from abroad would be men, they decided to put women on the pictures. Continue reading »
Soviet Mystery Amphibious Vehicle Has Been Discovered In Chelyabinsk
One local man, Ivan Ivanov, discovered the odd vehicle and shared it over VK, the Russian social network. Continue reading »
Futuristic Prototype Of The First Soviet Night Vision Goggles
First Soviet night vision goggles appeared in early 1940s during first days of Russia joining World War 2. And those are the first prototypes of those, some were car mount some were portable. Continue reading »
Synchronistic Images Captured In Soviet Era Swimming Pools By Photographer Maria Svarbova
Photographer Maria Svarbova is fascinated by the sterile, geometric aesthetic of old swimming pools, especially those built during the Socialist Era in her native country of Slovakia. Each scene she photographs is highly controlled, from the subjects of her works to the bright colors and dramatic shadows that compose each shot. Continue reading »
Stunning Colorized Photos Of Legendary Soviet Female Snipers From WWII, Including One Dubbed ‘Lady Death’ Who Killed 309 Nazis
Stunning colorized images have given new life to WWII female snipers who protected their territory against German attacks, including the most successful female sniper in history, Lyudmila Pavlichenko also known as ‘Lady Death’.
Roza Shanina was one of the 800,000 women who fought in Russia.
The photographs were colorized by Moscow artist Olga Shirnina. Continue reading »
Rare And Sentimental Photographs Of Homeless Children In Soviet Union In The 1920s
By the early 1920s, millions of orphaned and abandoned children, collectively described in Russian as besprizornye, besprizorniki (literally “unattended”) crowded cities, towns, and villages across the new Soviet state. By 1922, World War I, Russian Revolution, and Civil War had resulted in the loss of at least 16 million lives within the Soviet Union’s borders, and severed contact between millions of children and their parents. At this time, Bolshevik authorities were faced with an estimated seven million homeless youths.
Odessa 1928
The great Volga famine of 1921–1922 accounted for some five million deaths and played a huge role in depriving children of their homes. Vast numbers of children were deserted, many abandoning their families themselves, and many parents actively abandoning their children. Continue reading »
The Secret Life Of Salvador Dali In Soviet Russia
KGB leaked some new files. They reveal famous Spanish maestro artist Salvador Dali while on his secret visit to USSR. It was no secret the artist had a Russian lover and wife Gala (Elena). She was who took Dali on the trip. Let’s see those leaked files. Continue reading »
Guy Made A Computer Case Out Of Old Soviet Electronic Parts Looks Magically Cool
This Russian guy has a hobby of making different things from the remainders of old Soviet electronic and electric parts. He deliberately collects different old Soviet switches, buttons, small bulbs and indicators. Here is one of his latest works – a computer case made from all this old Soviet scrap parts. Continue reading »
