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. Each photo is an individual shot from the fate of some random human who lived in Russia at that times, sometimes those moments were sad, sometimes joyful and photos share this mood with us now:
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FIRST!
Very good post.
who is the man pictured with the board full of mathematical equations – does anyone know?
Babushka.
No doubt about it.
A lot of babushkas! Isnt that scary???
))
Bishop and I are refering to EnglishRussia’s “Babushka”.
“Babushka” means “grandma” on russian…
just a teacher, no more than that, i think
Jesse James!
IMHO that is a fragment of a well-known photo, at full photo the board is _much_ bigger and the man stays at the very corner of it. It’s 1970 or about, some conference in Moscow, but I can’t recall the name of that man.
Is this the photo you’re thinking of?
http://lh6.google.ca/abramsv/R6O56-9HpmI/AAAAAAAAGB4/vRmrCDtHpjI/s1600-h/1075.jpg
No, it isn’t. the photo you’ve posted is from former Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic nowadays). An it’s real. I’ve heard, that this photo is from CVUT university in Prague, and lectures of this teacher were really hard-core
It seems to be some physics lecture, because there are mentioned some line-wires, charge, decrease of mass etc etc.. + I recognize some derivatives, which looks real..
It’s not russian, it’s czech..
Those equations are a hodge-podge lodge collection of nonsensical mathematical expressions. Seems to be some reference to nuclear decay with gamma emmission and then non-sensical limits of integration and elements of matrix notation. Just a big hodge podge lodge of subterfuge and mind-boggle for the uninitiated. Very much in keeping with Soviet-era ideology and doctrine. Some stern-faced guy exuding false confidence. Not worth the chalk it scribbled with.
Too much photoshop
pis` pis` i bayen`ki ! right ?
Excellent post…
By the way I visited a couple of years ago Crimea during summer… and really liked. Particularly, Yalta, the palaces, the nature…
Does anybody have any old pictures from the commnunist times
taking during summer of this beautiful holiday destination?
Please, post pics or the link if you do.
Thanks!
Valiant
absolutely fascinating.
That is a bunch of photos, indeed!
Very nice post!
Amazing set of photos…. Russians are a beautiful people.
Actually not that much has changed, Russian life still has the same kind of feeling to it. And I mean that in a positive way.
I don’t agree.
The certainties which the soviet state provided have gone, life became more difficult for many. Everybody had a job back then, even a ‘virtual’ job was still a job. (I pretend to work and you (the state) pretend to pay me – popular expression from soviet times). People now are ‘free’ but have in many instances difficulty handling this ‘freedom’ since Russians have never been free for a 1000 years or so. Luckily the new ‘democratic government’ is there to help out those unfortunate ones – vote for the strong man, he’ll show you the way !!
Anyway, excellent post! Don’t really get the guy with the high heels though – never saw this type of Russian machismo before.
“Luckily the new democratic government is there to help out those unfortunate ones – vote for the strong man, hell show you the way !!”
All empty promises. Medvedev promised to double pensions as soon as he is in office. Let’s hold him to his words, shall we?
Typical lie. He wont do that.
Sarcasm…
Of course things did not change for the good. And I fear they will not in the near future. Russia is a police state and will stay that way, I’m afraid. A banana republic, I’m sorry to say so. Every government likes to have the amount of control the Russian government has [and to which the Russians are used to]. Privacy is not really valued by Russians since they are not used to it and have no clue. Like a sarcastic comment once stated: Russia is even more defined by what it lacks and needs than by what it has.
Double the pensions… even if he does it is still not enough to live on.
))))))))
maxD, get better ?!! Goooood. ))
the thing with pensions is that they get the pension on the base of their last salary, and most of times it was a soviet salary when the ruble had much more value.
The one with the line of children receiving medicine from a bottle isn’t from the former Soviet Union, the buldings are wrong and so are the clothes. Looks like Britain to me!
But a great post!
Exactly. The rest looks fine.
Greetings from Lithuania
I always enjoy the old photo series you run
How was the sex life back then?
Were people more restrained than they are today?
They had abortions back then?
Yes
Speaking for myself my wife is Russian, this woman has no hangups when it comes to sex. To her it is not a weapon, it is not a tool you use to get your way, it is not what empowers her or gives her a sense of identity as it does women in the west and America. It’s a mutually enjoyable experience to be shared as often as possible.I have absolutely no complaints.
Russians are a very sexual bunch of rabbits, the Spartan life they tend to lead lends itself to it and while they seem to like to keep it private make no mistake it is definitly there.
If anything, I found that Russian women are much more liberal when it comes to sex. It is clearlly reflected in the way they dress and how much more revealing they are then their western counterparts. However, I too have no complaints
Yes and A LOT!!!
Is that Гагарин?
Three photos beneath the dude playing pool?
It sure looks like him.
The finest series of photos of the Russin people I have yet seen on EnglishRussia. To Russia!
Yes sir,i wish i was the part of these happy peoples,but some dreams can`t be true.God bless them.the peoples with great ideas and reason to live for humanity.long live humanity! ! ! ! ! !
Photo #18. Babushka aims true.
What is the name of this structure?
http://englishrussia.com/images/soviet_b&w/101.jpg
Richard, That is the Monument to the Conquerors of Space. Moscow, 1964.
Wow. What a great post. Amazing photos.
Best post ever on English Russia! THANK YOU
Good post!
I think I have seen several of those pictures before, probably in another post here on ER. And I am quite sure I saw the PЕПСИ-КОЛА picture in colour before.
Photo #46 – an IPOD!
Quite impressed! The Best pictures ever! Спасибо! (from tokio)
Here are many beautiful people in nice photos. My favorite is # 53, and you can see it if you scroll down to the big clock sitting on the beach (how do they keep it from falling over?), then down one more to the people on the subway, then my favorite!–The Disco Ladies!
Let’s sing a happy song for Russia. Everyone, sing:
(music, please)
Shake it up, shake it down
Move it in, move it round, disco lady
Move it in, move it out, move it in round about, disco lady.
That last one looks like Anthoney Bourdain to me.
Great post!
how many feelings here!
nice!
Marvelous collection. It reminds one of the “Family of Man” collection of photos.
Many thanks for this collection. As I have stated before, we have be become aware of our commonality. These photos do that.
Nice!
but the head of the little girl doing ..that.. aerobic stuff, looks way out of proportion.
My fave picture here is the pepsi machine one, especialy considering that there are some serious dental issues going on in some of the other images.
lol.
http://englishrussia.com/images/soviet_b&w/106.jpg
the woman in that photo looks a bit like Jack Black.
I’m suprised a lot of the black and white photos are so sharp.
Analog film has no pixels and cannot be compared to it. It contains all the information of the scene [well, depending on the film's speed of course] and only suffers from the limitations of the printing paper and the film’s graininess.
Like comparing an analog audio recording with a digital one. A digital one has a certain sample rate ['pixels' in photo/film] which means that every xth second a fragment of the audio is being sampled. A CD has 44100 fragments[samples] p/sec, studio recordings can have up to 192000 fragments[samples] p/sec. Still, it is a collection of fragments, not the whole. Same with digital photography, every picture is a collection of fragments [pixels], not the whole. But since our eyes are not that good, we are easily fooled.
Actually, film does have a grain size. That’s where the grainy film effect comes from. It’s also why black & white photos are sharper (smaller grain size).
And analog recorders have flux limits for magnetic recorders and viscosity limits for physical media like vinyl and wax. Many people don’t notice because the rolloff is more gradual on the high end which most people don’t hear that well anyway. Also, past sound engineers adjusted things very carefully to get the maximum dynamic range with the least distortion. Today’s mass produced music is digitally compressed (in audio terms, not information theory) into it’s upper dynamic range to make it sound louder because most people think louder=better. They do the same with modern TVs makeing them very bright and over coloured and fake looking.
The girls have got some old equations for rockets and satellites on the ground.
The guy’s got some old Soviet style Quantum Mechanics formulations on the board. The interesting thing is that formulation looks more like he was working twords LQG.
The man playing pool is actually Gagarin himself.
Bloody Oath, Ari The Finn
Great, heartwarming photos.
Communism for USA !
Well EU has already adopted that ideology and is fast on it’s way to becoming the new Soviet Union, why not the US?
Good one! =)
The Russian women I’ve hooked up with in my past enjoyed sex very much!
Amazing photos.
OK.
It’s Zooey Dechanel in pic 4
It definitely is. I was wondering if I was the only person to notice that that picture is from Almost Famous. Nothing to do with Soviet Russia!
Don’t know if it’s Zoe on #4, however it’s defenitely my idea of the perfect woman from head to toe and backwards…
High five to the soviets who built this amazing creature, hurray!
Hey, pic #4 is Zooey Deschannel!! LOL
Nice photos. My grandmother still has those dresses.
The great thing about school uniforms was that kids from poor families weren’t jealous of kids from more well-off families. But in America it is labeled as oppressing the individualism.
=O
Really great photos ^^
They breaks a lot of taboos
Awesome POST!
Is that uranium or some other radioactive material in 114 enlighting the room? Shows how much Russians care for their kids.
Try not to be foolish. It’s kids standing around an HID lamp to get UV radiation so their skin produces vitamin D (which westerners get from dairy food). Something to do with a lack of sunshine in the north during winter. Strangely that photo was published in National Geographic magazine about 30 years ago.
these are Lovely, thanks.
Good post, thank You.
That was also life.
Raimonds Pauls that young? Amazing!
The stewardess on pic #4 is probably still working in Aeroflot
Great photo set!!! Good work/Molodets!!
This scene is just like the one in S.T.A.L.K.E.R
http://englishrussia.com/images/soviet_b&w/114.jpg
best pics ever
Who took these pictures? They nice… good post
Russia is really a great nation with great people. i lived there for 3 years when i was in my high school and i made many russian friends with whom i still keep contact with. Regrettably many people tend to think of russians as bad people because of the all Cold War propaganda. But as you can you see from the pictures russians are just like us.
you should respect a person at least for learning any other languages except for his mother tongue.
Awesome post. Who’s the photographer?
well it might not have been, their all from around the same time, same style. Could just be some guys portfolio.
I am always amazed that the world has devolved to what it is now. Most of us have become poorly paid worker bees.
Communism was no failure. I would say capitalism has except for a few.
[...] LINK: http://englishrussia.com/?p=1754 [...]
Soviet Russia: Private Moments…
We don’t want freedom/ We don’t want justice/ We just want someone to love…
Very nicely done. They should put year and location.
The guy with the 3 miniature trucks looks like Gallagher, except he doesn’t have the Soviet version of a sledge-O-matic..
Excellent photographs…it’s as if you have entered a time machine…
imagine how much the US and the USSR could have accomplished had we been working together – these photos prove once again we are all people – the social and political lenses we see through divide us so.
1980′s syndrome
http://englishrussia.com/images/soviet_b&w/55.jpg
I’m so much impressed by these amazing pics. They’re so true, so real.They made me remember the times of Socializm, they perfectly convey the atmosphere of these times..as if the whole life passed in some minutes..
great pics.
its hard to find something like in US or UK-related WWW-cities.
p.s.
i ride 33 bus for years
even in L Breshnev time
Great post, good old time. W CCCP.
This post is very good! Deeply enjoyed! This pictures have some kind of poesy in it, some sort of nostalgia for a vanished era. It might sound polemic, but I think there were so many things we could learn from Soviet Union…
Awful and horrible times of Soviet Union are too vivid here. Oh, I am so very happy that it all ended. Soviet Union was the worst experiment in the history of humankind.
“The certainties which the soviet state provided have gone, life became more difficult for many. Everybody had a job back then, even a ‘virtual’ job was still a job. (I pretend to work and you (the state) pretend to pay me – popular expression from soviet times). People now are ‘free’ but have in many instances difficulty handling this ‘freedom’ since Russians have never been free for a 1000 years or so. Luckily the new ‘democratic government’ is there to help out those unfortunate ones – vote for the strong man, he’ll show you the way !!”
This is the best comment I’ve ever seen in English Russia.
The man said the truth.
And most of pics are fake, for example there were no black people in russia, and all over soviet union, so howcome do we see a photo with a black guy looking at some statue? (http://englishrussia.com/images/soviet_b&w/17.jpg)
And the girl in http://englishrussia.com/images/soviet_b&w/4.jpg is obviously not from any soviet country.
This post has most of the components all posts in this website have- mixed feeling of nostalgia; mixed photos from russia and not russia (but still claiming it is russia or soviet times, while it isnt), and even some propoganda (russian or soviet) in some posts.
“And most of pics are fake, for example there were no black people in russia, and all over soviet union, so howcome do we see a photo with a black guy looking at some statue?”
Can you imagine that there were a lot of foreign students in the Soviet Union? Many of them were black. There were also many “children of international love”. Several times in my live I saw black guys, who speak perfect Russian and whose mentality is totally Russian. They were born in Russia from Russian mothers but look like Africans.
I am not completely sure about this particular photo, but you definitely underestimate skills of the Soviet fashion designers. May be not all women were wearing such dresses everyday, but there were good tailors in the USSR and some women were making orders from them.
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/6498/63667272.jpg
Come on!, the girl in the 3rd photo is Zooey Deschanel in “Almost Famous” Great post
I know that is just what I was thinking! It doesn’t even look Soviet Era-ish at all.
me 2 %)
Very good photoes
Real sensation, feelings of those times
Thanks!
Thank you for the post.
So nostalgic
Page bookmarked, to remind me, from time to time, what beauty means…
when i saw this pics i remembered Beatles’s song ‘Back in URSS’
I love the photo of the baby sleeping by the train set. Thanks for sharing these.
Great photos! Some are very professionally photographed!
Takes me back to the good old times
Murzilka was a great didactic magazine for children and i dont remember anything concerned with war and germany and so on
Nice!, found your blog on Yahoo!.Glad I finally tested it out. Unsure if its my Chrome browser,but sometimes when I visit your site, the fonts are really tiny? However, love your page and will check back.Bye
I became speechless…love these photos!!!
thanks for sharing! would’ve been interesting to try out one of those lada rally cars
Thank you for these lovely pictures. My mother had a big collection of glossy Soviet magazines that she collected and I grew up seeing the proud and graceful people that Russians were and still are.
Today, the Russians I know are still the same even with all their problems and it is indeed a pity to see this country lost in turmoil.
The girl in the third, or fourth image(6161 in background) is stunning. And all around nice look into life under soviet russia.
LOVE IT! LOVE IT AND MISS IT!!! BEAUTIFUL TIMES!!!
Yes, very typical photos. I’ve seen hundreds similar in collections of friends of mine.
[...] Life in Soviet Russia – Nice photos. [...]
[...] Life in Soviet Russia – Nice photos. [...]
It was a great time!
Such wonderful pictures, especially the happy children. I bet they would all say that their childhood was very happy.
Archive of old soviet magazines – http://journal-club.ru
Viva USSR! Viva Stalin!
Sowjetischkrieg!
4th down is Zoey Deschanel in Almost Famous which was shot in the United States in the Mid 90′s. Not soviet russia. http://www.fedge.net/~zdeschanel/photos/famousgallery.html
http://englishrussia.com/images/soviet_b&w/47.jpg
Honestly i can believe this picture, if girls are that pretty and intelligent in Russia ill move there
I liked all the pictures! Russian people must be as friendly as any people fron any other country… We got to recon that russian people grow at the shadow of a nuclear war aswell the rest of the world… during the cold war.
Now that’s part of a past where all of us must learn to don’t be as fool again.
I hope one day can go there to be between you and feel what you feel, what you think, what you believe and your hopes and wishes.
Big hug, and glad to help me to get in the right place the pieces in the big puzzle that’s the russian way of life and culture.
Best regards from Argentina!.
http://englishrussia.com/images/soviet_b&w/12.jpg
(Rus)
Nice photos (and women! xD), very ilustrative and not like you normally see (propaganda of either side, etc.)
And, is the man in photo 60 with TWO hero of the Soviet Union medals? That are the maximum medals.
And he is so young.
He is Gagarin. The first kosnonavt (1961).
don’t forget the propaganda newspaper in 60′s, and see with these photos the real life in the soviet..
and now, today in the newspaper, read article about iran, with other attention..
Third one from the bottom, the 3 girls pulling the lady in the sled.. I really like this photo. The old lady in stripes in the background adds a great touch to the composition, too.
Also like the people dancing by the lake with the cassette player.
whats the history of the photo 116 where it looks like the two soccer players were about the fight and the ref was blowing the whistle???
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