Battlefield - Space
Just one photo. A page from some Soviet Russian magazine of the early seventies, from the last months of iron curtain. At that times Reagan was proposing the “SDI” program putting some armaments to space, which was
widely used by Russian propaganda to scare people - giant laser beams in space - no way to shield from them
etc. And for such an illustration the “Battlestar Galactica” poster was used. Here is what the Russian text reads:
Now space is a battlefield. That’s what the American audience was prepared for by mass media long before Reagan came up with his SDI plans. This is a still from the movie “Battlestar Galactica”. As you can see there are a faces full of hatred and laser guns…
Russian at Northern Pole, 1950s-1960s
Russian people have tens of years of Polar explorations history. Something like fifty-sixty years ago they didn’t have the machines and planes like now but still some spent all year round on the Northern pole on the drifting ice platforms, because at the Northern Pole there is no land surface to build a stationary places like they do at Southern.
Many of those people already passed away. None of such situations are possible now - with lack of electricity, power supplies etc to stay at the Northernmost point of the Earth for 300+ days and don’t loose spirit.
These photos truly inspire.
Oil Stones: A Soviet City in the Middle of the Sea
In 1940s and 1950s, right after the World War 2 Russia had to recover from the consequences of the Nazi invasion. Lots had to be done and as we know to complete something you need to have enough energy. And energy at that times as well as it is much likely now meant oil.
At that times the known oil reserves differed from what people in Russia know about it now. The main places to drill for oil was Southern Russia on contrary to frozen Northern Siberian regions as it’s for now. And the gemstone of the Soviet Oil production was Caspian sea region, mainly the territories that are an independent state of Aizerbajan now.
So after a massive attack of oil thirsty state the lands of this previously oil-saturated region little by little got exhausted of the black mineral treasure and the need for new sources of it arouse. Now it’s not clear who was that this genius who first came up with an idea of getting the oil right from the sea bottom where it was still plenty of it and for this purpose to build a real city 42 km (25 miles) off the coast right in the middle of the sea, but what we know is that this idea came into play and by some crazy chance it got support from that times Soviet leaders who leveraged it with the all support the biggest (by the territory) state could offer at that time. What this meant is that in a matter of just a few month a real town was built right in the middle of the nowhere on giant steel blocks coming from the sea bottom, from as deep as hundreds of feet down. And they called it “Oil Stones”.
First Western Photographer in Moscow
During World War II Soviet Union was tough on letting foreign, especially Western journalists entering Russian and especially Moscow. They all were meant to be spies and so on.
And then only after the death of Stalin in 1953 first photographers were allowed to come to Moscow and make first shots of the Soviet State. This is from the first of the first, coming from France and letting the world see the people of Moscow for the first time for ten or so years.
Story of One Photo 5
Here we have one more photo for the “story of one photo” post. As you might already recognized one
lady here is the ex-first lady of America, the wife of the assassinated president Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, later
married to Greek shipping tycoon Onassis.
But who is the lady on the right? It can be clear seen that it is some Russia woman, in some dress many Russian older women
still are wearing nowadays when doing their household chores etc. So maybe that’s a meeting of the US First Lady with some working
class Russian women delegation?
The answer is wrong. This is not a worker lady, but a First Lady too, the Soviet First Lady of that times, Mrs. Kruschev the wife of the
Soviet leader Kruschev remarkable for his speech in the UN when he took of one of his shoes and smashed it in the tribune in order to
make his speech sound more expressive, if it was not enough yet. He was at power during the Caribbean crisis also.
Then looking on those two it can be seen what was the real difference between two lifestyles of the two countries at that times. It’s hard to say
how much has been changed during the times of the Communism fall and then twenty years of current Russia as we know it. It’s clear
that nowadays the Russian First Lady would never wear something like this, at least when going public, but it’s totally not clear if that’s good
sign or bad sign.
Russian Santa Protects Russia
During the World War 2 Russian soldiers had their special Christmas and New Year postcards.
On some of such Santa looked not very peaceful in his solidarity attempt to defeat the “malicious attacker”. So probably those are the only ones where Santa can hold a machine gun or be in some other furious acts.
History of Kremlin Stars
Stars appeared on Kremlin tower not long time ago. There were golden symbols of tzarism, double eagles, in the center of the country until 1935.
From 1600’s four Kremlin towers(Troitskaya, Spasskaya, Borovitskaya, Nikolskaya) were decorated with Russian state organization symbols – enormous golden double eagles.
Right after Revolution a question about replacement double eagles on red stars for Kremlin towers arose. But such replacement would cost a lot that’s why it wasn’t done for the first years of the Soviet time.
Paris 1970
The USSR adopted a not very friendly foreign policy and its realations between western countries were rather strained (we have already written about it here) France’s relations with the Soviet Union have experienced dramatic ups and downs in 70’s. France was a popular destination for Russian migration for two reasons: cultural interest, which was reinforced after the Russian occupation of Paris; and liberalization, which made it easier for Russians to settle in the country. Even though there were still political problems and in October 1985 previous Soviet president Gorbachev made a visit to France in order to fix the strains in the Franco-Soviet relations.
You In the Army Now, Ukrainian Army
Ex Soviet countries got different legacy from their parent the Big Soviet Union. To list some many Soviet armaments, some were lucky enough to get their hands on missiles and atomic stuff, then all the infrastructure etc etc.
And the compulsory army service is also the thing those countries have from Soviet Union. Like in good old times young boys of 18 and till 27 years old have to take their bodies to the army recruitment point and get their service for one year or more or.. get jailed or at least can’t get a job etc etc.
Then when they get in the army there are some legacies in there from Soviet times too. One of the most interesting facts about Red Army is that there were no socks allowed until some very recent times (2008 or something) or maybe even later. The thing that they used instead of socks were pieces of cloths that were called “portianka” and had to be wrapped around the feet each time young soldier had to put on his boots (everyday).
It takes it roots from 19th century and was totally compulsory for every soldier of Red Army in 21st century.
And this can be continued on and on, better let’s see some photos how they recruit to Army in Ukraine these days. Looks like nothing has changed from Communistic times. Same old tradition to stand pants down before a group of lady doctors for every young man in the country.
London, 1970
Maybe that’s a bit less known fact, but in Soviet Union citizens couldn’t go abroad. The iron curtain had been working two way - not letting stuff and information in and not letting anyone out.
In fact the abroad travel had existed still but only for the best of the best comrades. The controlling authorities, like KGB wanted to be hundred percent sure that the lucky visitor of the foreign state would:
a) get back and won’t ask for a shelter abroad;
b) would behave himself really well - won’t drink all that capitalistic whiskey all night long with strange people like hookers;
c) won’t be seduced by foreign secret services and turned into a spy overnight;
d) won’t buy different banned stuff like porn and jeans and then won’t smuggle it back home and sell it to friends;
e) and finally they needed those who won’t spread stories of admiration of capitalistic style of life upon arrival, but on contrary expected people would tell anyone that life abroad, frankly speaking sucks a lot.
Also, the trips abroad were divided into two categories. First category included the socialistic countries with friendly regimes like Eastern Europe or Cuba. It is strange but even those countries were forbidden for a free visit of a “free” Soviet guy, though it was much easier to get there if compared to a trip to any country of a second category - the capitalistic hell like USA or England. In order to get a chance of such visit one could submit a claim expressing his will to pay a visit to Socialistic neighbour. Then such claims were thoroughly studied by many organizations starting from local police, then a place of work had to make a proclamation then it was escalated to KGB which could approve it or reject it.
But there were no such way to get in London except to a few categories of highly trusted people, one of such were pilots of “Aeroflot” the only Soviet Russian air flights company.
Those pilots who were able to reach forbidden places were considered to be just white bone blue blood amongst their fellows. And there were plenty of reasons why. They could BE THERE and could BRING STUFF from there.
And those are the photos of one of such elite pilots having luck to visit the places that 99.9999% of other Soviet people couldn’t reach ever. London back in 1970s looked different, but it looked totally different for Russian people at all - not anything they had a chance to see at their Motherland.
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