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.
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.
Soviet Punks
In Soviet Russia… Well, in Soviet Russia the state tried to control everything and such things like music people were listening or the cloths people were wearing was under strict regulation. School children in every Soviet school had to wear uniforms and were obliged to buy it each year. There were no single school where kids were dressed in color nice cloths - everyone was wearing the one and only styled form in Russia at that time.
Same story was on the streets. If the police have spotted someone looking weird he could be easily taken to psychiatric clinic and treated there with severe mind altering stuff.
Still, some, especially closer to the times when the Soviet Union ceased to exist started breaking this barrier and their extraordinary looks shocked people. Here are some of the photos from that times.
People of Russia 150 Years Ago
Russian people photos from the dawn of photographic era, back from 1860s. Photos were made in St. Petersburg, people of different society groups are featured.
Vintage Suburban Electro Buses
In the wild mountains of Georgia (not state but a country, ex USSR region) there are still vintage styled electric buses cruising between the cities through the mountains. Some look like they were doing this under severe fire during some wars that happened in this region for the last twenty years.
Radio Village
This vantage photo of poor Russian family back from 1925 listening to the radio. People then made their corrections to the photo.
Soviet Soldiers at World War 2 in Color
Such photos always fascinate me. I mean the color photos from the past, the older the better. These ones is no exception. We got used to see only black and white photos from the World War 2 - the color photography was very expensive at that times and actually was not widely implemented, and especially usually nobody took the expensive equipment to the battlefront. Still there are some color photos from the times where our grandfathers were young, like 70 years ago.
Russian Hockey Cards
Remember those small cards you probably enjoyed collecting in the childhood with some random football, hockey or maybe golf players photos on them?
Thanks to the Soviet Government Russia kids of 70s also had the possibility enjoying this fun.
Old Russian Ads
Well, if to continue the ads subject started today, it’s pretty reasonably to mention that Russian modern advertisements have no style. I mean, during the long Soviet Era Russian people were deprived of the commercial initiative. Only the state sold small choice of goods to people via it’s wide trade network and they didn’t need to care about advertisement - people bought stuff just because they had no other choice. There were almost no any foreign goods in Russia during 70 years, and those that were for sale were mainly from the friendly Eastern-European communistic states and even those were considered by people as a big luck to buy, so they were not needed any advertisement and were out of stock in minutes after arriving to some state-owned shop. Nobody was allowed to run a shop or any other business including production or importing. So for 70 years the advertisement industry of Russia just ceased to exist and ceased to develop.
Later, when the Soviet Union collapsed and people were free to do what they want - in commercial meaning of this - the need for advertisement service arouse, but because none have any experience on design of such products they just went the simplest way - started copying advertisement looks from the Western world. That’s what we see now almost in any Russian or any else ex-Soviet city - the ads look like they are implants from some other kind of a commercial body - all their look, the fonts used etc - are alien for the Russian culture. It’s a great pity there are only a few tries to find the unique Russian commercial style in the outdoor or printed advertisement - and well, nobody knows how it should look the real Russian Ad.
Meanwhile here we have some ads from the past, from the times when they still had the initiative to buy sell produce and advertise. Maybe they carry some key for how the modern Russian ads should be looking, but of course just copying this 100 year old style won’t solve the problem, it would look so outdated.
First Days of Invasion
First days of invasion into Russia seemed to be a piece of cake for Nazi German army. According to the plans of the German chief commanders the whole deal with Russia would take just a few months. They were hoping to take over the Moscow until winter of 1941 (the operation has started early summer, 1941). The invitations were sent to the higher officers of the German army for the celebration of the victory on Russian army in the summer, a few month before the planned victory.
And so there advancement into the Russian territory was really that easy for the first months. They moved fast, often leaving some pockets of resistance inside the conquered Russian land. Soon they got themselves right near two of Russian main cities - Moscow and St. Petersburg.
In Russia there is a popular belief, that Moscow shouldn’t be ever surrender to the enemy, because loosing Moscow can mean loosing of all the country. So the battles were becoming more violent and fierce as the Nazis approached Moscow.
And then winter come, that was the well-known old Russian winter, with horrible frosts and lots of snow. Before German army fought in the relatively warm climate of Western Europe and didn’t know what Russian Winter really is. It got demoralized them very much and possibly the Russian Winter saved the Russian people from being defeated right in the first year of the war.
Then the war lasted for 5 years more, and no holiday took place for which German officers got invitations, and frankly speaking at the end of the war mostly no invitation recipients were left alive.
And those are photos of the first days of the invasion, made by German soldiers.
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