Moscow, 1960s
This is our fourth post devoted to Marc Riboud, an outstanding French photographer, who traveled extensively throughout the Soviet Union. His images captured an array of everyday life episodes from the lives of the Soviet people. As always, click on the magnifying glass icon to see the photos in detail.
Please follow us on twitter and stay tuned. Oh, and thanks for being such a wonderful crowd!
We are the pioneers, sons of working class (a popular song)
As you remember from the previous post, at the age of 9 the Soviet Kids grew out of their October Kids affiliation. The next ideological rite of passage was pioneering which the Soviet country placed a huge importance on. Loosely based on the American Boy Scout’s movement, pioneering covered all kids till the age of fourteen and worked in close relation with schools. Just like anything else Soviet style, it had its idiosyncrasies.
Be Vigilant! Disclose an Enemy Under any Mask!
1953 was the last year of long and terrifying governing of Stalin. In January the huge country although accustomed to repressions shuddered from the new horror – this time the enemies-saboteurs were Kremlin doctors of a Jewish origin. The commenced persecution also applied to ordinary doctors. Soviet people who believed to the politically edited stories broadcast in the media were scared to be patients of Jewish doctors. On March, 5 of 1953 Stalin passed away and the case of Kremlin doctors was dismissed. Humiliated, maimed doctors were released. However this was only the beginning of the political repressions of the Jewish specialists and today we would like to introduce you to a striking example — the story of my family.
Just a very pleasant collection of photos from a private family archive. All photos were taken in 1950s — 1960s, in the streets of Yaroslavl, a small town not far from Moscow. Simple things — outdoor sports, fishing, swimming, enjoying the music or spending time with the family — these 38 photos are relishing small pleasures and bringing a smile to a face.
As always, click on the magnifying glass icon to see the photos in detail. All photos are courtesy of Sergey Kulikov, a granddad of one of our contributors. He is 86 years old now, and photography has been his hobby all along. Let us know which ones you like — or if you have photos in your family archive which you’d like to share.
Waiting for the play off.
Screenshot of the game
It took us almost two weeks to get this done, but finally it’s here for you — the geography darts “How well you know the USSR”? The trivia would range from what the capital of the USSR was to the place which was called “the ice curtain” on the border of the US and Russia. There are 36 questions altogether, they vary in difficulty and pop in random order. You get to save your high score and compare it with other players including the USSR team. We had a trial run yesterday and so far the map has been viewed more than 17 000 times, and it’s still early!
Do switch to the FULL SCREEN MODE by clicking the square icon and then drag around — Russia is a big country, it helps a lot.
Re-tweet, let us know what you think — and thanks for being such a wonderful crowd. More to come — stay tuned!
The Announcement of the Soviet Government. By Vladimir Serov, 1918.
The Soviet Union was officially created in 1922, however, if there was a date which could be considered as a birthday of the USSR, that would have had to be November 7th of 1917 — this was the day when in St Petersburg the Bolsheviks — the organised military revolutionaries, who later became the Communist Party of the USSR — came to power. The Russian Provisional Government which were the head of the country after the Tsar Nicholas II had resigned, was overthrown and the Soviets, taking the government buildings one by one, had finally captured the town.