Monthly Archives: April 2010

Are You Deathproof? Then Listen Up!

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07 thumb 500x373 Are You Deathproof? Then Listen Up!

Let those peo­ple cross: respect the pedestrians

As the Soviet Union could pos­si­bly be named the coun­try of pro­pa­ganda, this array of fun edu­ca­tional posters only sup­ports this notion — albeit this time in quite a pos­i­tive sense. A Ukrain­ian author­ship of the road rules and safety in a funky and engag­ing man­ner teaches dri­vers to give way to pedes­tri­ans, respect the zero tol­er­ance limit, reminds of the school zone rules as well as the neces­sity to get the car checked reg­u­larly. Pos­si­bly kitschy, but it does get the mes­sage across. Enjoy!

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Yes I Can: Dr Rogozov Performs Self Surgery

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Remem­ber our post about  Slava Kurilov, the guy who jumped off the cruise ship near the Philip­pines islands  —  and swam to free­dom for three con­sec­u­tive days, com­pletely alone at sea? Our today’s post tells a story just as remark­able — a young Russ­ian sur­geon Leonid Rogo­zov, stranded in  Antarc­tica with the Sixth Soviet Antarc­tic Expe­di­tion, in 1961 per­forms a self-operation: under local anes­the­sia, sur­rounded by a bunch of guys whose only expe­ri­ence with med­i­cine was sit­ting in a dentist’s chair, the 27th years old doc­tor removes his own appendix.

rogozovappendectomy2 500x324 Yes I Can: Dr Rogozov Performs Self Surgery

rogozovappendectomy2

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Summer in Gorky Park, Moscow of late 1960s

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We are very for­tu­nate to have gained the access to the col­lec­tion of pho­tographs below — they have come from a pri­vate col­lec­tion of Eugene Orlov, a keen pho­tog­ra­pher of 1960s, scanned by his grand­son. Por­trayed is a series of shots from a sum­mer walk in the Gorky Park, an iconic fam­ily recre­ational venue in Moscow. Please click on the mag­ni­fy­ing lens image for the close up and if you like it — tell your friends!

park gorkogo1960s 21 500x303 Summer in Gorky Park, Moscow of late 1960s

Images cour­tesy of Eugene Orlov. Late 1960s.

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Good Soviet Kids Go to Heaven? Nope, They Go to Artek!

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198 500x348 Good Soviet Kids Go to Heaven? Nope, They Go to Artek!

Kids in the tra­di­tional uniform.

The most famous PR image of the pio­ne­ria of the Soviet Union was a sum­mer vaca­tion camp sit­u­ated in the Crimea (Ukraine), next to Gurzuf town. Founded as a sana­to­rium for the kids suf­fer­ing and recov­er­ing from the TB by the Russ­ian Soci­ety of the Red Cross, it first opened doors in 1925, June 16th, accom­mo­dat­ing about 80 kids from Moscow and the near­est Ukrain­ian towns.

Then it was just a step ahead of a basic camp­ing ground, with kids sleep­ing in tents out in the for­est. How­ever, it grew rapidly until in early 1930s a few per­ma­nent build­ings were built. It was then Artek started work­ing all year round due to its mild Mediterranean-like climate.

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