Real USSR » 1917-1920

City of UFA: Then and Now

eugenia — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:31:47 +0000

A merchant’s house. Early twenties.

A heritage building now

The city of Ufa, the capital of Bashkiria, is a town with the population of just over a million, at about 1500 km distance from Moscow. It is beautifully set at the confluence of the Belaya and Ufa rivers, on low hills to the west of Southern Urals. The city was founded in 1574 at the orders of Ivan the Terrible, and the name meaning “small” in Turkic. It is a well kept city with lots of greenery, wide alleys, parks and plentiful historic buildings.

Today’s post is a little different from our usual format, as the modern pictures of the city are, well, modern and not of the Soviet epoch. It is still nice to see, however, how the city has been changing over the past hundred years — and the old photographs are still full of life and very easy on the eye.

Building of 8 Floors. Designed and built after WWII by German architects.

Building of 8 floors now.

One of the main streets: Lenin St, Bashkiria Hotel

Old tram. November 1947.

Hotel Bashkiria at night.

Cinema center Rodina

Constantine with Keanu Reeves is on

Old merchants’ houses on a market day

A shopping and entertainment center now. Was rebuilt in early 2000

A former bank

National Museum now

Was fully redeveloped in late 1990s

The events centre, named after Ukrainian Bolshevik and a close friend of Stalin Sergo Ordzhonikidze

Ordzhon, as it is more commonly called.

One of the longest streets in town: in 195os it was called Stalin Avenue

The trams were put in around mid 1970s. The Stalin name got dropped.

Now it is October Avenue.

Opera and Ballet House

Belaya River vista: the small smudge above the forest to the right is the horse statue: see below

The house of Parliament. The horse statue is more visible. Stunning views when you drive into the city

Salavat Yulaev. One of the tallest horse statues in Europe.

A popular photo shoot destination now.

The Soviet Square. 13 April 1964

The Square today — interestingly enough, it still hasn’t been renamed.

City Council

Arguably the most prestigious university in town and among the top ten in the country: the Aviation Industry University.

Its computer science and engineering graduates are among the most sought-after in the world.

For another example of “there and now” see our old post about Novosibirk.

Some images are courtesy of Olga Eigeison aka perebeia.

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Best of Winter 2009–2010

Stas Kulesh — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:40:13 +0000

Military Discharge Handmade Scrap Book and Comics Album

You’re in the army now

The compulsory two years of military service was a rite of passage for every Soviet guy. When one turned eighteen — unless for sickness or injury — it was time to be called in for the military life — two years in the barracks. The guys usually bonded well and during their spare time created so called “Discharge Albums” — like scrapbooks, they were full of photos, songs lyrics, quick notes from the buddies etc.

Slava Kurilov: Alone at Sea. An Unbelievable Way to Escape the Iron Curtain

The only person to escape the Iron Curtain by swimming.

By job he was an oceanographer, by heart he was a dreamer, by nationality he was a citizen of the planet Earth — in short, he was an extraordinary guy. Yet his personal file in the USSR was stamped as “not worthy of an exit visa” so he was not allowed to leave the country, even if it was for a holiday. So in December, 1974 he jumped a cruise boat “The Soviet Union” off the coast of the Philippines islands — and he swam to freedom.With no food or drink, no swimming equipment apart from flips and goggles, he swam to the shores about a hundred kilometers for three days — completely alone at sea.

A Rough Guide to Moscow from the Daughter of the American Embassador

Emlen Knight Davies, at the age of 20 (ish)

Joseph E. Davies was the second Ambassador to represent the United States in the Soviet Union in 1937–1938. His daughter, the twenty years old Emlen Knight Davies, took some pictures of the surroundings. These images, courtesy of her private collection, were on display in Moscow for the anniversary of the Spaso House — the official diplomatic residence.

So! What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

You will be quite a craftsman!

The Professional Orientation in the USSR meant, first and foremost, a process of advising the youth on the future career choices. A group of teachers and fresh graduates of a college would go to high schools to give talks to school kids in order to deliver the first hand information on vocational choices. Every occupation is regarded highly in the Soviet Union — well, this slogan turned out to be quite untruthful.

Moscow Winters, Fragments of the 20th Century.

1925. A private house on the bank of the Tarakanovka river

Here is a fine collection of images of Moscow winters, dating from 1920s till 1991. Sadly many places portrayed on these photographs are gone now, just like the Soviet Union itself, yet lest we forget. Please read on to see the image of the first set of traffic lights in Moscow CBD in late 1930s, which was operated by a specially trained person; or the largest freshwater outdoor swimming pool in the world - as well as people, wooden houses, old boulevards covered with the virgin snow.

Labour Riots in Novocherkassk: Soviet ‘Tiananmen’

Meat, butter, pay rise!

Novocherkassk is a small town in the South of Russia, also known as the unofficial capital of the Cossacks, the Slavic military community. Unfortunately this town was the place of a huge tragedy, when in 1962 the civilian demonstration was opened fire on.

Russian Ice Cream In Winter — Bring It On!

The city of Khabarovsk, 1970.

In the USSR, the very first ice cream factory was opened in 1932 — when the Minister of Food Supply (if translated not too liberally) Anastas Mikoyan visited the United States of America and was so impressed with their ice cream, he decided that Russia needed something of the kind. So the ice cream making technology and equipment were imported and the ice cream supply to all and everybody began.

Novosibirsk: Then and Now.

The Communal Bridge, nowadays.

The unofficial capital of Siberia, the city of Novosibirsk was founded in 1893 with the initial population of only 8,000 people. By the time of the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917, it grew to the population size of 80,000. The name, literally meaning New Siberian City, was adopted in 1926 — and since then, the town had become to grow and prosper.

The Fearsome Threesome – Lenin and His Lovebirds

Paris, city of love, brought them all together. A Russian movie of 1981.

The official history often misses a very important and interesting point in the course of the Russian Revolution – not everybody knows that Vladimir Lenin, a formidable mind behind the Great October Patriotic Revolution and the leader of all communists, had less than straightforward love life – apart from a wife, he had a mistress – and not only that, these two women knew each other and got on very well!

21+ Depressing Photos of Post-Revolutionary Russia by Arkady Shaikhet

Gymnasts. Red Square. 1924

When the new Soviet country was born, the people were promised a wonderful future under the socialism — just a few more years, the billboards boasted — and we’ll live in a glorious state. However the early days were more than gloomy: the rundown economy, disoriented society, the reek of fear and uncertainty — and that clearly can be seen through the photos of a prominent Soviet photographer Arkady Shaikhet.

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21+ Depressing Photos of Post-Revolutionary Russia by Arkady Shaikhet

eugenia — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:11:22 +0000

This collection of photos starts off with nice, clearcut images of what the country was portrayed as by the media and propaganda — and progresses to a unsweetened world of the simple folk, vagrants, and peasants. Please let us know if there is a photo below that has touched your heart — we always value your feedback.

Gymnasts. Red Square. 1924

Arkady Shaikhet’s life story is one of the most remarkable ever. A fourth kid in a Jewish family from the South of Russia, with no school education or special skills, he was called in the army to serve in the WWI. However, the outbreak of typhoid saved him and so, being discharged at the age of 24, he moved to Moscow in search of great opportunities. And there they were: after getting a job at a local paper, Arkady tried his luck with a camera — only to realise that he got a special talent. It was all uphill ever since: publishing in the most influential newspapers, the honour of duty to photograph Lenin and Stalin, busy exhibitions and so on. He had the most remarkable shots of the Second World War events, which we hope to publish here in the future.

The cycle parade. 1924.

Morning exersize. 1927

Morning exersize. 1932

A sportsman. 1932

At the gym. 1928

And here’s some of the less life-assuring images of the new country.

A street kid is learning a shoemaking skill. 1929

A village in the mountains. Father and son. 1929

Engineers to be. Moscow. 1930

Bathing of a vagrant kid. Moscow. 1927

Voting. 1925

Out in fields. 1927

Plowing. Samara. 1927

Test drive. Moscow. 1924

City of Elista. A school lesson for the kalmyk’s kids (a small indigenous nation).

Electrification. 1925

Visit of a tax collector. Moscow. 1928

Putting up the poles for the electrical cables. 1925

Sharpening the tools. 1939

A building site. Uzbekistan. 1939

Workmen resting by a fountain. 1926

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The Fearsome Threesome – Lenin and His Lovebirds

eugenia — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:24:24 +0000

Paris, city of love, brought them all together. A Russian movie of 1981.

Young Nadezhda

Vladimir Lenin’s wife, nee Nadezhda Krupskaya, was born in 1869, in a noble but poor family. She was trained as a school teacher and had a very successful start to her teaching career – until she got involved with some revolutionary ideas which the air was penetrated with at the time. It all started with her passion for the books of Leo Tolstoy and then gradually developed into some seriously marxism-winged outlook.

Young Nadezhda was very well organised, hardworking, disciplined: she took up german so she could read Carl Marx’s manuscripts. She suffered from thyroid dysfunction and was incredibly skinny, with protruding eyes, hence she was nicknamed as Herring Fish.

It didn’t take her long to become a prominent figure in the revolutionary circles.

She was 25 when she met Lenin, and due to their ideological connectedness, they hit it off rightaway: she was subdues by his leadership skills and staunch Marxist views, he – well, he was in the need of a wife. The rumour had it that he was deeply in love with a friend of his sister Olga, but never had any luck there. Her mother, on the othe hand, considered Nadezhda unattractive and utterly marriageable, so Lenin, with his decent upbringing and education, was warmly welcomed.

In 1896, when Nadezhda was arrested and sentenced to three years of exile for espionage and anti-Tsar activities, she received a telegramme from Lenin asking her to marry him. Apparently her answer was “Oh well, you need a wife – I could be a wife”.

Their wedding rings were made out of copper coins by a friendly political exile; there was a church ceremony and the bride wore a black skirt and a white blouse, while the groom had his only brown suit on. She kept her maiden name (Krupskaya) on general feminism principle.

Taa

Nadezhda was no good at cooking: her mother did all of housework. After she died, Nadezhda wrote in her diaries that “our life became even more student-like”. During her honeymoon, she wrote a book “A female worker”, trying to analyse the women’s position in the society through the prism of Marxism philosophy.

One of the rare photographs: Nadezhda and Lenin

Within the next few years after the wedding, the couple moved to Paris in the hope to get some peace from the Tsar dogs. There Vladimir Lenin meets Inessa Armand, an adorable rich man’s wife of French origin who also happens to be a devout Socialist. Lenin was 39, she was 35, with five kids to two different husbands who also happened to be brothers, yet they fall in love and it is a strong, genuine, mutual feeling, which they managed to maintain throughout the years. Nadezhda learns that she is not the only one almost right away and makes several attempts to leave Lenin, but he objects, saying that their relationships – these plural and complicated relationships are well beyond any primitive bounds of a regular marriage alliance, and so she stays.

Inessa Armand

Although Nadezhda always remembered those years in Paris as the hardest years in their lives, she still managed to develop some sort of a warm feeling for Inessa.

This bizarre relationship continued for a good numbers of years – until Inessa’s son developed a TB and she had to take him to a resort in the Caucasus where she contracted cholera and died at the age of 46, in the year 1920. Lenin, already unwell due to overwork, never managed to fully recover after her death. Lenin outlived Inessa for three years only. Nadezhda Krupskaya had to take care of Inessa’s five kids, which she did with great pleasure – the contemporaries often said that Inessa’s daughter was the only person whom Nadezhda felt warm about.

Her contribution to the development of the educational programmes for the children of the young Soviet country cannot be underestimated — with no kids of her own, she was known as “everyone’s Grandmother”. She is still the one to thank for the establishment of the schooling system of Russia.

Nadezhda lived for fifteen long years after Lenin had died. She was an avid enemy of Stalin, who is often held accountable for her death – she died under suspicious circumstances on her 70^th birthday – many think she was poisoned by the cake that Stalin sent. Her only request – to bury Lenin – was never granted. She was buried in Moscow, under the walls of Kremlin.

An old collage

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Moscow Winters, Fragments of the 20th Century.

eugenia — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:34:00 +0000

1925. A private house on the bank of the Tarakanovka river

1991. Swimming pool “Moscow”, no longer exists.

1968. “Fili” stadium, the opening of Winter Olympics between the dwellers of the nearby apartment blocks

1947. Moscow central.

1960. Rozhdestvensky Boulevard.

1960. The Red Square skiing

1960. The Sverdlov Square.

Late 1940s. Leningradsky Road

1059. A kiosk not far from “Borovitskaya” Metropolitan station.

Mid1950s. Kolomenskoe.

1959. The Kremlin Embankment.

1959. The Sokolniki Park

1959. Gogol Boulevard.

Late 1930s. The very first set of traffic lights in Moscow central.

Late 1940s. Dorogomilovo

1959. The Arbat Square.

1959. A food market, next to the “Dairy” pavillion

1959. Next to National Hotel

1962. Ice hockey match on the Novodevichy Pond.

Close to 1920. The Red Square.

1976. Phys Ed lesson, Mt Poklonnaya

1959. Next to Metropole Hotel.

1959. Next to Metropole Hotel

Late 1950s. The contrasts of Koutuzovsky Street.

1959. Bersenevsky Embankment.

1959. Manezh.

1959. Moscow State University

1959. Yaroslavsky Railway Station.

1957. Petrovka Street

1959. Chistye Prudy Boulevard.

1959. Vasilievsky Slope.

1990. Varvarka Street

These images courtesy of Carl Mydans, Edward Clark, Marc Riboud, Thomas D. Mcavoy. As always, please click on the magnifying icon to see the images in detail. Follow us on twitter and stay tuned. Thanks a bunch!

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We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

eugenia — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 04:23:17 +0000

If we were to pick one the most confusing question from the history of the USSR, no doubt it would have to be the Christmas date issue. Despite the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church branches out of the Christian community, the traditional day to observe Christmas is different to the rest of the Christian world. The Russian Christmas day is celebrated on the 7th of January, not December 25th, and it is not easy to explain why it is so.

The xplanation comes from the two different calenders. In the Tsarist Russia Christmas was celebrated on December 25th, althouth there was a difference in days — as the Gregorian calendar was accepted after the October Revolution of 1917 — on 24 January 1918 the new Soviet government issued a decree that Wednesday, 31 January 1918 was to be followed by Thursday, 14 February 1918. But the Church, due to its open conflict with the newly pronounced state, decided to keep the day where it was — and so ever since Christmas is celebrated in early January. Go figure.

Nevertheless, the team of Realussr is delighted to announce our very first festive season together — we are a very young blog yet we have ambitions to grow and prosper. We were only born in June/July this year, yet we see a wonderful life ahead of us. And today we present you with a present — a collection of Soviet Christmas/New Year’s Eve postcards. Please click on the flash bit below, zoom in and explore. A bunch of warm wishes from all of us! Thank you.

If you would like to learn more please do not hesitate to click the fancy carousel. Thanks for being with us.

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Best of Fall 2009

Stas Kulesh — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:08:32 +0000

A Glance at the Soviet Lifestyle, Captured by Marc Riboud.

Museum, Moscow, 1960s

This is our third 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. Here is the first lot — and here is the second one. As always, click on the magnifying glass icon to see the photos in detail.

Soviet Cars: History of the Copy-and-Paste Industry — Part 3 of 3

Volga

A good example of how the ideas to make a new car were born is the story of the factory “Communar”. The Minister of Car Manufacturing made a call to the factory where designers thought over the scheme of a new Ukrainian car and literally said: “I heard you were going to make a spring suspension from the “Volkswagen” but I actually like the Italian Fiat-600”. Shortly the factory commenced the production of ZAZ-965 –nearly the exact copy of the Fiat.

Diamond Dog’s Run 4,000 miles long: David Bowie in the USSR.

Sightseeing in the USSR

Just like John Lennon or Elton John, in 1970s David Bowie was an iconic figure of the Western music scene. Nicknamed Chameleon of Pop for his flamboyant outfits, pale make up and eccentric tunes, David Bowie made a train tour of Russia, all the way from Vladivostok to Moscow, eighteen days in a sleeper. Back in the days, when the Cold War was in its prime, getting a permission to look behind the Iron Curtain was an incredible phenomenon by itself. Well, did David enjoy himself while in the USSR? Let’s see.

Dirty Dancing Soviet Style

Dancing in the Ural Mountains, by G. Sorokin.

Just like anywhere else in the world, the Soviet youngsters wanted to socialize, to listen to the music and to dance. The nightclubs were unheard of – anything of that kind would have been announced as promoting debauchery or morally wrong lifestyle habits. So the best one would hope for were the discotheques – the special dance occasions, organized by the officials on a weekly basis. They always had a designated supervisor – a school principal or a city council representative in charge.

Declassified: the Great and Powerful Stalin.

Smiley face.

Joseph Stalin was probably one of the most multifaceted, controversial and yet unknown persons in the course of the world history. In January 1943 Time magazine featured Stalin as the Person of the Year, saying:

The year 1942 was a year of blood and strength. The man whose name means steel in Russian, whose few words of English include the American expression “tough guy” was the man of 1942. Only Joseph Stalin fully knew how close Russia stood to defeat in 1942, and only Joseph Stalin fully knew how he brought Russia through.

The Great Patriotic War: the Villainous Hitler’s Plan or the Provokation?

In accordance with the official history the Second World War (in Russia called ‘the Great Patriotic War’) was commenced on the Soviet territory by Germany: the treacherous attack on 22 June, 1941when they invaded into the USSR. This official version of the Soviet Government is written in every history book. At the same time there is numerous evidence of Stalin’s desire to start the war first with the intention similar to Hitler’s . And that is why there is the theory that Stalin provoked German aggression against the USSR.

BT-7 — High Speed Tank

Christian Dior in Moscow: a Fleeting Sense of Happiness

Girls just want to have fun!

The Khrushchev’s Thaw was to cover many aspects of the Soviet life, and fashion was one of them. The decision to allow the Soviet fashion designers to learn off their French counterparts was made as high as at the government level, which implicitly put fashion above politics or international ideological regimes. The colour of the Soviet Union, a generic grey, was about to be mixed up with the motley and lithe palette of the French fashion.

Ethusiastic Photography from Soviet Russia, 1950s — 1960s.

Waiting for the play off.

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.

The 50th Anniversary of the Soviet Union in Old American Mags

Life and Look on the 50th Anniversary of the USSR, 1967.

In 1967, when the USSR turned 5o, it was a big day for both the country and the world. The Soviet Union had made it through, despite everything — and the world now had to take it seriously. The Cold War, which was at its highest at the time, kept the USSR in the spotlight, too, so the media were more than interested in the young Russian country. It really is a shame that the writing cannot be deciphered due to the low resolution of these scans. However, these images convey the atmosphere of the times quite well — a wild yet sophisticated country in the eyes of the civilised world.

Picturing the Soviet Republics: Moldavia

Veterans by A. Simanovsky

No doubt photography was a popular art in the USSR. Here and below are pictures taken by the people all over the Soviet state of Moldavia. Today’s set based on the book called “Moldavian Art of photography”, Kishinev (recently renamed to Chisinau), 1985.

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Soviet Cars: History of the Copy-and-Paste Industry — Part 1 of 3

Dmitry Yakimenko — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:53:45 +0000

Once some music composer said that “There are only seven notes which compose all the music in the world. No wodner some songs sound alike”. Undoubtedly, all cars have got four wheels, so plagiarism in the automobile industry is hard to pinch. In this article we deliberately ignore a popular Soviet point of view that a steam locomotive, an airplane and the radio were not invented in Russia. All we attempt here is to make a small digression into the history of Soviet automobile industry in order to identify its origins and its development.

ZIS-110

A Russian philosopher Vasiliy Rosanov once noted that in Russia every single case of wealth originates from theft or extortion. Historically, the economy of the Russian Empire before the 1917 was so deeply integrated into the European economy that the exchange of ideas, something, which now would have been hugely copyrighted, was very common. Like, in 1901 in St Petersburg the carriage factory Freze and the Riga bicycle factory Leitner successfully assembled the French oil engines De Dion Buton as part of Russian carriages. Another factory Aksai in Rostov-on-Don purchased the license for the production of the American Oldsmobile Carved Dash. In 1906 a Russian engineer Boris Lutskoy organised the assembling of Mercedes cars for the Russian market. At last, the main pride of Russia – the automobile Russo-Balt — was made from foreign parts – the chassis with four-cylinder engine was adopted from a Belgian company with a Swiss name Fondu.

The October revolution of 1917 created a popular in Russia myth that all things have been invented in, well, Russia. The reasons for that would be merely ideological: the new born country needed new morale. According to an old Soviet joke, even “elephants come from Russia”. The most progressive country in the World, as coined by the revolutionary communists, should strike the rest of the world with advanced technologies, the propaganda advised. In order to create the real Soviet cars, the communists established the Research Automobile Laboratory (later known as NAMI). The very first Soviet motor car NAMI-1 was actually a graduation project by a young engineer Konstantin Sharapov. The car turned out to be so successful that it was put into production right away. Later, in 1979, Konstantin confessed to copying the charts for NAMI-1 off the Czech Tatra-11.

The notorious NAMI-1

During the period from 1927 to 1930, the factory assembled 403 NAMI-1 models. Despite all its advantages, this car was not planned for the mass production. At the same time, any manager of the robust mind realised that the Soviet Industrialisation needed mass production. The Soviet Russia wanted giant factories, but what would be the product?

In 1929 the USA was stricken by a severe economic crisis. As the result of this crisis, the production of Chevrolet halved, the production of Ford dropped three times! Despite the absence of diplomatic relations between the USSR and the USA, both Chevrolet and Ford offered their production to the Soviet government. No need to guess, shortly afterward the awfully cracked Russian roads were voyaged by the dazzling American beauties of all kinds. The long rally was won by Ford A and, consequently, this car was put into production in the USSR.

The Soviet Ford

The first automobiles under the brand GAZ left the factory in December, 1932. Quite rapidly these cars got nicknamed as “Soviet Fords”. Even the logo was very similar – blue oval with the brand GAZ instead of Ford. The car was not a success, however, as the open body and the lack of boot turned to be its main downsides. Within 5 years the new car GAZ M1 replaced the old model. Now the body was copied from 1934 model of Ford, although the model was adapted to suit the severe Russian conditions. The front suspension was based on two springs rather than on one, unlike in the American version, and the wheels were of a different shape. Later on, the design charts for GAZ M1 were utilised for almost all Soviet-made cars.

To be contunied.

Source: autopilot.kommersant.ru (in Russian)

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Soviet Brands: The Scent Of Communism. Part 1 of 2

Dmitry Yakimenko — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 13:21:33 +0000

The great shortage of almost everything required for normal well being was one of the most distinguished features of the Soviet economy. Surely, there was food, clothes and some cosmetic goods in the Soviet shops in 1950s-1970s but the variety was incredibly poor.

However, the philosophy was that the Soviet people were used to comparing their life standards with the ones of the Second World War – so any small-time luxury was very warmly welcomed. Being a nation of plain tastes, the Soviet people were happy to be buying things made in the USSR – they understood that even not so long before, it was impossible.

Many people still associate the fragrance “Red Moscow” with their childhood. All women, especially those who wanted to be elegant, were in love with this perfume. “Red Moscow”, created exclusively for the Russian Empress Maria Feodorovna, in 1913, had quickly become a tremendous success both in Russia and abroad. Henri Brocard, the owner of the largest Russian factory of pomades, perfumes and soaps before the Revolution; had created the perfume “The Empress’s Favourite Bouquet”. When in 1917 his factory was nationalised and renamed into the “Zamoskvoretskiy Soap Factory No 5”, the perfume was also renamed as “Red Moscow”.

Perfume street vendor, circa 1920s

“Red Moscow” was just what you could expect from a Russian perfume: complex, full-bodied, rich smelling; yet much warmer that one would want in a cold climate. Technologically, it was a completely synthetic perfume: the gist was that there was no need for costly French perfumes with their natural essential oils when synthetics smelled equally Along with this one, the range had such fragrances as “White Acacia”, “Red Poppy”, “Lilac” and others. In 1970s, a new scent was introduced – Silver Lily of the Valley – which, unsurprisingly, had become a huge success just as rapidly.

As for the famous “Chanel No 5”, the Soviet women did not get to know it for a long time – apart from brief pieces in Polish fashion magazines, there was very little knowledge of the foreign perfumes. In 1980s, however, the situation began to change to the better. “Climat” and “Magie Noir” by Lancome and “Opium” by Yves Saint Laurent had become extremely sought after in early 1980s.

Really rare and expensive perfume ‘Climat’

White Acacia

Red Poppy perfume

Famous Red Moscow

The male market segment had divided the men into two large groups: those who preferred the perfume “Shipr” (slightly more up-market) and those who liked “Three In One” (a cheaper brand). Funnily enough, the latter one had become a popular one for consumption with the alcohol addicts. “Shipr”, however, was meant to be an exotic, warm smell of flowers and sandalwood (hence the name, which is French for the island of Cyprus. Just like the “Three In One” perfume, “Shipr” contained no less than 70% of ethyl alcohol.

Three In One Perfume

To a modern man, spoilt with choice for perfumes and fragrances, these two would have a fairly strong smell of fir tree and excessive musk and might even remind of a insect repellent. But back in the days, however, a rare man would not get this year after year for his birthday!

“Shipr” (Cyprus)

The legend goes that the “Three In One” perfume was created in France in the early 18^th century specifically by the order of Napoleon Bonaparte as a disinfectant – it was meant to have a refreshing, hygienic and therapeutic effect – and in 1913 it won the Gran Prix at the World Cosmetics Exhibition in Paris. A few decades later, it arrived in Russia under the brand name of “Three In One”. Originally, though, the bottle was sold with the annotation enclosed: “Young people should consume 20–30 drops, elder people – 50–60 drops daily diluted with water or wine. It helps to protect against rapid heart and head aches”. So the habit to use the cheap toilet water as a substitute for vodka has a historic background!

Three In One Perfume, 1917

It does not seem like much but these brands listed above would compose the whole range of perfumes available in the Soviet Russia until, maybe, very late 1980s. The only other alternative was to be lucky enough to have a perfume imported, as a gift. The reasons behind such limits were purely ideological as spending time and money on beauty products was labelled as absolutely unnecessary.

To be continued…

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