Category Archives: 1941-1950

Moscow Winters, Fragments of the 20th Century.

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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.

0 1f292 1f8e2207 XL 500x331 Moscow Winters, Fragments of the 20th Century.

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

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Best of Fall 2009

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

RU44 500x333 Best of Fall 2009

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.

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The Patriotic Education in USSR. Part 2 — Pioneers, Soviet Boy Scouts

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pioner1 The Patriotic Education in USSR. Part 2 Pioneers, Soviet Boy Scouts

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.

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The Patriotic Education in the USSR. Part One: the October Kids.

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0 de34 9660ec72 XL 500x361 The Patriotic Education in the USSR. Part One: the October Kids.

Only those who like to work get suc­cess­ful in this world.

The young Soviet coun­try could not grow and flour­ish with­out the sup­port and patri­o­tism of its peo­ple. From the early days of the Soviet Union, the ide­ol­ogy organ­i­sa­tions aimed to tar­get cit­i­zens of all ages, oblig­ing them to belong in order to do well in life. So the pes­ter­ing had to start early: when kids start school (the school age 7 years old in the USSR), the school ide­ol­ogy organ­i­sa­tion would take them under the wing, with the prospect of nur­tur­ing the future mem­bers of the Com­mu­nist Party.

The very first move­ment every child would belong to was called the Octo­ber kids, after the Great Octo­ber Rev­o­lu­tion of 1917, after which the new gov­ern­ment came into power.

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From Admirals to Dictators: Prominent Soviets on the Cover of Time Magazine.

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Here’s our lit­tle some­thing for your Mon­day — a com­pi­la­tion of Time mag­a­zine cov­ers with a USSR focus, 1925 — 1991. The promi­nent Soviet and Russ­ian politi­cians, gov­ern­ment lead­ers, poets, com­posers, writ­ers, philoso­phers, sci­en­tists, astro­nauts, dis­si­dents, admi­rals and a few dic­ta­tors — the list of 110 remark­able cit­i­zens of the Soviet Union; those who made the West cringe — or laugh for that matter.

The faces are cer­tainly repet­i­tive, yet some cov­ers are a piece of art –this col­lage is worth a good look, so click on the flash bit below, zoom in and explore.

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

Soviet Cars: History of the Copy-and-Paste Industry — Part 2 of 3

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In early 1930s with­out any licens­ing arrange­ments the Soviet engi­neers copied the first lim­ou­sine car  for the Com­mu­nist party exec­u­tives. In 1932 six lim­ou­sines were copied off the Amer­i­can Buick 90L. How­ever,  later the fac­tory pro­duc­tion line was switched to pro­duc­ing cater­pil­lar tractors,so the lim­ou­sine busi­ness was shifted to Moscow Stalin Factory.

101 6 500x361 Soviet Cars: History of the Copy and Paste Industry Part 2 of 3

ZIS-101

The car, based on the engine of the Buick and the body copied off the Cadil­lac, was given another non-poetic name, ZIS — 101.  It also had Buick radi­a­tor bars.

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