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.
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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.
Welcome!
As previously stated, the majority of people in the USSR lived in the apartments. Unfortunately, due to the the time constraints, they had to be built in a speedy rather than comfortable manner. After the war, when accommodation was extremely scarce, a three bedroom flat could accommodate up to 16 people (four average families), with one shared kitchen and one shared bathroom. The quality of living there was truly horrendous. So when Khruschev started his building binge in 1960s, a joke went that the legacy of those communal flats was agoraphobia – the fear of open spaces and the tendency to hoard things. Well, if you spent your formative years in a pokey flat where you’d have to dry your laundry next to the stove, you’d be just as agoraphobic.
So let’s look at the main trends in the interior design Soviet style.
From the very dawn of Soviet power and development, due to a series of tragic events, women significantly outnumbered men by about 20 mln. The Revolution of 1917, first World War, Stalin’s political repressions, second World War, tough recovery periods — all of this contributed to the number of men steadily decreasing. Not only it affected the marriage market — it had a few more severe implications to the canvas of the Soviet life altogether.
Love is in the air.
Building binge commenced in the Soviet Russia in 1955 when the Central Committee of the Communist Party issued a decree “About elimination of unnecessary extravagance in architecture”. The pre-war, Stalin-approved architecture was notable for monumental columns, high-stud ceilings and indispensable stucco mouldings. This was a Soviet version of Empire style (or “Vampire”, coined by contemporaries) and it was about to fade away.
Project of the Palace of soviets (1772×1374). Sadly, was not built due to the lack of financing.
The Soviet Union comprised one-sixth of the earth’s land surface which made the one-family detached houses possible to build, unlike in the countries with the lack of land territories. However, the overall rundown of the country after the WWII had forced the government to commence the mass construction of collective flat blocks in order to accommodate hoards of people who had no roof over their heads.
New buildings with small private apartments replaced miserable wooden cottages where people lived in awful conditions without showers or indoor toilets.
1964. Building of apartment house