Late 1950s was an inter­est­ing epoch for the Soviet Union. The death of Stalin was like a begin­ning to a new era, “the Thaw” of Khrushchev, the very first signs of the Cold War and the famous Ful­ton speech of Churchill — all of those were the signs of uneasy times com­ing up. But just before the Iron Cur­tain fell heav­ily, Rus­sia was the place to visit — and we are very grate­ful to the Life mag­a­zine pho­tog­ra­phers who took plen­ti­ful pho­tos for us.

So we are going to make a 50 year leap into the past to the mid-Russia region of the Volga river — here, the sparkly brand new ships were mak­ing their first cruises. So — full throttle!

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