I have come across a very neat collection of the old Soviet fashion magazines from the forties, and I thought I’d share them with you. Very elegant, stylish images — and a little surprise from the insides of one of these magazines. Please read on.

Summer 1936

Spring/Summer 1937

Season of 1938–1939

1939–1940

1940–1941 (Competition inside!)

1940

Also 1940

1941

Spring/Summer 1941

After I got mesmerised by looking at these neat ladies, I decided to do a little bit of googling to find out what actually was inside those mags. Unfortunately for me, the pictures I found were far from neat, fashionable or pretty: just typical faceless images, where each is an exact replica of the other. These were like comic books for the Soviet girls, I imagine.

One of the magazines above

Various ideas

And not to forget about stylish kiddos!

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One night — it was in June 1889 — there came a ring to my bell. … We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps upon the linoleum. Our door flew open, and a lady, clad in some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room.

The Soviet movie illustration of this book. 1979. Vasily Livanov as Sherlock Holmes and Vitaly Solomin as Dr Watson.

Really. In June 1881, just like that, Sherlock had linoleum, which was nothing extraordinary at the time — given he was presumed to somewhat struggle financially, and thus his need to share a flat. In the USSR — and this is the point I am making now — linoleum was one of the highest sought-after products until at least early 1980. I wouldn’t believe it myself, but I remember how excited my Mum was when in 199o we managed to “secure” some of this precious material to floor the kitchen in our apartment.

What was the price of those space exploration programmes if linoleum was a scarce commodity at least for a century after it became widespread in the rotten, capitalistic West? You feel my pain?

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As previously stated by George Orwell, war is peace. So when Walter Ulbricht, the Leader of the German Socialist Unity Party, on June 15, 1961 said: “No one has the intention of building the wall!”, it took only about two months for the construction to begin. The rundown state of the Eastern part was forcing people to flee in the search of better lives in the West of Germany: in the first six months of the year 1961, about 150 000 people left their houses. However, more stayed — and so the Wall did not only separate the city — it cut families in halves.

On the morning of August 13, 1961 the Berlinians woke up to the first layer of bricks being erected.

Prior to the construction of the Wall, posters fake promises were all over the city

During the first months, this way grandparents got to see their grandkids.

One had to use props to wave to friends on the other side.

The first anniversary of the Wall, 1962: the woman on the roof waving to her mother.

The use of binoculars was helpful during the first few months after the erection.

The other side was watching, as well.

As the time went, the barb wire and bricks were introduced to keep people away. The bride under the windows of her grandparents. The bouquet was lowered on a string.

This bride only got to see her relatives via binoculars.

Many were prepared to leave their lives behind and just flee for the better.

The Eastern authorities trying to stop the Western photographers by sending light into the cameras by mirrors.

Those who got caught fleeing were shot on the spot.

Gunter Liftin was shot on August 24, 1961 — before the construction was even complete.

In February 1975 this brave fellow was caught by the patrol guards, trying to cross the mined field.

Another unsuccessful attempt: wounded in the field.

In 1975 John Runnings from Canada tried to destroy the Wall with a hammer but was severely wounded by the machine-gunned guards.

Within hours after the fall. The happiest of faces.

Images are courtesy livejournal user drugoi.

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All images are by Lisa Larsen, for LIFE magazine.

In 1956 an array of British designers were trying to expand their market share into the Soviet Union. So a fashion week of some sort took place — in Moscow, Gorky Park, twice daily the shows took place. What a huge success it was! Every day it was a full house, and the public were in love with the British models and the fashion. Jeans, for instance, were very trendy and could cost as much as a month’s salary — yet one still had to queue up to get a pair.

However, after so much ado, not a single British clothing company ever received any Soviet  offers of cooperation. Sad,  really — just like Christian Dior in Moscow, it could have been a beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Catwalk

Jeans made a sensation. Nothing was more wanted — and unavailable.

A model Joy Slape, in Gorky Park

Do want! A girl eyeing up a bracelet in a shop

Model Ann Smith talking to a soldier

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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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Image courtesy of Léonard Gianadda, a Swiss photograher who visited Moscow in 1957.

In 1991, when Boris Yeltsin seized the power and the Belavezha Accords were signed, the decision to disband the Soviet Union had been made and supported by the governments of Ukraine and Belarus. On December 12, 1991Russia’s secession from the Union was sealed, the Belavezha Accords were ratified and the 1922 treaty on the creation of the Soviet Union was denounced. It had been a long road, and arguably it was predictable, but the question – why then, of all times? — remains.

Guns or butter?

I would like to start this analysis by going back to the years of WWII, when the Soviet Union had one-third of the combined industrial potential of Nazi Germany, its allies and the Nazi-occupied countries, and, moreover, lost half its industry in the early months of the war. Nevertheless, in sum it produced more weapons of a better quality than Germany did, and won the great Victory. This, however unbelievably it may sound, could have been the prime reason for the decline of the USSR. They say the Soviet leaders were blinded by the miracle success – and had lost the sense of direction by entering the arms race.

Theoretically speaking, Karl Marx was the best to put it simply: in Capital, he labells war as the ultimate example of unproductive economic activity and called it “the direct equivalent of a nation throwing a part of its capital into the water”.

He also separates the productive labor of agricultural, textile, mining, industrial, and household workers from the unproductive labor of the ideological classes, such as government officials, priests, lawyers, soldiers, etc — all who have no occupation but to consume the labor of others in the form of rent, interests, etc. Thus the arms race – the country’s spendings on the military advancement and developments – has a counter productive nature and causes economic stagnation.

This in turn affected the scientific distribution: as all the best scientists, engineers, materials and machinery were, by strict orders from the highest command, delegated to the military sector.

No wonder it caused the technological lag behind the rest of the world. Ccomputers, hand calculators, audio and TV recorders, and machine tools made in the USSR could never compete with what was designed in the West. Despite the fact that every Soviet would rather own something overseas-made, the deficit of such prime goods was enormous. It also affected the services, like even though the health care was free and universal, often it struggled to deliver services due to deficits in medicine supplies.

Lloyd Dumas in his 1986 book, The Overburdened Economy, makes a convincing case hat the U.S. as well as the USSR has been economically devastated by the counter-productive effects of military spending. However, it wasn’t American economy which failed after the Cold War – it was the Russian one which fell first. Partly it was because the U.S. was integrated with the global capitalist market and flooded with imported goods, so their devastation did not show up directly in shortage of consumer and producer goods.

Dumas also notes that despite the fact that the US spent almost 7% of their GDP on the arms race, they did not come out as financially exhausted as the USSR:

The Soviet Union, in contrast, never received imperialist profits to offset the counter-productive cost of military production. Throughout the post-war period, Soviet trade with socialist partners has been structured to benefit the other socialist countries. Their purpose was reasonable: to build up the economies of the other socialist countries and create a thriving world socialist economic system as an alternative to that of the capitalists. This was most marked in Soviet trade with Cuba and Vietnam, but it could be seen as well in trade with Eastern Europe which received Soviet oil at below-market prices. The CIA was well aware of this drain on the Soviet economy, and argued that it would eventually drive them bankrupt.

And so it did

On top of that was corruption, bad policies and poor planning, the rigid, isolated system of Soviet power with restricted movement and incredible levels of bureaucracy, as well as widespread resentment towards such a state — a side effect of Gorbachev’s glasnost.

But maybe the Soviet Union had no choice but to engage into the arms race — right up to their eyeballs. Then the massive commitment of Soviet technology, production capital, and administrative-command methods were unavoidable in order to confront the invasions  — after the Revolution, the invasion by Hitler’s armies, and the Cold War threats of the U.S. and its allies. In other words, it is said that war communism was forced upon them.

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A typical Soviet shop with bare shelves.

One of the main critisisms of the Soviet Union now, from an every day perspective, was the huge deficit of everything. The planned economy failed to supply a constant flow of goods necessary for the well being of people. It was not the matter of incapacity — no, the means certainly allowed to build space shuttles or create extra strong tanks.  The shortage for goods was created artificially — due to the reasons of the strange Soviet ideology.

A shop in Vladivostok, The sign on the wall: Juices. Water. Ice Cream. The photo is by Vladimir Kobzar.

According to the Soviet census of 1977 — cited from the Grand Soviet Encyclopaedia — volume 24, part 2, data on the house hold items of prolonged usage (that is, TV sets, fridges, washing machines) - the times of Brezhnev were far from abundant. For instance, in 1975 only 74 out of 100 households owned a TV — which means that 26% of all families would not have one! Furthermore, these TVs would have to be black and white, as colour TVs did not widely appear in the USSR until very late eighties. In the mid 1970s an average American family had a 1.5 TV sets per house — and they were certainly colour.

Come here, honey, Brezhnev is on now!

In the mid to late 1980s the situation with TVs had straightened out — but doesn’t it seem ridiculous that in 1975, the year of Soyuz Apollo space docking project, every fourth family in the USSR did not have a telly! Now it seems like the government had to make a choice — either every house gets a TV  — or we explore outer space. The success of the Americans in both of these missions was frowned upon.

It’s very hard to gauge what was kind of a shop it was!

It could be understood if this applied to some high tech for those times gadgets — but no, this was the every day necessities. Say,  the very first range of video cassete players and recorders was released by Sony in 1969. If we were to say that an average Russian person did not even hear about the VCRs till late 1980s — we would not be exhagerrating. Moreover, a regular household was only able to purchase one in the early 1990s. But this applied to almost everything, from fridges to radio transmitters — only 61% of families owed a fridge in 1975. How is that possible that the space exploration programmes were costing the country a formidable chunk of the budget — yet very little money was spent on supplying regular people with the necessities? The data on washing machines is similar: about 40% of all households had to do their washing by hand.

The same was with almost all household goods — the notorious example here is baby nappies. The disposable nappies were invented in 1958, and three years later they became a necessety for every baby born in the West. If you were born around that time and you are reading this here now, you would be very likely to think the situation was no different all over the world, exept perhaps some Africa bits. Alas — the USSR saw no nappies  - not till very late 80s, and when they appereared, they cost a small fortune. To wrap babies in old newspapers was not unheard of.

This nappy phenomenon was idisyncratic for the USSR, and no logical explanation has ever been offered. Moreover, the goods of prolonged usage had really proved to be of this kind: as no replacement was available, TVs and fridges were in use for decades, often despite the technological progress. Also, to buy a fridge or a TV one had to fill a request which could take months to come through.

The siege of a wine shop. 1990.

This total deficit of everything created an agitated demand for things on the black market. As shops were barely filled, the savings of an average person mounted, and much of it would have been disposable. Of course, a TV cost three or four average monthly salaries, but often there was nothing to spend the money on — at all.

One item check out

The was and its aftertaste was long gone, yet the Soviet life was not in the hurry to improve and to catch up with the American lifestyle. The Soviet dream was meant to be in full throttle, according to the movies and other means of propaganda. Yet the huge gap between the reality and the official version was one of the most debilitating features of life back in the Soviet Union.

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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.

The turmoil started on June, 1 when the Soviet government announced the grocery price increase of about 30 per cent. The riot began at the progressive electro locomotive factory: just before the price increase, the salary had been lowered, which already was below the living minimum (about a hundred rubbles). The workers demanded an explanation, and threatened to strike. Faced with an ultimatum, the CEO Kurochkin mounted the platform and demanded that people went back to work. ‘If you do not have enough money for meat, buy the liver pie’ answered Kurochkin with the snarl.

This phrase sparked the unrest. The news about the riot quickly spread through the factory, so more and more labourers stopped their work. Someone made a fire using the portraits of the country leader Nikita Khrushchev as fuel. At the same time the factory illustrator drew some posters with the workers’ claims. Later, for writing four words “Meat, butter, wages increase” on the poster he was imprisoned for 12 years.

Novocherkassk Mosaic Wall

The strike leaders sent the representatives to other factories of the region – so a large meeting was scheduled for the day after.

By the evening the army entered the town, headed by the vice-minister of internal affairs, as well as a huge group of government representatives. The order to arrest the riot instigators was issues, but it failed to stop people from protesting – by now, the crowds were approaching the town centre and the City Council offices.

Perhaps the tragedy could have been avoided if the Saturday was not a working day. People came to the factory and gathered in front of the factory building. With the red banners and portraits of Lenin in their hands, the march to the town centre had begun. While they were moving through town, a lot of students and ordinary city dwellers joined the demonstration – mainly because of idle curiosity. No one could imagine that it may turn to carnage, mayhem and years in prison.

The crowd came to the main town square and broke into the City Council building: off the balconies speeches were being made addressed to the public and the Soviet government, demanding wage increase and better price policies.

Meanwhile the army troops kept arriving from the neighbourhood regions. The situation was labelled as coup – it is still unknown whether the order to open fire was issues by Khrushchev himself, but the reality was that it was very unlikely without his approval.

About fifty soldiers of special troops tried forcing people back. First some soldiers made the warning one-off shot in the air. Immediately there was a shout from the crowd that it was blank shooting – so the people made a move at the soldiers. That moment the fire was opened.

People rushed in all directions causing chaos. Several dozens of people were on the ground, with blood all over. The whole thing did not last an hour.

Right away the fire fighters were called to wash the blood off the square and posters with a promise of a dance party for the following day were put up to make the citizens forget about the tragedy

The news about shooting quickly spread around the town. The spontaneous protest meeting of outraged people continued in the night after the tragedy. Introducing a curfew the army troops forced people to leave the square. The next few days were the real challenge for thousands of citizens who were afraid that they had been caught by the KGB photographers during the march. That time the government leaders discussed various options to prosecute the people involved in the unrest. Some of them even proposed to deport all the town citizens to the Middle Asia.

The Soviet government feared that the news about the riot in a small town would spread around the country and around the world. To prevent this, the KGB attracted several special machines to control the radio frequencies which could transmit the information about the tragedy. All the mail sent from the town of Novocherkassk was opened and looked through.

Novocherkassk Riots Memorial

Long after the unrest the KGB officers found the leaflets with claims and slogans about the protest. The tragic outcome was 33 persons lost and 90 injured. 122 people were arrested where 7 were blamed for terrorism and were later executed. The majority were imprisoned for 10–15 years for participating in abortive riots.

The cases were revised after the resign of Khrushchev. Some people were later released, but it was poor consolation for families of the killed civilians.

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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.

Please fol­low us on twit­ter and stay tuned.  Oh, and thanks for being such a wonderful crowd!

At the winter market. Moscow, 1960s

The old between the new. Moscow, 1960s

Presenting to the class. Moscow, 1960s

The one and only V.I. Lenin. Moscow, 1960s

I am the October’s leader! Communists forever. Moscow, 1960s

In the fields. Moscow, 1960s

At the factory. Moscow, 1960s

By the Moscow river. Moscow, 1960s

Y. Gagarin — glory of the Party! Moscow, 1960s

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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.

ZAZ-965

By the way, the next model of ZAZ was the replica of German NSU Prinz 4. This car was remembered by the nicknames “Soap Box” and “Big-eared”.

The car for the middle class which replaced “Pobeda” was labelled  in the honour of the great Russian river “Volga”. The design of the car was very much identical to the design of Ford Mainline, 1954, purchased by GAZ as a pattern alongside with Chevrolet Belair and Plymouth Savoy. Even before the new car was put into production, the popular Soviet magazine “Ogoniok” awkwardly published pictures of these three cars with an arrogant headline: “New Soviet cars for the middle class”.

Volga

Despite the popularity of Volkswagen around the world their Soviet copy was not really popular among the consumers. To produce another mass car the Soviet government signed the  contract with Italian Fiat. The capacity of the factory allowed to produce about five thousands cars per year.

At the time, Leonid Brezhnev was ruling the country: he was passionate about cars and racing. In 1965 he got an exclusive American Lincoln Continental sent to USSR right from the Car Exhibition in New York.  The car was purchased by the Soviet Ambassador and was built by the company Lehman & Peterson. This had brought stretch limousines into the fashion.  Lincoln was sent to ZIL where the engineers made a copy which was sent to production by the anniversary of the Great October Socialistic Revolution in 1967.  No doubt, the original Lincoln was much more elegant and graceful than its replica ZIL-114.  Nevertheless, the new Soviet limo was not that bad.  In early 1970s the car was redesigned, based on another American sample. A Cadillac Fleetwood 75 was turned into a ZIL-115 — to serve the aged and weak-minded Soviet leader.

Right up to the collapse of the USSR the Soviet car industry used the same procedure of shameless copying. In order to build “Moskvich-1241″, the engineers slightly disfigured Chrysler 1501. Famous “Zhiguli” was copied from Nissan Sunny 1978 although later they were slightly modernized by the engineers of Porsche.

Probably, “Niva” were the only exception – it was made in a way to make people to cry. That car was ‘too-Russian’ to be good.

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