Real USSR » diy

Oleg Popov, The Sad Clown

Eva Muryzhnikova — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:16:03 +0000

In about six weeks this remarkable man will celebrate his 80th Birthday. Who is he? The most popular clown of the Soviet Union, also known as the Sunshine Clown, Oleg Popov is true icon of its own. Born in 1930, he had on of the toughest upbringings ever — yet he managed to become one of most recognisable people of the 20th century: he also was in Guinness Records Book for “being popular in the West and in the East”.

On top of his game. Oleg Popov in 1976.

He was training to be a plumber when, at the age of 17, his friends took him along to the local circus — overwhelmed, he later said there was no way back. He started learning acrobatics, gymnastics, tricks; he spent all of his time and money on learning about the famous clowns and their techniques. It did not take him long to become famous: his natural talent and an open smile made wonders.

In his interview for the Russian newspaper Arguments and Facts, Oleg Popov is reminiscing about the happiest day of his life:after Stalin’s death in 1953, all entertainment was banned as a deep mourning was announced. So the circus he was working at was shut, and those weeks of not doing what he loved was torturous. It took over two months for the ban to be lifted, and even then he was briefed not to joke “too much”. So coming out on stage and receiving a huge round of applaud made Oleg realised that it wasn’t only him who missed performing — it was also the spectators who needed laughter.

Military Discharge Handmade Scrap Book and Comics Album

Eva Muryzhnikova — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:07:51 +0000

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. Usually away from home, this period of time was meant to train and educate the men should there be a war. It included physical training, political orientation, current affairs, weaponry and so on — a good many posts can be written on life in the army! Today, however, we want to take a different look on this subject. 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. This particular one has a very neat selection of wee hand drawn episodes of the army realities.

The albums were usually this thick and bound in velvet cloth

So the owner served between 1984 and 1986, being called in from Leningrad to serve in Olenegorsk in some special forces

This is an extract which tells us exactly what happened…

Here’s a start to the story — the birds are bringing the army subpoena. Please note that the outfits, the hairstyles, even the stereo — all belong to the mid 80s.

The young guy turns up at the military assembly point.

The parents say good bye. The girlfriend promises to stay faithful.

The changeover: someone is arriving, someone is being discharged.

Learning the ropes

On the cleaning assignment

Those were the days, my friend..!

I wish you were here

In full gear. No hope to finish alive

Out in the city — the officer will never let me out of sight

See you right here in exactly seven days

A year and a half on — so nice to be a senior!NB — most likely, this is the radio espionage equipment.

Counting down the hours…

Hooooooooome!

All images are courtesy of the Livejournal user blackie again, whose album this is.

We hope you find this amuzing Stay tuned!

Sexy Soviet Underwear. Not!

Eva Muryzhnikova — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:03:00 +0000

Late 1960s. Actress Svetlana Svetlichnaja is doing a wee strip dance for a movie. This was probably the most R-rated scene of the Soviet cinematography.

Due to a series of not so fortuitous events ( the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917, the First World War, the overall rundown of the young Soviet country) women never had their needs attended to properly. Underwear was made, first and foremost, for the working class with no preferential treatment for the females so women had no choice other than to wear those sexless garments. This is probably the saddest part of the Soviet history.

Mini dress slips

These mini slip dresses were often the only specifically designed female undergarment (even the bras were made in one size up to mid-1930s). They were meant to ensure a better fit for the dresses, to provide an extra layer in winter and, for many women, it was a hygienic necessity: as the bath or shower did not feature in every household, sometimes washing up would happen only once in a few days.

Photos of the slips in an old fashion book. Circa 1950s.

The rumours have it that after the war some lucky women were brought the trophy slips from Germany — and wore them out as evening dresses. It might as well be an urban legend, but for some reason I would personally tend to believe it.

Night gowns, warm and celibate. Would have been made of thick flowery flannel.

According to some document circa 1940s, the sanitary norms were that each woman should own at least two sets of underwear which she would not wear for longer than 5–7 days.

Gym gear. God forbid.

The magazinesof those times did not offer fashionable solutions: quite the contrary, they tried to lift the spirit of women by including some not so subtle propaganda articles. “A harmoniously developed person as a builder of the communistic future has a rich inner world, as well physical health, high morality and culture”

Gymnast girls. Sport gear. Despite all medals awarded, the USSR Olympic gear was still far from flash.

There were never any fitting rooms, as bras were considered to be a hygiene item and fitting was not allowed, nor exchange was possible. Considering that the size range was really limited (say, small, medium and large), being a woman wasn’t easy. However, the diy fans were really doing it themselves – any fashion book would have a detailed tutorial on how to sew a bra. Those who succeeded at this filigree activity were doing it for friends and friends of friends, as a nice secondary income. The fabrics would be plain (not stretchy!) cotton with buttons.

Numbers 6, 7, 8 and 10 were meant to be dressy.

I guess it would be number four of five from the previous image.

Usually the new models and designs were approved once every five years as high as the ministerial level. That was the main decision-making time: even the number of buttons had to gain consent.

Something for the male: swim gear, every day wear, the Soviet boxers.

When the problem with bras what somewhat solved (or at least minimised), tights and stockings were still in huge demand. It is truly unbelievable who the country, whose engineers could envisage sending people into the outer space, could not come up with something resembling lycra to provide women with elastic tights! The Soviet stockings were made of plain cotton and were of black and nude colour. Often the supply in shops was so minimal that women had to sew stockings to a pair of underpants

DIY

In a modern movie East-West the main female character fails her mission as she gets recognized as a Russian – the guard notices her truly horrible stockings! Moreover, knowing how fragile a pair of stockings is and how difficult it is to find it in shops, Russian beauties would share tips with each other on how to prolong the life of this delicate garment: the suggestions to freeze it before wear or mend the holes with nail warnish. Nothing works, of course, but it was well worth trying.

It was hard to be a woman in the USSR

Another shop scene. Still no fitting room in sight.

By 1970, the textile industry had allowed a range of nine sizes for bras, which was more than welcome. However, the styles were still, well, behind, even by the most modest of standards. Another legend goes that when the French actor and singer Yves Montand came to Moscow and saw the Russian underwear, he laughed so hard he couldn’t stop for a while — and then bought the whole lot to display in Paris later. The exhibition, understandibly, was popular with the French and not so popular with the Russian authorities, so the relationships became tense.

Do you think it’s handmade? Beach wear, 1951

The unisex of the communism epoch would not allow any beach wear up to 1970s: before that the swimsuits were either handmade (even knitted) or women had to wear the undergarments to the beach.

A flower child of Soviet origin

The most important message here is probably that “Soviet” is not an ideology, it is about the planned economy (badly planned, unfortunately) and hence the affected every day lives of regular people who had no access to the foreign, imported, pretty things. Any item, be it a TV set or a bra, should just solely serve its purpose, and the frills are not necessary at all.

An old poster “Be prepared for work and defense”.

How Khrushchev Had Killed the “Vampire”

Dmitry Yakimenko — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:26:31 +0000

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 (1772x1374). Sadly, was not built due to the lack of financing.

Nikita Khrushchev who replaced Josef Stalin made a decision to build cheap houses at mass volumes. At that time the residential accommodations in еру USSR was in a totally disastrous condition – only 10–15% of urban population had private apartments; the majority of this group appertaining to the governing elite. The ordinary Soviets mostly lived in d.i.y wooden sheds - that comprised to around 30% out of all urban accommodation ( and possibly even more in some regions, like Siberia). Now those sheds are hard to imagine, however, there are still remnants of those in some remote places. Toliets, bathrooms, and even water supply were often missing.

A survivor. This one is up and still going. You’d hope to live upstairs, wouldn’t you?

So the mass construction of houses without unnecessary extravangances had commenced. To understand the scale of those developments, simply compare the following figures. From 1917 to 1941 (when the War began) 200 mln of square metres of accommodation was built. 70 mln was destroyed during the War but about 50 mln was restored in late 1940s. Whereas during the seven-year period from 1959 to 1965 more than 300 mlns of sq metres of accommodation was built — and hundreds of new flats got occupied right away. The first wave were the brick houses (those are still highly valued on the modern secondary house market). Despite tiny kitchens and quite pokey layouts, those flats had balconies and (sic!) separate toilets and bathrooms as well as soundproof walls! Really, those brick apartment blocks were a good deed of the Soviet system.

House on the bank of Moscow River

As it turned out in 1957, the population growth exceeded the speed of the construction. The change of power from Stalin to Khrushchev gave optimistic hopes to Soviet people, which in turn resulted in the Soviet baby boom. So, after two years after the first resolution, the Communist Party issued a second one “About residential accommodation development”. This resolution stated that constructors did not pay enough attention to panel and block-based construction and, hence, made a start to a new type of buildings. They were five-storeyed panel blocks without rubbish chute or elevators, assembled in less than a month. This manic constructing of 1950s was one of the most popular themes of the Soviet art. Mass demolitions of wooden sheds and, at the same time, demolition of antique buildings of tsarist Russia, were celebrated in a number of the Soviet movies. The typical movie showed a close-knit family moved into a separate flat where the typical urban landscape was studded with building cranes. That was an end of the era of shared households where people tenanted in huge communal flats with public kitchens and shared facilities.

Typical urban view, early 1950s

Certainly the difference to those wooden sheds was tremendous. Still, it is interesting to see what a typical Soviet flat looked like. The main distinguishing feature was a toilet of an incredibly small size. It was personally set by Nikita Khrushchev who tried the model of the toilet and said “If I fit into this toilet, they would also fit”. As the result, the toilets designs were based on the Khrushchev’s dimensions.

Khrushchev announcing the commencement of housing development, mid 1950s

As for the kitchen, it was often small enough to fit only one person of average size, whereas somebody bigger (let alone obese) may not have fitted at all. It is believed that the tiny size of the kitchen originated from the communist ideology. It was supposed for the people of this society to have lunch in a workplace and dinner at a cafeteria. It was also assumed that would be no need for the pantry as everything would be available from a local food shop. This approach resulted in the lack of space for the fridge. Instead, these flats were equipped with a so called “Khrushchev’s Fridge”. It was a small closet under the window approximately 1 x 1 metre in size where people could store some food only in the winter time, as it had an actual hole in the wall.

Literally — apartment blocks.

New suburbs, early 60s

Interesting to note how these apartments were allocated to people. One had to file a formal request for an apartment, and then wait for an approval. Importantly, the wait was never longer than a number of years and usually those who needed their own dwelling — like, young couples — were granted it. The queue might have been sped up in some extraordinary circumstances — like, for academics, sportsmen, high achievers on the production line etc.

The scheme of allocation usually worked as followed. The couples with no kids were given a studio, a living room with a separate kitchen. A family with a child were entitled to a one bedroom apartment. Two kids family would get a two bedroom flat. Three bedrooms was as big as any apartment got — no matter how many kids one had, they all would have been accommodated in three measly bedrooms. Oh well, with an average of 2.1 kids per Soviet family, and an overall scarcity of accommodation, this never seemed insufficient.

These five-storeyed buildings were being built until 1985 and they spread across the whole country. In 1985 the massive construction stopped. It was replaced by convenient individual construction of apartment building where the new apartments were not available for the majority of ordinary people any more. Then, it actually turned out that Khrushchev’s massive construction of tiny and inconvenient flats was not a bad thing — rather, an act of humane care, actually the one out of a small number of positive things of that time.

A well-to-do Soviet family having dinner in their relatively luxurious Moscow apartment. They are among the few in the city who have a new, modern apartment and elegant furnishings. — Image by © Wally McNamee/CORBIS

Source: www.sobesednik.ru

Fashion in the USSR. DIY.

Eva Muryzhnikova — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:09:43 +0000

During the Soviet times fashion was first and foremost, an instrument of propaganda of hard work attitudes and education of good taste. Therefore the way people were dressed was very strictly regulated – just like anything else, fashion had to be “planned” and “approved”.

Officially the most popular designs were the classic ones. Not only were they set out to promote the good taste of the clean cut and reserved elegance, it was also a very convenient way of production: once designed and approved, the classic dresses and suits were not as responsive to changes in the trends and hence inexpensive to maintain. The often boring-looking pieces of clothing were labelled as never going out of fashion and promoted as “eternally youthful”.

Eternally youthful, isn’t it?

The Soviet era catwalk model — not too skinny, is she? C1960.

Such clothes were meant to also have a disciplinary influence over the regular folk, as they would set the “right” attitudes and lines of behaviour. That, in 1960s, had developed into the state regulations over the school uniform, which was standartised across the country.

School boys

But back to the adults now. Generally, due to the lack of new designs and the limited stocks of the department stores, most Soviet people had more than a humble wardrobe, compared to their Western counterparts. Usually it consisted of two parts: the winter one (had to be solid, warm and inextricably expensive):

Pupils and mother with child

Another queue. Even winters never stopped the Russians from queuing up.

… and the summer wardrobe. Presumably these ones are dressed up for the occasion.

A group of graduating highschool students celebrate graduation by singing and dancing in the Red Square.

A good half of summer clothes anyone owned could have been handmade.

Oh, DIY was very popular in the USSR. Literally everybody would dream of owning a sewing machine and then the patterns of standardised garments would be shared among many and treasured for generations. The apt ones would make everything, from aprons (pictured) to bras and swimsuits. Note: this is not a modern-day pattern collection, those Soviet ones were scaled down so you’d have to reconstruct it to the real size.

Oh well, no wonder every second Soviet was an engineer.

The most suffered were, understandably, the younger ones, as their fashion ambitions and desires often went unnoticed. Since in the late 1960s it was decided that jeans are unwelcome in the USSR, the practicality and comfort of the denim garments were outlawed. However, the denim failed to become ostracised – quite to the contrary, it was well sought after: often a pair of jeans could cost as much a month’s salary.

This is obviously a later photograph, when the regulations were loosened and the “fashion neighbourhood watch” became less vigilant. Scary, really.

The younger ones

As the Iron Curtain was lifting, the Western ways of dressing were getting more exposure through the movies and tourists. As you can see the envious faces on the background, foreigners did stand out.

Foreigners in Moscow

The funniest thing is that the Soviet fashion is very hard to break into time periods. Apart from separating the pre-war era fashion from the post war (the later one being non-existent), the bulk of it stretches for over 40 years right up to the 90s. Since then fashion has taken the form of a sexual competition — just like anywhere else in the developed world.