Mid 1980s. Image courtesy of Life magazine.
Whenever there is a heated argument whether things were better during the USSR times, this statement invariably pops up as a mighty ace: At least they had free medical care in the Soviet Union! This is supposed to bring the opponent to the knees and make them beg mercy and forgiveness for betraying the Great October achievements.
Well well well. Let’s have a close look at what really was free then.
The superplane carrying a Buran.
In 1984 the big country needed a big plane. Antonov Design Bureau was entrusted with developing of a plane for large-sized cargo transportation. A six-motor super heavy turbojet plane An-225 «Mriya» («dream» in Ukranian) became the product of the designers’ four-year work. The aircraft, which will celebrate it’s twenty years anniversary of its first test flight, still remains the absolute champion in terms of load-carrying capacity.
Chemical photography as we know it today was not invented in a day — one of the stages in developing was the glass negatives photography, when the glass plates were covered with a protein emulsion — invented in 1841, the process was clunky and difficult to reproduce. Those images can now be identified by the uneven coat of emulsion, rough edges, thick glass and maybe even photographer’s thumbprint on it.
All in all, below are the 20+ images from the glass negatives — the shots of Soviet countryside life, shot around 1928. People, harvests, views, tools — whatever the photography aficionado encountered. Considering that this is pre-film, the spirit of these photos is mind blowing. We hope you’ll share our excitement.
A fashionista.
Remember our post about Slava Kurilov, the guy who jumped off the cruise ship near the Philippines islands — and swam to freedom for three consecutive days, completely alone at sea? Our today’s post tells a story just as remarkable — a young Russian surgeon Leonid Rogozov, stranded in Antarctica with the Sixth Soviet Antarctic Expedition, in 1961 performs a self-operation: under local anesthesia, surrounded by a bunch of guys whose only experience with medicine was sitting in a dentist’s chair, the 27th years old doctor removes his own appendix.
rogozovappendectomy2
From now on each Wednesday Real USSR will try to bring you entertaining rather than informative posts – let us know how you like it.
Surreal NKVD: Catch me if you can
These photos are from a private collection of a typical Moscow family. They are dated back to 1936 – 1940 - the years known as the period of Stalin’s most cruel political repressions. Several million people are said to be affected: sentenced, shot or sent off to labour camps.
There is a Russian movie about those times – “Burnt By The Sun” (Utomlennye Solncem), which in 1994 won the Academy Awards as the best foreign language film (imdb rating 7.9÷10). The story is about love in the times of political turmoil, the love that survives all fears of purges and uncertainty. Surprisingly enough, people still managed to try and have a few laughs during those harsh times.