Tag Archives: food

Glass Negatives circa 1928

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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.

111 375x500 Glass Negatives circa 1928

A fash­ion­ista.

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Good Soviet Kids Go to Heaven? Nope, They Go to Artek!

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198 500x348 Good Soviet Kids Go to Heaven? Nope, They Go to Artek!

Kids in the tra­di­tional uniform.

The most famous PR image of the pio­ne­ria of the Soviet Union was a sum­mer vaca­tion camp sit­u­ated in the Crimea (Ukraine), next to Gurzuf town. Founded as a sana­to­rium for the kids suf­fer­ing and recov­er­ing from the TB by the Russ­ian Soci­ety of the Red Cross, it first opened doors in 1925, June 16th, accom­mo­dat­ing about 80 kids from Moscow and the near­est Ukrain­ian towns.

Then it was just a step ahead of a basic camp­ing ground, with kids sleep­ing in tents out in the for­est. How­ever, it grew rapidly until in early 1930s a few per­ma­nent build­ings were built. It was then Artek started work­ing all year round due to its mild Mediterranean-like climate.

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Russian Ice Cream In Winter — Bring It On!

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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. The process was highly reg­u­lated and, indeed, the qual­ity of Soviet ice cream was envi­able. If  in 1932 the total amount of ice­cream pro­duced was about 300 ton, then 10 years later it grew about 270 times — in 1940 there were  82 thou­sand ton of ice cream produced.

habarr 497x500 Russian Ice Cream In Winter Bring It On!

The city of Khabarovsk, 1970.

This num­bers were lost dur­ing the WWII as the fac­to­ries had to cease work — but it quickly recov­ered and by 1950 there was a 20% increase of what was made before.

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Viticulture of the Soviet Union in Old Ad Posters

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The cul­ture of wine mak­ing had a long and rich his­tory in the Soviet Union, and its high prof­itabil­ity always ensured an incred­i­ble deal of gov­ern­men­tal sup­port. Due to the cli­mate restric­tions grapes suit­able for wine-making grew in the South­ern areas of the coun­try: Crimea in the Ukraine, the val­ley of Ararat in Arme­nia, as well as the republics of Moldova, Geor­gia and Azerbaijan.

After the war there was a spe­cial devel­op­ment plan of get­ting the coun­try to the top of the world wine lead­ers — which was a suc­cess. By 1969 the USSR was on the fourth place in Europe by the amount of wine pro­duced (right after France, Italy and Spain). The vast ter­ri­to­ries of the country’s South allowed for almost 10% of the total amount of wine pro­duced in the world around that time. This was the Golden Era of the Soviet viti­cul­ture: the assort­ment of wines went up to 700, with about 37 types of sparkling wines and 88 of cognac-type drinks. Many wines were of excel­lent, prize-winning quality.

Sadly, start­ing from the 1970s, the qual­ity was to be sac­ri­ficed for quan­tity: the pri­or­ity to grow was given to higher-yielding sorts of grapes and not the rare, more valu­able ones. The pro­duc­tion lines were grad­u­ally being switched to cheaper, stronger, more generic ranges of wines made from low in sugar but more endur­ing sorts of grape vari­eties. The Pro­hi­bi­tion bylaw of 1985 aim­ing at elim­i­nat­ing the drink­ing prob­lem was the last straw: the grapes and raisins were to be used for mak­ing juices, which led to a even­tual skill short­age and over­all indus­try recession.

Noe­the­less, we have found a few old com­mer­cial posters pic­tur­ing the range of wines of 1950s. Despite the plain bot­tles, this is a neat col­lec­tion of vin­tage posters for you to enjoy. Click on the pic­ture to see it in detail. Let us know how you like it — we value your feed­back. Thanks!

alcj 388x500 Viticulture of the Soviet Union in Old Ad Posters

Start­ing from the right: Soviet Cham­pagne, a trade­mark for many years and an iconic drink; table Geor­gian wine (batch 19, what­ever that means for the Soviet wine­mak­ers); two bot­tles of whine port.


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Breakfast Time in Paintings by Russian Artists

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Here is a twee col­lec­tion of paint­ings by var­i­ous Russ­ian artists pic­tur­ing break­fast time in Rus­sia of dif­fer­ent peri­ods, from 1918 through­out to late 1970s. It pro­vides some insights into an every­day life of sim­ple peo­ple and their meals on the go, before work, very low key and casual.

k petrov vodkin utrennij natyurmort 181 500x377 Breakfast Time in Paintings by Russian Artists

Still life: Morn­ing. By Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, 1918. Just like any­where else in the world, eggs are pop­u­lar and the dog is hungry.

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The Book on Tasty and Healthy Foods: Una Dolce Vita, Soviet Style

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The every day Soviet life was far from lux­u­ri­ous, how­ever, the gov­ern­ment had its ways of mak­ing peo­ple believe that life was good and con­stantly get­ting bet­ter. An inter­est­ing means of achiev­ing it was a notable culi­nary book pub­lished in the USSR – The Book On Tasty and Healthy Foods. This book, a few inches thick, turned out to be more than a col­lec­tion of recipes – it is con­sid­ered to be an ency­clopae­dia of the Soviet epoch, an insight into the ordi­nary life of the Soviets.

life1 500x323 The Book on Tasty and Healthy Foods: Una Dolce Vita, Soviet Style

The most famous image behind the Russ­ian food, caviar was lit­er­ally impos­si­ble to buy (let alone exor­bi­tantly expensive!)

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