You will be quite a craftsman!

A Review of Occupations in the Soviet Society: the high, the low and the marginal.

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. Please read on find out about the differences in social ladder between the different occupational groups. The hierarchy of labour was a prime element in social discrepancies in this country.

Certainly the system of socialism would deny the mere existence of the dual labour market, yet all occupations in the USSR occupations were covertly divided into the primary and secondary ones. If we were to analyse the Soviet media press releases, then we’d notice that 90% of all jobs mentioned in the papers as cover or success stories were of the working class origin. Certainly the list of jobs was just as wide as anywhere else in the world, however, the working class had a special attitude towards its.The working class was declared to be the base for the ruling socialism due to its hegemonic part in all part and future revolutions.

Gagarin, from ‘Paper soldier’ movie

There were two reasons for it – a political and an economic one. On one hand, it was well worthy to praise the hegemony, on the other – it was important to attract new members to its teams, as nobody really wanted to join in. The technical colleges – where one could become an electrician, a seamstress, or a locksmith – were a constant scare for the growing generation of high school kids. Like, if you don’t do well, you end up as a painter. This was the absolute and finest example of the Soviet double standards: from the papers the working class was praised daily, in reality, it was almost like a curse to belong to it. Certainly the workmen did well, they had respect in the society and they had their privileges, but nonetheless, it was somewhat of a forced choice. The USSR had a cult of tertiary education – of universities and institutes of all sorts, often of any sort, as long as it was a university, not a technical college. The highest-flying uni was the MGIMO – the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Affairs: diplomats, ambassadors, attaches and future politicians and ministers graduated from there. The Moscow State University was also highly regarded. These two had very high level entry exams, and often the knowledge itself was not enough – one had to be well connected to get in. Needless to say, kids of diplomats, ambassadors, attaches and politicians were destined right in.

MGIMO graduate

As for the technical universities, Moscow had a great range of those. Excellent engineers of all sorts were graduating in huge amounts, and, if a student had half a brain to hold on to his place, they became very knowledgeable and very employable specialists in the chosen field. However, the ideology went as far as to remain people that it was shameful to engage into a career path solely on the monetary rewards: the media, the movies, the books were constantly reinforcing the goodness of any job, regardless of the pay. Every now and then there would be a story full of good morale: how a guy would want to get rich quickly and abandon his geological research for the instant cash reward of being a taxi driver. The USSR philosophy was to strongly discourage such action. Interestingly, what strongly encouraged was a long tenure, a job for life kind of a thing. Those who liked to change jobs (or even worse, careers) often, were called “flyers” and it was a shame to be identified as one. Another unusual moment was that women doing the typically male jobs were praised highly. This Soviet phenomenon could possibly start after the war, due to the severe shortage of males, and then somehow lingered. Women operated heavy machinery, women did road works, women engaged in oil refinery – the list is long. We mentioned it in more detail in our article on Russian feminism. What didn’t occur to this staunch feminists was that the labour itself did not have to physical in order for a woman to be equal – managerial positions were just as good. Unfortunately, it was just as hard for a woman to make it to the top — as anywhere else in the world.

‘Postwoman’

To conclude, it would be a fair assumption to say that in the Soviet Union the most prestigious occupations were considered those of the importance to the well-being of the country. Everything which was related to a personal well being was always secondary and supplementary. Understandably, the people’s choice begged to differ: so a good-for-everyone hairdresser had more social leverage that a good-for-the-country production line worker.

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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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Buran VS Shuttle

According to the Soviet propaganda, everything which wasn’t invented by the ancient Chinese, was invented by the Soviet engineers in the USSR. Ah, they were said to invent the best weaponry, the best tanks and the best cars.

In reality, of course, the path of inventions had a very moderate development but in order to keep the morale up, Soviet government had the engineers copying things off their American, Canadian or Japanese counterparts. Certainly, nothing is wrong with it  per se– such strategies usually allow to save time and money by buying and recreating a licensed version. However, the root of all evils is the mentioned Soviet brainwash on the topic of Soviet  superiority in all fields of engineering research and  development.

Let’s have a closer look at who really invented what.

One of the most controversial inventions was the gunfire rifle AK-47 invented by a Soviet engineer Mikhail Kalashnikov in, well, 1947. The holy war over this rifle and its true origins has been going on for more than half a century. The story goes that after the second World War, Germany was not allowed to produce weapons, which the USSR authorities used to their advantage: the prominent weaponmaker Hugo Schmeisser was invited to visit the arms plants in the Ural mountains, where later on the Soviets allegedly stole some of his ideas. As per usual, the truth is hard to find, however, we won’t be surpised if his family would file a lawsuit over the intellectual property of this particual invention.

AK 47 vs Stturmgewehr 44 by Hugo Schmeisser

Another piece of weaponry story: it is hard to tell whether it was copied off the Finnish or the Soviets just happened to invent a similar-looking rifle just a year later. The resemblance is striking, and yet again, no mention of the rights reseved.

Shpagin Rifle, 1941 vs Suomi Rifle (Finland), 1931

Next, the popular Makarov pistol of 1951– another acclaimed example of Soviet weaponry, this pistol had been copied by many as a popular military side arm.The question is still raised whether it is a scaled up version of a German pistol (minus decorative elements), but the resemblance is quite uncanny.

Makarov 9mm Pistol, 1951 vs German Walther 9 mm Ultra, 1935

Next, heavy military machinery. Every kid knows that tanks were the USSR’s frst and foremost object of pride, yet there is an opinion that the famous T-34 and its later versions were just copycats of the American Christie line.

T-34, 1940 vs Tank Christie, USA, circa 1930

The next one is probably one of the fewer honest examples of Soviet cooperation. During the WWII, seventy of American electric locomotives were shipped to the USSR as part of the Allied Forces war effort. The USSR authories kept them after the war, adopting the design to form the basis of their own line of diesel locomotives.

Diesel-Electric Loco (DA), of 1946 vs American ALCO RSD-1, of 1941

As for the planes, here even the wikipedia supports the story of the Tupolev plane Tu-4 being shamelessly copied off the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress.In 1945 the Tupolev avia construction company had meticulously reengineered the American plane to the point of ashtray locations! Certainly the whole concept of reverse engineering (ie, discoverig the technological principles of something through analysing its workings in detail) is praiseworthy.

The Tupolev TU-4 (1947) vs Boeing B-29 of 1942

Even the rockets — the endless well of Soviet pride — are rumoured to be the copies of the German development. Needless to say, it is still a remarkable act of engineering. Academic Sergey Korolev — the same scientist who sent the first human Gagarin in the outer space — was in charge of this project, so it just as successful.

The rocket R1, 1948 vs the German V-2, 1942

The following projects do not look identical, however, both the hydro electrical power station on the river Dnipro and the American Hoover Dam, NV have something in common: their chief engineer, C J Thompson, who oversaw the development of both projects.

DneproGes (1927–1939) vs Hoover Dam (1922–1933)

Another finest example of dubious engineering success — when Khrushchev started his building binge, his architect team did not invent the hideous looking apartment blocks — they just borrowed the idea of the German civil engineers. Pity both parties, in this case.

Soviet vs German Plattenbau Apartment Blocks

The automobile industry was the one with the most copied items. In some cases, even parts are said to be compatible!

Moskvich-400 (1947) vs German Opel Cadette of 1936.

Gaz Mini Truck, 1932 vs Ford AA, 1929

Volga of 1970 vs Ford Falcon, 1966

Volga of 1970 vs Ford Mainline of 1954.

Also, remember our post about Vyatka mopeds, the exact and true copies of Vespa? That one is just classic.

The bottom line here is about honesty, really. Nobody is expected to invent things from scratch — you can borrow other people’s ideas as long as they are properly copyrighted. It is also more efficient  to modify the original version to suit the domestic realities better. However, it is good manners to acknowledge the work of others. And it is certainly shameful to claim the intellectual rights to things which never belonged to you. And this is where the USSR had failed dramatically.

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In the late 1950s, when the Cold War between the USSR and the USA was at its peak, the next step of flexing the power muscle was the space exploration. Since both countries were trying really hard to outdo each other, it was only a matter of time before one would take over.

The way it happened, the USSR got ahead. When in April 1961 the first man went into the outer space and orbited the Earth, the world went berserk over the new, well, horizons.

We are the champions, my friend.

But what took him so long?

All the experiments with plants, mice, rats and dogs going into the outer space had showed that a human could survive a trip across the orbit. Hence since 1950s a range of programmes for the training of humans for such trips was being developed. A team of doctors, physicians, academics and aviation practitioners came to a conclusion that military pilots would have the most suitable background for the extraterrestrial activities. The pilots can cope well with noises, vibration, speed; they have strong decision making skills, they are observant and assertive, as well as strong willed, disciplined, ambitious and focused.

The centrifuge

Among the other criteria were:

• height – up to 175cm;
• weight – up to 75kgs;
• age – up to 35;
• education – an aviation engineer or similar aviation background;
• health – excellent;
• commitment to the USSR and the space programme – endless.

Certainly this was the initial list; as the time went by it was loosened and became more accommodating. Also, the participation was voluntary – no matter how strict and regulated the other spheres of Soviet life were, it was decided to base the space exploration mission on commitment and mutual trust. In 1959 about 500 candidates were downsized to only 6: Varlamov, Gagarin, Kartashov, Nikolaev, Popovich, Titov.

Geographically, the first training polygons were on the Volga banks, until the early 1960s, when the team was moved to Moscow and later on to Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

Baikonur launching pad, 1988

The initial training was parachute jumping and scuba diving followed by plane and helicopter flying. Consequently, the exercise programmes were progressing from athletic fitness regimes to simulations of weightlessness (zero gravity), G force, as well as land and sea survival training.

Underwater training

Along with the main training scheme, an alternative training programme for female astronauts was being developed and implemented. A number of experiments on female chimpanzees had led to believe that females are just as suitable for space exploration. In 1963, when Valentina Tereshkova successfully spent three days in outer space, this hypothesis was confirmed.  Now the speculations arise that she was chosen from among all others due to her working class background. She was a seamstress who enjoyed parachute jumping as a hobby and for the Soviet authorities it was important to show for the West that literally anybody in the USSR could be sent to space — even if you are a woman; even if you are a seamstress.

Ms Valentina Tereshkova

As for the gear, the first versions of spacesuits were designed in the USSR in early 1930s. They had a fairly simplistic design — a hermetic suit with a helmet, and it would not even allow to bend limbs. As the engineers were progressing in their R & D, the spacesuits were becoming more and more sophisticated, until just eight weeks before the Yuri Gagarin mission the final model was approved as “good to go”.

That very suit — the first outfit for out there.

After Yuri Gagarin had successfully flew across the orbit, the American media had a string of statements about the unpreparedness of the Soviet astronauts to such actions. In reality, the whole cosmonaut training programme was rushed and quite possibly the Soviet side needed more time to prepare; yet the ideology and propaganda of the Cold War left no time for further experiments and trials: it just had to be done.

Paper Soldier.

This post has been inspired by the movie Paper Soldier (2008)  by a well-renowned Russian director Alexey German Jr.  The movie shows six weeks prior to the Gagarin’s mission from the medical, ethical and ideological points of view through the eyes of a young conscientious doctor. The whole space project is somewhat of a dream which not even the cosmonauts dare to believe in. Paper Soldier has received a very warm welcome across the globe, but, for some strange reason, Russian reviews are less than acclaiming as the director is blamed for labelling the greatest accomplishment of the Soviets a “fluke”. Well, we have attempted at looking into the training programme of the austronauts, however, the great deal of documents was classified at the time and as per usual, the truth is hard to find.

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