Real USSR » movies

Calendar of 1964: Us and Them.

zloy_murashka — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 11:20:33 +0000

An old calendar of 1964 picturing a set of remarkable citizens of the world: a Soviet person next to its American counterpart. Sadly there is no annotation left to figure what the message was — informative, propagandist or other, so the faces below are torn out of context. But it is still nice to have a look at some Soviet artist’s work.

It would have been a brief post, so we thought we’d include the major achievements of these great men.

Movie Producers: Sergey Eisenstein & David W Grifith

Sergey Eisenstein, also known as the “father of montage”, made silent film Battleship Potemkin in 1925.

The famous scene of the massacre on the Odessa Steps

David Llewelyn Wark Griffith directed the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and subsequent film Intolerance a year later.

The film was widely protested for alleged racism. As late as the 1970s, the Ku Klux Klan continued to use the film as a recruitment tool.

Composers: Peter Tchaikovsky and George Gershwin

Dancers: Vaslav Nijinsky & Isadora Duncan

Vaslav circa 1909

Isadora, the mother of modern dance.

Naturalists: Elie Metchnikoff & George W Carver

Elie Metchnikoff received a 1908 Nobel Prize in medicine for his contribution to the immune system research. He is also said to coin the term gerontology for his emerging study of longevity and aging.

George W Carver is famous for his research of crops such as nuts and sweet potatoes as alternative to cotton to eradicate poverty among farmers.

Writers: Nicholas Gogol & Mark Twain

Artists: Leon Bakst & Edward Hicks

Supper by Leon Bakst.

Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks

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Sherlock Holmes VS USSR: 1 Nil.

eugenia — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 01:18:05 +0000

My iPad has really got me reading recently. On iBooks almost all of classic literature is free, so I am reading a book by Arthur Conan Doyle — The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Man with the Twisted Lip. There was a passage that struck me as remarkable (or, as Conan Doyle would put it, rather singular):

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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The Fearsome Threesome – Lenin and His Lovebirds

eugenia — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:24:24 +0000

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!

Young Nadezhda

Vladimir Lenin’s wife, nee Nadezhda Krupskaya, was born in 1869, in a noble but poor family. She was trained as a school teacher and had a very successful start to her teaching career – until she got involved with some revolutionary ideas which the air was penetrated with at the time. It all started with her passion for the books of Leo Tolstoy and then gradually developed into some seriously marxism-winged outlook.

Young Nadezhda was very well organised, hardworking, disciplined: she took up german so she could read Carl Marx’s manuscripts. She suffered from thyroid dysfunction and was incredibly skinny, with protruding eyes, hence she was nicknamed as Herring Fish.

It didn’t take her long to become a prominent figure in the revolutionary circles.

She was 25 when she met Lenin, and due to their ideological connectedness, they hit it off rightaway: she was subdues by his leadership skills and staunch Marxist views, he – well, he was in the need of a wife. The rumour had it that he was deeply in love with a friend of his sister Olga, but never had any luck there. Her mother, on the othe hand, considered Nadezhda unattractive and utterly marriageable, so Lenin, with his decent upbringing and education, was warmly welcomed.

In 1896, when Nadezhda was arrested and sentenced to three years of exile for espionage and anti-Tsar activities, she received a telegramme from Lenin asking her to marry him. Apparently her answer was “Oh well, you need a wife – I could be a wife”.

Their wedding rings were made out of copper coins by a friendly political exile; there was a church ceremony and the bride wore a black skirt and a white blouse, while the groom had his only brown suit on. She kept her maiden name (Krupskaya) on general feminism principle.

Taa

Nadezhda was no good at cooking: her mother did all of housework. After she died, Nadezhda wrote in her diaries that “our life became even more student-like”. During her honeymoon, she wrote a book “A female worker”, trying to analyse the women’s position in the society through the prism of Marxism philosophy.

One of the rare photographs: Nadezhda and Lenin

Within the next few years after the wedding, the couple moved to Paris in the hope to get some peace from the Tsar dogs. There Vladimir Lenin meets Inessa Armand, an adorable rich man’s wife of French origin who also happens to be a devout Socialist. Lenin was 39, she was 35, with five kids to two different husbands who also happened to be brothers, yet they fall in love and it is a strong, genuine, mutual feeling, which they managed to maintain throughout the years. Nadezhda learns that she is not the only one almost right away and makes several attempts to leave Lenin, but he objects, saying that their relationships – these plural and complicated relationships are well beyond any primitive bounds of a regular marriage alliance, and so she stays.

Inessa Armand

Although Nadezhda always remembered those years in Paris as the hardest years in their lives, she still managed to develop some sort of a warm feeling for Inessa.

This bizarre relationship continued for a good numbers of years – until Inessa’s son developed a TB and she had to take him to a resort in the Caucasus where she contracted cholera and died at the age of 46, in the year 1920. Lenin, already unwell due to overwork, never managed to fully recover after her death. Lenin outlived Inessa for three years only. Nadezhda Krupskaya had to take care of Inessa’s five kids, which she did with great pleasure – the contemporaries often said that Inessa’s daughter was the only person whom Nadezhda felt warm about.

Her contribution to the development of the educational programmes for the children of the young Soviet country cannot be underestimated — with no kids of her own, she was known as “everyone’s Grandmother”. She is still the one to thank for the establishment of the schooling system of Russia.

Nadezhda lived for fifteen long years after Lenin had died. She was an avid enemy of Stalin, who is often held accountable for her death – she died under suspicious circumstances on her 70^th birthday – many think she was poisoned by the cake that Stalin sent. Her only request – to bury Lenin – was never granted. She was buried in Moscow, under the walls of Kremlin.

An old collage

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AWOL Tigger, or a Soviet Take on the World-Famous Cartoon Characters

eugenia — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:30:21 +0000

Apart from the Soviet writers’ prolific input into the children literature, a great deal of stories was translated into Russian, so the kids of the USSR grew up on the stories by Hans Andersen, Charles Pierrot and the Grimm brothers. Often the translators took the liberty of changing the plot of the storyline: this is how the famous book by A. Milne “Winnie the Pooh” in its Russian version features no Tigger yet there are some extra characters not from the original script. Arguably, it allowed the translator to become somewhat of an author and hence their name went onto the book cover (this is what happened to the Russian version of The Wizard of Oz). As cartoon making was one of the most developed (and certainly less censored ones) graphic arts, it can be of interest to see how the Russian animators saw the traditional Western fairy tales characters.

Piglet, Winnie the Pooh and Rabbit. 1969

The story of Pinocchio (Buratino in Russia) is another fine example of how things got transformed on the way from Italy to the USSR: the plot retains very little of the original story, and the only thing unchanged is the wooden puppet.

Pierrot, Buratino (the Russian Pinnocchio), and Malvina, the beautiful female puppet friend. 1969

Little Red Riding Hood

The Jungle Book: Mowgli, Baloo the bear, Bagheera the black panther and Kaa the python. 1973

Dr Doolittle. 1984

The Treasure Island. 1984

The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy (Ellie in the Russian version, for some reason); the Scarecrow; the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man. 1974

Puss in Boots. 1968

The Nutcracker, with the original music by Tchaikovsky. 1973.

However, we would fall short of a fair story if we did not mention the most famous Russian cartoon of all times — Well, Just You Wait, Hare! It is an original Russian-made script and the plot line, with a loose resemblance of the Tom & Jerry cartoon. The cartoon is a slapstick adventure of the Hare who is being chased by the Wolf, and each episode (there were 16 of them altogether) has its own wee plot. The popularity of it was so huge that possibly everyone born in the USSR still has the nicest memories of it. During the hay days of the Soviet power, this series were imported into the countries of the Eastern Bloc, as well as China, India and some other pro-socialist countries where it found to be liked by the audience, due to very little spoken language and a happy end of each episode. You can still buy an adapted version on amazon and enjoy it just as much, almost 40 years later.

The Wolf and the Hare: Well, Just You Wait! 1969

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Dirty Dancing Soviet Style

eugenia — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:50:42 +0000

Just like anywhere else in the world, the Soviet youngsters wanted to socialize, to listen to the music and to dance. The nightclubs were unheard of – anything of that kind would have been announced as promoting debauchery or morally wrong lifestyle habits. So the best one would hope for were the discotheques – the special dance occasions, organized by the officials on a weekly basis. They always had a designated supervisor – a school principal or a city council representative in charge.

A Soviet discotheque, most likely late 1960s.

Often enough, especially in the small cities, these dance events were the only source of entertainment. Movies were scarce and arrived in towns infrequently; the circus would visit once a year; and libraries just didn’t do it.

In summer months, the discotheques were usually taken outdoors. Typical dancing grounds.

Knowing the popularity of discotheques, the authorities also liked using it as the sweet part of the “carrot and stick” tandem: for instance, dancing would follow some boring meeting, or a motivational lecture, or some propaganda pep talk. Linking the attendance of the lecture to the permission to come out and dance was an easy way to twist arms of the rebellious youth.

She is feisty! An old movie “Gals”, 1961, an episode on the dance floor.

A set of rules – how to behave on a discotheque – was usually displayed and enforced by the person in charge. For instance, it was suggested that work clothes were not welcome, and the outfit should be light and comfortable. The dance moves were suggested to be well-rehearsed as dancing “freestyle” was not considered appropriate. Women were allowed to express discontent towards males who would make inappropriate advances or dance in a wicked manner. Smoking was prohibited, but at least there was never a cover charge.

An old cartoon, circa 1960

As for the dancing “appropriately”, it was generally accepted that classic dances (waltz and other slower modest moves) were better than tango, foxtrot or swing – these were more of a “dirty Western dancing”. That was what the crowd would long for, though – so the dj was allowed to play such a tune once a night, perhaps. And, just like anything forbidden, it really drove the crowd wild.

A New Year’s Eve Night, a painting by A. Snegirev, 1982.

The propaganda, which was everywhere, stated that in the West people are so overworked, they need their weekly portion of dances to rewind (this was a subtle reference to “Saturday Night Fever”, also banned in the country). The logic was that in the USSR things were different: people went out to dance in order to socialize, not because their capitalist bosses tired them out.

This is an old cartoon portraying foreigners on the dance floor in their unnecessary flamboyant outfits. Note the bottle and their greenish faces — propaganda full throttle!

Quite the contrary, in the USSR dancing was also a part of a harmonious development of a person. This notion was very popular with the movie directors: the working class – electricians, nurses, teachers etc – go dancing because they have too much energy, not to lose themselves in music. The latter one was considered to be wrong and asocial. It is a nice finish for the week, but it is not a desperate, Travolta-like TGIF, it is an active type of rest and a great deal of cultural activity.

Dancing in the Ural Mountains, by G. Sorokin.

Another common feature of the discotheque phenomenon is the same-sex pairs. Oh no, they were not queer – it was simply due to the shortage of men. Fortunately for all, there came the baby boom and this tendency almost disappeared by the end of 1960s.

Girls girls girls

Also, there was the age bar. Firstly, the teenagers were not allowed – you would have to be at least 17 to attend. Secondly, and this is interesting, the oldies were not meant to come and dance – and by oldies we mean the married lot. It was unheard for a married person to turn up to shake their booties – it was frowned upon, and therefore there were themed discotheques “For those over 30”, type of thing.

As for the music, apart from the domestic Soviet bands, the imported stuff from Italy and France was very popular. Adriano Celentano, Toto Cutugno, Romina Power and Albano; Charles Aznavour, Joe Dassin, Serge Gainsborough. Not only were they melodious, oh no. Mind you, both the countries had communism orientation back then, so it was a mere political calculation to approve of their culture. But nobody in the USSR minded — these artists are still a big (even though mildly nostalgic) hit.

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Sexy Soviet Underwear. Not!

eugenia — 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”.

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An Old Curiosity Shop: The Museum of Soviet Life

Maria Yukhimenko — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:58:44 +0000

Earlier this year, a unique in its peculiarity museum was opened in Novosibirsk, the Siberian capital of Russia. Privately owned, this museum offers an insight into the days long gone, yet longing to be remembered: a collection of the Soviet everyday artifacts; simple things that still matter.

Please welcome our new author Maria Yukhimenko, who has visited this place and and prepared this report exclusively for the realussr readers.

The USSR Museum: the facade.

The museum occupies a 1917 villa and is opened by appointment only. The story goes that a long time ago this building was used as an NKVD headquarters (the KGB predecessor, that is). Well, it certainly feels like it – the atmosphere is gloomy enough: dark rooms, high stud ceilings, squeaky wooden floors.

However, it turns out to have quite a bit of character…

As always, please click on magnifying glass to see in detail.

An Old curiosuty shop indeed!

A TV with an classic clock on it.

The Soviet art deco: a cast iron clock Young couple flirting.

Inside it feels like a treasure chest, with all the impossible relics brought together: from old cameras and typewriters through to crockery, clothes and propaganda posters. Most of the appliances are still in working order, Anna the proud curator tells me.

Assorted Soviet china

A boy scout with a German sheppard, close up.

The stuff on display does not seem to be categorized in any particular way, nor is it chronological: it is just there, in almost random piles, to be touched and looked at by visitors. Almost each artifact has got a tiny sticker with a price on; unfortunately, apart from the door charges (USD$2), this is the only way for the museum to stay afloat.

Rubber toys, mostly fairy tale characters.

The director of the USSR museum is Idea Lozhkina. Back in the days, propagandistic names were trendy (Firstofmay or Revolutia, and so Idea is one of them). And she was, indeed, struck by an idea of opening a Soviet version of a curiosity shop. “My house was full of old memorabilia, and people liked it, so I though, why not? – says Idea. - It is very important to create something useful in this life. Something, which will help to remember those days, otherwise the risk that the stuff will be dumped is very high”.

The interview with the director Idea Lozhkina.

The Museum tries to stay neutral in its political position. Idea says they are not trying to promote communism or communistic propaganda; they are only trying to keep the memories alive. The younger ones, who come to the museum, do not always know who Lenin was. Nevertheless, the museum has been opened for two months only, and it has been very popular with the public.

Busts of Mao, bronze; Lenin, cast iron. Note which one is taller, this is Made in the USSR for you.

There is a study-like room, which is just asking to be labelled as “Lenin’s study”. His portraits on the walls, communistic flags, a typewriter on the desk, an opened book on Marxism and communism principles… Just next to it there are documents of that era: passports, membership dockets, letters. A guy in the huge portrait on the wall seems almost unrecognizable: young Brezhnev, it turns out. A rare shot.

Young Brezhnev.

Another Soviet toy, a stuffed teddy.

The “Smena” camera (“Change”, no less!) in its glory days made it to the Guinness Record Book as the most popular camera of its days: the sales were skyrocketing!

USSR money: the rouble is yellow, three is green.

At 6 pm after the war, a film of 1944. The IMDB rating is 7.2/10

In the future they intend to open a small cinema to show films of the Soviet era and to allow the older people to socialize and feel a little nostalgic over it. The Museum team also plan to celebrate major Soviet holidays, organize get-together parties, sing old songs and listen to the old music. “After all, — says Idea, — this place strives to bring people together. Russia is a great and powerful country which I believe in, but Russia was born out of the USSR, and it would not have been possible for Russia to be born without the USSR. And we are here to praise its legacy, even on such a small scale as every day items”.

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Experimental Soviet Homemade Photography

Stas Kulesh — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:12:31 +0000

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.

The method is known as “double exposure”, when the aperture opens twice but the photo element stays in place. You might remember the principle from the days when you had a film camera and forgot to rewind the film. Neat, really.

Playing cards

Close-up: Pack of cigarettes

Freeze!

Details: Toy pistol

Another one?

Details: Famous in those days vodka ‘Zubrowka’

Would you like a cup of tea?

Close-up: Tea pot

Listening to the music

Got a lighter?

Hard to pick one

Afterparty

All by myself!

A card game

Chess was very popular in Soviet Russia

Dancing

A band

Men are all the same

Embroidering

Check and mate

We would appreciate your comments, backlinks and retweets on this weirdly beautiful pieces of photography.

Photos are from: soviet_life.livejournal.com

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Wanted: Astronauts. Pay: Average. Perks: World Fame.

eugenia — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 10:55:07 +0000

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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