A merchant’s house. Early twenties.

A heritage building now

The city of Ufa, the capital of Bashkiria, is a town with the population of just over a million, at about 1500 km distance from Moscow. It is beautifully set at the confluence of the Belaya and Ufa rivers, on low hills to the west of Southern Urals. The city was founded in 1574 at the orders of Ivan the Terrible, and the name meaning “small” in Turkic. It is a well kept city with lots of greenery, wide alleys, parks and plentiful historic buildings.

Today’s post is a lit­tle dif­fer­ent from our usual for­mat, as the mod­ern pic­tures of the city are, well, mod­ern and not of the Soviet epoch. It is still nice to see, how­ever, how the city has been chang­ing over the past hun­dred years — and the old pho­tographs are still full of life and very easy on the eye.

Building of 8 Floors. Designed and built after WWII by German architects.

Building of 8 floors now.

One of the main streets: Lenin St, Bashkiria Hotel

Old tram. November 1947.

Hotel Bashkiria at night.

Cinema center Rodina

Constantine with Keanu Reeves is on

Old merchants’ houses on a market day

A shopping and entertainment center now. Was rebuilt in early 2000

A former bank

A former bank

National Museum now

Was fully redeveloped in late 1990s

The events centre, named after Ukrainian Bolshevik and a close friend of Stalin Sergo Ordzhonikidze

Ordzhon, as it is more commonly called.

One of the longest streets in town: in 195os it was called Stalin Avenue

The trams were put in around mid 1970s. The Stalin name got dropped.

Now it is October Avenue.

Opera and Ballet House

Opera and Ballet House

Belaya River vista: the small smudge above the forest to the right is the horse statue: see below

The house of Parliament. The horse statue is more visible. Stunning views when you drive into the city

Salavat Yulaev. One of the tallest horse statues in Europe.

A popular photo shoot destination now.

The Soviet Square. 13 April 1964

The Square today — interestingly enough, it still hasn’t been renamed.

City Council

City Council

Arguably the most prestigious university in town and among the top ten in the country: the Aviation Industry University.

Its computer science and engineering graduates are among the most sought-after in the world.

For another example of “there and now” see our old post about Novosibirk.

Some images are courtesy of Olga Eigeison aka perebeia.

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1. Novosibirsk: Then and Now.
2. Сollective Housing
3. Best of Winter 2009–2010

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.

The glass slides. Dated 1928.

If anybody could help identify what these women are doing?

Late autumn

Sisters? Note the background

Another stylish couple. He reminds me of Clark Gable

River outing

Studying

A stylish threesome: mind the leather jacket

Harvesting

My favourie shot of the lot

If anyone could help us identify the little box? Milk? Tea? Coffee?

Everyone posing for the camera man

Still life

Woodworkers’ shop

City vistas

Family gathering

Winemaking?

Summertime. Apart from the watermelon, note the camera case in front. Now it would be called lomo

Lunch break

Harvesting. Plenty of apples this year!

TBC.

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1. 21+ Depressing Photos of Post-Revolutionary Russia by Arkady Shaikhet
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3. 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.

One of the first lots to arrive, early 1920s

1927. Central — Artek’s founder Soloviev, next to him — GM Shishmarev.

1925. The evidence of tent life.

1928. Arrival from Simpheropol

For a regular Soviet kid, a ticket to Artek did not cost anything – yet it had to be well-earned. Within a school, for instance, only the top students were rewarded by the trip to Artek. During its heydays Artek accommodated about 27 000 kids a year, so from its first days to 1969 about 300 000 kids were able to enjoy the facilities. By then the area of the camp was about 3.2 km², there were more than a hundred bulidings including the sleeping quarters, three medical buildings, a proper school for those visiting Artek during the academic year; a movie pavillion Artekfilm, three swimming pools, a stadium seating more than 6000 spectators at a time as well as a park, a garden and some sporting and play grounds.

One of the permanent blocks on Artek’s territory

After the Collapse of the Soviet Union the popularity of Artek took a swing, due to the lack of funding and the overall mishaps of the Ukrainian country. But it quickly gained its status back and it is a popular vacation site for the kids from all over Russia and Ukraine – despite the fact that now the parents bear the costs of a vacation.

The seaside. Suuk Su Beach, the diver statue

The flag alignment

A typical day at Artek would have a 7 am start, regardless of the season, followed by the morning exercise and bathroom routines. After breakfast kids would go to the beach, be it summer – or to the school quarters in winter, where they’d stay till lunch – sunbathing or studying, depending how lucky they are. After lunch – and this has been reinforced quite seriously from the very early days of the camp – all kids, regardless of age, would have to take a two hour nap. Traditionally the Artek nap has been nicknamed as Absolut – because during the nap the supervisors would require absolute silence – even if one was awake, he could only read quietly in bed, no exceptions. After the nap and a wee snack (a glass of juice/piece of fruit/tea with biscuits) kids split up into their teams and prepare for competitions or concerts till dinner. After dinner – and the food was good! — the whole of Artek would get together. 10Pm was the bed time, and it would be much desired – after such an intense day.

1933. The Big Fire — the symbol of pioneria.

Structurally Artek was a group of ten smaller camps, each accommodating  kids according to their age, from 9 up to 16. Each team of kids would have two or three adult supervisors, who typically are students in training to become teachers. The supervisors are responsible for kids safety, entertainment and the nicest memories. Kids would have to defend the honour of their teams in sport, singing, dancing, theatrical plays and so on.

Faces of 1937

Morning exercise.

Morning exercise

Canteen. Most likely, lunch. The reputation of Artek’s food has always been very envious.

Sea voyage. The boat is called Artek

1934. Sailing in the harbour

After the swim. Till late 1940s, there were alternate boys’ and girls’ days, until swimsuits were made compulsory

Circa 1935

Idle time

Chess tournament

Supervisors, late 1920s

A concert.Different coats of arms of different republics. Kids dressed in traditional costumes.

Dance Rehearsal

Dance performance

And now possibly two of the most scary photographs of the entire epoch, which could not even leave the kids’ summers alone. Every time I look at these two pictures below, I feel a pang of guilt — something which we all own to those kids.

The one below is all camp’s gathering. Mind the blank faces — those guys, during the Stalin’s repressions, were announced as public enemies and were executed. Their faces were erased from all photos — so the camp wouldn;t be linked with those names.

1937.

And one more.

A regular outing? It is. The only issue is, it is the morning of June, 22nd, 1941. A few hours later it will be announced that Germany has invaded Russia and the war is upon these kids.

June 22nd, 1941.

To be continued.

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2. 21+ Depressing Photos of Post-Revolutionary Russia by Arkady Shaikhet
3. The Patriotic Education in the USSR. Part One: the October Kids.

Please welcome our new author Vadim Costyrin with his first but serious post on the present days of those born in the USSR, brought up by the Yeltsin’s coup and now left to seek their national and cultural identity all by themselves.

A performance at a kindergarten.

Once the USSR inspired us with fear, now this country does not exist. We have the big Russia and a lot of small and not so small, whimsical republics, for the right to include which in the sphere of their influence there fight politicians of the superpowers. Together with the Soviet Union we have lost Russians — our antipodes — against whom we willy-nilly matched. It may seem that it is a victory — but Russians want the USSR back, and after only two decades there are much more fears and threats.

We have been fearing the Soviets sincerely and for a long time. But they have split.

We have lost our enemy — communists with their “Satan” and “Kuzkina mat”, and at once have found a new enemy that is even more global — terrorists. As a first approximation a terrorist is the same as a communist — since in our world view all Russians were communists and professed a wrong ideology. And now all Muslims are certainly terrorists, and we must struggle with their ideas. I only have a natural question: “Who are these “we”? It seems to me there are simply no “us”, and in order to unite me and you in something which would look like “us”, it is necessary to frighten “us” properly. Russians have a saying: “Devil is not so black as he is painted” — and indeed, inside the country looks differently, and its dwellers, too, are not absolutely similar to the comical images imposed on us by our “independent” press.

So why invent external enemies for us? The answer seems to be on the surface — I experienced it myself: when you have a headache and put a lemon peel on your temple the pain recedes — balsamic oils irritate the skin, and it switches your nervous system over to other irritant. Sometimes it seems to me that we are distracted by chattering about international problems from the problems which are inside our head.

Why don’t we want to notice behind the first persons of the states, their inhabitants? Did it ever occur to you that everything is not so simple with Russia? The USSR, for example, is considered by its inhabitants to be a huge strong country which they really love.

And if we dare look more attentively at this strange phenomenon of a mysterious — “Russian soul” we might see in a different light not only Russians, but our own selves as well.

On the go

Talking figures

Running the risk of seeming boring, I will nevertheless begin with the statistics — it is one of those cases when figures are more eloquent than words. According to the poll published by the All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Studying in the authoritative Russian newspaper “Kommersant”, in the rating of the most outstanding events of the XX century after the Great Patriotic War (16 %) there is Yuri Gagarin’s space flight (13 %). During ten years the share of those who considers this event to be especially significant, has reduced almost twofold. It is followed by the Moon landing (5 %). 4 % believe that the most outstanding event of the twentieth century is the Great October Revolution. Putin’s coming into power and computer invention got 2 % of votes each. The invention of a nuclear bomb, cellular connection, TV, as well as sport achievements of our country and the Moscow Olympic Games of 1980 received 1 % of Russians’ votes each.

Ten years ago in the rating of the most tragic events of the last century the First and Second world wars (43 %) were in the lead. Today on the first place there is the Great Patriotic War (36 %). The second place is occupied by the Chernobyl disaster (9 %). The wars in the Chechen Republic and Afghanistan are considered the most tragic events by 8 % of respondents. The October Revolution of 1917 and natural cataclysms received 4 % each. Then there is the tragedy in Beslan and capture of the Nord Ost musical (3 % each), putsch of 1991 and explosion of the twin towers on September 11 (2 % each), destruction of Kursk submarine, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Yeltsin’s rule, Stalin’s rule, execution of the imperial family and invention of nuclear weapon (1 % each). The least tragic event in this rating is the story of Titanic. However, both ten years ago and now the greatest disappointment of the last century, according to Russians, is disintegration of the USSR (17 %).

Our compatriots put this event on the fourth place in the rating of the most tragic events. Perestroika, poverty and illnesses disappointed Russians less than disintegration of the USSR. It is followed by the crash of the communism ideas. “In the list of the greatest disappointments of the last century this time Russians did not name unemployment and social and economic reforms, spirituality decline, problems with drug addicts and ecology” — “Kommersant” writes.

It seems that the Soviet Union which was called “The Empire of Evil”, can be missed only by the older generation, however from the moment of the USSR disintegration there has been formed a new generation who never lived in the USSR. So why the statistics keeps saying what the inhabitants of the former USSR still feel nostalgic about the former times? The phrase “What a country is destroyed!” was heard by me repeatedly, even from people who simply can not remember the USSR. Why even among youth that can hardly be accused of feeling liking towards totalitarianism, “the Soviet childhood” is now fashionable? “I want back to the USSR. Ah, those good old times — probably, it was the best time in my life”— this phrase can be heard more and more often, and not only from veterans who lived in the Soviet times, but also from those who are in their early thirties. These are people who in 1991 were in high school, and even in kindergarten, who lovingly collect and quote the Soviet films and proudly show old radio-gramophones and vinyl records.

In the Russian-speaking Internet the USSR topic is one of the most popular, and it is popular among its most active users — young people. You don’t need to be a sociologist or “an expert on Russia” to see that the attitude to life in the USSR even among youth changed from very negative to very positive. For the last couple of years in the Internet there have appeared a lot of resources devoted to everyday life in the Soviet Union. “76 — 82. The Encyclopedia of our childhood“ is one of the most popular ones. Its name tells about its audience — it consists of those who was born in 76 — 82.

The community with the same name in LiveJournal belongs to the thirty of the most popular ones. “We are lucky that our childhood and youth ended before the government had bought freedom from young people in exchange for rollerblades, mobile phones, “star factories” and rusks (by the way, soft for some reason) … With their own consent … For their own (seemingly) good …” — it is a fragment from the text with the name “Generation 76 — 82”. Many Russians and the inhabitants of the former USSR republics eagerly place it in their blogs. It has become a kind of the generation’s manifesto.

However, only two decades ago the same people who now with tenderness recollect the symbols of that epoch, rejected all connected with the Soviets and tried hard not to resemble their “ancestors”. ”The local amnesia“ extends to the recent past. During the perestroika times — at the turn of the 90ies — a considerable part of young men dreamt to leave — somewhere where there was an elementary stability and the absence of financial shocks.

Economic instability has turned the generation of the end of the 70ies into the people not needed by the state. And those who were brought up on socialist ideals (which, by the way, if cleared of the ideological tinsel, are not that bad), have appeared in the position of fishes thrown out to shoal. Commercial relations were hard for them and were — and often still are — disgusting for many. Here under no circumstances it is a habit to accept money even from acquaintances. Instead they use specific small gifts as payment for service, for example, sweets or alcohol. Probably, a wide “Slavic soul “does not accept meanness peculiar to many aspects of business relations. It does not mean that Slavs do not have commercial abilities, they just have an essentially different system of values, but it is a topic for a separate article.

Out and about

A new cult of the old

Today the Soviet past in many countries of the former USSR has become a myth. It has acquired touching legends and has turned into a fine fairy tale about the Golden Age of the mankind. The generation of the end of the 70ies wants to believe in it so much that it is ready to amputate its own memory and to ignore the history. I will try to explain why — we often condemn Russia, forgetting to put ourselves on the place of Russians. Personally I would not like to live in a country captured by chaos, to be deprived of a possibility under any circumstances to take credit, to receive qualified medical aid (because expensive medications are necessary, and medical insurance simply does not exist), to live “from the salary to the salary” the largest part of which is eaten up by inflation. These are only some delights of life in the new countries which have arisen on the immense open space of the former Soviet Union; only during the last years the situation has begun to stabilize. It is possible to say that Russians have already endured several economic crises, and now they are fully armed — because they have developed certain schemes of behaviour in such situations and have simply got used to living under the conditions of instability.

If we think of instability we will understand, why so many people warmly recollect the USSR. In this country people lived not just behind the Iron Curtain but behind the stone wall — they knew precisely how much everything cost: prices did not change for years; everyone was confident that they would receive their wages or salary in time, and so on. Now inhabitants of the former USSR countries try to find out beforehand if the firm for which they intend to work will pay the salary — because, as they say, they may be done out of their money — that is not receive the pay for their work. It is a widespread practice — since contracts are not habitual there, and the employer can simply forge your signature on documents, and it will be hard for you to prove anything in court. Although in Moscow this practice is not so popular, in the suburbs there is a huge corruption of the authorities and impunity of businessmen who bribe the officials. Explaining this phenomenon, one my colleagues from Ukraine said: “You have a lawyer, and here everyone has a public prosecutor or a judge”.

However, it is impossible to explain by instability so many warm memoirs of so many young men of the country which they have hardly seen. Sociologists assert that one of the reasons is banal: nostalgia about the Soviet Union is in many respects explained by nostalgia about childhood. Idealizing of the childhood years is peculiar to all. Bad things are forgotten, good things remain. However the reasons for such a “not childish” nostalgia are deeper than just melancholy for the lost youth. By idealizing the Soviet past, the thirty-somethings unwittingly show what they dislike about the present.

The thirty something ones

What “freedom” is

I will probably disappoint you but there is no univocal understanding of the word “freedom”. We think that we live in the free country, but we are not free inside: we just do not know that it can be different. One needs to be an odd fellow, like Jeremy Oliver, crazy about what he does, to make us, die-hard conservatives, notice that, for example, we eat unhealthy food. But if we look at the countries of the former USSR, we will see the generation of people who can compare, who have no “consumer blinds”. We got used to pounds, while they during two decades had the names, the design and the purchasing capacity of money changed several times. “In the childhood we drove cars without belts and safety pillows.… Our beds were painted with bright paints with high content of lead. There were no secret covers on bottles with medicine, doors and wardrobes often remained unlocked. We drank water from the column located around the corner, not from plastic bottles. And nobody could think of driving bike in a helmet!” — this is an excerpt from the same “manifesto”. “We became less free!” — this shout of despair can be heard from many blogs. Here is one more citation: ”I recall that time, and the main sensation is the feeling of uttermost freedom. Life was not subordinated to such tight schedule as it is now, and there was plenty of free time.

Our parents’ vacations lasted for month and if someone was ill he could easily be on a sick leave, instead of continuing working being half-alive. You could go anywhere you wanted, and nobody would ever stop you. There were no coded locks and on-door speakerphones, there were no security guards at each entrance, in each shop. The airport was an extremely interesting place from where travel began, instead of being a part of the high security zone. In general, there were very few tablets with inscriptions like “No trespassing!”, “For personnel only”, “Stay away” etc.

There is a strange metamorphosis of memoirs. In the Soviet Union there were much more frightening inscriptions like “No trespassing!” — but childhood memories erase them, and memory about what was seen a couple of days ago completes these notorious tablets.

Objectively the Soviet society was less free than the present one or than our, Western, society, and not only in terms of politics. Human life moved along the strictly planned route: local kindergarten — high school — institute/army — prescribed work, with minimal variations. The same thing was in everyday life. Everybody ate identical dishes, rode identical bicycles and spent holidays in the same pioneer camps. Young man’s long hair a couple hugging in the street could draw attention of militia or people’s guards. Now Russians live in one of the freest societies in all the history of mankind.

And it is not about politics but rather about culture and the way of life. The state minimally interferes with these people’s private lives. Notorious “power vertical”, which in Russia penetrates the political process, never crosses a house threshold. And the society has not yet developed strict norms and cannot tell the citizens what to do and what not to do.

So where does this sensation of non-freedom come from? Most likely, it starts from within. Russian thirty-somethings put their own selves in very tight frameworks. They are obliged to work and earn, to look decently, to behave seriously, to have the most expensive mobile, to eat only healthy food, to drive a German car and to read books by Paolo Coelho. Obliged, obliged, obliged! Only to whom? Everybody damned the Soviet Union all which tried to equal people in their rights and duties — while we, as well as Post-Soviet Russians, equalize ourselves even in our interests.

A real freedom for Russians is not a freedom of speech or meetings — first of all it is a possibility to live securely and stably, having a lot of free time. And it was expected from them that they would become the first generation, free from “Sovok”, a generation of vigorous capitalism builders. In the beginning of the 90ies it looked like this indeed. Young men were enthusiastic about doing business, career, they ecstatically plunged into the world of consumer pleasures. But gradually the enthusiasm started to decline, and finally they just “burnt out”.

Fine relations in the past

Today for the majority of them work and career remain the main reference points in life. However there is already no eagerness which used to be an integral part of their life in the 90ies. The majority still estimates success in life as a possibility to consume as much as possible: “The better “apartment, car, clothes” are — the more successful the person is”. But many things are already bought, impressions are received, ambitions are satisfied. As to relations, to build them, according to many inhabitants of the Post-Soviet countries, is much more difficult. In the Soviet period nobody could even think of “marrying” a capital or real estate. True, some people lived a bit better, others — a bit worse, but overall there was an analogue of our middle class. Communicating with modern young men and women from the already independent states which used to be the USSR parts, you get a sensation that they are going to sell themselves for a good price, initially not believing that there can be “some love”. Everything is about money and sex with which by mass-media are filled. In the Soviet Union, nevertheless, they managed to shoot films about fine relations which played heartstrings and caused emotions, instead of giving life to animal instincts. You don’t need to be a film critic to understand, after watching a couple of Soviet films, what kind of relations were considered real by Russians. Maybe that is why “in the USSR there was no sex” — because everyone made love?

Probably it is for this reason that Russian young people so willingly watch old Soviet films, just rather as a fantasy — because they will seemingly soon forget what is to trust and feel. The majority of young people are dissatisfied with their private life, often substitute it for work, but do not see any real possibilities to change anything. To change something time is necessary, and there is an eternal lack of it. If your fast running stops you will be thrown to the roadside in a minute — and nobody can afford it. Aren’t these all sufficient reasons for nostalgia?

Nostalgia about own childhood at times smoothly turns into nostalgia about political system. The Soviet Union began to be associated with the state development, scope, imperial power, as well as with a quiet, stable and happy life: it was the time when there was no unemployment, terrorism or national conflicts, when human relations were simple and clear, feelings were sincere, and desires were simple.

On the bus

Back to the past?

History knows a lot of examples when nostalgia about the past was quite a powerful motive power of political development. For example, returning of socialist parties into power in some East European states during the Post-Soviet period also was in many respects caused by nostalgia about the Soviet period. It seems that in modern Russia nothing like this can happen. “The generation 76 — 82” is too apolitical, too immersed in their non-existing private life to provide serious support to any political force. That is why strong power is OK for them. It is really their choice. They want order which we ourselves create but which in Russia so far needs to be created declaratively — probably because, having lose the support of the USSR, people also lost their reference points, including the moral ones.

Instead of active actions the generation of the 70ies chooses gentle melancholy about the time of their childhood — a wish to connect the irrevocably perished past with the ruthless present not always can be interpreted in the tideway of political actions. After all in the childhood we do not know what kind of political system we have and how many parties there are, nostalgia about childhood is not interested in politics —teddy bears and first kisses seem much more exciting. It is difficult to imagine a revolution under the slogan “Return to me the right to drive a bicycle and be happy!” (Although in 1968 the French students built barricades under the slogans like “Under the roadway — a beach!” And “It is forbidden to forbid!”)

The matter is that the Soviet world allowed people to be human, unlike the present times. After all social disasters of the XX century for the first time it becomes clear that in any political system the main and the only important figure is a human. And violence of consumer instincts is a fake, just like communism promised by the year 1980. Russians do not have any illusions that the state will help in a difficult moment — it is really ridiculous and naive.

It seems to be the first generation of Russians who remained face to face with their own selves. Without ideology crutches, without a magic lifesaver — the West. And that is when memoirs of the Soviet past really start to burn souls down with ruthless fire of envy.

Possibilities to feel personal value of a person in those days were scarce, but they all were perfectly known to everyone. Everyone knew, what books should be read, what films should be watched and what should be discussed in the evening in kitchen. It also was a personal gesture giving satisfaction and installing pride. Today’s times with their infinity of possibilities make such a gesture almost impossible or marginal by definition.

The generation of thirty-somethings in the former Soviet Union, as well as our society, has now lost the right to the habitual pronoun “we”. This confusion is dictated not by time with its economic strictness, but rather by the look at the reflection in mirror. Who am I? What do I want? It is the start of prostration and “eternal memory” of yesterday, the search for answers to painful questions where the person began as a personality. But it is not a travel to the Soviet past. It is a travel to depth of one’s own soul and consciousness.

Do you still remember the beginning of the article and the sociological poll? What do you think, will anybody in our country name among the most important problems spirituality decline, like Russians did? Do we have a right to impose on them our way, and does it exist at all, the only true way for each of those “us” who do not exist?

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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!

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.

The Wines of the USSR. Unfortunately, year unknown.

Pinot Gris. 1955.

Aligote grape variety. 1954.

Madeira. Crimean wine, harvest of 1954.

Tokaj, Crimean winemaker Massandra, Ukraine.

Muscat. Was probably a dessert grape variety.

Red Muscat.

The Sun valley, vintage of 1954. No grape variety on the label.

Muscat Rose. A favourite wine of my babushka. 1953.

Port. 1954.

Bastardo, by Magarach wines — a winemaker still active. Possibly 1933.

The liquors Benedictine (left) and Chartreuse. Were very rare and almost impossible to buy –were probably sold in Moscow only.

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Since 1956 the enormous territory of the Soviet Union consisted of fifteen union republics — the large administrative and political units — officially known as Soviet republics.  By far the largest and most important of the union republics was the Russian Republic, containing about 51 percent of the population. Primarily because it encompassed Siberia, the Russian Republic alone accounts for 75 percent of the Soviet territory and formed the heartland of both the European and the Asian portions of the Soviet Union. Although in 1989 the Russians made up over 51 percent of the Soviet population and were in many ways the dominant nationality, they were just one of more than 100 nationality groups that made up the Soviet society.

Fourteen other major nationalities also had their own republics: in the European part there were the Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Belorussian, Ukrainian, and Moldavian republics; the Georgian, Azerbaydzhan, and Armenian republics occupied the Caucasus; and Soviet Central Asia was home to the Kazakh, Uzbek, Turkmen, Kirgiz, and Tadzhik republics.

The Soviet system also provided for the territorial and administrative subdivisions called autonomous republics, autonomous oblasts, autonomous okruga, kraia, or most often oblasts. These subdivisions allowed the government to  manage the country easier and, arguably, more efficiently. In terms of political and administrative authority, more than 130 oblasts and autonomous oblasts resembled the counties of the United States, to some degree. Many oblasts, however, were about the size of the American states. For example, Tyumenskaya Oblast, the storehouse of Soviet fuels, was only slightly smaller than Alaska. A more appropriate comparison with counties, in terms of numbers and area, can be made with the more than 3,200 of raion, the Soviet Union’s smallest administrative and political subdivision.

Click image below to see full size map (1887px × 1313px, 412Kb).

Map of USSR, 1989

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