Remember one of the most remarkable masterpieces of Soviet engineering? Despite only having made one flight, it is still continue to fascinate people across the globe — and She still intends to continue doing so…
The beauty of the beast
“New Moscow”, by Tschusev and Zholtovsky, was developed in 1917 – 1924.
We have come across a few private scans of a book “New Moscow” published in 1982. Just after the Revolution of 1917 the new government officials were very keen to change everything around — even more so, they wanted to raze the existing system to the ground and build a new one. So the architects were busy thinking big — and bigger — for the new Soviet country.
Late 1950s was an interesting epoch for the Soviet Union. The death of Stalin was like a beginning to a new era, “the Thaw” of Khrushchev, the very first signs of the Cold War and the famous Fulton speech of Churchill — all of those were the signs of uneasy times coming up. But just before the Iron Curtain fell heavily, Russia was the place to visit — and we are very grateful to the Life magazine photographers who took plentiful photos for us.
So we are going to make a 50 year leap into the past to the mid-Russia region of the Volga river — here, the sparkly brand new ships were making their first cruises. So — full throttle!
Captain Palkin on a Maiden Voyage of Krylov Ship. 1958.
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.
The Griboedov Channel. The bridges St Petersburg is so famous for.
By many, St Petersburg (Leningrad in 1924 – 1991) is often considered to be so beautiful due to its architecture of Italian origin. Quite strange to see these fine buildings embellished by the symbols of the Soviet Era. Let’s take a walk around this fine city in the summer almost 30 years ago.
Parade of 1984, city of Ufa. Photo by N. Marochkin.
Day of International Solidarity of the Working Class, or Labour Day — was celebrated in Russia on May, 1st from 1919 to 1990. A public holiday for each every city, every township or village had a parade organised: flags were carried, posters and banners were up, kids had red ballons and portraits of the governing men were on display. The attendance usually was compulsory, but judging by the photographs now, I don’t think anybody minded: it looks like people had fum there. By May the weather was usually sunny and crisp, and this holiday was a little more that a propagandist activity: it was a unifying event. Please read on to see some faces behind the crowd.