Tag Archives: soviet entertaiment

Technological Advance of the Classic Rocking Horse

Posted on by
10
Wooden Toys Horse On Wheels1 500x375 Technological Advance of the Classic Rocking Horse

The Wooden Horse on Wheels

This myth­i­cal crea­ture of the Soviet kids’ child­hood, some­thing between a Cen­taur and a bicycle, has come into being within a Soviet man­u­fac­tur­ing indus­try dri­ven by an over­pow­er­ing desire to “give all the best” to chil­dren. Most bril­liant minds of the Soviet sci­en­tists were work­ing on the cre­ation of the ideal cross-breed. The mutant was offi­cially labeled a “Pedal Horse” and its large-volume pro­duc­tion was finally kick-started by the end of 1950s. It became very pop­u­lar quite fast as it was really excit­ing to own a “real” horse that could move around in the street, a horse more real than a wooden rock­ing horse.

Con­tinue read­ing →

Dirty Dancing Soviet Style

Posted on by
7

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.

first 478x500 Dirty Dancing Soviet Style

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.

Con­tinue read­ing →

The Soviet Video Arcade Machines

Posted on by
6

While the chil­dren from Europe and USA used to play with Mickey Mouse and Don­ald Duck, their Soviet coun­ter­parts enjoyed the char­ac­ters of Souzmultfilm’s car­toons – the ana­logues of the Amer­i­can Tom and Jerry – the Hare and the Wolf. The Soviet slot machines were an inte­gral part of enter­tain­ment in the USSR. For an ordi­nary Soviet cit­i­zen these slot machines were insep­a­ra­bly linked to walks with par­ents and friends in the amuse­ment parks,  eat­ing ice-cream and candy floss, and feed­ing end­less coins to the slots to get some great enter­tain­ment value.

1Magistral 500x375 The Soviet Video Arcade Machines

Soviet Slot Machines

These slot machines were pro­duced at the for­mer mil­i­tary fac­to­ries par­tially con­verted into the civil­ian pro­duc­tion in 1970s.

Con­tinue read­ing →