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