Photography & Digital Art,HistoryJUN 18, 2025

39 Pics That Perfectly Sum Up The Soviet And Post Soviet Times, As Shared On This Page

There’s nothing like a bit of contrast and historical perspective to make you reevaluate what's going on in the world now. Many people, especially those living in the West, still have very little understanding of what everyday life was like behind the Iron Curtain. That’s where the ‘Soviet Visuals’ social media project comes in. It collects and shares historical photos, propaganda posters, illustrations, and architectural images from the USSR in order to give people a better understanding of the Soviet and post-Soviet eras.

If you’re fans of history and old-timey photography, dear Pandas, then this is the article for you. Remember to upvote your fave pics as you scroll down. And if you grew up in the former USSR, let us know in the comments what life was really like back then. The good, the bad, the ugly—don’t skip out on the details.

Bored Panda spoke to the founder of the aesthetic time capsule that is the 'Soviet Visuals' project, Varia Bortsova. She was kind enough to answer our questions. "I always really enjoyed rummaging through old family VHS tapes and magazine cutouts, and starting a Twitter account became a way to share these findings with the world," she told us. "Over time, more and more people started to contribute their own visuals and it evolved into a real community. I started the project on my own but now have two awesome researchers on board who help source new archive content daily and process user submissions."

We were interested to hear Varia's thoughts about why 'Soviet Visuals' became so successful. "A couple of reasons, I think. Soviet Visuals content feeds an appetite for vintage aesthetics: from design, to fashion, to architecture, to music. A lot of what was produced behind the Iron Curtain was actually exceptionally creative (despite, or sometimes due to the various ideological constraints)," she said. Scroll down for the full interview.

Read More: 40 Pics That Perfectly Sum Up The Soviet And Post Soviet Times, As Shared On This Page

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#21 School Pencil Case, USSR, 1970s

#22 Pictures Of A Russian Meteorologist Who Spent 30 Years At An Arctic Meteorology Base. By Evgenia Arbugaeva

#23 "Down With CPSU". Soviet Punks During The August 1991 Coup In Moscow

#24 Babies Sleep Well In The Air In A Light Frost. Nursery №155. Dzerzhinsky District Of Moscow. Photographer Dmitry Baltermantz. 1958

#25 "8 March-International Women's Day" Soviet Postcard, 1961

#26 Belka And Strelka, Soviet Space Dogs. Photo By Yuri Krivonosov, 1960

#27 Soviet Swimmer Maria Havrish Congratulates Her Rival Elena Kovalenko, Who Defeated Her In The Breaststroke Competition At The Spartakiad Of The Peoples Of The USSR In Moscow, 1956

#28 Kievskaya Metro Station. Photo By Dean Conger, Moscow, USSR, 1964

#29 Ice Swimmers In Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, 1960s

#30 The Remains Of A Concrete Apartment Building In Kirovsky, A Former Fisherman Village In Kamchatka Which Was Abandoned In 1964

#31 "My Grandma With Her Classmates. Lori Region, Armenia, 1966-1967"

#32 Soviet Cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin And Gherman Titov In Their Flight Suits And Helmets, In A Bus Heading Toward The Vostok 1 Launch Site In Baykonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, USSR, On 12 April 1961. Gagarin Was Soon To Become Famous As The First Man In Space

#33 Young Pioneers In Defense Drill. Photo By Viktor Bulla, Leningrad, USSR, 1937

#34 Leonid Brezhnev And Erich Honecker. Photo By Helmuth Lohmann, Berlin, GDR, 1979

#35 Baby Yoda Is Just Capitalist Cheburashka. May The 4th Be With You!

#36 Amanauz Hotel Abandoned During Construction, Dombay, USSR, 1985

#37 Self-Made New Year Robot Costume, USSR, 1964

#38 Post-Soviet Visual

#39 "The Face Of Imperialism" Soviet Belarusian Poster, 1967

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