Photography & Digital Art,HistoryJAN 27, 2022

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

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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.

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

#22 Bread On Sale In A Supermarket. Photo By Chris Niedenthal, Sofia, People's Republic Of Bulgaria, 1985

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

#24 Snow Drifts In Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Photo By Yuri Sadovnikov, USSR, 1968

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

#26 Soviet Postcard, 1956

#27 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

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

#29 "Architect" Soviet Construction Kit For Children, 1980s

#30 Boy Standing In Front Of Fallen Statue Of Lenin. Photo By Dario Mitidieri, Ethiopia, 1991

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

#32 Dutch Fashion Models Sonja Bakker And Femke Van De Bosch In Moscow. Photo By Paul Huf, USSR 1965

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

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

#35 Post-Soviet Visual. Fish Sellers In The Market Of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia, March 1993

#36 Vacationers Sunbathing On The Coast Of The Gulf Of Riga In Jurmala. Photo By Yakov Berliner, Latvian SSR, 1975

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

#38 Post-Soviet Visual

#39 World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov (Right) Holds Demo Game At The Sports Festival Dedicated To The XVIII Komsomol Congress. Photo By Vladimir Rodionov, USSR, 24 April 1978

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