7 ms·

Posters of the golden age of Soviet cosmonauts

92 points by coloneltcb 11y ago

dogma1138 11y ago
The old soviet space religion, that's one thing that should've been preserved from the USSR.
- kushti 11y ago
  There are many other things worth to be mentioned. E.g. nature preserving approach of early Soviet days http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/ecology/ussr_ecology.htm http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/ecology/ussr_ecology.ht..., or no plastic post-consumer waste.
  - theoh 11y ago
    Without intending to liken the USSR to Nazi Germany, the Nazis also had very "green" policies. Why suggest that conservation on the early soviet model should be revisited when in fact you just want conservation, but for different reasons and from a different kind of state? What I've written doesn't sound very clear but the point I'm trying to make is that even a misguided state can get some things right. That doesn't mean those things can only be got right by that kind of state, or that we should call for those things to be administered by such a state in perpetuity...
    - calibraxis 11y ago
      No one said that. Just that the Soviets had useful cultural aspects worth adopting. "We are used to thinking of the Politburo as a group of unimaginative gray bureaucrats, but they were bureaucrats who dared to dream astounding dreams." (http://thebaffler.com/salvos/of-flying-cars-and-the-declining-rate-of-profit http://thebaffler.com/salvos/of-flying-cars-and-the-declinin...) Both the US and former Soviet Union are culturally backwards in many ways, but each has aspects worth learning from. One can easily think of societies improved beyond both "theirs & ours," which also unleash imagination.
- IndianAstronaut 11y ago
  I do wish we still had the motivation and interest in space that we did. People don't realize how little of the cosmos we have explored.
vitalysalnikov 11y ago
Awesome and very patriotic posters. In post-USSR countries every child knows who are Y. Gagarin, S. Korolev and V. Tereshkova. I think not only in post-USSR.
- yareally 11y ago
  I didn't know who Korolev was until I watched a series[1] the BBC did about him and his Western Counterpart, Wernher von Braun. I knew since I was a kid who Gagarin was of course, from being the first man in space, but I don't believe it was ever mentioned in history class while in school (I just happened to read a lot on my own). Sadly, we barely even touch on NASA astronauts in school in the United States anymore. I just happen to love history and had parents that also did. I live in Neil Armstrong's home state and if you're ever in Ohio, there's a pretty interesting (and free) museum in his home town about his life and the Apollo Missions. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race_(TV_series) [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_Air_and_Space_Museum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_Air_and_Space_Museum
  - pavel_lishin 11y ago
    I don't remember ever learning about Gagarin in school, growing up in Russia. But I knew it none-the-less, because his statue always greeted me whenever I left my apartment. http://havecamerawilltravel.com/yuri-gagarin-monument-moscow http://havecamerawilltravel.com/yuri-gagarin-monument-moscow
    - eps 11y ago
      Growing up in Russia too, I call bullshit. That's just not possible. You learnt Lenin, then you learnt Gagarin.
      - pavel_lishin 11y ago
        Maybe I just don't remember it. I left when I was 10. Perhaps my teachers were just crap?
rodionos 11y ago
This graphics style is quite distinctive. I wish books, ads and even magazines would adopt it instead of crafting special effects in Photoshop. Disappearance of artist-made drawings is really unfortunate, especially in such categories as children books.
- frozenport 11y ago
  Worse than that, many people don't expect photographs to be Photoshopped, when most are.
  - rimantas 11y ago
    It's like saying "many people don't expect books to be proof-read, when most are".
    - AnthonyMouse 11y ago
      > It's like saying "many people don't expect books to be proof-read, when most are". It's not. Books are written by humans. You expect them to contain fiction or opinion. Pictures are taken by mechanical equipment with no agenda. "The camera never lies" etc. Obviously you can also stage a photograph unrepresentative of reality using techniques other than Photoshop, but the general expectation is that what you see in a photograph is what you would have seen with your own eyes if you had been there at the time. But people also blame Photoshop when the problem is endemic. Only people with certain body types are hired in Hollywood. Then they have professional makeup artists and hair stylists make them up like a plastic doll, and then the pictures are photoshopped. I suspect a big part of the reason the criticism is rarely taken seriously is that the proposed alternative of "normal" people is so obviously the wrong one. The average American is overweight and doesn't get enough exercise. People aren't going to want to look at that or be inspired to look like that, nor should they be. But the concept that the represented ideal physical appearance should resemble real athletes rather than stick figures or couch potatoes doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone.
      - 11y ago
pvg 11y ago
The last poster http://i.imgur.com/R6ouayv.jpg http://i.imgur.com/R6ouayv.jpg is not just showing some random "elongated triangle". The monument to "The Conquerors of Space" in Moscow (completed earlier): http://i.imgur.com/7f6KY7r.jpg http://i.imgur.com/7f6KY7r.jpg
- chiph 11y ago
  I thought the first one was a stylized ringworld until I saw the rocket at the top.
MengerSponge 11y ago
The Cosmonauts exhibit is fantastic, if you manage to make it to London before next March.
- mino 11y ago
  Indeed. I'm volunteering at that exhibit and it is really well presented.
sethbannon 11y ago
Very neat. Would love to see the American equivalents. Anyone have a link?
- RobertKerans 11y ago
  I'd guess it's a wee bit difficult to provide that: [saying this as a designer/illustrator with a deep interest in the subject] Soviet design inherited rules from artists involved at the start of the revolution, and was formalised via government-run technical schools and propaganda bureaus, so there was a constant stream of highly public stuff in this style, which covered print, architecture, products etc. In the US, bar propaganda during the war, there was never close to the same formal propaganda structure, so though there are are isolated examples, it was always more ad hoc: good design/illustration was always commercial (as a side note, classic sci-fi/popular mechanics covers were very heavily informed by Soviet space propaganda posters). Closest you'd get is probably postage stamps. NASA has some stuff archived, but it's not the same, it's just prosaic designs with stuff like a photo of the crew of a mission. I assume it wasn't promoted with the same religious fervour in the US, no creation of secular ikons
azinman2 11y ago
Last one is my favorite. Very cool.
achalshah 11y ago
There's a good interview with the curators of the museum here: http://calvertjournal.com/features/show/4654 http://calvertjournal.com/features/show/4654.
ramgorur 11y ago
very cool, I am going to use one of them as my wall-paper.
DanBC 11y ago
There are (were) books collecting Soviet political posters. Here's one example: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soviet-Political-Posters-1917-80/dp/0140081879 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soviet-Political-Posters-1917-80/dp/... That one is lovely; A3 with reasonable printing. I'm a bit surprised there aren't more books. The posters cover a wide range of propaganda - including public health.
ivanb 11y ago
More Soviet awesomeness on the covers of magazine "Technology - Youth" http://feldgrau.info/64-2010-09-02-12-20-17/5664-70s-soviet-technology-youth-magazine-covers http://feldgrau.info/64-2010-09-02-12-20-17/5664-70s-soviet-... https://www.google.com/search?q=%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B6%D0%BA%D0%B8+%D0%B6%D1%83%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B0+%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%85%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0+%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B4%D1%91%D0%B6%D0%B8&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CCQQsARqFQoTCMiTh52rhcgCFWV3cgodQAkM9g&biw=1830&bih=960# https://www.google.com/search?q=%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%...

92 points by coloneltcb 11y ago

dogma1138 11y ago

The old soviet space religion, that's one thing that should've been preserved from the USSR.

kushti 11y ago
There are many other things worth to be mentioned. E.g. nature preserving approach of early Soviet days http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/ecology/ussr_ecology.htm http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/ecology/ussr_ecology.ht..., or no plastic post-consumer waste.
- theoh 11y ago
  Without intending to liken the USSR to Nazi Germany, the Nazis also had very "green" policies. Why suggest that conservation on the early soviet model should be revisited when in fact you just want conservation, but for different reasons and from a different kind of state? What I've written doesn't sound very clear but the point I'm trying to make is that even a misguided state can get some things right. That doesn't mean those things can only be got right by that kind of state, or that we should call for those things to be administered by such a state in perpetuity...
  - calibraxis 11y ago
    No one said that. Just that the Soviets had useful cultural aspects worth adopting. "We are used to thinking of the Politburo as a group of unimaginative gray bureaucrats, but they were bureaucrats who dared to dream astounding dreams." (http://thebaffler.com/salvos/of-flying-cars-and-the-declining-rate-of-profit http://thebaffler.com/salvos/of-flying-cars-and-the-declinin...) Both the US and former Soviet Union are culturally backwards in many ways, but each has aspects worth learning from. One can easily think of societies improved beyond both "theirs & ours," which also unleash imagination.
IndianAstronaut 11y ago
I do wish we still had the motivation and interest in space that we did. People don't realize how little of the cosmos we have explored.

vitalysalnikov 11y ago

Awesome and very patriotic posters. In post-USSR countries every child knows who are Y. Gagarin, S. Korolev and V. Tereshkova. I think not only in post-USSR.

yareally 11y ago
I didn't know who Korolev was until I watched a series[1] the BBC did about him and his Western Counterpart, Wernher von Braun. I knew since I was a kid who Gagarin was of course, from being the first man in space, but I don't believe it was ever mentioned in history class while in school (I just happened to read a lot on my own). Sadly, we barely even touch on NASA astronauts in school in the United States anymore. I just happen to love history and had parents that also did. I live in Neil Armstrong's home state and if you're ever in Ohio, there's a pretty interesting (and free) museum in his home town about his life and the Apollo Missions. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race_(TV_series) [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_Air_and_Space_Museum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_Air_and_Space_Museum
- pavel_lishin 11y ago
  I don't remember ever learning about Gagarin in school, growing up in Russia. But I knew it none-the-less, because his statue always greeted me whenever I left my apartment. http://havecamerawilltravel.com/yuri-gagarin-monument-moscow http://havecamerawilltravel.com/yuri-gagarin-monument-moscow
  - eps 11y ago
    Growing up in Russia too, I call bullshit. That's just not possible. You learnt Lenin, then you learnt Gagarin.
    - pavel_lishin 11y ago
      Maybe I just don't remember it. I left when I was 10. Perhaps my teachers were just crap?

rodionos 11y ago

This graphics style is quite distinctive. I wish books, ads and even magazines would adopt it instead of crafting special effects in Photoshop. Disappearance of artist-made drawings is really unfortunate, especially in such categories as children books.

frozenport 11y ago
Worse than that, many people don't expect photographs to be Photoshopped, when most are.
- rimantas 11y ago
  It's like saying "many people don't expect books to be proof-read, when most are".
  - AnthonyMouse 11y ago
    > It's like saying "many people don't expect books to be proof-read, when most are". It's not. Books are written by humans. You expect them to contain fiction or opinion. Pictures are taken by mechanical equipment with no agenda. "The camera never lies" etc. Obviously you can also stage a photograph unrepresentative of reality using techniques other than Photoshop, but the general expectation is that what you see in a photograph is what you would have seen with your own eyes if you had been there at the time. But people also blame Photoshop when the problem is endemic. Only people with certain body types are hired in Hollywood. Then they have professional makeup artists and hair stylists make them up like a plastic doll, and then the pictures are photoshopped. I suspect a big part of the reason the criticism is rarely taken seriously is that the proposed alternative of "normal" people is so obviously the wrong one. The average American is overweight and doesn't get enough exercise. People aren't going to want to look at that or be inspired to look like that, nor should they be. But the concept that the represented ideal physical appearance should resemble real athletes rather than stick figures or couch potatoes doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone.
    - 11y ago

pvg 11y ago

The last poster http://i.imgur.com/R6ouayv.jpg http://i.imgur.com/R6ouayv.jpg is not just showing some random "elongated triangle". The monument to "The Conquerors of Space" in Moscow (completed earlier): http://i.imgur.com/7f6KY7r.jpg http://i.imgur.com/7f6KY7r.jpg

chiph 11y ago
I thought the first one was a stylized ringworld until I saw the rocket at the top.

MengerSponge 11y ago

The Cosmonauts exhibit is fantastic, if you manage to make it to London before next March.

mino 11y ago
Indeed. I'm volunteering at that exhibit and it is really well presented.

sethbannon 11y ago

Very neat. Would love to see the American equivalents. Anyone have a link?

RobertKerans 11y ago
I'd guess it's a wee bit difficult to provide that: [saying this as a designer/illustrator with a deep interest in the subject] Soviet design inherited rules from artists involved at the start of the revolution, and was formalised via government-run technical schools and propaganda bureaus, so there was a constant stream of highly public stuff in this style, which covered print, architecture, products etc. In the US, bar propaganda during the war, there was never close to the same formal propaganda structure, so though there are are isolated examples, it was always more ad hoc: good design/illustration was always commercial (as a side note, classic sci-fi/popular mechanics covers were very heavily informed by Soviet space propaganda posters). Closest you'd get is probably postage stamps. NASA has some stuff archived, but it's not the same, it's just prosaic designs with stuff like a photo of the crew of a mission. I assume it wasn't promoted with the same religious fervour in the US, no creation of secular ikons

azinman2 11y ago

Last one is my favorite. Very cool.

achalshah 11y ago

There's a good interview with the curators of the museum here: http://calvertjournal.com/features/show/4654 http://calvertjournal.com/features/show/4654.

ramgorur 11y ago

very cool, I am going to use one of them as my wall-paper.

DanBC 11y ago

There are (were) books collecting Soviet political posters. Here's one example: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soviet-Political-Posters-1917-80/dp/0140081879 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soviet-Political-Posters-1917-80/dp/... That one is lovely; A3 with reasonable printing. I'm a bit surprised there aren't more books. The posters cover a wide range of propaganda - including public health.

ivanb 11y ago

More Soviet awesomeness on the covers of magazine "Technology - Youth" http://feldgrau.info/64-2010-09-02-12-20-17/5664-70s-soviet-technology-youth-magazine-covers http://feldgrau.info/64-2010-09-02-12-20-17/5664-70s-soviet-... https://www.google.com/search?q=%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B6%D0%BA%D0%B8+%D0%B6%D1%83%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B0+%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%85%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0+%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B4%D1%91%D0%B6%D0%B8&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CCQQsARqFQoTCMiTh52rhcgCFWV3cgodQAkM9g&biw=1830&bih=960# https://www.google.com/search?q=%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%...