Remembering the crew of Soyuz 11—Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev—who died returning from their mission due to their capsule depressurizing on the night of June 29, 1971.
This blog is about old postcards, book illustration and all kinds of paper whimsy from the Soviet Union. I'm a long time collector, and this blog is 7 years old. I have an etsy shop for cards, books, pins and vintage finds from Russia.
The first cosmonauts of the Soviet Union (1960s)
Yuri Gagarin amidst celebrations marking his space flight. The boy is dressed up as a cosmonaut, his headpiece reads USSR.
“Songs About Space” (1969)
Soviet film with space-themed songs and footage of Yuri Gagarin and his fellow cosmonauts.
Soviet space dog Zvyozdochka (Little Star) made one orbit on board Korabl-Sputnik 5 on 25 March 1961 with a wooden cosmonaut dummy in the final practice flight before Gagarin’s historic flight on 12 April. She safely returned to Earth.
Yury Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934.
Happy birthday Yura!
Space Pavillion at VDNKh. Photos by Lyudmila Gor (1986) ()
You may have noticed that many of the Soviet space-themed pins are pentagon shaped. Why is that? The pentagon shape is a reference to the Moon pennant that was sent to the Moon on spacecraft in 1959.
I bought this collection of 400+ space-themed pins yesterday (it’s not from the flea market but from a local man) - and I’m in awe! What a treasure.
Sputnik was launched on October 4, 1957
Listen to its radio signal, beep… beep…
“Glory to Soviet science!” - postcard by V. Klimashin, 1959 ()
Booklet from the Museum of Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Zvyozdny Gorodok (Star Town) near Moscow - published in 1987 ()
Valentina Tereshkova flew into space on this day, June 16, 1963
She was the first woman cosmonaut ever.
Sputnik postcard by V. Viktorov, 1971 (full set is in my shop)