Soviet Art

Soviet ballerina Ekaterina Maximova

Outstanding Soviet ballerina Ekaterina Maximova was born on February 1, 1939 in Moscow. Her father, Sergei Maksimov was an engineer and her mother Tatyana Maximova – journalist and editor of the publishing house. Grandpa of Ekaterina Maximova – Gustav Shpet was a Russian philosopher, psychologist, art theorist, translator of philosophical and artistic literature. Moreover, among Maksimovs’ relatives were composer Rachmaninoff and pre-revolutionary Minister Guchkov. Later, Ekaterina Maximova told: “Nevertheless, I grew up an ordinary girl. Like everyone in the USSR, I was Little Octobrist, Pioneer, Komsomol member. We did not emigrate to the West, like some of our friends. I could not break away from Russia, mother, friends. I could not imagine life without my native Moscow, Kostroma village Ryzhevka where Volodya and I bought a house.”
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Don Quixote, 1940. As Kitri – Soviet ballerina Olga Lepeshinskaya (28 September 1916 – December 20, 2008)

Soviet ballerina Olga Lepeshinskaya
Born into a noble Russian family, Lepeshinskaya performed in private concerts at the Moscow Kremlin from the age of 17.
As a child, Olga could move every second – to any music, and even without it. Her parents joked, that she had learned to dance before she could walk. But nobody took her aspirations seriously. Especially her father, an engineer of bridge constructing, who had worked in the transportation department of the State Planning Commission since its foundation.
For many decades, the Lepeshinsky family were engineers, scientists, professional revolutionaries, and statesmen. However, they never had the career of a ballerina in their plans. But then the family friend – a theater artist and former dancer persuaded Olga’s mother Maria to show their daughter to the knowledgeable teachers. And Maria secretly from her husband took her daughter to the ballet school.
According to Olga Lepeshinskaya, she knew that was a favorite ballerina of Stalin. Nevertheless, she was surprised to see her name among the first laureates of the Stalin Prize, next to the brilliant Ulanova and conductor Faier. Olga explained: “Stalin regarded me as a product of the Soviet era. First, in his view, true Soviet ballerina. I’m always actively engaged in social activities, was within the team – even elected a deputy … Always trying to make amends for my aristocratic origin.”
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Famous photo of WWII by Soviet photographer Max Alpert ‘Combat’, July 1942

Max Vladimirovich Alpert (18 March 1899 Simferopol, Russian Empire – November 30, 1980, Moscow) – Soviet photographer and photo reporter. One of the founders of the Soviet serial photography. Honored Worker of Culture of the RSFSR (1966). Together with his brother, Mikhail Alperin, he studied photography in Odessa (1914). After the Civil War, he worked as a photojournalist in the “Workers Newspaper” in Moscow. In 1920s he became a member of the association of photo reporters at the Moscow printing house. In the 1930s, he worked in the illustrated magazine “USSR in Construction”, prepared about 50 photo-essays. The most important works of this period are made on the construction of the plant in Magnitogorsk (MMK), the Turksib, the Great Fergana Canal. He captured the fascinating history page of human labor, developed a monumental image of our era.
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Soviet actress Tatiana Okunevskaya (March 3, 1914 – May 15, 2002)

“I grew up, and realized – there is nothing uglier than revolution, when the people themselves, with their own hands, crumble and destroy all the best that has been created, and then they can not create anything”. Tatiana Okunevskaya. Soviet actress Tatiana Okunevskaya was born March 3, 1914 in Moscow. Her father was tsarists officer Kirill Petrovich Okunevsky. Mother Evgeniya Okunevskaya – excellent housewife, very good at knitting, playing the piano, guitar, embroidery, singing old songs. In her childhood, Tatiana studied at the school that was in front of the Theatre named after Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. After high school, Tatiana tried to enter the Institute of Architecture, but failed. The same year, to 17-year-old Tatiana came up a young man who introduced himself as an assistant director. Dazzled by her beauty, he stated that she was exactly the type they needed for the role. From that very day her film career has began.
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Best on the Far East cigarettes. Vintage Cigarette ads in USSR

Vintage Cigarette ads in USSR
Java, Capital, Space, Apollo-Soyuz, Prima, Laika – these names are familiar to millions of smokers of the Soviet Union, and not only to smokers. Soviet cigarette story began after World War II. Prior to that, the majority of smokers used cigars and Hand-rolled cigarettes. Cigarettes with filter and form of international standard appeared only in 1966. By the mid 70-ies of the USSR entered the three of the world’s leading manufacturers of tobacco products, giving the palm only the US and China. The Soviet Union produced 365 billion cigarettes per year – about a tenth of the world’s production. Cigarettes have become essential goods for many Soviet people thanks to colorful printed ads, in the form of posters.
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Golden Era of Soviet Radiola

Golden Era of Soviet Radiola was in the 1940s – 1970s. Most commonly known as Radiograms, in the USSR it was called Radiola – household electronic device, constructively uniting a radio receiver and electrophone. Nostalgic apparatus of a bygone era, still used, though rarely, in a retro style country house, or dacha. Though it is more than 50 years old, it still works fine. Sometimes it’s nice to listen to the old vinyl record or any radio station, wandering in the memories of the lovely distant.
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USSR letters of lights, Kalinin Avenue, 1977. Soviet photographer Viktor Akhlomov

Soviet photographer Viktor Akhlomov was born March 15, 1938 in Moscow. He is one of the most famous photographers of the USSR and Russia. During his professional lifetime Viktor has captured many celebrities and world-historical scale personalities, such as Yuri Gagarin, Ernesto Che Guevara, and Anna Akhmatova. Viktor Akhlomov is an honored Worker of Culture of Russia. In addition, he is the winner of the Russian Journalists’ Union, many All-Union, Russian and international exhibitions and competitions. Besides, he is the four-time winner of the prestigious competition «World Press Photo», winner of the “Golden Eye” – the highest award of Russian photojournalism, Honorary Member of the Union of Photographers of Russia. Akhlomov started working as a photographer for the newspaper “Izvestia” March 5, 1960. To this day, and it is the only entry in his employment record.
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