Photos from the "old days"

From link in post #18:

This one is striking Soviet design. Also it, if you will, reminds me of 50-60's era sci-fi films (ufo invasion).
8Teatre.jpg


:)
35Brest_deti.jpg


Different times back then.
3Plos4a.jpg


I should know this right now (tanks) but...
(actuallly, is this ballpark? Because I 'didn't' know-> https://www.militaryfactory.com/armor/ww2-soviet-tanks.asp)
Sherman's and Panthers are the most familiar. :)
4Plos4a.jpg


Great image. Kind of a classic in many ways isn't it now? :)
41Partizany_most.jpg


I'll stop here but not for lack of interest. (Well maybe the obviously hot 80's Russian Woman:))
So many great thought provoking photos here.
Thank-you.
 
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I'll go from the top down -

1) This was the main theater in Minsk. The city was mostly destroyed during WWII, as the retreating Germans had the 78th Sturm Division stuck in the city (that was on Hitler's orders, as he just wasted the elite infantry division for no reason) and, after they finally surrendered, the city was pretty much burned. The small wooden huts were part of the landscape in the city until the 1980's. In fact, my paternal grandmother, my paternal aunt with her family lived in a similar type dwelling. Their had electricity and, if I am not mistaken, running water.

The theater itself was built in 1933-1938 and is still a major cultural center after several extensive remodeling jobs.

https://www.belcanto.ru/media/images/uploaded/belarusopera.jpg

2) The girl and the boy in a military uniform is the oldest photo there, dating to 1890 (according to the site). Likely from a well-to-do noble family.

3) The parade is to commemorate the 15th year of Belarus "liberation" from the Polish occupation and is from 1935. It's in front of the Belarus Government Building. The building and the giant statue of Lenin are also still there.

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/CWJHAK/belarus-minsk-government-building-and-a-statue-of-lenin-CWJHAK.jpg

4) The tanks on the military parade were the license built British Vickers 6 Ton's (renamed as T-26 by the Soviets). As military weapons, they were quite useful in the 1930s but an easy pray for the German 37mm anti-tank guns once Barbarossa began.

5) The last one is purportedly taken of the Soviet guerilla (or, as they are called there "partisans") fighters in 1943. I'd say this was a staged photo and taken significantly away from the German occupied territory, as the Germans were prone to guarding the better bridges and the body pose of the look out guy is not the one a look-out guy would take. Besides that, everyone is too clean and clean-shaven. In the real war, the appearances were the opposite.*

https://deacademic.com/pictures/dewiki/73/Interrogation_sovjet_partisan_1942.jpg

*The same goes for most infantry soldiers.
 
Technically, not photos, but paintings by Vassily Kolotev, who portrayed the "seedy side" of the Soviet life. His work was prohibited until the late 1980's. He made a living as a tool&die worker instead.

Warning -some of these paintings are NSFW and a bit on a dicey side. OK, more than a "bit".

https://bigpicture.ru/?p=1009451

And since I have just found this site, more pictures to exhibit about the Soviet and the Soviet immigrant life by Zoya Cherkasski-Nnadi, a Kiev born Israeli painter. She's silly but cute, especially about her depiction of the Soviet 1980's.

https://bigpicture.ru/?p=915193
 
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So, in the summer of 1974, one Richard Milhous Nixon rolled into Minsk. Associated Press rolled in with him and took some B-roll footage for their coverage of a sitting US president. No audio.

 
Nixon's visit was during the detante period and, surely one of the great victories in the propaganda war was the Russian language expo called "Home Living" (Or "Technology and home living"), which showed the latest in American housing and in-home appliances. For those attending the expo, the lines were humongous but one could grab a glossy brochure and a USA flag pin (the school authorities frowned on the USA pin wearers and, generally, told them to take the pins off).

As to the glossy brochure. Here it is, with Gerry Ford's photo and greeting upfront. In Russian.

https://picturehistory.livejournal.com/2896223.html
 
Someone should make a thread of the old days of the film industry. That would be cool to see.

To add to this though, heres a video I cut together of footage from the 1960s of my hometown Naperville, Illinois and the surrounding suburbs. The footage comes from a marketing video for when Bell Labs built their huge campus in Naperville in the 60s... This video was letting employees who were transferring there know all about the area.

 
Different "old days", Mike.

In any case, Yakub Kolas was a renown Belorussian poet with several memorials and statues in Belarus' capital. His son Michael (Mihas) was a competitive pistol shooter and a photographer. Who took these photos of Minsk, from the 1940-1960's.

https://news.tut.by/culture/514905....ACp1FllTVPOAHrSilmH0YtnnbKMdFknLxKOribR8lblq8

And I happen to have graduated high school with the poet's granddaughter (and Michael;s daughter) Vera Mitskevich. Who was a very sweet gal.

The main statue in what is known as a Yakub Kolas square, not far from where we lived.

yakub-kolas-monument-minsk-great-belarusian-writer-jakub-square-his-name-belarus-131390206.jpg
 
Mike Krumlauf said:
My bad, just realizing this is primarily Russian based.
Click to expand...

I started as a throwback to my youth in the USSR. I figured some may get a chuckle out of that era. Or worse.

This page is in English and coincides (roughly speaking) with my school years. That's how we looked then.

http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu/classrooms/soviet.htm

This is a clip from the 1976 film "Rozygrysh" (a Prank or Practical Joke in English) that was shot on location at a Moscow high school, using actual high school students as extras. This is as close to authentic as one can get. Plus, there's a very popular song from that film included in the clip.

 
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