Less than 24 hours are left until Russia Day at the Shanghai World Expo-2010. These exhibitions have been held since the mid 19th century. After the October Revolution of 1917 the country did not seek to participate in international events and took part in the world exhibition only 20 years later, in 1937, in Paris. The Soviet Union presented a large-scale exhibition to the world about life and work in a socialist state. At an exhibition in New York two years later in 1939 the Soviet pavilion also caused a sensation.
Less than 24 hours are left until Russia Day at the Shanghai World Expo-2010. These exhibitions have been held since the mid 19th century. After the October Revolution of 1917 the country did not seek to participate in international events and took part in the world exhibition only 20 years later, in 1937, in Paris. The Soviet Union presented a large-scale exhibition to the world about life and work in a socialist state. At an exhibition in New York two years later in 1939 the Soviet pavilion also caused a sensation. Photo: Soviet pavilion by architect Boris Iofan at the International exhibition in Paris, 1937.
The next exhibition took place 13 years later, after World War II, in 1958 in Brussels. The Soviet exposition at the exhibition again managed to amaze the world like no other pavilion from a western country. Photo: Soviet pavilion at the World Expo in Brussels.
The Soviet Union demonstrated cutting-edge technology in three leading spheres at that time – space exploration, atomic energy and jet aviation.
The highlights of the pavilion were of course the exact copies of two first sputniks of the Earth. They were awarded a Grand Prix… Photo: Soviet pavilion at the World Expo in Brussels.
..like the models of the world’s first industrial nuclear power plants – the Siberian and Voronezh plants were launched a year before the exhibition. At the same time the jury highly appreciated the Soviet civilian aviation. A Grand-Prix was also given to the recently introduced jet liner TU-114 which had remained the world’s largest passenger aircraft up to the middle of the 1960s and linked Moscow with the Far East and America for many years. These awards weren’t the only ones.
In Brussels, numerous awards were also given to the Soviet vehicle industry. For example, a Grand-Prix was given to the Gorky Automobile Plant that presented Volga GAZ 21 car and GAZ 52 truck. A 40-ton MAZ dump-truck, TDT 40 tractor and Izh Jupiter motorcycle also received the awards.
At the next exhibition that took place in Montreal almost a decade later, in 1967, the Soviet exposition was also very impressive a. Ideologically and technically, it was expanding its achievements that had been displayed in Brussels.
The USSR’s pavilion was the most attended, beating that of even the host country, Canada: 13 million people and 11 million, correspondingly. At the same time however, it was noted that the Soviet exposition was less of a breakthrough than it had been in Brussels.
The first space flight had already taken place quite a while ago, and space was no longer seen as something unusual. Atomic energy had been quite widely spread by then. And by the end of the 1960s, the entire world was used to the USSR’s global constructions.
Nonetheless, the exposition was a success, and its space display was the most popular. It presented numerous full-size spacecraft models, including the spacecraft Vostok that had taken Gagarin into space.
The USSR’s new industrial giants - models of the Novolipetsk and Krivoy Rog metallurgical complexes, the Kransoyarsk Hydroelectric Power Station, the largest power plant in the world - were also noted as well. Photo: model of Serpukhov synchrophasotron at the Soviet pavilion of Expo-67.
At the next exhibition at the Japanese city of Osaka in 1970, the Soviet pavilion paid special attention not only to the space exploration (the space display was mainly repeating the previous exposition), but also to development of Siberia.
In particular, such items as the diorama of the West Siberian metallurgical complex with a model of the largest blast-furnace, and models of coal fields and Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydroelectric Power Station were presented.
The display of art and culture was also broadly represented.
And again the Soviet pavilion created a stir…
Photo: crowds of visitors to the Soviet pavilion of the Expo-70 in Osaka, Japan.
Photo: crowds of visitors to the Soviet pavilion of the Expo-70 in Osaka, Japan.
… and gathered huge lines near the entrance.
