While the beauty of Russian women has become almost a myth, the way Soviet ladies really looked is still a mystery to foreingers. Being no strangers to fashion, Soviet women and girls tried to do their best to look beautiful and catch the eye of men.
A young resident of the city of Yaroslavl, central Russia.
Students of the Odessa Polytechnic Institute (currently Ukraine) during an evening walk in a student camp on the Black Sea shore in summer.
A student during classes in a language lab.
Women on a beach in Crimea off the Black Sea.
Young women in front of the mirror in a cafe in Moscow, 1961.
A young milkmaid at a farm on the outskirts of Kostroma, central Russia.
A knitting machine operator at a factory in Latvia, then a Soviet republic.
A girl runs away from a cow.
Women look at a fur coat at an exhibition of Russian manufacturers in Moscow, 1962.
Weavers of a combine in Ivanovo, Russia.
A young woman at the Fifth All-Union Art Exhibition "Seven-year plan in action."
A young woman in winter.
A parade of athletes on the Red Square in Moscow.
A sneak peek into daily life in the city of Sverdlovsk (currently Russia's Ekaterinburg).
Pupils of the Vitebsk Judo Sports Club in Belarus, then a Soviet republic.
Soviet youth during a yacht cruise.
Students from Bashkortostan picking apples in a collective farm during agricultural work in the Astrakhan region, southern Russia.
A worker during the construction of the Krasnoyarsk Dam, Siberia, Russia.
A young woman on a beach off the Baltic Sea on the outskirts of Riga, Latvia, then a Soviet republic.
A group of students in the 1960s.
Harvesting of cereals in the fields of the Turkmenistan, then a Soviet republic, 1939.
