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Beaches, Sunshine & Swimsuit-Clad Girls: What Soviet-Era Vacation Looked Like

Sputnik

Фbout a thousand different sanatoriums existed in the USSR during the 1970s, with people visiting them mostly in the summertime.

In the afternoon, people swam, sunbathed, played various games, went hiking, sightseeing, and water-skiing

In the evening they could go to discos or concerts, organise amateur performances or even compete in a chess tournament.

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Girls have fun in the Baltic Sea in the Lithuanian SSR, 1980.
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The most tricky element of the Soviet swimsuit was the button.
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A beach in Riga, in July
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On the Black Sea coast of Crimea, people rest on the beaches of Gurzuf, 1961.
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A girl on a beach in the resort town of Pärnu, Estonian SSR, 1961
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Kurpaty sanatorium in Yalta, Crimea, 1950.
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A boat trip, 1963.
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Members of the USSR youth dance sports team relax on the beach in Alushta, 1983
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Seaside resort Pitsunda on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus in Abkhazia, 1968
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A man water skis in Adler, 1971
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Gymnastics practice on the beach of Tuapse, Krasnodar krai, 1963
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Miners "Donbass" sanatorium on the coast of Yalta.
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People rest on a beach of the resort city of Sochi, 1966
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USSR pilot-cosmonauts Andrian Nikolayev (left) and Yuri Gagarin (right) on vacation in the Crimea, 1967.
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Student Regina Marinaite at a resort in Palanga, 1964
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People rest on a beach in Yalta, 1939.
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Children on the beach in Jurmala, Latvian SSR, 1975
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People on the beach in Jurmala, Latvian SSR, 1975
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City beach near the Azovstal plant on the coast of the Azov Sea, 1978
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A girl on the Riga seaside, 1968
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Moscow students rest in a student camp in Anapa, 1960
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People on a beach in Luzanovka, Odessa, Ukrainian SSR, 1980
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"That's how my mother sunbathes", a picture taken at the Palanga resort, 1964.
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People play chess on a beach of the Yalta sanatorium in 1958.
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Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov bathing with his daughter Vika in the Black Sea, 1967
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Silver (1965) and bronze medalist (1966) of the USSR Cup in all-around Sergei Diomidov, 1968
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People on a beach in front of the restaurant "Juras Perle" on the shores of the Gulf of Riga, Latvian SSR, 1976
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Children on a Black Sea beach, 1967
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Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov during a vacation on the Black Sea coast in 1965
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Boys and girls vacationing at the Sputnik International Youth Camp in Crimea, on the city beach of Gurzuf, 1974.
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Soviet gymnast champion of the USSR, Europe, the world and the Olympic Games Larisa Latynina on vacation in 1964
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On the beach of the children's camp "Gold Coast" in Anapa, 1971
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People on the beach in Jurmala, Latvian SSR, 1975
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Children on the shore of the Black Sea in Crimea, 1975
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