Multimedia

A Bridge to the Past: Rare Nostalgic Photos From the USSR

Sputnik

About 66% of the Russian population regret that the Soviet Union collapsed, according to a 2018 poll. According to reviews, what is missed most about the former Soviet Union was its shared economic system, which granted a modicum of financial stability and also a sense of belonging to a great superpower.

1 / 24
A tired boy in his mother’s arms on a Moscow street in 1963.
2 / 24
A man and a woman in a Zhiguli, in Tolyatti, 1971.
3 / 24
Young fathers with their babies on one of Vilnius' streets. Vilnius, Lithuania, 1990.
4 / 24
The restoration of the Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed, commonly known as Saint Basil's Cathedral on Red Square in Moscow, 1979.
5 / 24
A father teaches twins to ride tricycles, 1968.
6 / 24
A couple walks through tram lines, 1968.
7 / 24
A sushki factory. Sushki are small, crunchy, mildly sweet bread rings, 1967.
8 / 24
Girls from the choreographic studio in the classroom at the Meridian Palace of Culture, 1985.
9 / 24
A woman looks at a bronze female sculpture by the French sculptor Aristide Maillol (1861-1944) at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, 1979.
10 / 24
Young couple at Defenders of the Soviet Arctic during the Great Patriotic War, commonly called the Alyosha monument in Murmansk, 1977.
11 / 24
Tourists on an trip to Leningrad (St. Petersburg) at St. Isaac's Cathedral (left), 1952.
12 / 24
Flight attendants in dance classes at the Leningrad Technical School of Civil Aviation, 1984.
13 / 24
A sentinel at a border post in the Arctic, 1982.
14 / 24
Newborns in a maternity hospital in Moscow, 1955
15 / 24
Pupils of the Tashkent orphanage holding melons, watermelons, grapes, and peaches that they grew themselves in their garden, 1983.
16 / 24
People moving to new houses in Orekhovo-Borisovo in Moscow, 1976.
17 / 24
Workers at the pig-breeding pavilion of the All-Russian Exhibition Centre (VDNKH) feed a pig with piglets on the lawn in front of the pavilion, 1983.
18 / 24
Moscow hipsters dancing the twist, 1980.
19 / 24
Electricians do a routine inspection of the power grid in the village of Elektrenai, Lithuania, 1984.
20 / 24
Pupils from the Naval Nakhimov School exercising on deck, 1988.
21 / 24
Workers at a bakery in Leninakan (Gyumri) unload fresh chureks (flatbread) from a bread van, 1968.
22 / 24
Children play with model planes in 1988.
23 / 24
A training room in a sanatorium in Kislovodsk, 1940.
24 / 24
A telephone exchange on Kalinin Street in Moscow, 1971.
Discuss