
Soviet-Era Industrial Design - how-about-this
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/soviet-design-history?utm_medium=atlas-page&utm_source=twitter
======
rdtsc
Moscow Design Museum has some more examples too
[http://moscowdesignmuseum.ru/en/exhibitions/1/](http://moscowdesignmuseum.ru/en/exhibitions/1/).
Those that grew up in Soviet Union will recognize familiar objects. I
recognized the phones, the "basketball" game, and the portable checkers game.
Well and of course the Moskvitch 408 car.

I don't remember really thinking about design back then. Maybe because we
didn't have many choices. You wanted a tape player you picked between 4
models, cars - same thing, and so on. And there is probably an effect here of
finding the best stuff and displaying it. But that wasn't the average. Most of
the stuff remember being unreliable and needing repair. Electronic equipment
came with nice diagrams of how everything worked, but it wasn't from the
goodness of their hearts, environmental concerns, or trying to foster a
"maker" culture, it was because it would actually be unreliable and break down
quite often.

~~~
markvdb
One thing always strikes me in terms of design when I'm in Latvia (USSR
republic in 1940 and 1945-1990). It is how modular, repairable, and in that
way "simple" things that have survived from the Soviet era look. Ingeniously
built wooden ironing boards for example, the older generations of trams of
Riga, the "Minsk" folding bicycles that you still see around very often, the
trains (no new ones since 1991!), even many of the "Chrushchovkas" appartment
blocks...

Contrary to my previous western bias, some things were clearly being built
very sturdily. In comparison, a lot of things built in the '90s and 2000's
seem to be crumbling already. It all smells of inferior materials, quick and
dirty fixes... I don't know if that is survivor bias kicking in though...

~~~
paganel
> older generations of trams of Riga

A quick google search confirmed what I had already suspected, that is that
those trams are Tatra trams, built in former Czechoslovakia. I’m a big fan of
them, I think they are the main reason why I immediately became a tram-lover
as a student almost 20 years ago when I moved to Bucharest in order to study.
Of course, the newer trams look and are often times a lot more comfortable,
but those Tatra trams have something of a “timeless design” about them that is
hard to pin down but which you can still feel. Ever since I’ve become a tram
lover I starting seeing cities without electric public transport (trams or
trolleys) as belonging to an “inferior” stage of civilization.

~~~
prolepunk
I don't think this is something particular to Warsaw bloc countries. For
example I love GM new look buses that were running around refurbished up until
early 2000s, and the main reason they were replaced not because last of them
broke down but because they weren't accessible. I bet it's the same situation
with Tatra streetcars.

[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=gm+new+look+bus&t=ffab&atb=v112-4&...](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=gm+new+look+bus&t=ffab&atb=v112-4&iax=images&ia=images)

~~~
watersb
"accessible" here meaning "able to be used by people in wheelchairs.

(I guess almost all HN readers are familiar with this term from software
"accessibility" design. USA English is my native (and at present, only)
language but I find these terms odd.)

------
Jhsto
For those interested, this particular kind of design is known as retrofuturism
around the Internet. Reddit has a good subreddit on it:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroFuturism/](https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroFuturism/)

I personally have once had these Sputnik razor blades:
[https://www.ebay.com/p/Sputnik-100-Double-Edge-Razor-
Blades-...](https://www.ebay.com/p/Sputnik-100-Double-Edge-Razor-
Blades-20-Packets-5pcs-for-Shaving-Teflon-Coating/1735481997)

In addition to being dirt cheap, I also found the branding funny. Somehow I
felt like I am buying something not very good in terms of quality, but which
does work (somehow) anyway. There were also pack called Lada's in there. I
definitely felt like the Sputnik ones were better than the Lada's though.

~~~
pandaman
It's Ladas (a Greek athlete). Surprisingly Wikipedia has no entry for him but
only for a village named after him:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladas,_Messenia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladas,_Messenia)

~~~
c-smile
"Lada" has nothing with Greek.

It is a transliteration of Russian "Лада" \- short form of "Ладная" \-
beautiful/harmonious.

~~~
pandaman
Yes, this is why the razor blades are called Ладас in Russian and used to have
a picture of a running man in style of antique Greek drawings.

------
pnathan
I always will wonder if, suppose we hadn't bothered with a "cold war" and the
mutual antipathy & fear, the Soviet system would be ticking along well.

So, I always find the bits of Soviet thought fascinating. In large part, I
think it is because it is both _modern_ and _alien_. A different road was
taken and a different perspective was built in so many things. Even when I
work with people who grew up in that world, they have a variant viewpoint
versus people from other worlds.

I would love to see a volume translating the key developments of Soviet
computer science & programming languages. There's drabs of translated
information, but not a coherent narrative & a solid compare & contrast.

~~~
euos
Communists considered Soviet Union just a bridgehead for the World Revolution.
It primary goal was to serve as a resource base for spreading the fire all
over the world. I just checked and it looks like English version of “the
Internationale” is mild, the Russian lyrics explicitly state “this world of
oppression we’ll reduce to rubble and will use that rubble to build our new
world” - and I can guarantee you, USSR was really looking forward to destroy
the capitalist world.

The industrial design showcased in this article is nice. But the reality was
that most “nice things” were replicas, authorized or otherwise, of the things
developed in the first world. I remember in 1980s looking throw the mail
catalogues people brought from abroad and being amazed on how many nice things
there were in the world. Obviously, I was mostly interested in the toys
section back then - but those toys were decades ahead of what we had in USSR.

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
When the Soviet Union was formed Russia was a pre-industrial feudal monarchy.
It recapitulated roughly two hundred years of Western industrial development
in less than fifty, mostly under the leadership of a murderous quasi-feudal
dictator who purged all the brightest and most interesting people.

And it still survived WWII to become a competitive space-faring superpower.

I don’t particularly like Russia, but I think it’s wise not to underestimate
what the country is capable of.

Also applies to China, even more so.

~~~
v_lisivka
All countries in the world was pre-industrial monarchies just 150 years ago.
Please point to your point.

Moreover, in WWW2, USSR lost about 1/6 of population. It's hard to name such
losses as "win". Western Allies, which is also at war with Germany, provided
continuous aid to that "superpower" in addition to their own soldiers at war.

~~~
TheForumTroll
>Western Allies, which is also at war with Germany, provided continuous aid to
that "superpower" in addition to their own soldiers at war.

On D-day the nazis were on the run, pushed back to Poland. The USSR did more
than 90% of the winning and much of it before anyone else invaded. This
thinking that the UK, US, etc. did anything near the winning that the USSR did
is getting old. Of course we helped but it was a tiny drop in a big sea. The
biggest help was by _far_ the supplies to USSR, _not_ the soldiers.

Look at how people saw things back before the US spread its culture
everywhere:

[https://www.les-crises.fr/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/poll-
fr...](https://www.les-crises.fr/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/poll-france-
nations-contribution-nazis-defeat-1.jpg)

It says a lot.

~~~
Aloha
The war could not have been won without american material, period.

That said, the russians did most of the dying to win the war.

The Russians contributed blood, the americans, material, and the british,
spirit - or so the old saying goes.

------
baybal2
Eastern bloc design is what American fifties-early-sixties were, back when
Khrushev was trying to make USSR a semblance of a normal nation.

To many here, it will may sound surprising, but Khrushev kept quite high
opinion of the Western society, and looked up to it.

After Khrushev was kicked out of the politbureau, all things got stuck in that
era till the moment USSR kicked the bucket.

~~~
ggm
The system (obviously) did not encourage free market competition, and there
were issues in supply and demand. Therefore things like re-design and re-
styling, which happened naturally in a highly competitive marketplace didn't
happen. But, on the other hand, having worked out a reasonably functional,
stylish design for a coffeepot there was no need to invest pointless money re-
styling it, to try and capture market share.

These designs were 'contemporary' when done. They froze? sure, but thats a
rational decision when you face cost side imperatives like 'how many can we
make and for how long' rather than 'what can we do, to innovate, to capture
more market share'

As design exemplars, in context, these are pretty good. The typography and
design sensibility is world-class.

~~~
nickik
When you have dumb rules then rational decision lead to bad effects. That's
why you should have good systems of rules. Instiutional economics 101.

~~~
zeth___
Any system of rules will have a utility monster. Be it the Politburo, or Wall
Street.

~~~
nickik
One of the dumbest things I have heard.

------
varjag
The camera is Iskra, not Vilia. Manufactured by KMZ rather than BelOMO.

~~~
zokier
Kinda embarrassing mistake when the name is quite visible right in the
picture.

~~~
jpatokal
Not everybody can read cursive Cyrillic...

~~~
zokier
Maybe not everybody, but I would hope people writing books about Soviet design
would know the basics of Cyrillic.

------
promeus
Villa camera (Iskra) is a folding type rangefinder medium format that is the
best mechanical camera done in USSR, it has automatic counter and leaf
shutter. Optically is copy of Zeiss Tessar and is my favorite medium format
camera for street photography. It gives me a felling close to M3 Leica
rangefinder. Some say that Iskra is a copy of AGFA Isolette but i think that
Russian version is superior. Grab one of Ebay if you are into film shooting.
They are cheap and do beautiful work.

------
c-smile
In fact Soviet school of technical/industrial design was surprisingly high.
Even in military related products.

Being graduate of physics and technology department of university I still
remember basics of course named "Technical design and ergonomics".

------
tjr225
As a huge synth geek the soviet era synthesizers are sought after and also
produce unique sounds. Here's a comparison of Moog(US) and Polivoks(USSR):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbdyMP_CiIY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbdyMP_CiIY)

Also! They look cool.

~~~
digi_owl
Gets me thinking of my musician friend that had a few soviet made vacuum tubes
laying around for his guitar amp.

~~~
tjr225
And as a huge tube amplifier geek I'd like to point out you can in fact still
buy sovtek tubes!
[https://www.tubedepot.com/t/brands/sovtek?gclid=Cj0KCQjwzcbW...](https://www.tubedepot.com/t/brands/sovtek?gclid=Cj0KCQjwzcbWBRDmARIsAM6uChXy_-
kOr9q6Z3ALH3cTr2g7Y_Bt5LnQDogK6Op-8sjOSXBF27zBKfkaAuBtEALw_wcB)

------
jpatokal
If you liked this, you'll probably enjoy the North Korean equivalent:

[https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/new-
york/articl...](https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/new-
york/articles/heres-what-design-looks-like-in-north-korea/)

Although the designs are more austere and less whimsical. (As, to be fair,
were the vast majority of Soviet products too.)

------
raquo
I like that the pasta box indicates net weight _at 13% humidity level_. One
can only wonder what led to this.

[https://assets.atlasobscura.com/article_images/54191/image.j...](https://assets.atlasobscura.com/article_images/54191/image.jpg)

Does anyone happen to know the meaning of "пояс" (belt) in the pricing scheme
on the same box?

~~~
krasin
The prices were set by the government, but different parts of the Soviet Union
had different prices ([1], in Russian)

Belt 1: Moscow, Saint-Petersburg (named Leningrad at the time), republic
capitals, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, closed cities ([2]). Those had lower
prices, and more products available at the stores.

Belt 3: Far North regions. Prices were higher, but so are the salaries.

Belt 2: the rest of the Soviet Union. The worst option out of three. The
largest.

1\. [http://russian7.ru/post/cenovye-poyasa-v-sssr-chto-yeto-
bylo...](http://russian7.ru/post/cenovye-poyasa-v-sssr-chto-yeto-bylo/)

2\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_city](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_city)

~~~
mantas
Belt 1 had different tiers as well. Shopping on a trip to Moscow was pretty
much a must.

Another parallel tier was special shops for nomenklatura.

------
pilsetnieks
It's a small nitpick but the Saturnas vacuum, the first product featured, was
actually Lithuanian. The most obvious clue - the name is written in Latin
alphabet, not Cyrillic.

Of course, with centralized economy, most of these designs probably had to be
approved by Moscow but it doesn't mean that it was the seat of all creativity
and innovation.

~~~
mantas
Well, Lithuania was occupied and a part of Soviet sphere at the time. Although
it's always nice when other parts of USSR get individual mentioning rather
than just Soviet=Russian.

~~~
lowry
A sheer number of Lithuanians participated in The Revolution. Who invaded whom
is questionable. Especially in the light of Lithuanuan Duchy expansion some
200 years before.

~~~
mantas
Are you saying that Lithuania in 1939-1940 tried to invade USSR? Or in 1918,
when Lithuania got it's independence from Germany occupational government?

Lithuania territory at either time was smaller than original GDL territory
"some 200 years ago" before the expansions. It was core GDL territory since
first internationally recognised state in that area was formed in 13th century
and stayed so till the Partitions in late 18th century.

Also, there was that simple act of sending ultimatum to replace government to
a specific one, holding staged elections and then having that government "ask
to join" USSR. All under overwhelming USSR army presence. Pretty much textbook
occupation if you ask me...

------
walrus01
People have also recently rediscovered Soviet era wristwatches:

[https://www.google.com/search?q=soviet+wrist+watches&oq=sovi...](https://www.google.com/search?q=soviet+wrist+watches&oq=soviet+wrist+watches&aqs=chrome..69i57j0.5192j0j4&sourceid=chrome-
mobile&ie=UTF-8)

------
drakonka
These look so familiar - my family had quite a few of these everyday objects
when I was growing up in Ukraine. I am no fan of USSR or the state of Russia
today, but I do feel a sense of nostalgia when I hear or see descriptions of
objects, apartment layouts, etc from those days.

------
igivanov
On a related note, you can find lots of Soviet era (as well as modern) things
and curious facts on this wonderful site

[http://englishrussia.com/](http://englishrussia.com/)

~~~
derda
Russian watches are a good gateway drug to watch collecting without having to
spend a lot of money. There are so many unique editions and designs and (here
in Germany) they can often be found on flea markets for unter 20€.

------
jackvalentine
There is something so fascinating about this stuff. Phaidon seem to be a
publisher that traffic in this kind of 'other tourism'. I got their North
Korean products book

[http://au.phaidon.com/store/design/made-in-north-
korea-97807...](http://au.phaidon.com/store/design/made-in-north-
korea-9780714873503/)

