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Rare Soviet Retro-Future Space Art

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the rocketships-away dept.

abramsv writes "A collection of the most inspiring and hard-to-find retro-futuristic graphics from rather unlikely sources: Soviet & Eastern Bloc 'popular tech & science' magazines, German, Italian, British fantastic illustrations and promotional literature — all from the Golden Age of Retro-Future (1930s to 1970s)."

10 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. Futuristing predictions are depressing. by Thanshin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Those images are sad. It's so easy to imagine the future, and so hard to reach it...

    It's depressing to think we'll be long dead before humanity finally understands the universe.

    Space travel, immortality, living in far planets, knowing the origin and the end of all, and, most of all, contacting an alien intelligence and culture if there is one.

    However, I do feel lucky for living in an era of enlightenment and fast technological evolution. A mere two or three centuries in the past, I'd have seen the same advance in all my life as I can in a modern decade.

    1. Re:Futuristing predictions are depressing. by SCHecklerX · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I blame personal computers and the Internet. Focus has shifted from artistic dreaming around future engineering (even to the point where you would use a computer not connected to a network, creativity with the computer was still much higher than it is today, since you came up with your own ideas, rather than looking it up on the internet) to instant messaging and web pages. I, too, am guilty of this as a guy who followed his childhood dreams up to even getting the degree in Aerospace Engineering, but then discovering the Internet, and ending up going down the network security analyst career path. It's still sort of creative, but nothing compared to what I dreamed I'd be designing when I was just a kid.

  2. View of Earth by SoundGuyNoise · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Did anyone else notice that the only image with a view of Earth still featured the Americas, instead of Mother Russia?

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  3. Re:Imaginative... by FST777 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The Cold War is over.

    --
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  4. Tintin inspiration? by Ruben3d · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This image from the article reminds me of Tintin: Explorers on the Moon published in 1954, a year later.

  5. Agreed 100% by coder111 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    When I look at those pictures it makes me sad and very mad at the same time.

    What happened to humanity? We used to dream about bright space future, flying cars, scientific progress and stuff like that. And we had hope to achieve all of this if we put enough effort into it. And now I think we lost that hope.

    I don't see people dreaming about anything more than getting a million dollars and doing 2 chicks at the same time...

    And you can bash soviets all you wish, but they had one thing right- the education was non-religious and pushed belief in sience most of the time. (Well, there were propaganda bits and belief in communist ideals, but these were easily discarded and did not interfere with science). I think soviet union was the first and only truly non-religious state. And that is something to be admired.

    Don't get me wrong. I realize that the technological progress now is faster than it ever was. But you get no rush thinking about it anymore. It is not considered exciting and sexy and bright. It fails to captivate the minds of people. And I think it should be.

    --Coder

  6. Notice by hey! · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Notice how few of these images center on a single individual. Mostly they are space-scapes or pictures of massive engineering projects in which people are tiny figures like in an architect's model, if they appear at all.

    There's only one image that would be typical of a US sci fi magazine cover, with the handsome space pioneer man in the foreground and his female counterpart in the background. Even so, there is little suggestion that the pioneer man plays a key role as an individual in whatever action is being depicted.

    This might be an artifact of selection, but it's tempting to speculate that this reflects a collectivist view of the future. Still, I have a certain kitschy fondness for Socialist Realism school of art, and many such works do use an heroic individual as a focal point -- albeit either an anonymous one or a historical hero like Lenin. Arguably in either case, Socialist Realism uses the individual functioning as a representative of the working class.

    These images are quite austere and free of any hint of individuality as a focal point in the imagined future.

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  7. Re:obvious by shvytejimas · · Score: 2, Interesting

    > The present was so much cooler in the past... This reminded me of one gallery with soviet architecture - colossal projects that were never built. http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/03e.htm - not really space art but very retro-futuristic nevertheless.

  8. Re:More by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    what other coolness have the Russians been hiding behind their backs? I have very reliable sources that have revealed that the Soviets built an underground moon base in the 70s. The entrance is in a crater and not visible from above. They lost radio contact sometime in the late 80s, and the cosmonauts living there don't know the Cold War is over. Vladimir Putin knows about this base and wants to utilize it in his master plan to resurrect the Soviet Union.
  9. Re:Why is this a surprise? by $criptah · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Do not be hard on yourself. Soviet propaganda managed to taint the image of Americans quite well :) However, I did have higher expectations for the United States because this was the leader of the free world.

    You did not have to go far enough to realize that Soviet Union had issues. Food shortages, poor housing management and never ending agricultural dilemmas were hidden behind clever marketing of the Communist Party. Despite all of that, the Soviets still managed to put a man in space and run a successful weapons program. Overall the country managed to achieve certain success and I could only wonder what the United States could do given the fact that every American family have an opportunity to buy a house, a car and have a swimming pool in the backyard. I thought that Americans would be the first ones to get flying cars and definitely make it to Mars by the year 2000. It took about a year of living in the U.S. to prove this otherwise. While pro-Soviet propaganda blasted us from the early age, in the back of my mind I've always held the States to a higher standard. Americans had Levi's, Fords and vacations in Hawaii while most of the Soviet citizens would consider themselves to be lucky to go abroad to one of the bordering countries.

    I hope that his is behind us. If there is a new Cold War I'd like to stop the Earth and get off it.