Soviet Visuals

by Varia Bortsova

Overview

A bizarrely funny, nostalgic collection of images of life under the Soviet Union - from the Instagram and Twitter accounts that have amassed a following of more than 1 million.

Welcome to the USSR.

Marvel at the wonders of the space race! Delight in the many fine delicacies of food and drink! Revel in the fine opportunities for work and play!

SOVIET VISUALS invites you back in time into the strangely captivating world of the Soviet Union-through a unique collection of photography, architecture, propaganda art, advertising, design, and culture from behind the Iron Culture that will fascinate, amuse, and maybe even teach a thing or two.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781526628404
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	12/22/2020
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	1,070,849
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Varia Bortsova is the founder of @SovietVisuals, a Twitter, Facebook and Instagram platform that shares content from the former Soviet Union. She was born in Moscow in 1990, a year before the USSR dissolved. She dreams of becoming a cosmonaut.

Editorial Reviews

11/30/2020

Bortsova, of the @sovietvisuals Twitter handle, delivers a quirky collection of imagery that depicts everyday life in the former Soviet Union. Emphasizing that the book’s purpose isn’t to celebrate or validate the U.S.S.R.’s political ideology, but rather to reveal “certain trivial elements of Soviet people’s day-to-day existence,” she organizes the images into chapters such as “Fashion and Design,” “Family Time,” and “Food and Drink.” There are plenty of photographs (a toddler meeting a baby polar bear on Wrangel Island; children taking “light baths” in front of UV lamps to tackle Vitamin-D deficiencies) and posters (one shows a group of scientists discussing their work, captioned, “the power and future of our country is in the unity of production and science!”), as well as paintings (Rudolf Baranov’s depiction of a woman operating a crane) and illustrations (among them a board game that promoted good hygiene). The work’s strength lies in the way it forgoes political or social commentary (and doesn’t take itself too seriously) in order to let the images do the talking. This is a perfect book for vintage enthusiasts and anyone with a soft spot for Soviet kitsch. (Dec).

Publishers Weekly

A quirky collection of imagery that depicts everyday life in the former Soviet Union . . . This is a perfect book for vintage enthusiasts and anyone with a soft spot for Soviet kitsch.” —Publishers Weekly

“The images get at Soviet gaiety, which Stalin called “the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union”-a perverse statement given the source-as well as at the humor that can only be gained by looking backward in time.” —Air Mail

From the Publisher