A note appearing this afternoon on the SEELANGS listserv alerts subscribers to a new website dedicated to Soviet material culture.

The site, called Made in the USSR: Treasures from the Soviet Atlantis, contains over 500 images and photos of items produced in the Soviet Union.

It’s a rather eclectic collection that includes everything from journals and posters to cigarette cases, matchbook covers, and Christmas ornaments. Unfortunately, the images are not accompanied by explanatory text, so folks who aren’t already well-versed in Soviet history and culture may not grasp the significance of what they’re seeing. Still, it’s a terrific idea for a website.

The collection includes more than a few items directly related to aviation. (Several can be found by following the “Early Soviet Stuff” link at the bottom of the home page). My favorite is this one:

It’s a pin for “Dobrolet,” the syndicate established in 1923 to oversee the development of the Soviet civil aviation system. The airplane logo (which also appeared on Dobrolet’s official stationary, rubber stamps, and other items) was designed by Aleksandr Rodchenko. Last time I checked, pins like this were fetching around $500 in Moscow flea markets.

Incidentally, the very first item that shows up in the site’s “Early Soviet Stuff” collection also has a tangential tie to aviation. The item is an early edition of “The Terrible Cockroach” (Тараканище) a poem-story by the famed children’s author Kornei Chukovsky in which the eponymous insect wrecks terror on the animal kingdom. In 1927, the film studio Sovkino made an animated version of “The Terrible Cockroach.” At the end of the Sovkino cartoon an Osoaviakhim airplane arrived and sprayed insecticide on the bug.

ScP