The Soviet Union Through the Camera

So we lived...
For a quarter century, I worked at the country's largest magazine, “Soviet Union”, whose main strategy was to promote the socialist way of life. My task was to familiarize the reader with the work and life of metalworkers, pilots, miners, doctors, farmers, etc. Places, as well as the heroes of the photographic shootings, were found spontaneously, relying on my understanding and good relationship with the people, which sometimes caused conflict with the opinion of local party leaders.

There was a personal life: parents, home, work, love, children, friends; and the country life: slogans, meetings, duties, decorations, party plans and the people. We were not surprised, because we were used to living like that. I did not know another life. They thought for us, depriving us of any autonomy, everything was familiar, everyone did their job. Blinders, created by the party leadership, did not allow us to think about what might be different.

I was born in Moscow and lived in a street near Pushkin Square. And oddly enough, I keep warm memories of our communal apartment. This house is no more, only the linden tree is preserved, which was in the middle of the old courtyard. I remember what words were part of our everyday life: Stalin, the fall in prices – which everyone expected, kerosene, air raid shelter, firewood, bourgeois, skates, “pursuing”, ink-pencil, “Pravda” newspaper, queue, circus and so on. To convey these feelings is difficult, they are still alive in me. “This is nostalgia!”, someone says. No! That was my childhood and youth. So I remember everything with warmth in the heart. Is it possible to forget it?

Vladimir Lagrange