Amazing propaganda images from the 1960s show how the Soviet Union thought the world would look in 2017
“Amazing images from the height of communism showing how a futuristic and all-conquering Soviet Union might have looked in 2017 have emerged in Moscow. The fantastical prediction of an idealized communist paradise - with the West defeated - was made almost half a century ago and envisaged Russia as it marked the centenary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. In this brave new world, there are under-ice cities in the USSR's polar regions where the season was 'eternal spring' with their own tropical sea and beach. Heat is obtained from 'the bowels of the earth' by 'underground boat 'moles' made from extremely heat-resistant steel' tapping into sources of perpetual energy. And Soviet apparatchiks tamper with nature to reverse two of Siberia's mighty rivers - the Yenisei and Ob (the fifth and seventh longest in the world) - to flow into the Caspian Sea, instead of the Arctic Ocean, to feed states of the union. The slide show was intended as a propaganda filled comic strip for Soviet children in 1960 allowing a glimpse the exciting future of their country, which - in fact- was to collapse in ruins in 1991 after nations such Ukraine voted for independence.”
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Some images from the story below:
The front cover of the propaganda comic strip depicts a futuristic world of cities in the sky, high speed trains and space shuttles venturing into outer space. The western capitalists have been defeated but attempt a feeble fight back in the story.
The cartoon story predicted that the Soviet Union would be at the forefront of technology with heat obtained from 'the bowels of the earth.' The roots of the Union came in 1917 when the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Russian Provisional Government.
The picture in the backdrop shows a towering skyscraper, aircraft dotted across the sky and a high speed train traveling on a glistening white bridge. The portrait painted in the cartoon was far removed from reality and just four years after the piece was released the country encountered a period of economic stagnation from which it would never recover.
Children of 2017 look out to a projection of an immaculate city with blanket white buildings and roads. 'The Era of Stagnation' is deemed to have started in 1964 under the rule of Leonid Brezhnev and lasted until 1985 when Konstantin Chernenko was in office. Experts say the state over budgeted on its military which lead to a prolonged period of economic decline.
The image shows how 'bridges stretched over bottomless gorges' connect the vast Soviet Union together. It suggests that even mountains, which were blown away by 'precisely-aimed nuclear explosions,' cannot stop the rise of communism nor stunt the growth of the country.
'The sea that was just recently drying up now accepts new deep rivers,' reads the script. The Soviet Union, which was then presided over by President Nikita Khrushchev, shows it can play god in 2017 managing to beat nature by reversing two of Siberia's mighty rivers - the Yenisei and Ob (the fifth and seventh longest in the world) - to flow into the Caspian Sea instead of the Arctic Ocean.
This map shows the tumultuous route the waters would have taken to reach the Caspian Sea which would have served the Soviet states of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. This underlined in no uncertain context the strength the Union would have upon its centenary year.
Propagandists also claimed that the socialists state would build a dam across the Bering Strait linking Russia and an Alaska 'liberated' from capitalism. The dam can also accommdate 'nuclear powered trains' on double decker railway lines. 'See nuclear powered trains rushing across it. The dam blocked a cold current from the Arctic Ocean, so improving the climate of the Far East' the caption reads.
Elsewhere, defeated Western 'imperialists' have been banished to a remote island in the southern Pacific and are trying desperately to claw back land by building bombs with the manpower they have left.
Not content with conquering the world the communists were able to reach the depths of space to expand the Soviet Union's burgeoning territory. The state consisted of now 15 separate countries including European nations such as Estonia, Moldova and Latvia. The union also encompassed Central Asian powerhouses Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
'Photonic rockets - interstellar ships - swept across space at near the speed of light, heading for the nearest, yet so distant planetary system of Alpha Centauri,' the script reads as a scientist gives a class to attentive students.
After an introduction to the impending achievements of the Union the story focuses on a boy called Igor who was awoken by another technological advancement of the regime. The boy's alarm clock sends out a hand to pinch its owner's nose to wake them.
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