Old Soviet Sci-Fi Illustrations

Via: Dark Roasted Blend (nice name btw)

Very interesting to think about how a culture different than yours viewed the future through the lens of science fiction.  To me, they don’t seem all that different than other classic sci-fi images I’ve seen. Which means awesome. Khaaaaaaan!!!! awesome.

This extremely rare series of illustrations to various books by Alexander Kazantsev (one of the first Soviet science fiction writers) shows very clearly what kind of future the communist dreamers preferred. Think cool robots, intrepid explorers, brainy scientists, eerily Star Wars-like aliens and a huge doze of humanitarian optimism.

These government sponsored (and approved) images (most are by Yury Markov) were published by Detskaya Literatura Publishing House from 1950s to 1970s - DETGIZ, geared toward Soviet Komsomol Youth - and were recently brought back from oblivion by M. Moshkov’s online library.

To add a little touch of color - check out these gorgeous covers for “Knowledge is Power” magazine from pre-Sputnik times:

In 1965, rockets were still a “carrot stick” to hang before these capitalists, and motivate the Soviet youth:

~ by natebrown on May 8, 2008.