A visitor of a space pavillion in the VDNKh park in MoscowPokhodin/Sputnik
After Gagaring flight into space, Soviet life changed dramatically. Multiple propaganda posters portrayed the first cosmonaut as a demigod.
Gagarin was pictured on postcards so often that there was even a special terminology used among Soviet topical stamp collectors called “Philatelic gagariana”, while people wrote books about stamps of the space era.
Soviet post stamp, 1964E. Aniskin
In 1961, a mass production of watches called Raketa (rocket) was launched. And by 1980, the factory had made more than 4 million of these watches annually.
Evolution of the Raketa “Copernicus” watch designsSosoev (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Soviet propaganda wanted to take every advantage from the popularity of space exploration, and state chocolate factories even created candies - ‘Cosmic Odyssey’ and ‘Stratosphere’.
Kids had to learn about space glory from a very early age. So, in many Soviet schools and education and leisure centers, there were mosaics depicting space scenery.
Mosais on a school facade in the city of Severodvinsk, RussiaMaria Plotnikova/Sputnik
All kids dreamed of becoming a cosmonaut and would often make space suits for games...
…and for New Year party’s masquerades...
…and for amateur performances in schools and summer camps. This fact was humorously shown in the Classic Soviet movie ‘Welcome, or No Trespassing’.
Even bus stops in the USSR were decorated with space themed mosaics.
While many playgrounds were decorated with space shuttles and rockets.
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