Soviet Union Collection (#71)

Early television cathode ray tube (CRT), museum model. This early CRT design was developed by the Russian inventor Boris Rosing

Chelyuskin steamship, Arkhangelsk, 1933
Chelyuskin steamship leaving Arkhangelsk port in Russia, in 1933. This Soviet exploration ship later got stuck in Arctic ice

Antonov and his glider, 1923
Antonov and his glider. Soviet aircraft designer Oleg Antonov (1906-1984, pilot) preparing for the test flight of his first glider in August 1923. Antonov was only 17 at the time

First Soviet rocket aeroplane, the BI-1, on display struts at a museum. Developed by the Soviet Union, the full name of the design is the Bereznyak-Isayev (BI-1), after its designers

Early Soviet autogyro, 1932
Early Soviet autogyro taking off on a test flight on 10 October 1932. An autogyro takes off like an aeroplane, relying on its forward motion to rotate the rotor blades and provide upwards lift

Gold ingots at the Muruntau ore-dressing facility in communist Russia. The ingots, each weighing 12 kilograms, are being prepared for transportation to the state bank of the USSR

Open cast coal mining
Open cast coal mine. View across a coal mine in Buryatia, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Buryatia, a Central Asian republic of the former Soviet Union

Radio antennae on a Soviet ship
Radio antennae on the deck of Soviet ship Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, 1971. This science ship, seen leaving Odessa in the Black Sea, Russia, was used to track space apparatus in orbit around the Earth

Nuclear fusion experiment. Electron stream (horizontal blue line) being channelled along a magnetic field line in a nuclear fusion experiment

Tupolev R-6, Soviet 1930s bomber. This two-engined medium bomber had its first flight in 1929. It entered service with the Russian Air Force in 1932, but by 1936 was in use only for transport

Ilyushin DB-3, Soviet WW2 bomber
Ilyushin DB-3, Soviet World War II bomber. This long-range bomber was built by the aircraft design bureau led by Soviet aviation engineer Sergei Ilyushin (1894-1977)

Ilyushin Il-4, Soviet WW2 bomber
Ilyushin Il-4, Soviet World War II bomber. This long-range bomber was built by the aircraft design bureau led by Soviet aviation engineer Sergei Ilyushin (1894-1977)

Soviet ANT-6 bomber, 1930
Soviet ANT-6 bomber, on skis, in 1930. This long-range bomber was built by the aircraft design bureau led by Soviet aviation engineer Andrei Tupolev (1888-1972)

Tupolev TB-1P, Soviet seaplane, 1925
Tupolev TB-1P, Soviet seaplane, in 1925. This version of the TB-1 heavy bomber was designed to take off from and land on water

USSR-1 high-altitude balloon, 1933
USSR-1 high-altitude balloon, after take-off. This Soviet balloon set a world record altitude in October 1933, reaching the stratosphere and a height of 18, 514 metres

Polikarpov I-15, Soviet fighter, 1935
Polikarpov I-15, Soviet fighter, in flight. This fighter plane was in use from 1934 to 1941. It was built by the aircraft design bureau led by the Soviet aircraft engineer Nikolai Polikarpov

Petlyakov Pe-8, Soviet WW2 bomber
Petlyakov Pe-8, Soviet World War II bomber. This aircraft was built by the aircraft design bureau led by the Soviet aircraft engineer Vladimir Petlyakov (1891-1942)

Soviet glider Rabfakovets, 1920s. This glider was designed and built by the the Soviet aviation engineer Sergei Ilyushin (1894-1977) in the 1920s

Soviet N-209 transpolar flight, 1937
Soviet N-209 transpolar flight taking off, on 12th August 1937. Earlier in the year, several successful transpolar flights had been made from the USSR to the USA

Kamovs Ka-8 helicopter, 1946
Kamovs Ka-8 helicopter. This helicopter was designed by the Soviet aviation engineer Nikolai Kamov (1902-1972). Kamov built his first autogyro in 1929, and this led to his later helicopter designs

Soviet ANT-25 transpolar aircraft, 1937
Soviet ANT-25 transpolar aircraft. This is the aircraft in which a Soviet crew carried out the first transpolar flight over the Arctic, from 17-20th June 1937

Barrage balloon over Moscow, 1942
Barrage balloon over Moscow, USSR, in 1942, during World War II. War broke out between Germany and the USSR in June 1941, when Germany invaded the USSR

Soviet US-4 glider, 1966
Soviet US-4 glider. This glider, or sailplane, was designed by the Soviet aircraft engineer Oleg Antonov (1906-1984). Eleven of these aircraft were built in the USSR in 1935

Soviet N-209 transpolar flight crew, 1937
Soviet N-209 transpolar flight crew, before their fatal flight on 12th August 1937. They flew a modified DB-A aircraft (background) from Moscow over the Arctic towards Alaska

Chelyuskin search and rescue, 1934
Chelyuskin search and rescue in 1934. Aeroplane after landing in Provideniya Bay in the far north-east of Russia, to rescue the crew and passengers on the ship Chelyuskin

Soviet Pe-2 bomber and crew, 1942
Soviet Pe-2 bomber and crew. Soviet pilots preparing for a flight in a Pe-2 bomber during World War II. This bomber was built by the design bureau led by Soviet aviation engineer Vladimir Petlyakov

MIR deep-sea submersible being moved by crane over the sea. Once in the sea, the MIR submersible will be controlled by an onboard crew

Harvesting cotton sprouted in space
Harvesting cotton which has been sprouted in space, Russia, 1986. Scientists are interested in the ability of plants to grow in a weightless environment

Mir space station construction, 1986
Mir space station construction, at the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre, Moscow, Russia. This Soviet space station was launched in stages, starting from February 1986

Buran space shuttle and carrier, 1989
Buran space shuttle being transported by its Antonov An-225 carrier aircraft. The Buran space shuttle was a reusable Soviet spacecraft, similar in design to the Space Shuttles used by NASA

Soviet Vostok spacecraft. This spacecraft carried Yuri Gagarin on the first manned spaceflight. It consists of a spherical descent module (upper left), that carries the cosmonaut through re-entry

Cosmonaut Titov, Vostok 2, 1961
Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov (1935-2000), preparing to be launched into space on the Vostok 2 spacecraft, on 6th August 1961. Titov was the second person to orbit the Earth after Gagarin

Soviet space food and heater, 1962
Soviet space food and heater. In-flight food heater (left) with food tubes (right), designed to be used in space by Soviet cosmonauts

Closed ecosystem space research
Harvesting crops in a self-sufficient ecosystem. In order to make interstellar space travel possible, it will be necessary, due to the large distances involved

Cosmonauts in space clothing
Cosmonauts in soviet space underclothing. Vladimir Dzhnibekov and Victor Savinykh, Soyuz T-13 cosmonauts in their space underwear at the Gagarin Training Centre in June 1985

Soviet space food. Selection of the food taken onboard space flights by Soviet cosmonauts. The problems of preparing and eating food whilst in zero gravity led to scientists producing packaged

Swing trainer for cosmonauts
Swing trainer at the Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Centre in Russia. The chair spins to disorient the trainee cosmonaut in order to assess his ability to work in difficult environments

Centrifuge training for cosmonauts
Centrifuge training at the Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Centre in Russia. The centrifuge simulates the forces experienced due to acceleration at launch so that the cosmonaut can be assessed for his

Soviet experiments on lunar soil, 1970
Soviet experiments on lunar soil. The first Soviet mission to return a sample of lunar soil to the Earth was Luna 16, which landed back on Earth on 24 September 1970

Soviet lunar rock sample, 1970
Soviet lunar rock sample. The first Soviet mission to return a sample of lunar rock to the Earth was the robotic probe Luna 16, which landed back on Earth on 24 September 1970

Lunar soil sample
Lunar soil, collected by the Soviet Luna 16 spacecraft. Luna 16 was launched from a preliminary Earth orbit towards the Moon in September 1970

Lunar rock sample
Lunar rock, collected by the Soviet Luna 16 spacecraft. This is rock found loose on the surface: lunar regolith. Luna 16 was launched from a preliminary Earth orbit towards the Moon in September

Model of the Luna 2 spacecraft. This Soviet unmanned spacecraft was launched on 12 September 1959. It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon

Model of the Luna 4 spacecraft. This Soviet unmanned spacecraft was launched on 2 April 1963. It is thought that it was intended to impact the Moon

Model of the Luna 10 spacecraft. This Soviet unmanned spacecraft was launched on 31 March 1966. It was the first spacecraft to orbit another astronomical body

Luna 17 spacecraft. Luna 17 was an unmanned Soviet space mission which landed on the Moon in November 1970. It released a lunar vehicle, Lunokhod 1

Venera 4 Soviet space probe
Venera 4, Soviet Venus space probe. The heat shielding has been removed from the upper section. The Venera series of probes were used to explore the planet Venus

Vega spacecraft, Russia. In December 1984 an international mission was launched to study Venus and the tail of Halleys Comet. Two identical Soviet spacecraft, Vega 1 and 2, carried the equipment

For sale as Licensed Images

Choose your image, Select your licence and Download the media

"The Soviet Union: A Tapestry of History, Culture, and Achievements" Step into the fascinating world of the Soviet Union through these captivating hints. From Laika, the brave space dog who paved the way for human exploration beyond Earth's atmosphere, to Dmitri Shostakovich, a renowned Soviet composer immersed in his study during 1938. Even across borders, great minds like Carl Sagan recognized the contributions of this vast nation. Olga Korbut's graceful performance at the 1976 Montreal Olympics showcased Soviet excellence in sports. Propaganda played a significant role in shaping society; Boris Parmeev's iconic poster "Under The Sun of The Motherland We Strengthen" from the 1970s exemplifies this sentiment. Influential figures such as Vladimir Ilich Lenin left an indelible mark on history. Captured within Moscow's Kremlin walls in October 1918, Lenin was a Russian Bolshevik leader whose ideas shaped an era. Sergei V. Rachmaninov expressed his genius through music; here he is seen intently examining a manuscript at his piano during the late 1920s. Yuri Gagarin became humanity's first cosmonaut when he embarked on an extraordinary journey beyond our planet’s boundaries. His achievement symbolized Soviet dominance in space exploration. Artistic expressions also flourished under Soviet rule; Vera Mukhina's sculpture "Worker and Kolkhoz Woman" stands tall as a testament to resilience and unity amidst industrial progress (b/w photo). Aleksandr Gerasimov captured Lenin’s essence with striking portraits that reflect both power and determination - one from around c1930 and another from 1939. Delve into Russia's rich past with an antique map showcasing its vast territory - reminding us of its historical significance and cultural diversity.