8 fantastic items of Soviet domestic design

Officially in the USSR, there was no such thing as "design". However, in the 1960s, talented Soviet designers and engineers tried to make the life of the Soviet people better. Their creations were quite futuristic, but functional and served several generations of people.

In the 1950s, millions of Soviet people got their own apartments thanks to the mass construction of Khrushchevs. During this post-war period, the authorities tried to modernize the industry and establish an easy and mass production of a variety of goods according to the capabilities of each factory. In the 1960s, mass-produced products became available and their development became part of a government program. All products invented in the 1960s were very popular, and in the 1970s they were even exported. Below you will find some of the most unusual everyday items.

8 PHOTOS

1. Mass production of vacuum cleaners began in the 1950s. Usually, they were produced at heavy industry enterprises in addition to the main products. Firstly, the design of vacuum cleaners was inspired by Western models, but Soviet aesthetic engineers also worked on their own options and functions. Inspired by the American Hoover Constellation vacuum cleaner, the Saturn vacuum cleaner was produced at the Vilnius Welding Equipment Factory in Lithuania.

2. Probably in some pantries in old apartments you can find the very popular Rocket vacuum cleaner (and probably some of them are still working). The "rocket", echoing the design of the rocket, was powerful enough, but, being metal, quite heavy. However, this meant that it simply could not be damaged easily. It was produced at the Dnepropetrovsk Aggregate Plant, which for a while even made parts for aircraft engines - so you can imagine the quality.

3. The Riga Electromechanical Plant was mainly engaged in the production of equipment for electric railway transport (trains, trams, subways). However, he was also one of the first in the Soviet Union who created the Riga washing machine (reminiscent of some kind of spaceship, right?).

4. ZIL was the dream of every Soviet housewife and served for ages, people knowingly called it "indestructible", like many other Soviet cars. Now they are considered retro-chic, and ZiLs still "decorate" people's dachas and country houses.

5. How are these nesting dolls related to gunpowder? They are produced in a gunpowder factory. One of the most popular toys in the USSR was a roly-poly doll.

6. There are two versions of the origin of the Zvezda radio. The first says that it was developed in 1952 specifically for gifts to foreign diplomats and sent abroad, but after Stalin's death, they were put into mass production. Another version is that Soviet diplomats brought the French Excelsior-52 radio station, and Soviet engineers made their own device based on it. Since 1954, the device was produced at two factories - the Kharkiv plant "Kommunar" and the Moscow Machine-Building Plant and was considered extremely fashionable.

7. At a rather modest price, Zenit was durable and had excellent optics, so it was very popular not only in the USSR but also abroad. Production began at the Krasnogorsk Mechanical Plant, which was responsible for the optical and mechanical needs of the army, including sights and aerial cameras. After the Great Patriotic War, the plant produced a copy of the legendary Zeiss Ikonta camera, and then launched its own production of the Zenit single-lens reflex camera, earning several million.

8. Russian and Soviet people simply cannot live without tea, but the old-fashioned tradition of the samovar required a lot of time and effort. In Soviet times, the Suksun optical and mechanical plant in the Urals for a long time produced medical equipment and goggles and masks for locksmiths, turners, welders, and others. But, in the 1970s, the plant decided to pay tribute to the tsarist past when it produced old metal samovars - and local designer Konstantin Sobakin created a “space” design of the Sputnik samovar, which was released in a limited edition.