Soviet Space Graphics: Cosmic Visions from the USSR

by Detlef Mertins

A wonderful, whimsical journey through the pioneering space-race graphics of the former Soviet Union

This otherworldly collection of Soviet space-race graphics takes readers on a cosmic adventure through Cold War-era Russia. Created against a backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty, the extraordinary images featured, taken from the period's hugely successful popular-science magazines, were a vital tool for the promotion of state ideology. Presenting more than 250 illustrations - depicting daring discoveries, scientific innovations, futuristic visions, and extraterrestrial encounters - Soviet Space Graphics unlocks the door to the creative inner workings of the USSR.

Genres: Art, History, Nonfiction, Design, Space, Russia, Planetary Science

267 pages, Hardcover

Published April 1, 2020

Reviews

[Carlex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four and a half (red) stars.

A delicious retro-futuristic journey to the future dreams of the USSR. The comments on the illustrations are not very accurate, but the book is well worth it.

[Ietrio · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such an important volume. It is done at the quality Soviets would use, meaning sloppy at best: sometimes the text is aligned with the page margin (relative to the footer), and sometimes the text is aligned with the picture itself. The pictures are randomly aligned, where the lazy technician felt like they should fit.

The drawings are mostly execrable, an homage to a design school that is based on games of influence, and where skill is optional. Most of the graphics are way inferior to an equivalent comic book art during the same decade. And, many are just reproductions of the American drawings of one or two decades before. In context, that is very valuable, as some of the images / ideas are going to be reproduced with about the same or less skill all over the Eastern Block.

[Tracy]

I truly appreciate when an art book is primarily art -- I'm here to look at the pictures 😉 Love the cover on this. They chose a nice matte paper that complemented the soft style of artwork throughout. I appreciated that they mostly dedicated full pages to each piece. I was drawn by the bright color palettes in use through many of the illustrations. Overall the selection felt relatively limited, representing mostly the same few magazines.

[Ashley Denton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating insight into Soviet space magazine art. Poor quality scans detracted a bit though.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish the scans were higher quality, but I imagine they did the best with what they had. Otherwise this is a great book for history, art, and science buffs alike.

[Chase Dullinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heavier on magazine covers than I was expecting, and some translations of the text intensive images would have been nice, but overall well done.

[Kriegslok · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful full colour catalogue of some of the best graphic illustrations from Soviet era science and cultural journals and publications. It includes a range of styles and themes split into four rough themes, Space Exploration, Cosmic Pioneers, Future Visions and Alternative Worlds. The themes include both technical and imagined. Some are projections of an imagined future, others record contemporary technical achievements. It is popular these days to belittle and write off all Soviet achievements reducing the USSR to merely a brutal prison camp and police state. Even when accomplishments are noted this is usually overshadowed by the methods used and the conditions under which Soviet scientists could find themselves working. However, science in the USSR in both its factual and fictional forms could provide an oasis in which to work and pursue innovation. It was also frequently a space for dissidence and resistance. Science fiction in the USSR was especially well developed fed both by the early Communist ideal of creating a "new man" and then later as a means of holding up a critical mirror to the realities of life in the Soviet Union. All these streams fed a river of popular world class scientific publications for Soviet citizens, many of which proved popular enough to outlast the USSR when it melted down. If nothing else the USSR was successful in creating a popular enthusiasm for science and exploration which as this book shows was imagined and exposed by some of the centuries finest illustrators.


 

[Anthony Robson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this ramble through this age of seeming optimism and imagination. I actually quite liked the matt paper, which I suspect is similar in feel to the magazines of the era (could be wrong on this, but it was a nice thought while moving through).

Some of the art is amazing, some of it downright weird, and some of it difficult to interpret - as others have said, some additional text / translations would have been good (the images that were extracts from inside magazines, with almost whole articles, would have been fascinating to read).

But you truly get a sense of trying to underestand what was out there, and a very Tomorrow's World view of what the future might be. The magazines aimed at the 'youth' were particularly interesting.

I'm glad I've got this on my bookshelf to dip into again every now and then.

[Manuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Siempre me ha fascinado el diseño soviético y este libro registra maravillosamente el espíritu de la identidad gráfica soviética durante la carrera espacial.

Me gusto que las ilustraciones tratan sobre muchos aspectos de la exploración espacial -desde lanzamiento de cohetes hasta vida extraterrestre- pero también tocan temas considerados futuristas que ya son parte de la realidad como la ecología, energías alternativas, reciclaje, etc

Me hubiera gustado más traducciones de las imágenes y más variedad en la fuente de las ilustraciones ya que la mayoría son portadas de revistas. Antes de comprar el libro vi algunas reseñas negativas sobre la calidad del papel y la impresión, pero a mí el papel mate y las tintas que usaron me parecieron adecuados ya que evocan a la imprenta soviética.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

My God am I a sucker for retrofuturism. The perfect coffee table book for me. Love the art (the illustrations of S. Lukhin are now in my radar), the well-deserved RECOGNITION of space dogs Belka and Strelka, and the predictions that haven't aged well! Also for some reason, Atlantis?

One thing that surprised me is the lack of propaganda posters and reactive art. Almost all of the scans are magazine covers; would've loved the public sentiment during the space race. But still, this is a solid book. Scans aren't really hi-def but keeping in mind the decades these were made, it's no big deal.

[Benjamin Kahn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was OK. I thought there was a certain sameness to a lot of the art which prevented me from giving it a better rating. I find a lot of the old Soviet stuff fascinating, but this book didn't really grab me. There were a couple of reproductions that I thought were quite good, but for the most part, nothing really stood out.

[melancholinary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although most of the archives were taken from Tekhnika Molodezhi and also it would be great if some of the text is translated to give context, but overall it's a really great attempt to catalogue the way the Soviets imagined the cosmos.

[Jenny Karpe]

Nicht heute gelesen, aber irgendwann im Verlauf von 2019/2020

[Julie Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful!
Also: I want to visit the Moscow Design Museum!

[Janika Puolitaival · Rating 4 out of 5]

Upea galleria avaruusaiheista taidetta Neuvostoliiton ajoilta.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful gift from a friend. Very cool book with amazing graphics, illustrations and reprinted materials from the space race.

[Cédric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately the "graphics" are mostly magazine covers from a small selection of magazines of the Soviet Period. The legends are usually very small and uninformative (name and date of the magazine, which you can read on the cover itself), but there are a few nice artworks in the book.