Valentina Tereshkova turns another year older today. She became the first woman in space on 16 June 1963 aboard Vostok 6. Her call sign was чайка(chaika), seagull.
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When I was entering syndication, the USSR was in the final stages of Gorbachev’s perestroika policy. Coming soon: 10+ years of epic starvation and misery in post-Soviet Russia as gangster capitalism came in.
TED RALL HAS A TUMBLR!!
A rare color photo of Leon Trotsky outside the brick wall that served as a defense around his small home during his exile in Mexico.
LOVE THIS!!Top:
Valentina Tereshkova orbited the Earth 48 times during her three day spaceflight in Vostok 6 in 1963. First woman in space!
Bottom:
Svetlana Savitskaya became the second woman in space when she flew the Soyuz T-7 to the Salyut 7 space station in 1984. First woman to perform a spacewalk!
Soviet women astronauts, by comic book artist Philip Bond. (Click the link for portraits of women astronauts from the US as well.)
Today is Valery Bykovsky’s birthday today. His first flight was on Vostok 5 (1963), for which he still holds the record for the longest solo flight: 4 days and 23 hours. His other flights were aboard Soyuz 22 (1976) and Soyuz 31 (1978).
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Portrait of Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, by Philip Bond
Восток-5, Восток-6
Vostok-5, Vostok-6
Vostok 5 was a joint mission of the Soviet space program together with Vostok 6, Vostok 6 was the first human spaceflight mission to carry a woman, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, into space.
Up for Bid: Classic Soviet Space Propaganda Posters
Here’s a cool look into Wired’s recent photo gallery showcasing the ‘Up-for-Bid’ Soviet Propaganda posters revolving space:
Science and communism are inseparable! That is the basic message of this amazing collection of Soviet space propaganda posters that will be auctioned off on Apr. 22.
Featuring Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov, the first and second humans to reach space, along with Krushchev, and of course Lenin, these posters glorify the the Soviet Union’s technological prowess and importance in the world, and in the universe. Many of the posters focus on the role the workers played in the space race, and the ordinary citizen’s duty to feel immensely proud of Mother Russia’s accomplishments.
If you have a few hundred dollars just sitting around, here’s what to spend it on.
(via Best Soviet Female Snipers Of WWII | English Russia)
Lyudmila Mykhailivna Pavlichenko was born in the Ukrainian town of Belaya Tserkov on July 12th, 1916. She moved to Kiev with her family at the age of fourteen. There she joined a shooting club and developed into a sharpshooter, while working as a grinder at the Kiev Arsenal factory. In June 1941, 24-year old Pavlichenko was in her fourth year of studying history at the Kiev University when Nazi Germany began its invasion of the Soviet Union. Pavlichenko was among the first round of volunteers at the recruiting office, where she requested to join the infantry and subsequently she was assigned to the Red Army’s 25th Rifle Division…
…Her total confirmed kills during World War II was 309, including 36 enemy snipers…
Russian female snipers.
Women played an incredibly significant role in the Soviet war effort during WWII. Initially, in 1941, the thousands of women who volunteered to enlist were turned away or relegated to industry work on the home front or medical service. However, the significant losses to the Germans and the women’s persistence paid off, and the Soviet Union was soon recruiting women as pilots (including the world’s only two female fighter aces, Lydia Litvyak and Katya Budanova), snipers, machine gunners, tank crew members and partisans, medics, communication personnel, political officers, as well as in the auxiliary corps. About 800,000 women served in the Russian army during WWII. Around 200,000 were decorated and 89 received the highest ranking award, the Hero of the Soviet Union.
I actually had an Iraq war vet tell me women make the best snipers. I made a predictable joke, but he wasn’t kidding, and he would know.
