Old Soviet Christmas cards

Here's a four page gallery of space age Christmas cards from Soviet Russia. They're fantastic! Link (Via Drawn!)

[#1 posted by zolf , December 20, 2007 11:59 AM]

Small corrections:
- Almost all of them are New Year postcards. At least most of them have words: "with new year".
- Eastern christian church uses Julian calendar and Xmas is on 6th of January.

[#2 posted by Stefan Jones , December 20, 2007 12:04 PM]

Zolf beat me to it.

Some attributes of western Christmas were repurposed for the New Years celebration.

The Santa-like fellow is "Grandfather Frost."

Many years ago, the Boys' Club in my town showed a bunch of Christmas cartoons. One of them was a Russian (well, Soviet!) film. It was about a boy who wanted to visit, or get gifts to, his father, who was stationed in an Antarctic base. Grandfather Frost showed up in a plane or rocket made of stardust.

[#3 posted by Stefan Jones , December 20, 2007 12:09 PM]

My absolute favorite was inspired by, or inspired, the one Mark chose to illustrate the post:

http://www.mazaika.com/postcard/big/hny0470.jpg

I showed some friends this a few weeks back. One noted that the young cosmonaut's expression as he looked at the rabbit was looking awfully strange. "What's Russian for 'hassenpfeffer?'"

[#4 posted by chrisb , December 20, 2007 12:25 PM]

In Soviet Russia, Christmas cards write you!

[#5 posted by falalalala , December 20, 2007 12:26 PM]

You guys are getting old.

You posted these TWO YEARS AGO:

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/12/21/sovietera-spacetheme.html

You need an archivist.

[#6 posted by jbettineski , December 20, 2007 1:14 PM]

I wasn't here 2 years ago.

I'm glad they were posted.

I think these are cool.

[#7 posted by jordan , December 20, 2007 1:19 PM]

#6: Agreed. I'd be perfectly happy to see this exact same post every year, kind of like how the networks always show A Christmas Story.

[#8 posted by hambox , December 20, 2007 3:00 PM]

Oh, my, this makes me laugh. I found the original '05 posting for these cards here on BoingBoing, and put the link to them on my Advent Calendar (beckyhaycox.com/advent2007). Bedazzled posted the link from mine; then cynical-c posted the link from Bedazzled; then Neatorama posted the link from cynical-c; then Drawn posted the link from Neatorama; then Boing Boing posted the link from Drawn. FULL CIRCLE BABY! I can now retire from the internet.

[#9 posted by spinach , December 21, 2007 7:37 AM]

To elaborate a bit on what Stefan and Zolf had mentioned, these are not really Christmas cards but New Year’s greeting since religious occasions were not permitted to be celebrated in the USSR. Even today, the emphasis is on New Year celebrations, although increasingly Christmas celebrations are becoming more widespread, as well as a return to former traditions – caroling and dressing up in costumes (particularly in the villages) etc.

The other characteristic of these cards reflects the Soviet attitude(lots of rockets because this was an empire intent on global expansion). This is also somewhat misleading, though, since prior to the launch of the Sputnik in around '56-'57, there was a bigger emphasis on a “Christmas” spirit, albeit veiled, because the system was atheistic.

[#10 posted by spinach , December 21, 2007 7:49 AM]

I forgot to add that I do think the design of the cards is great, especially the little skiing, mail delivering animals. Spaceships and satellites for every good little boychik in the motherland.

[#11 posted by Ale Xander , December 21, 2007 1:51 PM]

Obviously the USSR were very proud of their successes in space:

They had sent the ever first satellite (Sputnik, 1957), the first animal (dog “Laika”, 1957) and the first man in space (Juri Gagarin, 1961).
The first space missile on the moon (Lunik 2, 1959) and the first space station in the orbit (Saljut 1, 1971) came from the USSR.

[#12 posted by martyweil , December 25, 2007 5:52 AM]

I've interviewed the owner of this collection, Boris Glazer, which appears on my site today-- Christmas Day 2007. And, it's true, these are New Year's cards, although the distinction isn't really critcal. Boris provides insight into his collection and his favorite examples are featured.