Italian writer Gianni Rodari during the initiation ceremony as an honorary pioneer at the 449th secondary school in Moscow, 1968

Soviet advisers in Angola. Cuito Cuanavale region, September–October 1987.

Leonid Brezhnev during a vacation on the Black Sea, USSR, 1973

Graffiti by fans of Mikhail Bulgakov's art in the entranceway of apartment block No.10 on Bolshaya Sadovaya, where the writer lived and worked. 1990

Tank riders under the command of Guards Sergeant Major Ivanov.

Students in class at an art school. USSR, 1959. Photo by Pashin

President Richard Nixon, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, and California Governor Ronald Reagan at La Casa Pacifica in San Clemente, 1973.

A group of children with pets. USSR, Nikolskoye village, 1925. Photo by Alexander Antonovich Belikov.

The Soviet-Hungarian crew of the Soyuz-36 spacecraft – cosmonauts Valery Nikolaevich Kubasov and Bertalan Farkas. Star City, 1980

Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev during the famous “Kitchen Debate” at the American National Exhibition in Moscow, 1959. Standing inside a model American kitchen, the two leaders used household appliances to argue over the merits of capitalism and communism.

V.V. Polyakov and A.A. Volkov at the "space barbershop" aboard the Mir space station. 1988

Entrance to the Soviet exhibition in London. UK, 1968

On this day in 1916, the most successful female sniper, Hero of the Soviet Union Lyudmila Pavlichenko was born.

The first cosmonaut, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, demonstrates a model of the Vostok spacecraft, in which he orbited the Earth on April 12, 1961. The demonstration took place as part of the International Air Show in Le Bourget, France; June 16, 1965.

View of the Luzhniki Stadium. USSR, Moscow, 1961. Photo by Wolfgang Leistritz

Soviet Armenian poster "50 years of the Pioneer movement" (1972).

Mikhail Gorbachev and Raisa Gorbacheva in France in 1977.

“Lenin in the Tretyakov Gallery” - Painting by Aleksandr Vasilyevich Semyashkin (1957)

Soviet mathematician and engineer Mstislav Keldysh with the head of the Republic of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, and the director of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ivan Potekhin. Moscow, July 13, 1961.

Decorative plate "Stalin, Voroshilov, Molotov inspecting structures on the Moscow-Volga Canal. 1937", 1940s. Artists V.L. Semenov and I.I. Riznich.

Vladimir Efimovich Trunov, a volunteer in the people's militia and recipient of the Order of the Red Banner for his participation in battles with the White Finns, at a gathering point in Leningrad, June 29, 1941. Photographer: R. Mazelev.

Georgian wine labels: Stalin, Queen Tamar, "Actress Margarita" (a painting by Niko Pirosmani). Photo: Zviadi Arziani

"Caucasus", an Intourist travel advertising poster. USSR, 1936.

Residents of Baku welcoming the leader of the USSR, Leonid Brezhnev. Azerbaijani SSR, 1982. Photo: Behruz Huseynzade

Soviet cosmonaut and physician Boris Yegorov with his son Borya during a vacation in Crimea, September 4, 1964.

"School of Fathers". Speed-baby-swaddling contest. Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, 1987

Shot Down Ace - Painting by Alexander Deineka (1943)

Clean the seas! - Soviet Poster (1970s)

Kvass sold in front of the Grand Sports Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium in Luzhniki. USSR, 1973. Photo: Nina Sviridova and Dmitry Vozdvizhensky

On Kalinin Avenue during the 12th World Festival of Youth and Students. USSR, Moscow, 1985

A Czechoslovak delegation visits the Moskvich plant. USSR, Moscow, 1966.

The Estoplast factory in Tallinn, Estonian SSR, produced designer lamps, sockets, switches, and other electrical products. The factory operated from 1953 to 2003.

The motorcade of the President of the Republic of India on the Yalta embankment. USSR, September 1964. Photo by Sigismund Evstafievich Kropivnitsky

Fisherman on the Neva. USSR, Leningrad, 1973

Nikolai Semashko, the organizer of the Soviet healthcare system, in his office at the 1st Moscow Order of Lenin Medical Institute (1945–1947).

Soviet mathematician and engineer Mstislav Keldysh with the head of the Republic of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, and the director of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ivan Potekhin. Moscow, July 13, 1961.

American schoolgirl Samantha Smith with a souvenir given to her by the crew of the cruiser Aurora in Leningrad, July 14, 1983. Photo by Sergey Smolsky

In the Bolshoi Theater Square during the World Festival of Youth and Students. Moscow, 1957. Photo by Vladimir Skumpe.

The first karate school group in Abkhazia. In the center, in a white kimono, stands Simon Darakhvelidze, the school's founder and coach. Sukhumi, 1978. Photo: Adgur Dzidzaria

Armenian SSR. Summer 1982.

The dining hall of the Donbass boarding house in the center of Massandra Park in Crimea, Ukrainian SSR, July 1, 1985. Photo by Alexander Lyskin

Football players Pelé and Anzor Kavazashvili after the USSR - Brazil match. 1965.

"In Memory of Nurses", Painting by Evgeny Vasilievich Fetisov, 1988

“We will fulfill everything that the party has outlined!” Soviet poster, 1977.

Soviet poster "Defend peace to the end!", 1955

A monument to Vladimir Lenin on the Yalta embankment. Crimean ASSR, 1939. Photo by Anatoly Garanin

Collective farmer Mamedova harvesting cotton. Azerbaijan, USSR, 1939.

A ZIL-117 sedan parked in-front of the COMECON headquarters and Kudrinskaya Square Building, Moscow, 1970s Photo: Valentin Sobolev

Butter Is Your Energy - Soviet advertising poster (1968)

Boris Borisovich Yegorov was a Soviet cosmonaut who became the first physician to travel to space.