Lovely retro future.

April 5, 2014 4:06 AM

How Soviet artists imagined Communist life in space.
posted by Mistress (28 comments total)

Minus points for the helicopters, Klushantsev. You had one job.
posted by jaduncan at 4:11 AM on April 5, 2014 [4 favorites]

The artwork is stunning though. I miss the space technofuture.
posted by jaduncan at 4:12 AM on April 5, 2014 [3 favorites]

Looks like the copters are in a far future where a terraformed moon has air.
posted by Mistress at 4:30 AM on April 5, 2014 [3 favorites]

Ah, neat. I retract my statement. Thanks for the post though, it's beautiful art.
posted by jaduncan at 5:02 AM on April 5, 2014

Super cool!
posted by Fists O'Fury at 5:24 AM on April 5, 2014

All of these look cool and I want to go there.
posted by Too-Ticky at 5:33 AM on April 5, 2014

Then you need to go back..... to the future.
posted by Mezentian at 5:39 AM on April 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

Now that the Soviets have been vanquished and capitalism reigns supreme, space travel is now almost totally superfluous.

We have cell phones now.
posted by Avenger at 5:40 AM on April 5, 2014 [5 favorites]

Now that the Soviets have been vanquished and capitalism reigns supreme, space travel is now almost totally superfluous.

All the money is in simulation.
posted by knapah at 5:45 AM on April 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

I don't know...I think they could have made the text a lot bigger, and maybe enlarge the photos some more, just enough that you can't see the whole picture at once.

Done?

Good!
posted by QueerAngel28 at 6:39 AM on April 5, 2014

Bonus: An illustration from Soviet Cities on the Moon?, an article from Science Digest, February 1958

I like very much that the artist has envisioned Soviet lunar settlements as just multiple iterations of St. Basil's Cathedral each with a transparent hemisphere plunked over it.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:40 AM on April 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

Came to grouch about the helicopters on an airless moon, have a bit of skepticism that the artists were doing extensive calculations about the potential air density of a far future moon colony.

I remember one SF novel (well I don't remember the title and didn't finish it) that had an artistic object as a central element, SF writers don't seem to be heavy on imagining future aesthetics. All the SF artists don't really have all that great visual cues to work from.
posted by sammyo at 7:14 AM on April 5, 2014

No hot water, no toilets, no lights.
(but Ivan's on the moon)
posted by Nelson at 7:17 AM on April 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

These look a lot like capitalist science fiction art from the same time period, except the colonists foolishly are sharing resources like air and water rather than hording and selling the to each other. No wonder communism failed to conquer the stars!
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:36 AM on April 5, 2014 [6 favorites]

Needs more tractors.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:40 AM on April 5, 2014 [5 favorites]

Asides from the Kremlin space dome cities in the last picture these look remarkably like the photos I remember from flipping through the pulp science fiction section in my library growing up. I didn't grow up in the former USSR. Implication: They saw much of the post-earth colonization in a similar light to the way we see it.

Only in post-earth Soviet Republic, the colonization gets you.
posted by Nanukthedog at 8:41 AM on April 5, 2014

I wonder if the antisocials would be launched into orbit with a catapult or if their biomass was requistioned for the terraforming.
posted by codswallop at 8:46 AM on April 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

Love the pictures, but what a weird intro. The guy's Hungarian so maybe he grew up suffering from too much "worker's paradise" bullshit. It's like "Here we see NASA's plans for spreading Capitalism to outer space. Enjoy these images of their vision of Free Market communities on the Moon."
posted by benito.strauss at 8:48 AM on April 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

The guy's Hungarian so maybe he grew up suffering from too much "worker's paradise" bullshit

English is his second language, and sometimes it is quite obvious. But he puts together nice image collections. It balances.
posted by Mezentian at 8:51 AM on April 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

I like the inverted monorail which, in a surprising twist, becomes what looks to be a railgun/catapult at the last stop.
posted by skyscraper at 8:55 AM on April 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

I would play the hell out of a video game that looked like this. ESPECIALLY if it was a space trader sim.
posted by Doleful Creature at 9:56 AM on April 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

monorail

Unfair. I have the song in my head abotu North Haverbrook.
posted by Mezentian at 10:04 AM on April 5, 2014

From the "full text of the book" link it looks like the future will still have intrepid young Belgian reporters.
posted by George_Spiggott at 10:07 AM on April 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

I didn't see any indication in any picture (but one) that had any indication of the economic system underpinning the venture.

None of these things look politically motivated at all (other than the fact that they embody a political motivation to succeed and colonize the stars, which any right-thinking Capitalist OR right-thinking Communist can support).
posted by chimaera at 10:15 AM on April 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

So, basically, Fantastic Planet.
posted by evil otto at 10:33 AM on April 5, 2014

Favorited so hard.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 12:17 PM on April 5, 2014

“We have nothing but our freedom. We have nothing to give you but your own freedom. We have no law but the single principle of mutual aid between individuals. We have no government but the single principle of free association. We have no states, no nations, no presidents, no premiers, no chiefs, no generals, no bosses, no bankers, no landlords, no wages, no charity, no police, no soldiers, no wars. Nor do we have much else. We are sharers, not owners. We are not prosperous. None of us is rich. None of us is powerful. If it is Anarres you want, if it is the future you seek, then I tell you that you must come to it with empty hands. You must come to it alone, and naked, as the child comes into the world, into his future, without any past, without any property, wholly dependent on other people for his life. You cannot take what you have not given, and you must give yourself. You cannot buy the Revolution. You cannot make the Revolution. You can only be the Revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”

― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed
posted by Baby_Balrog at 1:21 PM on April 5, 2014 [4 favorites]

In Soviet Russia, technotopian moon colony orbits YOU!
posted by Happy Dave at 7:01 AM on April 7, 2014