Comments on: Vintage Soviet Christmas Cards

Vintage Soviet Christmas Cards

Jimbob — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:06:33 -0800

They're certainly cheerful! (via)

By: mazola

mazola — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:22:26 -0800

I forget, are we looking at these fearfully, with ironic detachment, or with nostalgic sentimentality? I like these!

By: JBennett

JBennett — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:22:53 -0800

I'm guessing you're being sarcastic, but, well, that is the only image that isn't super cheerful. All the rest are totally cute and fun. I think they're great. Nice link, thanks.

By: mattoxic

mattoxic — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:25:35 -0800

Are there any that don't either feature space travel or aircraft? I suppose the alternative is baby jesus et al.

By: Jimbob

Jimbob — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:32:00 -0800

Yeah, I guess I did pick the most depressing one to highlight. I guess it just looked like the perfect thing to send to your most-hated aunt.

By: porpoise

porpoise — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:33:14 -0800

I love the space imagery (especially over baby jebus or Santa [an invention of Coca Cola]! We as a nation* species must regain that enthusiasm for space travel. *whatever the nation, but it's nations that have the resources to fund space exploration, X-Prize and millionaire engineers/geek-financiers notwithstanding

By: ORthey

ORthey — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:33:17 -0800

These are New Year's cards, FWIW.

By: tepidmonkey

tepidmonkey — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:38:03 -0800

Are there any that don't either feature space travel or aircraft? I'm sure there are plenty that don't feature space travel or aircraft, that's just the theme of this image gallery. It's like asking, are there any Soviet propaganda posters that don't either feature sickles and hammers or craggy men staring resolutely into the distance? Answer: yes

By: pompomtom

pompomtom — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:40:38 -0800

And appropriately-enjoyable christmas to you too!

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:48:20 -0800

Speaking of Christmas greetings, I thought this was pretty funny.

To My Democrat Friends: Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wish. To My Republican Friends: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

By: Jimbob

Jimbob — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:51:38 -0800

Don't you mean: To My Republican Friends: ~~Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!~~ Did you hear they won't let Santas say Ho! Ho! Ho! anymore, and public school ban our children from singing Christmas carols!

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:13:36 -0800

Jimbob, I didn't write it. What I meant to do was quote the original author, and that's what I did.

By: Jimbob

Jimbob — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:16:16 -0800

Oh, I know. I just think my version is more fair and balanced ;)

By: dhammond

dhammond — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:19:59 -0800

Hey now. It appears as if these are meant to celebrate the Soviet space system. Those losers.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:26:37 -0800

These are beautiful and hilarious - thanks, Jimbob. (Steven, you should know the pajamas folks cut out the "To my Libertarian friends" section that's the third part of every one of those moronic emails I've gotten - funny, that.)

By: fleetmouse

fleetmouse — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:40:35 -0800

Ha! I was just looking for something fun and Christmasy to email people. This commiepasta is perfect.

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:52:01 -0800

Hey, Russians don't have the corner on the occasional dry Xmas greeting -- this, from the same website, which features much more holiday postcards from days gone by. Thanks Jimbob!

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:53:15 -0800

~~much~~ many /end embarrassment over nothing

By: TrialByMedia

TrialByMedia — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:03:39 -0800

To my Republican Friends: Feliz Navidad!

By: dminor

dminor — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:19:37 -0800

These are not Christmas cards as there was no Soviet-era christmas. These are New Year's cards.

By: Space Kitty

Space Kitty — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:59:41 -0800

These are marvelous, thank you!

By: mediareport

mediareport — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 23:09:21 -0800

These are not Christmas cards And the guy in the red suit in the rocket-pulled sleigh is not Santa. We get it already.

By: maryh

maryh — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 00:48:17 -0800

And the guy in the red suit in the rocket-pulled sleigh is not Santa. Oh, I think we all know who that "jolly old elf" really is, deep in our hearts... via flapjax, of course

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 01:56:23 -0800

Santa leads the Elf Spetznaz on a social warfare mission against counter-revolutionary present double-wrappers.

By: EatTheWeak

EatTheWeak — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 03:00:16 -0800

To comment on this, I gotta share just a little bit of my personal life with you. Up until this year, I've found Christmas and New Year's to be a wonderful time. I knew lots of folks found it depressing, but I never really understood that. But this November, my life fell the fuck apart and I've at last come to know the crushing, impossible depression that the holidays can carry when your world has gone All Wrong. With that in mind, I've done as much as I can to avoid the trappings of Christmas. I keep the radio off so I won't risk hearing carols. I don't look at lights or decorations, and there certainly aren't any up in my apartment. I've not purchased any presents or watched any holiday specials. On the 25th, I'll be at my job and feeling what amounts to delight nowadays to be there. In every way that matters, Christmas is pretty much canceled for me. But I can't pass up Soviet-era art, it's just not possible. And I'm glad I clicked the link, because this is the first, indeed, the only bit of Holiday I've encountered in 2007 that's made me smile. Santa's. fucking. rocket sled. Awesome. Thank you, Jimbob.

By: jfuller

jfuller — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 03:35:15 -0800

Off the Christmas-or-maybe-not subject, but the Rooskies sure did know what spaceships ought to look like. While everybody else gave us a boring surfeit of form-follows-function, the stuff with CCCP on the side could have blasted right off the cover of any 1932 issue of Weird Tales. The wonderful casserole-with-eyestalks Lunokhod moon rover is high on the personal greatest-hits list.

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 03:40:00 -0800

craggy men staring resolutely into the distance tepidmonkey, my understanding is that they are boldly looking into the future.

By: ClanvidHorse

ClanvidHorse — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 04:09:02 -0800

This is great. My favourite is the little kid with the yellow-starred jump suit and the CCCP Helmet while the space ships dock in the background. I am a sucker for the aesthetic of that era's propaganda pictures and to cross this with Christmas/New year cards makes it even better. Thanks Jimbob.

By: DU

DU — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 04:39:19 -0800

Speaking of Christmas greetings, I thought this was pretty funny. Yeah, you would. What's not cheery about spaceships flying past the moon? I think it's awesome. Colors could use a little work, though.

By: Kellydamnit

Kellydamnit — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 04:40:26 -0800

I love this. I'm bookmarking, and next year I'll print off a bunch of these instead of buying cards. Space Santa. What could be better??

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 04:41:42 -0800

Why do Santa and his elves bring Christmas trees with them? Is this some kind of shortage thing?

By: cowbellemoo

cowbellemoo — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 06:19:05 -0800

These are fantastic! Thanks!

By: pax digita

pax digita — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 06:20:10 -0800

I'm pretty rusty on this, but as I recall, in the Soviet Union, Christmas, as such, wasn't the big deal that New Year's was (after all, it had its basis in the observance of a religious festival) and that the Santa Claus character was known as "Grandfather Frost" -- could some helpful Russkiy MeFi'er or two elaborate a bit?

By: mediareport

mediareport — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 06:56:47 -0800

From this article about Lenin's decision to ban Christmas (site photos of models in bikinis possibly NSFW, so here's most of it): The Christmas tree and the midnight dinner of New Year's Eve, traditional in tsarist times, were banned by the atheistic Bolshevik regime of 1925, banished as "bourgeois" symbols. Ten years later, the New Year's tree was rehabilitated by Stalin, although celebrations marking the birth of Christ -- on the night of 6-7 January in Orthodox tradition -- would officially not take place again until the Soviet collapse of 1991. In 1937, at the height of Stalin's repressions, a gigantic fir tree topped with a red star was installed for the first time in the center of Moscow. The first decorations displayed portraits of Lenin and Stalin, starting a tradition of a politically-charged New Year festival. In 1937 the people's commissariat for education published a book entitled "The New Year at the nursery school", prescribed that the fir tree "crowned with a red star... symbolizing a radiant and happy childhood made possible thanks to the (Communist) Party." Even if New Year's Day was relatively unpoliticized compared to other national holidays, "each historical or political twist found its illustration in the tree decorations," said political analyst Boris Kagarlitsky. During World War II, trees were decorated with small tanks, guns, parachutists and rescue dogs. Shortages forced Soviet citizens to learn to make decorations themselves by repainting worn bulbs or soaking objects in a solution soaked with salt to create a snow crystal effect. The designers of Soviet decorations watched the preferences of their leader closely, producing hockey players or circus acrobats as soon as Stalin evoked these professions in his speeches. Then in the reign of his agriculture-obsessed successor, Nikita Khrushchev, the first corn-ear baubles appeared on New Year's trees. The exploration of space gave life to innumerable cosmonaut decorations -- echoing the angels of the Christian Christmas tree -- as well as Soviet Sputniks and miniature rockets. Decorations representing bundled up polar explorers and polar bears were another Soviet favorite. With the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, factories making decorations found themselves without government orders or Party guidance, and were forced to take their cues from the market. For the most part that led them to Western-style decorations. But now nostalgia for Soviet kitsch is leading some back to the traditional Soviet designs of so many Russian childhoods.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 06:58:43 -0800

Oops, Lenin died in 1924, so it wasn't his decision. Sorry.

By: schoolgirl report

schoolgirl report — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 07:05:49 -0800

Someone simply must Photoshop Jar Jar into this one.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 07:11:09 -0800

Great post, many thanks! Oops, Lenin died in 1924, so it wasn't his decision. Sorry. And he hadn't been doing anything but sit in his wheelchair in Gorky and glare at the world since his massive stroke on March 10, 1923, "which robbed him of the power of speech: until his death ten months later, he could utter only such monosyllables as vot-vot ('here-here') and s"ezd-s"ezd ('congress-congress')" (Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime, 479). Hang in there, EatTheWeak—it'll get better.

By: pax digita

pax digita — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 07:27:17 -0800

mediareport, that's both helpful and mildly eponysterical -- thx! Makes me imagine New Year's trees in the officers' clubs at Petropavlovsk and Polyarnyy were decorated with tiny Soviet Navy submarines...like with EatTheWeak, I'll do anything to make myself smile over the holidays...

By: ba

ba — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 08:10:29 -0800

In Soviet Russia, New Years cards send you!

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 09:30:07 -0800

Speaking of Santa and his rocket-sled: Off in the Christmas Cosmos (vaguely related)

By: fiercecupcake

fiercecupcake — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 10:02:34 -0800

[A footnote regarding the Coca-Cola/Santa thing: Not true.]

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:47:02 -0800

Speaking of Christmas greetings, I thought this was pretty funny. I get it! It's funny because the implication is that Democrats are prickly but Republicans are not! Only people who were worse than Hitler wouldn't agree with you that it's completely funny! Did you know that white people dance like this, but black people dance like that?

By: EatTheWeak

EatTheWeak — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 12:29:34 -0800

thank you, languagehat.

By: Gungho

Gungho — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 19:40:30 -0800

Steven C. Den Bestem I've been sending that message since 1998. To my dear friends, and mere acquaintances, Please accept with toungue planted firmly in cheek, and with no obligation, implied or implicit my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress,non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all...and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 1999, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great, (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only "AMERICA" in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual preference of the wishee. (By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms) This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher. Normal disclosures: Void where prohibited by law, Don't swing that; you'll put someone's eye out, Never run with scissors. cut along dotted line, objects may appear closer than you think, No talking during the movie, Please hold on to your children when using escalator, No smoking near oxygen, Only you can prevent forrest fires, Meat is murder, Fur Kills, Eggs make eggnog.The following preview is for all audiences, That's not how you do it, here let me show you. My dog ate my homework, Its not the heat its the humidity, Package may settle during shipment, Always wear clean underwear. Never pet a strange dog. Merry X-Mass, Bah Humbug, Happy Chanukka, Prayerful Ramadan, Happy Kwaanza, Learn something new Next Year!