Picturing the Cosmos: A Visual History of Early Soviet Space Endeavor
132
Picturing the Cosmos: A Visual History of Early Soviet Space Endeavor
132eBook
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Overview
Kohonen ably examines each image, elucidating how visual media helped to anchor otherwise abstract political and intellectual concepts of the future and modernization within the Soviet Union. The USSR mapped and named the cosmos, using new media to stake a claim to this new territory and incorporating it into the daily lives of its citizens. Soviet cosmonauts, meanwhile, were depicted as prototypes of the perfect Communist man, representing modernity, good taste, and the aesthetics of the everyday. Across five heavily illustrated chapters, Picturing the Cosmos navigates and critically examines these utopian narratives, highlighting the rhetorical tension between propaganda, censorship, art, and politics.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781783207442 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Intellect Books |
| Publication date: | 07/01/2017 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 132 |
| File size: | 11 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Iina Kohonen is a researcher specializing in space-related visual propaganda and photojournalism in the Soviet Union.
Lina Kohonen has a Doctoral degree from Aalto University’s School of Art, Design and Architecture (photography) and a Masters Degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Helsinki, specializing in space-related visual propaganda and photojournalism in the Soviet Union.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Flying, actual, potential, and dreamlike, has always implied more than a mechanism for overcoming gravity.
(Siukonen 2001: 11)
In an archived photograph, we can see a woman in the middle of space debris. The landing capsule has hurtled into a field; it is charred and lying slightly on its side on the ground. The woman – I know that she is Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to just return from space – is sitting, looking confused and gathering things in an open bag. On the ground next to her is an open newspaper on top of which a bottle of milk and eggs have been placed. The spacesuit lies in a heap next to these and there is also a lot of other unidentified stuff around. A crowd surrounds the cosmonaut and the landing capsule, children with bare feet and grandmothers with scarves, looking solemnly at the miracle that has come from space (RGANTD 0-878). (FIGURE 1)
The people around Tereshkova are very close to her. How is it possible? Wasn't the landing of a cosmonaut a state secret? Yes, it was. The surrounding technology was top-secret, but still the people could approach very near, even touch their hero. How was this possible? The image is full of clues, like bits of a plot. These details are heavily loaded with meaning. However, outside of its original context, the photograph remains mute to me, a viewer from another culture and time.
In order to understand this single photograph, to be able to mine its meanings, we have to look further, to other photographs and stories, to the whole of the culture that once surrounded it. The image was born in a specific historical context and is bound with that time and place. The cultural geographer James R. Ryan (1997: 19) has used the term "visual history" to describe the research perspective that aims to examine how photographs or images function as part of a particular historical situation, as part of distinct mechanisms of power and control. The standpoint stems from the basic perspective of visual culture research, according to which images not only reflect reality but also actively produce it. As the French philosopher and cultural critic Roland Barthes put the idea, "In an initial period, photography, in order to surprise, photographs the notable; but soon, by a familiar reversal, it decrees notable whatever it photographs" (Barthes 1985: 40). What is it that this particular photograph is trying to make notable?
Taking this one shot as a starting point, this book is an analysis of images like it, which were provoked by the Space Age. The photographs that we are about to study in the following pages are both boldly heroic and, as we will see, commonplace yet romantic, strikingly picturesque and sometimes – paradoxically perhaps – very earthbound. The arguments of this book will explore these contradictions.
The research material includes photographs, illustrations, paintings, and films produced in the Soviet Union between 1957 and 1969. The main focus is on photographs found in the press, as the photos published in newspapers and magazines brought space and its conquerors into people's everyday lives. The analysis centers particularly on two interpretative contexts: the conquest of outer space, and the multiple facets of heroism connected to the cosmonauts in the Soviet Union of the late 1950s and the 1960s. (The reader should not worry: even though we will see many pictures and photographs, our space heroine will not be forgotten. Toward the end of this book, we will pick up with her again.)
"The Current Generation of Soviet People Will Live Under Communism"
The images illustrating this book were born as part of the Soviet Union's Cold War propaganda machine and, if published, they followed the official party line, as publishing could not be done legally outside of official channels. The period examined begins with the first Sputnik in 1957 and ends with the mission to the Moon by the United States in 1969. From the perspective of the Soviet Union, therefore, the story proceeds from victory to defeat. During this long decade the world lived in a Space Age, at least on the pages of glossy magazines. In Soviet Union, television had not yet replaced magazines as the primary form of visual media, and the photographs published in popular magazines played an important role in recording, illustrating, and producing the Space Age. In the words of a contemporary photographer, "As photojournalists, we write the history of our time. Our part is to do it through the method of our art; truthfully, clearly, convincingly" (Korolev 1957: 19).
The main publishing channel of the photos was the press, by means of which they circulated through an efficient, state-run publishing network. Technological advances in printing made possible an unprecedented appearance of photographs in the press. In terms of visual culture, times were in flux. In previous decades parades shown in media had been grand, paintings were full of marvels, and photos depicted the construction of a giant country into an even greater one. After the death of Stalin in March 1953, the situation changed – not with a bang, but gradually. At the 20th meeting of the Soviet Party Congress in 1956, Stalin's successor, Nikita Khrushchev, had condemned Stalin's purges and his personality cult. This "Secret Speech" by Khrushchev was followed by the so-called Thaw era, which was characterized by a partial relaxation of censorship, careful optimism and belief in a revival of the political system. Socialist realism retained its place as the official trend of the arts, but photographers observed that they had slightly more room to move.
Space grew to be the symbol of modern life and the future. Mankind seemed to be on the threshold of a new era, and belief in the possibilities of science and technology was strong. "Our country was the first to create an orbital spaceship, the first to reach outer space. Is this not a brilliant demonstration of the genuine freedom of the freest of all free people on earth, the Soviet people!" claimed Khrushchev in his speech (1961a) in Red Square two days after Yuri Gagarin's flight. Through the power of technology, everything appeared to be possible. The smiling cosmonauts were the people of the future. The central themes were modernization, "modernity" (sovremennost), a belief in man's omnipotence before nature, and the glorification of scientific and technological progress.
The optimism of that era is shown clearly in the Communist Party's new program (Programma KPSS), the so-called Third Party Program, which was formed in 1958-1961. The program was published in Pravda on July 30, 1961. The basic idea of the Party's program was to build a transition from Socialism to Communism over the next twenty years. "In the Soviet Union, the material and technical foundation of Communism will be created in two decades. That is the most important economic task of our Party, the foundation of the main line of our Party" (Khrushchev 1961b: 201). The program promised that Communism would be achieved in two stages: during the first decade (1961-1970), the Soviet Union would surpass the United States in agricultural and industrial production. The Third Party Program also promised a dramatic rise in the standard of living: growth in housing construction, increased consumer goods, and reduction of working hours to be the lowest in the world. In the second phase (1971-1980), the material-technical foundation of Communism would be created, and Soviet society would achieve the Communist objective of allocating commodities to people on the basis of need. The promise "the current generation of Soviet people will live under Communism" was repeated in the program (Programma KPSS 1961: 65-66, 142). Communism was no longer a far-off dream, but a fact. This was partially proven by winning the Space Race, as underlined in a humorous picture published in Ogonyok in 1961 (FIGURE 2). "Illusion! Utopia! Slander!" shout the capitalists, powerless in front of the program. Next to the picture is a quote from Khrushchev: "The program of the Communist Party can be compared to a three-stage rocket" (Ogonyok 45/1961). Even before its actual implementation, the Third Party Program received great proof of its success with space achievements. Never before had utopia had such a clear timetable, a concrete point in the future.
Secrecy and Spotlight
What best defines the space-related imagery in its entirety was a strange connection in which meticulous censorship and excessive propaganda were linked. The censorship, which was very strict in general, was particularly vigilant when it came to anything associated with the space program. Created in the top-secret atmosphere of the military-industrial complex, illustrations or photos related to the space program were not circulated to the public without cautious consideration. It is precisely this balancing act that makes these photos an interesting subject of study: every published photo was significant, every detail left in place was meaningful – especially if appearing more than once. In the following pages, we shall see how media managed to negotiate scientific accomplishments and the demands of censorship: how to illustrate as much as possible without accidentally leaking secret technical data?
One simple solution was the practice of heavy retouching. During the whole of the 1950s and 1960s, retouched or otherwise doctored photos could be seen in the press. The photos in Ogonyok magazine, for instance, were quite often colored by hand, and this practice was not questioned at any stage during that era. Sovetskoe Foto, an important publishing channel for photo enthusiasts and professionals, even shared instructions with its readers on how to combine negatives, as well as other methods of manipulation and montage (e.g., Bespalov 1964: 36). In a sense, the practice of coloring photos and using other types of manipulation did not lessen their relationship to reality: sometimes retouching was simply a technical and aesthetic matter, not taken as tampering with the photos' authenticity. The method was not very different from the digital retouching of photos in advertisements routinely done today. This is shown in FIGURES 3 AND 4 for example, where we can see how a hero has been made beautiful by painting on top of the photo. At other times, however, it was much more than that.
Material Used in the Book
This book is based on photos, illustrations, and paintings published in the Soviet Union. The core data was collected from the complete volumes of Ogonyok magazine from between 1957 and 1969. Included are images involving the topic of space from that period.
The magazine Ogonyok, which came out once a week, had the third largest circulation of the Soviet Union magazines at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s. The magazine existed even before the Revolution, and even then it was already focused on photojournalism. It began circulating in its Soviet form in 1923. While published weekly on Sundays, it could take a month for new issues to reach the eastern and northernmost parts of the Soviet Union. The magazine defined itself as "a weekly socio-political, literary art magazine." It was printed on what in those times was good-quality paper, and it included many photos, illustrations, and articles on science, sports, and Soviet life in general. In 1945, the magazine was expanded and was reintroduced with colored pictures. At that time, its circulation started to climb, and by the 1960s it ran to two million. Its price was affordable, as the magazine was aimed at the general public. Right from the outset, its contributors included the most prominent Soviet authors, scientists, and artists. At the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, many talented photojournalists were working for the magazine, such as Vsevolod Tarasevich, Dmitri Baltermants, Alexei Gostev, and Isaac Tunkel. In addition to having its own photographers, Ogonyok also acquired photos from photo agencies. For example, only carefully chosen photographers had the right to be present at the launches or photograph the landings of the cosmonauts.
Images in Ogonyok depicting space were not consistently distributed over the years. From table i, one can note that space images were most concentrated between 1961 and 1963. On the basis of the quantity of images, it is easy to see that space-related news coverage was at its peak during those years.
In 1961, when the peak number of images was reached, the Soviet Union won the most meaningful round of the Space Race at that time: on April 12, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to fly into space. The following years were a celebration of manned flights by the Soviet Union, and this is reflected in an abundance of images until 1963. After that point, the number of images dropped significantly, so that by 1967 the topic of space was almost completely absent in the magazine. Reasons for this decline in images were linked to the space program itself. In 1966, the chief engineer of the space program, Sergei Korolev, passed away. This was a heavy hit to the space program. In 1966, the Soviet Union only managed to launch two lunar probes, both of which were extensively reported on by Ogonyok (6-7/1966; 15/1966). Yet, not even one manned flight was sent into space by Soviets, and space-related images were almost completely absent in the magazine: over the course of the whole year, only 37 space-related images were published. The following year the magazine concentrated even less on the subject of space: only 30 images connected to the space program were published in the magazine. Moreover, instead of focusing on celebrated heroes, for the first time ever the magazine reported on an accident that took the life of a cosmonaut, when Vladimir Komarov was killed during a failed descent of his Soyuz 1 spacecraft. The accident was publicly acknowledged because the flight was already known about (Ogonyok 18/1967). The only other newsworthy space-related event reported by Ogonyok that year was the successful arrival at Venus of the Venera 4 probe (Ogonyok 43/1967).
The year 1968 also started with sad news when the first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, died in a flight accident. This was also widely reported on in Ogonyok (15/1968), which led to ajump in the number of space-related images. At the end of 1968, after a long hiatus Ogonyok again reported on a manned spaceflight (Ogonyok 45-46/1968), and the following year Ogonyok introduced many new space heroes through successful Soyuz flights (Ogonyok 3-4/1969). There were, however, hints of other new heroes in the images: throughout 1969 we can see, among the familiar faces of the cosmonauts, glimpses of astronauts from the us Apollo program (see, for example, FIGURE 51) (Ogonyok 1/1969, 22 /1969, 30/1969, 32 /1969).
The images published in Ogonyok were primarily directed at a Soviet audience. The magazine was the primary publishing platform of the images that form the material of this book, but it was not the only one. The centralized publishing machine and the copyrights associated with it led to a situation in which multiple versions of a single photo could be in circulation at the same time.
FIGURE 5 shows a young man in an Air Force uniform, looking past the camera with a slight smile on his face. The person in the photo is "Cosmonaut No. 2," Gherman Stepanovich Titov, the second man to orbit the Earth, only three months after Yuri Gagarin. After his spaceflight, this photo became well known. FIGURES 6-13 (see also FIGURE 71) show how the same image was used as press photos, book covers, postcards, posters, and badges. This was a typical practice. Space technology and images of the first cosmonauts were quickly turned into a kind of basic corpus, which was refreshed again and again in slightly different ways, and retouched and cropped.
The photos published in Ogonyok were often manipulated, as colorization and other forms of retouching were a common practice. In order to see what kinds of cropping and changes were made to the photos, I decided to look for their originals. The photo archives of Ogonyok itself have disappeared, but most of the space-related images ended up in the Russian State Archive of Scientific and Technical Documents (Rossiisky gosudarstvennyi arkhiv nauchno-tekhnicheskoi dokumentatsii, RGANTD) in Moscow. From this archive, I collected extensive background material, a collection forming a total of over 4,000 photos.
(Continues…)
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Table of Contents
Introduction
A Slash Across the Heavens
Travelers in the Void
Story of the Heroic Conquest of Space
A Completely Ordinary Hero
The Housebroken Hero
The Tormented Hero
Conclusions