1981 in color. THE USSR. Unforgettable

Writes blogger visualhistory: “I felt like I didn’t remember 1981 very well, much worse than 1979 or 1980. There were no bright events for which it would be possible to "catch". But I looked at these pictures, and images, impressions of that time began to resurrect, emerge from the depths of memory.

In general, 1981 is the apogee of "Stagnation", the last stage of the ossification of the Soviet political system.

(Total 32 photos)

Source: Journal/visualhistory

1. On December 19, Leonid Ilyich was awarded the fourth star of the Hero of the Soviet Union

Below are pictures from a 1981 photo essay by Peter Marlowe (Magnum Agency).

2. A common “childhood” memory of the early 1980s is dullness and coldness. But there was one bright spot that warmed everything - it was a vacation "in the South", that is, on the Black Sea coast. In the early 1980s, millions of Soviet citizens traveled there. Most of them traveled by train. Vacationers on the train at the Sochi railway station

3. Pioneers at the Sochi railway station

I was also in 1981 in Sochi! Seems like the last time.

4. A nightmare was happening on the beaches (as it is now, probably). This is Odessa beach-81

5. There was enough entertainment in the Soviet resort life. One of the most enjoyable were boat trips. Sochi

6. Excursions in open buses, Sochi

7. On the seaside boulevard in Sochi (as in other resort areas), people played chess and checkers

8. And there was even such a show in the Sochi "night club"

Despite the fact that in 1981 they introduced criminal liability for illegal karate training!

9. Someone just wanted to lie down on a bench. Primorsky boulevard in Sochi

10. Room of Crooked Mirrors in Sochi

I was in this as a kid!

11. Favorite children's entertainment of that time: slot machines and a shooting gallery. Sochi

12. And what is a vacation without ice cream? Sochi

13. And kvass of course

14. Lesson "Disco" in the pioneer camp "Kasnoe znamya" near Odessa

Probably the photographer himself, Peter Marlow, gives the lesson. Travolta Style.

15. Pioneers love it

16. A veteran tells about the war to children in the pioneer camp "Red Banner" near Odessa

17. 1981 is already the era of shortages and queues. Here in a clothing store in Odessa they “thrown away” something scarce

18. But the people to break for Pepsi-Cola

19. On the other hand, Soviet medicine and the health care system were, on the whole, at their best. People rest after sulfur baths in Matsesta

20. Oxygen treatment in a sanatorium near Riga

A few more photographic observations by Peter Marlow.

21. On a bench in Riga

22. Odessa on a rainy day

23. Foreign attraction at VDNKh in Moscow

The people found entertainment to their liking in the most deaf stagnant times.

24. Member of the Riga hunting club

And a few photo sketches of 1981 from other sources.

25. At the Belorussky railway station in Moscow

26. Moscow street 1981

27. And this is what it looked like in 1981. Dzerzhinsky (Lubyanka)

28. Kyiv Khreschatyk-81

29. Sofia square in Kyiv-81

30. Kharkov-81

31. Children's polyclinic in Novorossiysk

32. Yakutsk-81

This is what our life was like in the unforgettable 1981, in a country that many now call the "scoop".