The man is truly cosmic scale foresight and imagination. Born in Ryazan province Russian Empire A self-taught mathematician and physicist, he worked as a teacher and natural scientist.
“In 1885, at the age of 28, I firmly decided to devote myself to aeronautics and theoretically develop a metal controlled balloon" And he did it. He also came up with the idea of a "space elevator" and proposed using rockets with jet engines for flights into space.
Sergei Korolev (1906 -1966), founder of practical cosmonautics.
Legendary Russian developer and engineer, Korolev designed the first artificial satellite And spaceship Vostok-1, on board which Yuri Gagarin flew into space.
Since childhood, Korolev dreamed of developing aircraft. At the age of 17, he designed his own glider and easily entered the Moscow Higher technical school named after Bauman. Korolev's knowledge of space came from the science fiction novels of Eduard Tsiolkovsky and the lectures of Friedrich Zander, who designed prototypes of interplanetary spacecraft.
When he met with his theoretical mentor, Korolev told Tsiolkovsky that “my goal is to reach the stars.” Tsiolkovsky noted to this that the entire period of human existence may not be enough; Korolev replied that his life should be enough.
Sergei Korolev designed several gliders and ballistic missiles, but his main achievements were Sputnik and Vostok-1. The satellite was successfully launched into space in 1957 and spent 30 years in Earth orbit. In 1961, he was joined by the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, close friend Korolev, on board the Vostok-1 spacecraft.
Belka and Strelka 1950s - 1960s, the first animals in space.
The real names of the world's first astronaut dogs were Albina and Marquise. In August 1960, these dogs were given new names and became the first living creatures in Earth's orbit.
Their space journey aboard the Sputnik 5 spacecraft lasted just under 24 hours, during which they circled the earth 15 times. These dogs were used to study the influence space flight(overloads, weightlessness and radiation on living organisms.
Not only were Belka and Strelka the first animals in space, they were actually the first to return safely. They lived before old age and died a natural death. Their stuffed animals are on display in Memorial Museum astronautics in Moscow.
Yuri Gagarin (1934 – 1967), the first man in space.
Yuri Gagarin was born in the village of Klushino, near Smolensk in western Russia. People say his favorite pastime was flying paper airplanes during school.
At the age of 21, Gagarin made his first flight on board the Yak-18 aircraft. Four years later, he applied to be accepted into the cosmonaut training program. Soviet Union. On April 12, 1961, Gagarin became the first person to ever fly into space. Having completed a revolution around the Earth in 108 minutes, it landed safely in the Saratov region.
“Having flown around the Earth in a satellite ship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, and not destroy it,” Gagarin wrote after landing.
Two days later, a rally took place on Red Square in Moscow, and Yuri Gagarin was awarded the titles “Hero of the Soviet Union” and “Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR.” Almost a month after his flight, Yuri Gagarin was sent on his first trip abroad on the so-called “Peace Mission”. The first man in space visited about 30 countries.
Valentina Tereshkova (1937), first woman in space.
While studying at school, Valentina Tereshkova became interested in parachuting. She made 163 jumps at the flying club in Zhukovsky near Moscow. Sergei Korolev chose Tereshkova from four other women who applied to join the cosmonaut corps. Workouts and space flight went to strictly confidential, and Tereshkova’s mother found out that her daughter had been in outer space from newspapers.
On June 16, 1963, Vostok 6 launched into space with the first female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova on board (call sign “Chaika”). It spent three days above the Earth, completing 48 orbits around the planet and flying about one million miles.
“When I ejected from the capsule, I looked down and was shocked. Below, right below me, there was a lake. My first thought was: “Oh my God, a woman in space, and it’s bad luck that she’ll have to land in water!” – recalls Tereshkova.
Like Yuri Gagarin, she was awarded the title "Hero of the Soviet Union" and traveled around the world to popularize her achievements Soviet science and technology. Later Valentina Tereshkova received her doctorate technical sciences. She is a professor and author of more than 50 scientific papers.
In the era space discoveries In the USSR (late 50s - early 60s), the country became acquainted with a new architectural style, Soviet modernism. The style was replaced by Stalinist classicism in the wake of scientific and technological breakthroughs that occurred during the Khrushchev Thaw.
What is Soviet modernism? This is functionality. This is urbanism and futurism applied to buildings; emphasized massiveness of forms and structures; the complexity of the compositions, which reflects, according to the architects, “the whole complexity of life.” After Gagarin made his first flight, life became even more multifaceted. The conquest of space by man could not help but be reflected in architecture. Many buildings of that time really have cosmic shapes and sizes.
Rehabilitation center, Dombay, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Caucasus, 1985
The favorite materials of Soviet modernist architects were reinforced concrete and glass. Artificial marble, sandstone and shell rock, which were inexpensive and practical materials, were used as cladding. At the same time, the buildings did not suffer from a lack of decorative elements, such as large-scale mosaic panels.
Soviet modernism is the least studied architectural style that existed during the USSR. From the very beginning of Khrushchev's Thaw, modernist architects were regarded as bold experimenters, but in the 1970s critics began to describe their architecture as alien.
There are still no exact criteria for evaluating architecture Soviet modernism, which can still be found in most Soviet-era cities. In the 1990s, French architect Frédéric Chaubin became the first to attempt to catalog this architecture. He published photographs of about a hundred such structures in various ex-Soviet republics, ironically titled the book “Communist Space Structures in Photographs.”
Facilities and architectural ensembles Soviet modernists are losing their original appearance, preserving them for posterity is extremely difficult.
"Planet of Storms", 1961
One of the first Soviet films about space, “Planet of Storms” directed by Pavel Klushantsev, was filmed based on the story of the same name by Pavel Kazantsev. The premiere took place on April 14, 1962, two days after the first anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight. By this time, eight people had already been in space.
In Planet of Storms, Soviet cosmonauts land on Venus, along with their American counterpart, Professor Kern, who, although pragmatic, is very likable. Female astronaut Maria remains in orbit to maintain contact with Earth. On Venus, astronauts lose each other, only to be reunited and come face to face with the inhabitants of this planet - dinosaurs.
Soviet Minister of Culture Ekaterina Furtseva demanded that the final version include a scene in which Maria, alone in orbit, begins to cry, thinking that the expedition is doomed.
“The Soviet female cosmonaut cannot cry!”
The film was shot using montage and underwater filming techniques that were superior to their foreign counterparts in terms of special effects at the time. The film was a huge success in 28 countries.
In the USA, "Planet of Storms" was used as "raw material" for new films. For example, the studio American International, which mainly specialized in horror films, cut Planet of Storms, removing all traces of Soviet origins. The Soviet actors who remained in the frame were given fictitious American names (Georgy Zhzhonov, for example, became “Kurt Boden”). In the United States, the film was released as an American film called Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965). However, some elements still betrayed its Soviet past - for example, the word "Sirius" written in Russian on the body of the tape recorder.
During one of his visits to Russia, the creator of " Star Wars“said that he dreams of meeting maestro Klushantsev. Film industry functionaries just shrugged: “Who is this?” “Klushantsev is the godfather of Star Wars,” Lucas replied.
When Stanley Kubrick saw Klushantsev's film Road to the Stars, he was very impressed and later admitted in an interview that “without Klushantsev there would not have been the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.”
Solaris, 1972
Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon in 1969 gave new impetus space race. His contemporaries believed that humanity would soon explore Mars and Venus. Perhaps this atmosphere (no pun intended) guaranteed a favorable reception for director Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris.
Having financed this film, the Soviet leadership had every right to expect ideological dividends from it in return. However, Tarkovsky could not change himself even for tactical purposes. Filmed in 1972, Solaris was based on a novel by Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem and won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Although the action takes place in space, the viewer sees almost nothing related to space or the planet Solaris itself. In Tarkovsky's hands, Solaris becomes a philosophical and religious parable about guilt, forgiveness and memory. Through the prism of contact with extraterrestrial civilization the film explores ethical issues that humanity faces.
The author of the literary "Solaris", Stanislav Lem, a convinced materialist and atheist, could not accept Tarkovsky's religious allusions. Soviet film critics were also confused by the excessive mysticism - the resurrection of the film's heroine Hari was interpreted as "a mystical event that does not belong to the science fiction genre."
"Penetrating into hidden secrets nature must be inextricably linked with moral progress. Having taken a step to a new level of knowledge, it is necessary to put another foot on a new moral level.”
“Tarkovsky did not film Solaris, but Crime and Punishment.”
The Mystery of the Third Planet, 1981
The theme of space is most clearly illustrated in films for children and youth. The Soviet Union was supposed to educate a new generation of “sons and daughters of the earth” and “space pioneers.” The generation of 1970-80 grew up on such Soviet science fiction hits as “Guest from the Future”, “Moscow-Cassiopeia”, “Through Thorns to the Stars” and “The Great Space Journey”. Cartoons about space deserve special attention, especially “The Secret of the Third Planet.”
Based on a story by science fiction writer Kir Bulychev, the cartoon was created in 1981 by Roman Kachanov, one of the most famous animators of the era, creator of the iconic animated film “Cheburashka”. In this story, an expedition consisting of Captain Green, Professor Seleznev and his daughter Alice is sent from Earth to explore other worlds in search of new animals for the Moscow Zoo.
This cartoon was dubbed twice and released in the United States under the title "Alice and the Mystery of the Third Planet." In the second version, published in 1998 (as part of the series “Tales of My Childhood” by Mikhail Baryshnikov), Alice was voiced by a young Kirsten Dunst, and the bird Talker was voiced by James Belushi.
“That summer I proved that I was no longer a child: I helped capture Glot, the famous space pirate!”
“The Bird Talker is smart, brave, courageous, truthful and very modest!”
Contemporary cinema
In the 90s, Russian cinema experienced a shortage of funds to produce films about space. Only in the early 2000s space films made their way back to Russian cinemas. These new films were not about intergalactic travel, encounters with aliens, or the romance of discovering new planets. In them space and the space age were historical facts, which served as the background for the life of ordinary Soviet people.
They turned utopia into dystopia: Khrushchev's thaw and the era of cosmic triumph were gradually replaced by stagnation. Heroes of Space like Alexei Uchitel's "Premonition" and Alexei German's "Paper Soldier" foresee the post-space age.
“Space as a premonition”, 2005.
This is a story about a naive young man named Konyok, who dreams of space and wants to benefit humanity. A mysterious stranger named Herman, supposedly a candidate for the first cosmonaut training program, enters his life. In fact, Herman is preparing to flee the Soviet Union, either into space or by swimming across the border to Norway.
On the train to Moscow, Konyok meets a smiling, shy young officer named Yuri. In the finale it turns out that it was the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. Later, when Gagarin is welcomed to Moscow, the clumsy Horse runs up to the car with Gagarin and hands him a bouquet. This is the last frame of the film.
"Paper Soldier", 2008
The film takes place against the background historical events: Preparations are underway for the first human flight into space. In sharp contrast, the tragedy of the main character, doctor Daniil Pokrovsky, working with Soviet cosmonauts, is very personal and not heroic. Broken by doubts and torn between two women who love him, Daniil dies at the moment when Vostok-1 takes off with Gagarin on board.
"First on the Moon", 2005
Pseudo-documentary film by Alexey Fedorchenko - about unsuccessful attempts send a man into space and Soviet projects, which literally did not leave the ground. This ironic pseudo-documentary, shot in the style of early cinema, is an unbiased analysis of the meaning space age for Soviet and Russian art.
Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was born in Siberia in 1934. Just like Yuri Gagarin, he was selected for the first training program Soviet cosmonauts in 1960. He made his first flight in 1965.
Leonov, together with his friend, science fiction artist Andrei Sokolov, created the first stamps dedicated to space in the Soviet Union. The debut of their collection took place in March 1967, when the artists made the first series of stamps dedicated to Cosmonautics Day.
One of the sources of inspiration for the Soviet public was the popular science magazine “Technology of Youth”. The magazine was published in 1933 in order to educate competent engineers with early age. Let's start with the fact that the magazine was dedicated exclusively to technology, with big amount ideological content. However, in 1935 he published his first story about space - “ Space trip" Among the authors were such famous Russian science fiction writers as Ivan Efremov and the Strugatsky brothers, followed by Isaac Asimov, Stanislav Lem and Arthur Clarke. The magazine is still published. His materials reflect the Soviet people's futuristic vision of the space age.
Since early perestroika, the image of space in contemporary art was riddled with irony.
Elena Churikova. "Trays and Nebulae". Photo project, group exhibition “Not (its) temporary”, IX Moscow International Photo Festival, Fashion and Style in Photography, MMSI, Moscow, 2015.
Ilya Kabakov. "The man who flew into space from his room." Installation. Moscow, 1984. Now exhibited at the Pompidou Center, Paris.
According to the plot of the film, a man launches himself into space through the ceiling of his communal apartment. The viewer is placed in the corridor, where he sees the text of a denunciation written by a neighbor. It says that this man is guilty of making strange mathematical calculations related to flows of cosmic energy and an unknown design for launching physical bodies into orbit.
Zoya Sokol. Graduates of the 1st military aviation school pilots named after K.E. Voroshilov. 1959. Photo collage. MMSI. Moscow, 2012
If Soviet rock music and Soviet jazz contained protest semantic meaning and one way or another opposed the existing regime, the electronic music of the Soviet Union broke away from reality and rushed into the future - into the bright futuristic world of spaceships, robots and settlers on other planets. It was electronic music that helped to present this most vividly amazing world science fiction films of the time, such as Solaris and The Secret of the Third Planet.
This first electronic music originated in the Soviet Union after the revolution, in the 1920s. Then it was composed not by musicians, but by scientists. One of them was Leon Theremin, who invented the theremin. From this instrument you can move your hands in the air to produce unearthly sounds.
Avant-garde composer Arseny Avraamov (Revarsavr) was already working in the genre, which only at the end of the 20th century received the name “Noise and Music”, and devoted a lot of time to sound synthesis.
He even suggested that Joseph Stalin record the anthem of the Soviet Union on synthesizers that did not yet exist. But Stalin's government did not support his experiments.
With the arrival of Nikita Khrushchev in 1950, a “thaw” began; Yuri Gagarin’s first flight into space opened up new horizons for development. Including musical ones. The first Soviet synthesizers, developed back in 1936, became widely available. Musician Vyacheslav Meshcherin - who founded the first Ensemble of Electromusical Instruments (AEMI) in the Soviet Union in 1956 - picked up this new free tonality in his light, weightless music. The orchestra had great success. Even Gagarin admitted that AEMI’s music sounded in his ears during his flight into space. Later this musical genre has been called "space age pop".
And so it happened that many Soviet musicians began to create futuristic electronic sounds inspired by the blurring of boundaries between Earth and outer space. A decade later, in the 1960s, an electronic music studio opened a workshop in Moscow. It has produced many prominent Soviet electronic music composers, including Eduard Artemyev, whose name is associated with Soviet electronic music. The musician recorded soundtracks for dozens of films, including films about space, such as Solaris. Outside the Soviet capital, the electronic music genre was most active in the Baltic republics, where Western recordings and instruments were more accessible. One of the most bright stars electronic music - a group called "Zodiac" - was born on Latvian soil. It is impossible to imagine the space age without their song " Space Music" In the 80s, electronic music spread throughout the USSR. It became even more accessible when bands started using vocals. However space theme dissolved and became the background; instead of distant stars and planets musicians drew inspiration from the new information age, computers and virtual space. Groups such as “Technology” and “Bioconstructor” were the most popular. Pop musicians also wrote songs about the unknown space. Many traditional pop songs are about space. The most popular Soviet song about space was “Earth in the Porthole,” performed by the group “Earthlings,” who sang about how an astronaut feels when he is far from his home planet. Soviet singer Vladimir Troshin wrote many songs about life on other planets. Good example- “And apple trees will bloom on Mars.” And of course there were songs about the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin. The most famous of them is “Do you know what kind of guy he was?” performed by Yuri Gulyaev. Modern musicians continue to compose songs about Gagarin - listen to “Gagarin, I loved you” performed by the group “Underwood”.
IN Soviet times design was called “technical aesthetics”, and design artists were called constructors and decorative artists. The word “design” entered the Russian lexicon in the 70s thanks to Yuri Solovyov, director All-Union Institute technical aesthetics.
“A designer is a widely erudite amateur. He must know all the most important innovations in the field of engineering and ergonomics.”
During Khrushchev's "thaw", Soviet designers began to show signs of modernism: minimalist forms, streamlined silhouettes, sparkling surfaces, restrained font designs. Ideas of constructivism and avant-garde of the 20s and 30s. have been revised.
The era of breakthroughs in space exploration also saw breakthroughs in the design of household items. In the late 1950s, the conquest outer space has become the number one theme in the packaging of sweets, cigarettes and perfumes. Factories operating in the military and space industries began producing goods consumer consumption based on developed technologies.
When it was necessary to package food for astronauts, factories began using all kinds of tubes. The tubes contained various dishes (even borscht) in the form of paste and could be safely used in zero gravity. Some packaging was used in everyday life (for example, blister packs for pills and iodine in marker pens).
An example of this trend was the “space” design of the Raketa, Saturn and Chaika vacuum cleaners. "Saturn" was perfect round shape with a space age style rim. It was based on the American Hoover Constellation vacuum cleaner (1955), but instead of a shock-absorbing air chamber, the Saturn had wheels.
The Petrodvorets Watch Factory in Leningrad produced the Raketa watch with a unique mechanism. Standard models were created for mass consumption, while specialized models were made for pilots, divers, polar explorers and astronauts.
Description of flash game
Space Invasion
Hikouki Tomodachi
Hikouki Tomodachi ( Russian name games - "Space Invasion") - a two-dimensional third-person flash shooter, the adventure of a spaceship breaking through hordes of enemy aircraft, moving along different trajectories and firing conventional and guided projectiles. It will be interesting to play for both adults and children.
During the flight, micro-bosses appear, the destruction of which gives the player bonuses, with the help of which it is possible to develop the spaceship and restore health. The game is somewhat reminiscent of the legendary shooter Lifeforce from Konami, which was a hit on eight-bit game consoles in the 90s.
The game features two modes - single and with a partner. The controls in the game are simple, you can control the ship either using the keyboard, or using the mouse with the left button as a trigger. During a two-player game, one player will control the ship using the keyboard, the other using the mouse, which requires certain skills. Operating the keyboard seems much more difficult.
Graphic images and the effects in the game are weak, but quite acceptable for flash. The gameplay is exciting and dynamic, with a pleasant background music and special effects. The only negative There will be a small playing space in which (especially when fighting with a partner) it will be difficult to evade enemy units and projectiles during a massive enemy attack. The competition for two players will be an enjoyable pastime.
Existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life still remains in question. The murky depths of deep space are endless, like religious disputes; who knows, maybe the universe is full of superintelligent civilizations that simply don’t want to make contact. Meanwhile, from time immemorial, our planet has been forced to fight galactic aggressors: giant meteorites have left many battle scars on its surface.
Kaali Crater
Estonia
A giant crater from a gigantic meteorite has turned over millions of years into a small lake filled with dirty water. Archaeologists believe that the ancients built a sacred altar here and made human sacrifices to an unknown cosmic deity.
Chicxulub
Mexico
About 65 million years ago, an asteroid the size of a small metropolis passed through the atmosphere and hit our planet with the force of 100 million megatons of TNT (which, by the way, is exactly two million times more powerful than the most modern man-made bomb). The explosion triggered earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, megatsunamis and global firestorms. Clouds of dust covered the ground, blocking sunlight for many years: started glacial period, the majestic dinosaurs are a thing of the past.
Nordlingen
Germany
This city is only about one and a half thousand years old, but the crater where it was founded appeared as much as 15 million years ago. The meteorite left an ideal valley, perfectly protected on all sides by natural barriers. Locals They value their history very much - indeed, the remains of the space hulk are still scattered in their gardens.
Vredefort
South Africa
Today, the size of this crater can only be assessed from space: erosion gradually ate away its walls and almost leveled it to the ground. Nevertheless, officially the Vredefort crater is considered the largest in the world, its nominal diameter exceeds 400 kilometers.
Wolf pit
Australia
The iron meteorite, nicknamed Wolfe Creek, weighed about 50,000 tons. If it had fallen not on the territory of Australia, but somewhere in Europe, the new Ice Age could have wiped out humanity, which was then just emerging, from the face of the earth.
Houghton Crater
Devon, Canada
One of the most large craters left in the world by a giant meteorite that struck the Earth more than 39 million years ago. The blow was so strong that the very conditions of life in this area changed. Houghton's geology and climate have been labeled "Martian toys" by scientists - roughly the same conditions will await colonists on Mars. A preparatory station has already been built in the crater, where future explorers of the Red Planet will work.
Arizona Crater
USA
In 1903, geologist Benjamin Barringer first dared to declare extraterrestrial origin a giant crater located in what is now Arizona. Despite the harmonious theory supported by facts, science community made Barringer laugh: people could not even imagine that a “guest” of such size could actually arrive from outer space. Only thirty years later did scientists have to admit that the brave geologist was right.
Uphiwal
USA
Aphiwal, or the “Inverted Dome,” attracts tourists from all over the world. Giant formation, crushing national park Canyonlands, in several zones, can be considered one of the oldest craters on the planet - the impact occurred about 170 million years ago.