Magazine


The big picture: Russian history revisited

Conrad Astley
13/ 1/2006

While the story of the rise and fall of communism in the Soviet Union is often told from a western perspective, a new exhibition shows how it was seen by those most closely affected by it. Conrad Astley took a look.

THE TURBULENT events of Russian history throughout the 20th century are vividly told in a powerful exhibition at the Imperial War Museum North.

Soviet Times features images ranging from the Russian Revolution of 1917 to the end of communism in the Soviet Union in 1991.

Along with instantly recognisable images, such as cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, on his way to the launch pad in 1961, there are photographs which have rarely been seen before.

Images include workers creating an industrialist USSR and democracy demonstrations in Moscow. There is also a rare photograph of the great Soviet-era Russian composer Shostakovich, who famously never defected to the West, and whose centenary is now being marked at the Bridgewater Hall.

Museum curators say although the exhibition is small - with only 30 photographs - it is an important piece of history as the images come from a unique Russian perspective.

They come from the lenses of the Russian News and Information Agency (RIA) Novosti photographers, against the backdrop of the Soviet Union's ideological struggle with capitalism.

The organisation started life as the Soviet Information Bureau days after the German invasion of 1941, to compile war reports from the front line, and became the Soviet Union's official news organisation, acquiring an archive of photographs which recorded events from earlier decades.

The agency established its London centre the following year, producing the Soviet War News Weekly - which would eventually become the Soviet Weekly and which was published until 1991.

The organisation became known as the Novosti Press Agency in 1961, establishing centres in 120 countries.

It continues to be one of Russia's leading news and photography agencies and now has a vast archive over 600,000 images.

Soviet Times: Highlights of the RIA Novosti Archives at the IWMN, Trafford Wharf Road, Trafford Park, until June.


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