China and Russia have announced plans to launch a joint unmanned mission to Mars in 2009. The two countries plan to explore Mars and one of its moons. This news comes as Chinese President Hu Jintao is visiting Moscow and attending activities to mark the beginning of Russia’s “Year of China”.

Link: Reuters – China details Mars exploration with Russia
Link: People’s Daily Online – Chinese satellite to orbit Mars
Link: Hu Jintao Pays State Visit to Russia and Attends Activities Marking the “Year of China”

“Somewhere In the USSR.” Photo from Soviet Photo magazine 1970. Via Soviet Photo Daily.

Link: U.S. software developer to become world’s 5th space tourist
Link: Space station guest’s meal plan: roast quail to go

A view of the Kremlin taken from the Big Stone Bridge. Photo By: Eldar Vagapov

Last week’s article about Samantha Smith and Katya Lycheva generated a lot of feedback from our friends and readers. Many found the story of these child ambassadors inspiring and hopeful. Others found it hard to believe that a 10-year-old girl would ever write such a letter or even think about such topics as nuclear war. This led to a discussion of how American children viewed the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Why were American kids afraid of the USSR and of nuclear war? While there were many things that affected children during the Cold War, mass media was certainly a very strong influence.

Here’s a sample of some films that might cause a child to write things like “I have been worrying about Russia and the United States getting into a nuclear war” and “I would like to know why you want to conquer the world or at least our country.” ^[1] These are just a few of the many films produced during the Cold War that portrayed a Russian invasion of America.

Invasion U.S.A.
This 1952 film portrays a communist invasion of America. Here’s the original trailer for the film.

The Day After
ABC aired this made-for-TV film in November of 1983. The film portrays a Soviet nuclear attack on America and the aftermath of this attack. Here’s a clip from the film.

Red Dawn
A Hollywood blockbuster starring Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen. The film portrays a Soviet and Cuban/Latin American invasion of the United States in the late 1980s, igniting a world war. Here’s the trailer for Red Dawn.

Amerika
This 1987 ABC mini-series cost about $40 million to produce and was watched by 100 million people. ^[2] Amerika’s plot takes place in 1997 after 10 years of Soviet occupation of America. While the plot seems fairly frivolous, it gives an interesting look into how Americans felt about the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
Here is a commercial for Amerika

This clip from the mini-series shows a young American boy in a costume similar to that of a Soviet Young Pioneer. He is giving a speech about the new Amerika to a crowd saying,

“We are grateful to our Soviet brothers who saved the world from destruction, and we can now join them in a world of socialist brotherhood. Everyone will go to school, everyone will have a job, everyone will be equal. No one will exploit or be exploited, and all those who oppose this wonderful vision will be crushed.”

Link: Invasion U.S.A.
Link: The Day After
Link: Red Dawn
Link: Amerika

Moscow based photographer Andrey Ilyin is publishing a growing collection of 360 degree panoramas. These virtual tours of Moscow give an interesting view of life in the city. The photos, which use Quicktime VR technology, allow you to spin around and look in every direction. You can even look up and see the sky or down to see what’s on the ground. We found this view of kids sledding down a hill especially interesting.

Link: Panoramic Moscow

Moscow photographer Sergey has published a collection of photographs featuring Russian power plants. We stumbled across these photos and found them very interesting. We asked Sergey why he took the pictures.

“Why do I take the pictures of the power plants? Well, these monster buildings are very unusual for town environment and they attract me by some inexplicable beauty. A huge energy inside them amaze my imagination and it borns I guess some emanations to people that look at them.

Sometimes I think looking at them that people waste significant part of their power and it seems that nobody cares of that, at least in Russia.”

Power Plant in Birjulovo, Moscow. It’s cold -15C.

Power Plant in Kapotnia, Moscow

Link: Power Plants at Flickr

Recipe Zaar has a large collection of user submitted Russian recipes. You can find recipes for many Russian favorites including more than 50 recipes for borscht. If you’re feeling adventurous, try some of these recipes, or better yet, submit your own Russian recipe.

Link: Recipe Zaar

St. Petersburg is known for its many waterways and bridges. Petersburg-bridges.com presents a history of these bridges. The site features many old photographs and a detailed history of Petersburg bridges.

Link: petersburg-bridges.com