Remembering Life in the Soviet Union, One Family Photo at a Time

When you look at your family’s old photographs, what do you see? What memories, thoughts and associations are stirred, and what remains hidden from your eyes?

For about 10 years, we have traveled in Russia to see and talk about Soviet-era family photos and the memories they evoke. Many Russians who generously shared their albums and reminiscences saw a nostalgic record of happier times. The photographs reminded them of security, social protections and optimism for the future that many associate with the Soviet period.

“She was a cleaning lady, my auntie, and she was always sent to the Black Sea for free,” a retiree from St. Petersburg commented about one photograph, adding emphatically, “and now they say that people lived poorly under Stalin.”