To Infinity and Beyond: The Soviet Race to Space
"We've inspected the sky inside and outside. No gods or angels were found." Only science and Soviets. In the communist and atheist Soviet Union, space exploration was a religion; the gospel spread through propaganda rather than sermons. Two countries, the Soviet Union and the United States, were locked in an ideological race, two superpowers battling for supremacy.
After the Second World War, the United States and other western powers established NATO to safeguard the democracies of Western Europe and counter the spread of Communism. In turn, the USSR established the Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance with an alliance of Eastern European communist states. The rise of the Cold War sparked a new kind of exploitation: the race for German scientific expertise. Both superpowers needed the means to deliver their growing nuclear payloads, leading to these actions: The US initiated Operation Paperclip, bringing figures like Wernher Von Braun to work on their nuclear and space programs. The Soviets mirrored these tactics, forcibly deporting hundreds of German specialists in 1946. While these specialists received better treatment than Gulag labourers, their work remained forced.
Each side sought to prove its superiority, using technology to vindicate its ideology. This drive fueled the Space Race. In 1955, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced that the United States would launch an artificial satellite. Four days later, Leonid Sedov, a leading Soviet physicist, announced that the USSR would also launch an artificial satellite. In October 1957, Sputnik became the first man-made object in orbit when it was launched on the back of an intercontinental ballistic missile. The launch of Sputnik 1 surprised the American public, and shattered the perception created by American propaganda of the United States as the technological superpower, and the Soviet Union as a backward country.
The Soviets had kept initially quiet about earlier space and rocketry accomplishments, fearing that it would lead to secrets being revealed and failures being exploited by the West. However, Sputnik's success transformed it into a powerful propaganda tool. They used it to demonstrate Soviet superiority over the West. Thousands of posters were hung in factories, schools, theatres and the streets. Posters were inexpensive to produce and could be printed in large quantities, quickly. New designs were often released to celebrate anniversaries or new technological breakthroughs. Strong visuals lead the eye skywards, while explorers of new worlds look boldly back at the viewer. Vladimir Mayakovsky, a prominent poet and artist, said that a Soviet poster "was a failure unless it could bring a running man to a halt". Like their Soviet counterparts, NASA enrolled artists like Andy Warhol and Norman Rockwell to sell the space program to the American public, which at its peak accounted for 4.41% of the national GDP.
The Race Heats Up: To Infinity & Beyond
Less than four years later, the Soviet space program achieved another stunning victory: cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. His 101-minute orbital journey was a triumph for the USSR and Communism, instantly making him a worldwide hero. Khrushchev awarded him the highest distinction, 'Hero of the Soviet Union.'
This Soviet triumph shocked the Americans. The first American in space, John G. Glenn, reflected on the fear it ignited: "This was the era when the Russians were claiming superiority...There was fear that Communism was the wave of the future. We astronauts truly believed we were locked in a battle of Democracy versus Communism, where the winner would dominate the world."
The Soviets had dominated early space milestones: the first satellite, the first probe to land on the moon, and the first man and woman in space. Their next target was the moon. Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov confidently declared, "The Soviet Union will not be beaten by the United States in the race to the moon... we will reach it a year before the Americans!"
The space race represented the modernisation of the Soviet Union. In architecture, 'Cosmic Style' embodied the move towards grounding the grand ideals of Communism in the physical. Rockets were utilitarian objects, functional and nothing more. The approach to functionality was mirrored in architecture where "the sheer space-age strangeness of these buildings shows an architecture that was still ideologically charged" at a time when western designers were beginning to turn their backs on the abstract form. There was an emphasis on massiveness of forms and a preference for reinforced concrete and glass.
However, in 1969 the Americans landed on the moon. The Soviets publicly downplayed their own lunar ambitions, insisting they were more interested in satellites and robotic probes. Yet, they continued their lunar-landing program in secret, only admitting their failure years later. Having lost the race to the Moon, the USSR pivoted to orbital space stations. Their Salyut program launched several stations, some disguised as non-military scientific laboratories, while others served as covert military reconnaissance outposts.
The Era of International Cooperation
In May 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev sought to ease Cold War tensions through a policy known as détente. This led to the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), a symbolic joint mission to dock US and Soviet spacecraft. Millions of people around the world watched on television as an American Apollo spacecraft docked with a Soviet Soyuz capsule. The project, and its handshake in space, was a powerful symbol of détente between the two superpowers.
To facilitate the docking, both sides made technical adaptations. The US designed a compatible module while the USSR modified its Soyuz. Despite this cooperation, both sides remained critical of the other's engineering approaches. Soviet spacecraft emphasised automation – probes like Lunokhod 1 or Luna 16 were unmanned, and the Soyuz was built to minimise potential human error. This contrasted sharply with the human-centric, pilot-controlled design of the Apollo. The Soviets found the Americans' spacecraft needlessly complex and dangerous. The American astronauts were similarly critical of the ground-controlled Soyuz and its lack of astronaut input. Fearing this would offend the Soviets and jeopardise the mission, NASA's Glynn Lunney cautioned the crew about expressing their dissatisfaction publicly.
The Cold War competition, and the technological advancements it fueled, had a profound impact on everyday life. For a generation of artists, architects, designers, and writers, the Space Race was a powerful influence. For a generation of artists, architects, designers, and writers, the Space Race was a powerful influence. Playgrounds were designed to resemble rockets, while entrances to metro stations displayed colourful mosaics of floating cosmonauts. Factories that built military and space components began to produce consumer goods. Vacuum cleaners were shaped like orbiting planets, snowmobiles like lunar capsules, and lamps resembled rockets at launch. Slogans that read ‘Soviet man – be proud, you opened the road to stars from Earth!' and ‘Our triumph in space is the hymn to the Soviet country!’ were printed on candy packaging, matchboxes, and perfume.
The Soviet Union's race to space was a testament to ideological fervour and Cold War suspicion. Space exploration, once a cosmic battleground between East and West, transitioned into a realm of cautious collaboration as Cold War tensions eased. What remains are artistic echoes of that era. Art with bold imagery and unwavering optimism, serves as a lasting reminder of the stratospheric ambitions of the Soviet regime during the Space Race.
