Soviet criminals and prisoners would sometimes get large chest and back tattoos of Stalin and Lenin, not out of respect, but to avoid having internal organs damaged during beatings by guards who would not denigrate the images. It was also rumored that firing squads could not fire on images of their leaders, so perhaps they believed the tattoos saved men from execution, too. www.rarehistoricalphotos.coms
1920’s
The last photo taken of Vladimir Lenin alive. He was in a wheelchair after suffering three stokes in the previous two years. By the end he was paralyzed and completely mute. he died in 1924 at the age of 54 www.rarehistoricalphotos.com
1920’s
Human-sized chess with actual soldiers, Russia, 1924.
1989
On August 23, 1989, about 2 million people from Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania formed a human chain that united all 3 countries to show the world their desire to escape the Soviet Union and the communism that brought only suffering and poverty. This power stretched 600 km. www.rarehistoricalphotos.com
1989
In 1989, Boris Yeltsin (then newly elected to the new Soviet parliament and the Supreme Soviet) visited the Johnson Space Center in Houston (Texas) and made an impromptu visit to a grocery store in the area with his staff. According to the Houston Chronicle newspaper, Yeltsin “roamed the aisles nodding his head in amazement”, especially excited about frozen pudding pops and free cheese samples. In his own biography, Yeltsin wrote: “When I saw those shelves crammed with hundreds, thousands of cans, cartons and goods of every possible sort, for the first time I felt quite frankly sick with despair for the Soviet people.” www.rarehistoricalphotos.com
