“Tretyakov Gallery” in Pskov style, or Nostalgia for the past: Why you should look into the museum “Forward in the USSR”

“We wanted to reflect several details in the title: to show life in the USSR, and why “forward” and not “backward”? This is our vision of the museum – it is something interesting, modern,” says Dmitry Tretyakov.

Upon entering the museum, you immediately hear music from the loudspeaker – the popular Soviet song “Moscow Nights” sounds:

• Not even a rustle is heard in the garden,
• Everything here froze until the morning.
• If only you knew how dear I am
• Moscow evenings.

And you see a large map of the USSR.

– The multi-colored flags on the map are the places where visitors to our museum came from. From Kaliningrad and even Germany to the Far East. Magadan, Anadyr, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Khabarovsk… And these are photographs of people who dressed up in our clothes. My favorite image is Ippolit in the bath in a winter coat and hat – from Eldar Ryazanov’s film “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!” “Oh, the warm one has gone!” – Of course, remember? Even women get into the bath and take pictures,” says museum administrator Lyubov Nikitina. – Our museum is interactive, you can pick up things, play all the games, open cabinets, refrigerators…

The exhibition space is set up like a large apartment: entrance hall, living room, children’s room, kitchen, bathroom… There is a music corridor, a darkroom.

In the living room (in Soviet times they called the hall) the Christmas tree is decorated and the New Year’s table is set. Naturally, with a bottle of “Soviet champagne”. New Year’s toys – glass and cotton wool. Snow Maiden from the 1950s…

The museum is private, has existed for about three years, occupies 100 square meters – the ground floor of the well-known apartment building in Pskov by engineer Stankevich, built in 1904.

All things were given to us by the townspeople. Free of charge. The core of the collection consists of things belonging to the parents of the museum’s founder, Dmitry Tretyakov, a psychologist by profession and a well-known person in our city. Works on radio, organizes and conducts various events.

My eyes are wide open!

Everything is so familiar! Rugs on the floor. Sports wall. Many people had such cuckoo clocks. Embroidery hoop. Of course, we will see suitcases with handles, and not on wheels, as now. Briefcases, diplomats.

You can smell the perfume from the Novaya Zarya factory. Try the anti-cellulite vibrating massager (it is in working order). Dress up in a USSR-era crimple suit and take a photo. And look at it, remember… My eyes widen!

Seeing a typewriter, children begin to press the keys – lightly, like on computers. They do not realize that the blow of the fingers must be strong. Here is a laptop from 1989. Someone saved and did not throw away the telephone directory “List of subscribers of the Pskov city telephone network” (1981).

Old things. Forgotten words – secretary, sideboard, trellis. Shaving brush. String bag. Coin box. Bobbins. Nowadays it’s all called “vintage”. Rarity, retro and even antiques.

Does anyone else put cans on their backs when they’re sick? And we boiled curlers in a saucepan on the stove. The linen was washed in an enamel basin on a gray washboard – rub until clean. A real rarity for residents of the 21st century. Every family had “Special” tooth powder and wooden tongs, which were used to remove laundry from washing machines (when they appeared!).

“Every now and then I ask riddles: what kind of device is this, what was it needed for?” – continues Lyubov Nikitina. – What kind of grater is this? Use this to grate laundry soap to put it in the washing machine (for example, “Riga”). Washing powder was in short supply. Does anyone remember the compact electric iron “Strelka”? To keep creases on men’s trousers.

Nostalgia! In a vase there are Golden Key toffees. Nearby is kombucha. They made candy themselves – various cockerels, fish… They baked waffles – whoever had a waffle iron.

We all collected badges and stamps. Some then threw it away, some sold it, and some brought it to the museum.

You can marvel at what beautiful matchboxes they produced! They depicted heroes of fairy tales and epics: Morozko, Sadko, Sukhman, Volga and Mikula Selyaninovich…

Warehouse “What if it comes in handy?”

Here’s the garage corner. They usually took everything into the garage. Where else to store unnecessary things if not there? It would be a shame to throw it away, what if they come in handy? Old skates were dragged here. Fishing rods. Backpacks and plastic utensils for hiking. There are tarpaulin and cowhide boots. This is also the place for skiing. And the wallpaper left after the renovation. There were few colors then. But how bright! Children’s pedal car – imagine, it works! You can take your baby for a ride. And his headlights still work. The dream of every Soviet child.

What do you think this is? Harvester for collecting cranberries, lingonberries, blueberries. What kind of thing is this? Every family used it! Few people guess these days… The RG correspondent guessed easily (we had one like this at home!): a metal cross, a stand for a Christmas tree. Real, not artificial. To stand firmly. They poured water in there and topped it up (the Christmas tree loves to drink).

“RG” in the museum, or the media of the twentieth century

There were always newspapers and magazines in our houses. The museum contains reprints of newspapers (copies of old publications). We are considering. Pravda newspaper: Yalta Conference 1945, meeting of the leaders of three countries – Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill. And March 10, 1953: Stalin’s funeral – on the front page. The price of a newspaper is 20 kopecks.

There is, of course, the old Pskovskaya Pravda. And here is the black and white “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” from 1995.

Long-forgotten magazines “Worker” and “Peasant”. In the USSR they loved the satirical magazine “Crocodile”. He came out once a week. Someone carefully kept the file for 1976 – all 52 issues! There are also “Crocodiles” from 1980.

“Music connected us…”

There is a DJ console in the music corridor. The player “Russia – 323” (electrophone) is still working, you can listen to gramophone records (vinyl): Modern Talking, Italian pop, Leshchenko… For young visitors, video and audio cassettes are a rarity.

In this space, visitors enjoy having a disco. The most popular song is “Gray Night” performed by Yura Shatunov (the whole country, it seems, watched the series “The Boy’s Word”, and the song found a second life).

One can only imagine the shock of young visitors reading “Rules of Conduct at Dance Parties.” “Smoking and laughing should be done in specially designated areas. Dancing in a distorted form is prohibited. The dancer must perform the dance correctly.” Did this really happen?! And a photograph of how the dancers perform the movements correctly. The birthplace of this poster is the Komi ASSR.

There are also Soviet posters: “Don’t talk!”, “Give quality!”, “No!” (said to a glass of vodka). There is also a small portrait of Stalin, the kind truckers carried in their cars – a gift from one of them to the museum.

Our happy childhood!..

In the children’s room there is a wooden rocking horse; many, upon seeing it, will exclaim: “I had the same one!” Wooden crib for a baby. Strollers for dolls (how the girls loved them!). Tumbler and spinning top. Celluloid and rubber toys. Children’s books and school textbooks. The Russian language textbook from 1960 is a real rarity.

Games. Remember how you loved to play table basketball? What about treating dolls? You’re lucky if you had the “Doctor Aibolit” set! And also a small sewing machine.

School uniform, red pioneer ties. Children’s felt boots, sandals. Group photographs from kindergarten – these were in the albums of every family.

Let’s go outside! We take a wooden sled.

Everything is like everyone else

There were carpets on the walls and carpets on the floor, “walls” and crystal in every apartment. Round table. Family photo albums with velvet cover. Black and white postcards – photographs of favorite artists: Rybnikov, Gurchenko, Tikhonov, Polsky… On the wall there is a reproduction of “The Stranger”, some have a tapestry, some have a framed portrait. Coinage fashionable at that time.

For some reason the TV was covered with a napkin.

Everyone had folding beds – in case someone came to visit and stayed overnight…

Let’s look in the wardrobe. Wedding dress from 1965. “An elderly woman brought a set of new swimsuits that she had kept for 50 years!” my guide comments. “They are calico, bright colors. But the long-forgotten underwear is a slip; women wore a slip under their dresses. Or a satin garter belt with pageboys. The Crimplene suit is timeless, durable and cannot be worn.

One girl, having tried on an old jacket, literally begged him to sell it to her. The founder of the museum did not allow it: “All that people brought to us are museum exhibits, they are not for sale!”

Retrotechnics

A foot-operated sewing machine – just like the one my grandmother had in Irkutsk. Why are there pliers next to the Record V-312 TV? Those who lived at that time know the answer (the round plastic handle fell off, but how to change channels?). And old vacuum cleaners found a place in the museum.

Radios, televisions, players, transistors – there are a lot of them here. Reel-to-reel tape recorders, cassette recorders. “I had one like that!” – is heard nearby.

Tube radios and an electrophone that have sunk into oblivion. Filmoscope, slides, you can watch a filmstrip on the wall – your favorite fairy tale. Yes, I remember how much we loved watching movies on the wall!

“The Sviyaga-2 refrigerator has a surprise,” says Lyubov Nikitina. – Schoolchildren come in classes for an excursion. They squeal with delight when they open it: pagers, Tamagotchis, the first radiotelephones – strong, indestructible. Game “Tetris”. Polaroid camera. Videotapes…

Everyone is delighted with the sparkling water machine (these were on the streets): one faceted glass, water without syrup – 1 kopeck, with syrup – 3 kopecks.

“They believed in communism”

– We were young. Joyful, in love. We believed in communism, which would soon come, and everyone would be happy,” Lyubov Nikitina continues our tour. – Almost no one had large incomes; there was nothing particularly to envy. We did not live in a murderous, endless information flow, we were calm. We communicated with each other not through SMS messages. Maybe it’s nostalgia? The museum is called “Forward to the USSR”.

And we also hear every day: “Oh, we had the same thing!” This is a museum that restores people’s mental health. Everyday, but it gives rise to such bright nostalgia!

“Plunged into childhood”

Quite a voluminous book of reviews – there are so many of them here over almost three years! The most popular: “A low bow to the creators and employees of the museum for the opportunity to return to that wonderful time and feel like a happy and carefree child, a pioneer. Very sincere, to the point of tears”; “A portal to childhood – and at the same time a problem book to “think”; “Excellent museum! The whole family enjoyed going! The child saw many new interesting things that are no longer used in everyday life in modern times. Parents remembered their childhood, and grandparents remembered their youth.”

Museum address: Pskov, Oktyabrsky Prospekt, 42.