Russian/Eurasian Studies Program and Center for Civic Engagement Present
Book Talk: Soviet Space Dogs, by Olesya Turkina
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Reem-Kayden Center Room 102
5:30 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Please join us for a talk with Olesya Turkina, Head of MA Program in Curatorial Studies and Associate Professor on the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Smolny College), St. Petersburg State University & Research Fellow at the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, about her book Soviet Space Dogs (FUEL Design & Publishing, 2014).5:30 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Soviet Space dogs were part of Soviet propaganda, and perhaps in its most demonstrative form. Unlike Yuri Gagarin, the first human to orbit the Earth, Laika, Belka and Strelka (the most famous dogs) as well as Zvezdochka, Otvazhny, Chernyshka and many other members of the order of four-legged cosmonauts have no past, no background in the traditional sense of the word. The story of their lives began and ended at the Institute of Aviation Medicine. The scientific biography of a Soviet space dog is a life described solely in biological parameters. It was left to the ideology of the Soviet system itself to proclaim the story of their epic feats.
Space dogs were respected for doing extremely dangerous job for the good of the country, and also humanity as a whole. The dogs were simultaneously real and fantastical beings. One day these unknown strays were living on the street, the next they were shown on television, and their portraits were published in newspapers. They also became characters in children’s books. In other words, space dogs are protagonists of a fairy tale created in the USSR: they were the martyrs and saints of communism.
The Soviet Space Dogs talk will describe the canonization of Laika after her tortural death when she was sent with a one-way Space ticket at Sputnik II and became a victim of Space Race between USSR and USA during Cold War. It will explain why and how Belka and Strelka who happily came back to the planet Earth from the orbit became the first Soviet pop-stars. The ‘dog’ step in the Soviet cosmonautic was richly illustrated with everyday artifacts – postage stamps, matchbox labels, cigarette packets, badges, postcards, children’s books – which will be presented to the talk's audience in all their splendor and fun quirkiness.
For more information, call 845-752-4857, or e-mail [email protected].
Time: 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Location: Reem-Kayden Center Room 102