Wholesale Day In The Life of the Soviet Union

In 1987, 50 Western and 50 Soviet photographers spread out across the Soviet Union and captured a day in a country that stood at the apex of change as it celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Great October Revolution. As the Soviet people looked forward to sweeping changes during a time of new leadership and openness, the photographers were granted unprecedented access to homes, factories, schools and even prisons. This collection shows these images fro the first time with more than three hundred photographs visually survey the diversity of Russian landscapes and cityscapes and depict routine daily life throughout the Soviet Union. Capturing war and famine, conquest and achievement, and an elusive hope in a country where even photographing bridges is a crime, this photography marks the beginning of a new era within one of the most closed-off places in the world.