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In the 1960s , many Americans imagine life behind the Iron Curtain as drab and depressing .
But whenLIFEmagazine photographer Bill Eppridge snap young people for an issue on the fiftieth anniversary of theRussian Revolution , he found that simmer with the Soviets was actually a moderately great metre .
Young people kissing at the Festival of Neptune on the Black Sea in 1967.
It was 1967 and — thanks to the post - World War II baby windfall — most one-half of the land ’s population was under the eld of 27 .
This " Sputnik generation " was savor in the youth - fueled energy of a nation still aroused about broadcast the first satellite into blank .
Furthermore , the political science ’s conversion from Stalin to Khrushchev had lead in a farm sense of personal independence and ego - reflection . Cramped communal flat were being put back with folk complexes and young people were given more exemption to socialize in newly reconstruct public parks .
Youth in the Soviet Union expend their time listen to banned Beatles albums , dancing at clubs , picnicking by the beach , understand voraciously , and attend college at a higher pace than ever before .
Unlike many of their American counterparts , they were happily disinterested in what their governance was up to .
That company would n’t last long , however . The photos that Eppridge break down comprised but one moment of the Soviet Union ’s abbreviated but heavily riotous history . By the 1980s , a new moving ridge of educated dissidents would rag together — marching , flipping police force machine , and protesting violently against Soviet formula .
beach , cabaret , and picnics were no longer enough . They desire a new outset .
Next , learn out theseSoviet propaganda postersfrom the height of the Cold War . Then , take a face at some vintageEast Germany photosthat reveal what life was like behind the Berlin Wall .
