Old postcards Artists of the USSR

Soviet actors is a subsection of vintage postcards with portraits: each card shows one actor or actress, named in the caption. The cards date from 1956 to 1984, and the captions themselves reveal three waves of publication.

Cards from 1956–1960 often give the full name with the patronymic, the middle name formed from the father’s first name. Among them are Elina Bystritskaya (1928–2019) on a 1958 card and Alexei Batalov (1928–2017) on a 1959 card. Both later received the title People’s Artist of the USSR, the Soviet honorary title for performers: Batalov in 1976, Bystritskaya in 1978.

The largest single-year group is the 1973 set, captioned surname first. It includes Lyudmila Gurchenko (1935–2011), best known for Carnival Night (1956) and Station for Two (1982), and Marina Ladynina (1908–2003), a People’s Artist of the USSR since 1950, so actresses of different generations ended up in the same series.

Cards from 1977–1984 use the familiar first name and surname order. Here you will find Armen Dzhigarkhanyan (1935–2020) on a 1981 card and Oleg Yankovsky (1944–2009) on a 1982 card, remembered among other films for The Very Same Munchhausen and Flights in Dreams and Reality. Among the earliest portraits is Inna Makarova on a 1956 card, and the latest is Valentina Talyzina on a 1984 card.