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  years after the launch of Sputnik in October 1957. Although the znachki

  232  Cathleen S. Lewis

  exchange among young people at the youth congress in 1957 had caught

  on, the attempts to recreate this success were cautious. The first space

  exhibition in the Soviet Union was small, featuring stamps and znachki;

  it opened at the Moscow Planetarium three years after the launch of Sput-

  nik.61 The exhibit included space-related stamps, postcards, znachki, and commemorative coins. All of the objects portrayed highly stylized representations of the spacecraft that executed the much-celebrated space

  firsts of the Soviet Union. None revealed technically accurate details of

  the space hardware, nor were they meant to do so. These pins were deco-

  rative and collectible. The exhibit was the brainchild of Moscow Plan-

  etarium director V. K. Litskii, who encouraged established collectors, at

  the time primarily adults, to expand their traditional philatelic and nu-

  mismatic collections to include space subjects. The exhibit also captured

  the attention of young people, who had been born in a time when collect-

  ing did not meet official approval, and thus paved the way for the next

  generation of officially sanctioned collectors. The placement of znachki

  alongside stamps and coins was novel and foretold the dominant role that

  the pins would play in illustrating the Soviet space program.

  Unlike previous znachki, space znachki were never exclusively con-

  ceived as a reward for affiliation with a specific project. What makes

  them most interesting is that the decentralized fabrication of the pins

  created previously unexplored uses and methods of dissemination. Even

  though the established mints at Leningrad and Moscow that had long

  produced and distributed official znachki and aerospace program offices

  issued their own series of pins, other nonaerospace organizations took

  the liberty of issuing space-related pins for general consumption. Those

  pins created for public consumption quickly outnumbered those that had

  strict institutional uses, as they filled the consumer demands for space-

  related objects. The range in mission among issuing organizations is also

  an indicator of how the pins made their way among collectors. By using

  scrap materials and producing the pins in their own factories, manufac-

  turers that had no relationship to the space program distributed znachki

  directly to the public at little cost to their official activities.

  Nonaerospace organizations timed their issues to coincide with pro-

  gram milestones to capitalize on public attention, issuing pins as soon as

  missions were announced publicly, albeit after the missions occurred.62

  By echoing the official announcements of missions, even these indepen-

  From the Kitchen into Orbit  233

  dent distributors reinforced the official historiography of the space pro-

  gram. Like the official infrastructure, they ignored failures and enthusi-

  astically celebrated heroes. Manufacturers chose sequences of successful

  projects to form a set of collectible pins and thus define the scope of a

  successful program. For example, Vostok pin sets featured the six spacecraft or cosmonauts and were distinct from a Voskhod set in either design or theme. Each set would have a distinct style, separating it visually from

  another program often sold on a presentation card or box.

  When examining the thousands of space znachki that exist, it is use-

  ful to organize collections according to materials, manufacturer, purpose

  of issue, and subject matter. Each approach provides insight into how

  the pin was used, collected, and by whom. The combination of perspec-

  tives helps to organize these objects that are notorious for their ad hoc

  creation. There were three types of znachki as defined by the purpose of

  their issue: memorial, jubilee, and souvenir.63 Memorial znachki honored

  persons or events (including party congresses, seminars, and scholarly

  readings), marked anniversaries, or commemorated deaths. The jubilee

  znachki honored the anniversaries of births and events, usually at ten-

  year intervals. Souvenir pins came from municipal organizations, mu-

  seums, sports palaces, and metros to generate revenue and publicity for

  those places. The more closely that a znachok was issued to the occur-

  rence of a given event, the more likely that the pin was issued individual-

  ly. Sets of pins, sold in a box or attached to a velour card, usually appeared

  on the market after an anniversary or after a given program concluded.

  Manufacture of znachki had always been decentralized, relying on

  the issuing organization to commission particular pins on its own in-

  stead of going through a central authority. This was the major difference

  between stamps and znachki. The Ministry of Post and Telegraph con-

  trolled both the design and distribution of stamps. There was no single

  central authority that presided over the many organizations that made

  znachki. When the space program gained popularity, these already de-

  centralized manufacturers greatly expanded their operations to capture

  their share of the emerging market. The second edition of the first cata-

  log of space znachki published a list of twenty-three known space znachki

  manufacturers that included traditional government pin makers such as

  the Moscow and Leningrad Mints and surprising enterprises such as the

  All-Russian Choral Society.64 Each manufacturer displayed its own iden-

  234  Cathleen S. Lewis

  tifying mark on the back of the pin. Given the range of reporting struc-

  tures that these twenty-three organizations represented, it was unlikely

  that they received their content information or design directives from a

  single source or that any one single body or individual reviewed or ap-

  proved the designs. They were, in fact, responding to internal values and

  cultures that had formed throughout the history of the Soviet Union. In

  the absence of a central power that stamps had had before World War II,

  the common message of the znachki was an indication of the common

  values of disparate middle managers at various enterprises throughout

  the USSR.

  The institution of origin is a useful tool with which to categorize

  znachki. Previously, when enterprises and organizations in the space-

  flight industry awarded znachki to distinguished individuals for service

  and achievement, the pins had no marks indicating their origins.65 There

  had been no need to do so, because the recipient would likely hold onto

  this award or remember the circumstances of the award. Souvenirs and

  collectible pins, however, had a price stamped on the back of the pin—

  usually a number followed by the letter “K” next to the manufacturer’s

  mark. This indicated the initial sale price and the fact that their distribu-

  tors anticipated earning money on their sale.66 Znachki that were issued

  for more traditional purposes, to honor participation in a project, were

  more tightly controlled. Because they were not immediately marketed,

  they did not have the price marking. These issuing organizations ranged

  from committees within the Academy of Sciences to museums and mu-

  seu
m associations and professional societies. With time, both types have

  found their way to the collectors’ market. The awarding organization usu-

  ally issued a certificate with the pin and kept track of the recipients.67

  The first space znachki were memorial-type pins that the Shcherbinsk

  Smelting Factory produced.68 The initial pins reflected the limited infor-

  mation available on the satellites, but as news services published illus-

  trations of the first sputniks, the earliest znachki makers adapted their

  designs to incorporate miniature images of the satellites.69 These pins

  depicted the first three sputniks accurately. This was in sharp contrast to

  later depictions of Gagarin’s Vostok craft that received no accurate public depiction until 1967. However, as early as 1958, eager visitors could see

  models of these spacecraft on display at the Brussels World’s Fair; the

  Moscow Exhibition of Economic Achievements after in 1958 and the So-

  From the Kitchen into Orbit  235

  viet National Exhibition in New York in 1959.70 Rectangular or circular

  shaped, and straightforward in design and message, these pins matched

  the somewhat reserved claims that the Soviet press made about the sput-

  niks in the press. They marked Soviet mastery of science and technology

  but made limited claims on Soviet world leadership beyond spaceflight.

  These claims did not appear until there was a human champion to make

  them.

  Yuri Gagarin’s flight around the world in the Vostok spacecraft on

  April 12, 1961, led to spontaneous celebrations in Moscow the next day

  that matched the celebrations of victory in World War II.71 Moreover, al-

  though party officials had authorized the printing of stamps before his

  mission, their release was contingent on the success of the mission.72 Al-

  though the Ministry of Communications could control the dissemina-

  tion of stamps, they had no statutory or institutional authority to impose

  an embargo on znachki. The pins did not fall under strict regulations

  that governed the production of stamps and coins that had immediate

  monetary and trade value. Gagarin’s flight inspired the first spontane-

  ously produced znachki. During the festivities in Moscow, participants

  appeared with small (70-by-55-millimeter or 70-by-45-millimeter) paper

  portraits of Yuri Gagarin on their chests, which were reproduced newspa-

  per photographs of the cosmonaut.73 Within days, enterprising producers

  refined the idea, placing cellophane over a smaller picture (18 millimeters

  in diameter) of Gagarin (figure 9.2). These photographs were likely taken

  from newspaper reports of his flight, as there were no prelaunch photo-

  graphs released.

  Three unofficial pins preceded the Shcherbinsk Factory’s production

  of a steel and enamel pin that portrayed Gagarin.74 Subsequent Gagarin

  pins from other manufacturers added the detail about his flight as it was

  released to the public, including approximate launch and landing sites.

  However, the pin illustrations of the launch vehicle and spacecraft were

  highly stylized and did not resemble the real objects. Unlike the previous

  attempts to conceal the design of the Vostok spacecraft, in this case the representation was created to reflect the popular conception of a rocket

  ship, neglecting the spherical simplicity of the Vostok craft.75 Nevertheless, this is consistent with all other illustrations of Gagarin’s flight in

  the popular media, including stamps, posters, and cartoons. The earliest

  pins had to simplify the illustration of his flight in response to the tech-

  236  Cathleen S. Lewis

  Figure 9.2. The first Gagarin znachok. Gagarin’s flight inspired the first spontaneously produced znachki. Enterprising producers refined the idea, placing cellophane over a smaller picture of Gagarin. Source: The Smithsonian Institution.

  nology of making znachki. The elaborate lines of engraving and large

  pieces of text did not translate into inexpensive metal and enamel. The

  images became increasingly abstract.

  While Gagarin’s flight placed greatest emphasis on the accomplish-

  ment of spaceflight, and caught officials unprepared for the popularity

  of the pins more numerous, official znachki appeared immediately after

  the flight of Vostok 2. On August 6, 1961, German Titov became the first human to orbit Earth for more than a day. The design and complexity of

  the Titov pins had more detail than did the Gagarin pins. The pins im-

  mediately sought to identify the complexity of Titov’s flight, illustrating

  multiple orbits around the globe. It was impractical to illustrate all sev-

  enteen orbits that Titov made around Earth. Four distinct lines around

  a representation of a globe on one pin made the point that he had made

  multiple orbits.

  The efforts to provide informative yet aesthetically appealing pins

  continued through the Vostok and Voskhod programs. The next four

  Vostok flights were paired flights that implied a maneuvering capability

  that the Soviets had yet to demonstrate. Translating the dual flights of

  From the Kitchen into Orbit  237

  Vostok 3–4 and Vostok 5–6 into pins resulted in similar designs. The Soviet news agency TASS had emphasized the near simultaneous timing of

  the flights to the point of insinuating active rendezvous—a technical feat

  of which the Soviets were not capable. The pins that represented those

  flights echoed this representation. One of the early pins of the flights of

  Nikolaev and Popovich on board Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 show two stylized rocket ships emerging from the tip of the sickle suspended above Earth.

  The flights of Bykovskii and Tereshkova ( Vostok 5 and Vostok 6, respectively) received similar treatment with pins showing two rocket ships or-

  biting Earth and two ships flying away from Earth in similar trajectories.

  The Leningrad Mint produced each of these two pins under an official

  commission.76

  In the year after the last of the Vostok flights, Soviet space designer and manager Sergei Korolev had demanded a redesign of the interior of

  the spacecraft to accommodate multiple cosmonauts. Soviet engineers

  built the Voskhod spacecraft from the skeleton of the Vostok spacecraft, but announced it to be an entirely different species. The plan had been to

  use the Voskhod as a challenge to the Americans’ maneuverable Gemini spacecraft, but the Voskhod was little more than a gutted Vostok and could not maneuver in space. There were only two Voskhod missions, Voskhod and Voskhod 2, which flew in October 1964 and March 1965, respectively.77 One of the first Voskhod pins illustrated the literal meaning of the spacecraft name, using the imagery of a sunrise underneath a soaring

  spacecraft. Other pins emphasized the multiple crew of this first Voskhod

  with images of three helmeted cosmonauts along with the rocket ship,

  such as one from the Mytishchinsk Experimental and Souvenir Factory.

  In fact, the three cosmonauts did not wear helmets or spacesuits during

  the Voskhod mission as cramped room in the spacecraft did not allow

  them to do so.

  The last flight of the Voskhod spacecraft provided an opportunity for

  greater artistic representation of the mission because one of the crew-

  members, Aleksei Leonov, was himself an artist and drew his impres-

  sions of his mission while in orbit. Moreover, his mission remind
ed the

  public of ancient dreams of spaceflight. Leonov became the first person to

  venture outside of a spacecraft and take a walk in space floating alongside

  his spacecraft. The first znachki to represent Leonov’s mission used more

  abstract images to illustrate the flight than had previous ones. Most de-

  pictions focused on the distinguishing aspect of the flight, Leonov’s walk

  238  Cathleen S. Lewis

  in space. In contrast to the grainy and unfocused photographs of Leonov’s

  spacewalk, the pins illustrated a crisp image of a human flying through

  space, untethered and symmetrical (figure 9.3).

  Human spaceflight was not the only new thing in the Soviet Union

  in the early 1960s. Stalin’s death and Khrushchev’s capitalization on de-

  Stalinization unleashed other forces within society. Architects and de-

  signers found fresh independence with which they could reassert mod-

  ernism that had been popular in the 1920s and 1930s. Pent-up consumer

  demand and rising independence of Soviet youth combined to create a

  palatable dissatisfaction with the current economic situation. This dis-

  satisfaction prompted the government to pay lip service to satisfying the

  demand for consumer goods. Individual factories and enterprises joined

  to produce small consumer goods that might satisfy the market. The co-

  incidence of human spaceflight and changes in the material culture of

  the Soviet Union offered many opportunities for the two to combine.

  Stamps and znachki offer the opportunity for comparison of two

  styles of celebrating national accomplishments. Both embraced the space-

  flight subject matter, and each responded to the increased demand for

  collectibles in the Soviet Union. The Ministry of Post and Telegraph had

  joined with the rest of the country to relax scrutiny on domestic collect-

  ing. Spaceflight prompted manufacturers to expand their production of

  znachki, which had only recently established them in a souvenir role.

  There were also differences between the two. Although there were more

  than a hundred space stamps, there were thousands of individual space

  znachki, which came from autonomous producers who demonstrated

  no hesitation about flooding the market. The Ministry of Post, with no