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Thursday, June 20, 2013

'Chemical Warfare' And Other Fun Soviet Board Games

Published 18 October 2012

We're not the first to share these images of Soviet board games manufactured in the 1920s and '30s, and we likely won't be the last. They're just too weird and wonderful. From what we can gather, they were first posted by Babs71 on Russia's LiveJournal blogging platform and then picked up by the likes of Retronaut, Boing Boing, The Charnel-House, and many others. The boxes the games came in are works of art, some featuring gorgeous Constructivist lettering and imagery. What's not clear is how much fun the games were to play. We're guessing, not much. (12 PHOTOS)

1

With game names such as "Chemical Warfare" (from 1925, above), "Air Battle," "Modern Fight," and "Revolution," you'd be forgiven for thinking these games dated from the Cold War.

2

"Revolution" (1925)

3

"Circular Race" (1925)

4

"For Healthy Living" (1926). The two hubs say: "Making work and life healthier is the workers' responsibility" and, "Through making work and life healthier to victory over social diseases."

5

According to the Russian Language Blog, a 1928 board game called "Electrification" was not sold in stores but had to be assembled after cutting out the pieces from a newsletter called, amazingly, "Lenin's Grandkids." The winner gets to illuminate a village, factory, or a city block.

6

"Reds And Whites" (1929)

7

"Circular Race" (1924)

8

"Air Battle" (1925)

9

"Air Battle" (1925)

10

No title can be seen, but the board says, "Long live world revolution" (1925)

11

"Modern Battle" (1933)

12

"Naval Battle" (1931), a precursor to the modern board game called "Battleship."

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by: Jerky from: Toronto
October 19, 2012 05:38
These are gorgeous! Do my eyes deceive me? Or is the art and design for the Air Battle game (1925) reminiscent of the album cover artwork for both Foxtrot and Nursery Crime, by Genesis?
by: Jon from: Alabama
October 20, 2012 21:24
These are great, but I'm annoyed with the "What's not clear is how much fun the games were to play. We're guessing, not much." ?? Um, so during a time of great design innovation and creative ferment in the country of chess masters, we're just going to assume the games aren't fun? The country that produced Tetris (later, sure, but still)? Some of them look like kids games, but I can't imagine they're any worse than Candyland or Snakes n' Ladders. Can someone call Radio Free Europe and tell them the Cold War ended about 20 years ago, and that it's OK to give the USSR a break now and then? That not every interesting or good thing to come out of the USSR was an accident or illegal? Why are people at RFE even employed? Are they still working hard to liberate Belarus by broadcasting Slipknot or something?
by: Buffalo from: NY
October 22, 2012 15:26
Jon, it's hard to give the USSR authorities a break (not the people; they're mostly innocent) because tens of millions of people died due to starvation, persecution/genocide, and much of Russia's cultural identity was destroyed. I mean, 3 - 6 million people were killed in Ukraine alone due to human-engineered famine before World War II came around. Not to mention deporting essentially millions to death camps in Siberian gulags. Even to this day, Russia still has to deal with the immense fallout caused by the Soviets.

The author probably was saying that in these modern times, the games probably aren't all that fun to play. (In my opinion, board games suck-- LOL)