Archive Gallery: PopSci Spies on the Soviet Union

Missile trains, atomic planes, orbiting H-bombs and more hypothetical Cold War technologies cooked up by the United States and the Soviet Union.

By Denise Ngo Posted 01.14.2011 at 11:15 am 7 Comments

Russia's Growing Air Power

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When it comes to technological advances, few periods were as prolific as the Cold War era, which saw the mass distribution of color TV sets, the ubiquity of electrically-powered domestic appliances, the invention of personal computers, and of course, the launch of Sputnik and the first man on the moon. It was an eventful 45 years, but during periods of high political tension, the threat of nuclear war colored our excitement with apprehension.

Throughout the interwar period and during World War II, we kept one eye open as Stalin groomed the Soviet Union for world domination, but it wasn't until 1946 that we took active measures to contain the communist ideology. As an American magazine, Popular Science jumped aboard the anti-USSR bandwagon, publishing several articles informing readers of the latest, most ominous Soviet technology. What can we say, the prospect of being obliterated by an orbiting H-bomb put a slight damper on our usual enthusiasm for invention.

Click to launch the photo gallery.

If you type "Russia" into our archives, you'll notice that pre-World War II coverage criticized Stalin without taking the dictator's ambitions too seriously. "As though by magic, this vast, backward farming country was to be changed, in five years, into one gigantic, efficiently run factory," we said, in reference to Stalin's failed five-year plan for nationwide affluence.

As the years wore on, and as the Soviet Union began annexing formerly occupied states into the Eastern Bloc, we grew afraid that the U.S.S.R. would actually overthrow us as the leading world power. During the late 1940's, we warned of their mushrooming military forces. In the 1950's, we wrote of their secret nuclear aircraft designed by a team of former Nazi engineers. Sputnik's launch in 1957 sparked the Space Race, which we speculated could result in full-on "space wars," with radio-controlled nuclear satellites and orbiting warships in tow.

As much as we feared their military weapons and spacecraft, we couldn't respect their everyday technology. We sent at least two of our reporters into Russia, and their findings only reinforced the idea that communist governments neglected regular citizens in favor of nuclear projects. According to our reporters, elevators were at least 40 years behind those in the United States, while television sets took over a year to become available to those who'd ordered them. Vehicles advertised as mopeds were actually just bikes with motors hooked on, while propaganda billboards proclaimed world peace alongside the inevitable fall of America.

Given how nervous we were about open hostilities, it's safe to say that the future of American security and Soviet ambitions didn't quite turn out as expected. Yes, we were scared, but despite the lack of open hostilities, we couldn't resist unleashing several not-so-subtle digs at those "Dam Russians" out East.

Sneaky, eh? We'd never get away with that now, but like we said, our Cold War coverage wasn't all fun and games. Click through our gallery to read about rail-riding missiles, battlefield rockets, and one reporter's harrowing road trip into the bleakly eccentric Russian countryside.

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7 Comments

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caricue

01/17/11 at 1:49 pm

All the brinksmanship and all the trillions of dollars to fight an enemy that was only an illusion. Now they want us to believe that China will be our newest enemy so we can do it all over again. Maybe it's time to look at ourselves and ask why we are still spending more than the rest of the world combined on our military. Maybe we're the one's to worry about?

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Hank Rearden

01/18/11 at 7:53 pm

You know why we're spending money on our military? to keep America awesome. If you have a problem with that awesomeness, well that's fine, because of the first amendment. I'd like to see you try and protest the military budget of a totalitarian or communist government such as China or Iran. That would go over quite well, I'm sure. The very military budget you protest is what protects your right to protest it. So we research and develop, because otherwise the enemy does, and you lose your freedom to say such things.

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bob clemintime

01/19/11 at 2:28 pm

Haha i just wanted to post a few statistics for Hank. US military spending as of 2008 711 billion dollars or 48% of the global spending. China's military spending as of 2008 122 billion dollars or 8 % of the total global spending.

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Demartes

01/19/11 at 3:01 pm

Actually the US accounts for less than that, as of 2009:

1 United States 663,255,000,000
2 China 98,800,000,000
3 United Kingdom 69,271,000,000
4 France 67,316,000,000
5 Russian Fed 61,000,000,000
6 Germany 48,022,000,000
7 Japan 46,859,000,000
8 Saudi Arabia 39,257,000,000
9 Italy 37,427,000,000
10 India 36,600,000,000
11 South Korea 27,130,000,000
12 Brazil 27,124,000,000
13 Canada 20,564,000,000
14 Australia 20,109,000,000
15 Spain 19,409,000,000
16 Turkey 19,009,000,000
17 Israel 14,309,000,000
18 Greece 13,917,000,000
19 UAE 13,052,000,000
20 Netherlands 12,642,000,000
21 Poland 10,860,000,000
22 Colombia 10,055,000,000
23 Taiwan 9,866,000,000
24 Iran 9,174,000,000
25 Singapore 7,966,000,000
26 Sweden 6,135,000,000
27 Norway 6,098,000,000
28 Chile 5,683,000,000
29 Algeria 5,677,000,000
30 Belgium 5,674,000,000
31 Mexico 5,490,000,000
32 Indonesia 4,908,000,000
33 Thailand 4,908,000,000
34 Portugal 4,884,000,000
35 Pakistan 4,823,000,000
36 Kuwait 4,589,000,000
37 Denmark 4,476,000,000
38 Ukraine 4,258,000,000
39 Switzerland 4,141,000,000
40 Malaysia 4,078,000,000
41 Oman 4,003,000,000
42 South Africa 3,926,000,000
43 Iraq 3,814,000,000
44 Finland 3,768,000,000
45 Egypt 3,665,000,000
46 Austria 3,650,000,000
47 Venezuela 3,254,000,000
48 Czech Republic 3,246,000,000
49 Morocco 3,143,000,000
50 Angola 2,893,000,000
51 Romania 2,616,000,000
52 Argentina 2,608,000,000
53 Vietnam 2,073,000,000
54 Sudan 1,971,000,000
55 Hungary 1,900,000,000
56 Syria 1,883,000,000
57 Nigeria 1,681,000,000
58 Ireland 1,581,000,000
59 Kazakhstan 1,540,000,000
60 Sri Lanka 1,525,000,000
61 Peru 1,502,000,000
62 New Zealand 1,447,000,000
63 Azerbaijan 1,434,000,000
64 Philippines 1,424,000,000
65 Lebanon 1,408,000,000
66 Jordan 1,392,000,000
67 Slovakia 1,316,000,000
68 Yemen 1,196,000,000
69 Croatia 1,191,000,000
70 Bulgaria 1,127,000,000
71 Libya 1,100,000,000
72 Serbia 1,070,000,000
73 Belarus 1,036,000,000
74 Bangladesh 938,000,000
75 Slovenia 888,000,000
76 Bahrain 721,000,000
77 Latvia 692,000,000
78 Georgia 665,000,000
79 Lithuania 648,000,000
80 Tunisia 571,000,000
81 Cyprus 550,000,000
82 Kenya 518,000,000
83 Uruguay 496,000,000
84 Estonia 460,000,000
85 Ethiopia 422,000,000
86 Chad 412,000,000
87 Luxembourg 406,000,000
88 Armenia 405,000,000
89 Côte d'Ivoire 369,000,000
90 Botswana 353,000,000
91 Cameroon 352,000,000
92 Uganda 341,000,000
93 Brunei 336,000,000
94 Eritrea 327,000,000
95 Namibia 283,000,000
96 Albania 276,000,000
97 Bosnia 276,000,000
98 Afghanistan 272,000,000
99 Dominican Republic 272,000,000
100 Bolivia 268,000,000
101 Zambia 251,000,000
102 Turkmenistan 236,000,000
103 Senegal 217,000,000
104 Tanzania 216,000,000
105 Macedonia 204,000,000
106 Nepal 194,000,000
107 Kyrgyzstan 185,000,000
108 Mali 182,000,000
109 Guatemala 175,000,000
110 Congo 142,000,000
111 Paraguay 140,000,000
112 Panama 138,000,000
113 El Salvador 134,000,000
114 Congo, Democratic 127,000,000
115 Ghana 127,000,000
116 Cambodia 123,000,000
117 Mauritania 122,000,000
118 Burkina Faso 112,000,000
119 Honduras 105,000,000
120 Madagascar 103,000,000
121 Guinea 99,800,000
122 Mozambique 92,500,000
123 Jamaica 80,300,000
124 Rwanda 72,700,000
125 Mongolia 71,000,000
126 Benin 67,700,000
127 Tajikistan 63,400,000
128 Swaziland 60,000,000
129 Togo 57,000,000
130 Uzbekistan 52,000,000
131 Malta 51,600,000
132 Fiji 48,400,000
133 Malawi 45,100,000
134 Sierra Leone 44,600,000
135 Burundi 43,900,000
136 Lesotho 43,600,000
137 Niger 43,000,000
138 Nicaragua 41,700,000
139 Papua New Guinea 37,200,000
140 Central African Rep 36,700,000
141 Djibouti 36,300,000
142 Moldova 27,500,000
143 Laos 21,200,000
144 Guinea-Bissau 16,800,000
145 Belize 15,600,000
146 Mauritius 15,300,000
147 Iceland 12,200,000
148 Cape Verde 8,800,000
149 Guyana 7,900,000
150 Liberia 7,100,000
151 Seychelles 6,600,000
152 Gambia, The 5,300,000

Total world Defense Expenditures 1,567,280,800,000

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jasonroiz

01/24/11 at 11:14 pm

You have to keep in mind that the US Federal budget spends less than 4% on defense (the vast majority goes to entitlements like SS & welfare). Also consider that the worlds sea lanes are kept open and safe by our navy. Thus, the US is keeping the world economy, trade, and cultural interaction going. The US has much to be proud of, no other empire has been been so selfless and beneficial to the world as the US.

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Gary from Jersey

02/09/11 at 11:25 am

Caricue's adolescent, pseudo-moral rant bespeaks irrational guilt and unearned intellectual self regard. You're the kind the rest of the world worries about, caricue.

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NorthernRoamer

02/10/11 at 2:52 am

NorthernRoamer: It's too bad the US Navy couldn't take a more aggressive stand with these Somali pirates. The Russians took a ship back from them, shot them and threw the bodies into the sea. That's the kind of language pirates understand.