Vintage Snaps of Soviet People Posing With Their First TV Sets

In the project “My First TV,” artists Anna Pilipyuk and Vladimir Shipotilnikov remembered how in the Soviet Union the TV was a matter of pride. They collected photographs of people taking pictures with their TV sets between World War II and Perestroika.

Televisions appeared in America in the late 1920s. In 1932, the Soviet Union released the first simple mechanical television, which had to be connected to a radio; it did not have its own loudspeaker.

The distribution of televisions in the USSR began after the war, when mass production was launched. By 1970, 61% of urban families had a TV, although the device cost 900-1200 rubles with an average salary of 600-800 rubles.