Board games were popular in our country under both tsars and general secretaries. But if, under the tsars, games were just games, a means to pass the time, then in Soviet times, games began to carry an educational and propaganda load.
But let's look at Soviet board games in more detail ...
"Flight Moscow-China". (1925)
In the 1910s and during the First World War, aircraft were built in our country, but our country was not included in the elite club of leading aviation powers. Why? Well, for example, here is one of the reasons - everyone knows that an airplane does not fly without an engine, and engine building was in its infancy in Tsarist Russia. And the most important "detail" for Russian aircraft had to be purchased abroad.
The new government decided to put an end to technological backwardness. The slogan "catch up and overtake" came into use towards the end of the twenties - in the era of industrialization. But the joint-stock company "Dobrolet" (Russian Joint-Stock Company of the Voluntary Air Fleet) appeared already in 1923. 
The goal of the founders of the society was to promote the development of domestic civil aviation - passenger, postal, cargo. The society has existed for 7 years. During this time, Dobrolet aircraft flew almost 10 million kilometers, transported 47 thousand passengers and 408 tons of cargo (a very good result for an airline of the twenties).
Dobrolet also advertised its activities with the help of board games. The game "Flight Moscow-China" is extremely simple - by throwing dice, players must get to Beijing as quickly as possible, taking off from the Moscow airfield.
"Electrification" (1928)
“Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country,” said V. I. Lenin. The words of the first leader of the Country by the Council did not differ from the deeds.
In February 1920, the GOELRO plan (State Plan for the Electrification of Russia) was adopted. The result of this plan was the widely advertised "light bulbs of Ilyich", which caught fire even in the most remote villages of our vast country. Of course, the "electrification of the whole country" could not but be reflected in board games. 
Electrification could be played by two to four players. It offers players large and small cards with pictures. There are only four large ones - a village, a city, an aul, a port. These cards are divided among the players - these are the objects that they must electrify.
The small cards are shuffled and dealt to the players. Players draw cards from their neighbors and set aside paired pictures. In the end, they should be left with unmatched pictures of electric light bulbs.
According to the number of such cards on the playing field, fields closed by circles are opened - electrified objects. The one who electrified his part of the playing field first, he was the winner.
"Let's give raw materials to factories" (1930)
1930 - the First Five-Year Plan is in full swing, industrialization is in full swing, giant factories are being built in the country, huge industrial areas are springing up literally from scratch. Of course, manufacturers of board games could not ignore the topic of industrialization. 
In the game "Let's Give Raw Materials to Factories", players had to roll dice to move around the playing field and collect various recyclable materials that will be processed in the game factories. The winner, of course, was the one who gave the factories more raw materials.
"Lenin goes to Smolny" (1970)
And now, from the twenties - thirties, let's fast forward to the era of "developed socialism." In April 1970, our country celebrated the centenary of the birth of the leader of the world proletariat, V. I. Lenin. The children's magazine "Veselye Kartinki" could not stay away from this festival either.
On the pages of the magazine in the "anniversary" April issue, the game "Lenin goes to Smolny" was published. The game was a classic "maze" - the players had to spend Ilyich on the historic night from October 24 to 25, according to the old style, from a safe house in Smolny. 
Nighttime Petrograd abounded with dangers - patrols, mounted junkers. However, for many players, a walk around the nighttime pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg seemed boring, and almost immediately a “multiplayer version” of this game appeared. There were already several players and Lenins, and the player whose Lenin reached Smolny first won.
Board games in the first decades of the existence of Soviet power were both a means of propaganda and a kind of means of pre-conscription training. And there is nothing wrong with that. In the 1920s, our country was preparing to repel a new intervention (severance of diplomatic relations with England, Curzon's ultimatum, "military alert").
After January 30, 1933, one did not need to be a great seer or a brilliant analyst to guess that a new world war was inevitable (it was enough to read two hundred pages of the text of the Treaty of Versailles tangentially or read its summary in the newspapers). So, desktop military-patriotic propaganda, designed for future soldiers and commanders, was not at all superfluous.
One should not be surprised at the abundance of "wargames" (war games or simply board strategies) that came out in our country in the twenties and thirties. We won’t dwell on the rules of these games for a long time - a “wargame” is a “wargame”. Let's take a look at the scanned game boxes. 
Board games were popular both in Tsarist Russia and in the Soviet Union. Many games turned out to be long-lived - after the change of power and political system, only the name and design changed, and the “gameplay” remained unchanged.
But in 1985, the government changed again in our country and the so-called “perestroika” began. Along with the policy of the party and government, board games have also changed. So, the games of the era of perestroika.
"Enchanted Country"
In 1970, Americans Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson released the first board game from the endless Dungeon & Dragons series (or D&D for short - Dungeons and Dragons).
The players got into the world of heroic fantasy, and got used to the role of powerful warriors, wise magicians, immortal elves and other heroes of books popular at that time about worlds ruled by sword and magic. 
Coded Country Map
In the Soviet Union, such a historic event as the birth of D&D went unnoticed. Tabletop role-playing games were not popular in our country (of the role-playing games, only the field game Zarnitsa in pioneer camps was popular in our country). The reason for this unpopularity is simple - the complete absence of tabletop role-playing games.
Citizens of our country could get acquainted with something similar to D&D only in 1990, when the Autumn cooperative published the board game Enchanted Country in a circulation of 40,000 copies. The game was a loose variation on the theme of the very first and simplest versions of Dungeons and Dragons. 
There is a playing field with locations, there is a leader's book with a detailed description of what awaits players in these locations, there are characters that players can play, there are cards with monsters and their "tactical and technical characteristics", and, finally, there are dice, with the help of which the outcomes of game fights were decided.
The game instantly gained a "cult" status - traveling through the "Enchanted Land" captivated a lot of people. Like many other things in the last years of the existence of the USSR, the game belonged to the category of "deficit" (deficit then was not only board games, but also many food products).
But those who got acquainted with it literally made their own versions of the game “on their knees”. Largely thanks to the "Enchanted Country" in Russia, the role-playing movement was born.
Conversion
The famous "Monopoly", created in America in the midst of the Great Depression, instantly became a bestseller all over the world.
Still, with the help of this game, everyone could feel like a tycoon or an oligarch (this game was especially relevant in the early thirties, in the midst of the largest crisis in the history of the world economy - in America, the richest country in the world, millions of people were left without livelihood).
But in our country there was a socialist planned economy, the crises did not affect us in any way, but Monopoly did not correspond in any way to the "general line of the party." The first Soviet desktop economic simulator was Conversion. 
In the last years of the existence of the Soviet Union, the word "conversion" was very popular. Translated from Latin, it means "conversion" or "transformation."
First of all, at that time they talked about the conversion in the military industry - the transformation of military factories into factories that produce purely peaceful products. And then we have a lot of missiles, planes and tanks, but, for example, there are few household appliances.
Let's not talk about how this conversion was carried out - this is a topic for a separate extremely politicized article, let's talk about the game.
When you first look at the game box, another meaning of the word "conversion" becomes clear. Yes, it is clear to everyone that we are talking about the convertibility of the ruble.
In the history of the Soviet Union, there was a convertible currency - chervonets backed by gold (and the rate of chervonets on international currency exchanges sometimes almost caught up with the rate of the British pound sterling). But by the time the “Conversion” was released, there was one monetary unit in the country - the ruble, which was called “wooden” at that time, because it was impossible to buy anything outside of our country with rubles.
No, again, we will not talk about whether it is good or bad when the national currency is convertible and can be easily transferred abroad. Let's talk about the game. 
playing field
This is not a clone of Monopoly, but a completely independent game. Several people are playing. One of the players takes on the duties of a banker - distributes the starting capital to the rest of the players.
The duty of a banker is called in the rules of the game "voluntary and disinterested." But according to the same rules, the banker in the game is not completely disinterested - during any of the moves, he can give any player a loan at extortionate interest - he took 100 thousand, return 150 thousand on the next move.
Starting capital can be spent on the purchase of raw materials, factories, vehicles. And in the future to engage in the production of goods, the extraction of raw materials or the transportation of raw materials or goods. Everything produced or mined from the earth can be sold either on the domestic market for rubles, or on the external market for dollars (there was also the opportunity to change rubles for dollars at the game rate).
During each of the moves, the player must perform one of the actions - buy, sell, send cargo to the customer, take a loan. Whether the Russian oligarchs, who regularly appear on the Forbes magazine's list of billionaires, played Conversion, is not known for certain. 
This is how the internal market of the USSR looks like in the game 
And this is how the American market looks like in the game, where you can come with your goods
"Publicity"
Perhaps, this is the first time that a “licensed” and “localized” game has been published in our country. Even if not a computer one, but a desktop one (the very idea that computer games have some kind of copyright holders who want some money, would have seemed simply ridiculous to the citizens of our country in the late eighties). 
The board game Glasnost was released in America in 1989. At that time, everything connected with the Soviet Union was popular in America.
It cannot be said that the “Soviet” theme did not come up in American board games, films, cartoons, and comics before. But during the Cold War, from the point of view of the Americans, the Soviet Russians were bestial villains, ruthless bloodthirsty aggressors, dreaming of world domination and massive unjustified repressions.
During the years of “perestroika”, for a short time, the image of Russians in American popular culture changed “polarity”. If in 1984 Red Dawn, a film about brave American teenagers who organized a partisan detachment on the territory occupied by Soviet invaders, became a hit in the American film distribution, then in 1988 Red Heat became a movie hit, a film in which a purely positive image the Soviet policeman was embodied on the screen by Arnold Schwarzenegger himself. 
The Glasnost game was just about establishing peaceful political and economic relations between the two superpowers.
Players had to get used to the roles of the leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States, conduct political debates, and conclude economic deals. The political and economic aspects of the game were influenced by cards with news about what was happening in the world, in the Soviet Union and in America.
The players had the opportunity to truly establish equal partnerships between America and our country, without losing one position after another, as the “non-gaming” Gorbachev did.
The game was promptly translated into Russian and published in our country in large numbers. Now this game has long been firmly forgotten on both sides of the Atlantic - the Soviet Union ceased to exist, and board games about it have become irrelevant.
And finally: A selection of photos of Soviet board games and designers from different years 
And Alexander Cherenkov.
The game has been re-released several times. "Journey" was published in the following issues: No. 3 (1985) and No. 2 (1993) of the magazine "Funny Pictures".
FIRST "JOURNEY"
This is the very first version of the Journey game, it is different from the next one. Only listed as an artist.
Size: 9648 x 6165
Source: rupal
SECOND "JOURNEY"
Print version (view image in full size):
1. Right click on the image
2. "Open link in new tab"
The second version of the game "Journey" is better known, it was her magazine that was reprinted several times.
Size: 3118 x 1984
Source: Katalevitch (Aleksey Orno) for Only paper website
IMPROVED "JOURNEY"
Print version (view image in full size):
1. Right click on the image
2. "Open link in new tab"
This is an improved version of the game - with bright colors, without creases and scratches.
Size: 3131 x 2002
Source: Yanedoleg
SIMILAR GAMES - "TRAVEL"
To go to the desired game, click on the picture.
Left - . The field is the country, the moves are large squares.
On right - . The field is a map of the world, the moves are the usual circles with numbers.
MORE POSTS!
The Robot has collected all the "Journeys" from "Funny Pictures"! Press green buttons:3
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This is the very first version of the Journey game, it is different from the next one. Only E. Nazarov is listed as an artist. .
The second version of the game "Journey" is better known, it was her magazine "Funny Pictures" that was reprinted several times. Download link below the picture.
Toys of those times could be conditionally divided into Soviet and foreign, boyish and girlish, toys in their own right and for collecting, as well as purely boyish devices and gadgets.
The 80s gave rise to a whole armada of cult games and toys that brought up more than one generation. They were wildly popular for one simple reason: Soviet children had no alternative. It was already in the early 90s that bright capitalist toys began to penetrate the post-Soviet space (and into the immature minds of children). And it is still unknown which were better.
Soviet toys were distinguished by Soviet rigor, socialist realist design and Soviet dimensions. Some of them could kill a class enemy. Sovok toys withstood fire, water, copper pipes and even increased children's curiosity, and therefore lived a long time and remained loved for a long time. Despite the general underdevelopment of design ideas, limited materials and uniformity, very often came across toys that were still distinguished by originality and ingenuity.
"Behind the wheel"
It was a spinning disc representing a looped road along which a car with a magnet was moving. The goal of the game is to keep the car strictly on the roadway, fitting into turns and driving under bridges. The outer ring of the road was simpler, the inner one required a level up.
The front panel with the steering wheel, ignition and speed switch gave a special chic to the toy. The steering wheel was usually broken off by juvenile fools and chased around the yard with it. Later, wise engineers made the steering wheel removable. The ignition delivered the most, because it was like a real one, and even the key could really be lost. The gearshift lever affected the speed of rotation of the disk and, therefore, the speed of the machine.
Interesting: there were maniacs who put insects on the road, and then crushed them with a typewriter. It was also cool to turn the car at high speed so that its backside skidded. Some guessed to add batteries, which increased the speed of the fireballs.
"Pedal" cars
This toy made it possible to ride on an almost real pedal-powered single-seat car. The unit had working headlights, rear dimensions, steering, a removable windshield, an opening trunk and a hood with a fake engine.
Interesting: when rolling down an inclined surface, the pedals naturally turned on their own, and at speeds above 10 km / h they became a kind of meat grinder.
Models
Metal models of real cars (on a scale of 1:43) were an object of increased desire for Soviet boys. Everything was opened at the cars, and if desired, as well as the availability of tools and unhealthy interest, it was possible to separate the body from the frame. There was a type engine under the hood, a full-fledged spare tire in the trunk, the seats reclined, and in some models even windows opened. Models were not intended for ardent children's games, but only for collecting behind glass. Sooner or later, they still moved from the sideboard to the floor and lost their status, participating in games on a par with plastic and aluminum freaks. It is logical that in the USSR military equipment was a separate model range: armored personnel carriers, tractors, trucks and tanks.
Interesting: some cars came with a ramp, on which the car drove - apparently, this is how Soviet children were taught that they would have to spend every weekend looking for oil leaks.
Helicopter
The toy consisted of two parts: the helicopter itself and a type of handle with a starter. The helicopter landed on this device, then it was necessary to pull the starter, its blades spun, and the helicopter, as it were, took off.
The game - let's call it that - required serious physical effort, and the arm muscles swayed better than with an expander. In addition, the fishing line was constantly tangled, and after the fifth take-off it was difficult to unravel the tangle, which, however, brought up patience and perseverance in the youths, but at the same time nullified interest in the device. But the most important fail was that the groove quickly became unusable, and the blades did not spin at all. In general, I had to create a masterpiece without fishing line. The helicopter was flying in a direction known only to him. Yeah, you guessed it - now the legs were swinging and visual acuity was developing.
Umka
The pinnacle of engineering in Soviet engineering: "Umka" could not only drive, but bumping into obstacles, he knew how to turn away from them. He (she?) did not fall off the table! Feeling the edge, the machine stubbornly searched for where to drive.
Interesting: there were no electronics inside at all, pure mechanics. Such a conscious behavior was due to the fact that the machine went on a single wheel hidden in the bottom. Google has the details, and we have a moment of pride in Soviet engineers. And the design was very even for that time.
Lunokhod
He had more brains than the average Soviet party worker. It was a battery-powered all-terrain vehicle, but not controlled by radio or wires, but programmed using a built-in remote control. He knew how to drive forward, backward, turn at a given angle, blink, make "pee-pee" and launch a projectile. In total, 16 actions were placed in memory, so Soviet children learned early to save bytes and cycles when programming ballistic missiles.
Interesting: the lunar rover was heavily copied from an American toy and cost 27 rubles (a fifth of the salary), so there was usually only one for the entire region.
"Crossroads"
According to experts, this toy was created by the sinister mind of a gloomy genius. Eyewitnesses say that it was a metal cross, to which two metal bundles were attached, forming a figure eight. Two chips were sticking out of the cross, and two cars of the Moskvich 412 type were chasing along the bent wires. What is the fan? Vooooot: one car, entering the intersection, sticks into the chip, thus shifting the opposite chip and allowing the second car to go. And so on until the end of the plant. Miracles!
Interesting: of course, everything went a little wrong. The cars jumped off and were carried away along an unknown route, and metal harnesses were most often used to sort things out. However, like the intersection itself.
water rocket
The device was a by-product of Soviet rocket factories. Water was poured into a hollow plastic rocket, then the rocket was inflated for a long time and stubbornly with an ordinary bicycle pump. The same pump served as a launch pad. The result exceeded all expectations: the rocket flew above the high-voltage transmission line support. And below naturally stood a wet, but happy schoolboy.
red horse
The horse, made of the strongest Soviet plastic, seemed to have escaped from a painting by Petrov-Vodkin. The hooves were shod with cast white discs with low-profile rubber, which allowed the young Horseman of the Apocalypse to develop the first space.
Interesting: the animal would be just a dull piece of plastic, if not for one chip. There was a ring at the base of the withers. And if you pull on it and let go, the horse emits a demonic rzhach that could cause bouts of enuresis in children and flatulence in adults. Only one track, but without batteries and without electronics. Only furs, only a whistle, only a spring.
Metal constructor
It was designed to develop imagination and compensate for the lack of other toys. With a certain skill, by connecting several sets, you can assemble a marvelous machine, crane or train.
Interesting: the Soviet designer suddenly turned out to be 100% compatible with the German "Construction", which made it possible to add Soviet details to the last one for a penny and pile something truly grandiose.
Constructor "Flight"
Despite the aviation name, almost everything could be made from it, so, let's say, "flight of fancy" was meant.
Interesting: the fail (except for calluses from oak plastic parts) was the rapid wear of the connecting jumpers. But, due to the fact that there were a little less than a lot of them in the constructor, no one was particularly tense. Broken jumpers could be fastened to the spokes on the bike. Show off!
Young Chemist Pack
It was created by a Latvian genius and contained a heating device, test tubes, a couple of reagents, indicator papers, acid, magnesium and a retort. It was possible to do many interesting things both according to the school curriculum and optionally: set fire to magnesium, arrange a gas attack, assemble a low-power moonshine still in five minutes, and, if desired, even arrange a rather strong explosive.
Constructor "Architect"
There were several types, each of which was cooler than the previous one, but they all definitely developed imagination and laid the foundations for proper construction. It was possible to build everything: from a hut to a standard high-rise building and even a microdistrict. There were also trees 2 centimeters high, overpasses, arches and other interesting things.
Constructor "Collect animals and birds"
It was a flat piece of plastic of various shapes with cuts. By inserting parts into each other's cuts, it was possible to figure out the fauna in the style of late cubism.
Rotary gun Poljot
A futuristic-looking pistol with a spring inside. The charge in the form of a propeller on the pin was inserted, spun a few clicks against the move, and flew out very energetically after the trigger was pressed.
Flapper gun and caps (!)
There were two options: with ring caps and with paper tape. However, the essence was reduced to one thing: a charge was placed on the piston, striking which the trigger caused a deafening sound. With an enchanting spark, smoke and long lasting sulfur amber. I must say, the caps were shot most often not with pistols, but with stones, nails and other hard objects, violating all safety precautions and often leading to minor burns. The especially gifted did it with their nails. Burns were provided in 10 cases out of 10. But how effective!
Interesting: the mass destruction of all existing pistons brought special joy - the stench and stench are provided. You could just set it on fire with matches, but "children are not a toy," though. Therefore, strips with caps were rolled up in several layers, placed on a hard metal surface and hit with a hammer. The caps from the parents were a bonus to the curses of the neighbors.
Pistol with suction cup
There were a great many varieties, but the essence was one. An arrow with a suction cup was thrust into the muzzle of the pistol, which, when the trigger was pressed, flew at the target (naturally, through a window or someone's forehead).
Interesting: there was only one arrow (how subtly the designer foresaw it!), it was quickly lost, but the war was not so easy to stop. Instead of an arrow, they shoved everything that would fit into the muzzle - stones, sticks, sharpened pencils - which, of course, increased the level of injuries.
Sabers
This imitation of edged weapons was, probably, in all self-respecting boys aka Chapaevs. Sabers were especially delivered in drug-addicted colors: how do you like a blue saber in a green sheath? The blade is hollow, the end is rounded, cheap, safe and about the war. You could take it with impunity and crack someone. And get a yellow-red saber in response. How fun and simple everything was, huh!?
Hippos
The principle of the game: a plastic cylinder filled with water with a button at the bottom and a rubber cap at the top. A walled-in hippopotamus with a movable upper jaw rests inside and balls float. When the button was pressed, the balls were thrown up, and the mouth of the hippopotamus opened. Goal: feed the animal as many balls as possible. There were also variations with a dolphin and rings that needed to be put on the nose.
There was another hippo, but land. Inside it was a spring, which was wound up by pulling a lace with a ring out of the animal's mouth. When the lace was released, the spring untwisted, while the hippo quickly moved its paws, and the lace wound into its mouth.
And there was also a game for four, where hippos competed in gluttony, and their navigators - in speed of reaction.
Frog
It was a green toad with a spring at the bottom. The spring was compressed by pressing on the frog, and the structure in the “standby” state was held by a suction cup. After some time, the suction cup weakened, and the spring straightened, throwing the frog high up. As a rule, this happened when no one was waiting. The toad took by surprise even those who were intently waiting for her jump. What can we say about the ignorant. Squeals, shudders and obscenities were provided. In addition to frogs, similar spiders were sold, very similar to tarantulas.
A mindless and merciless frog, spring and scissor mutant was also released. The exact purpose of the unit is unknown, but it was quickly adapted as a melee weapon. There was also a similar spider and a boxing fist.
plastic beasts
Greetings from Czechoslovakia was planned, for sure, as a visual aid for beginner Darells and Aibolites. And now you can buy such sets, but then it was a squeak! The color of most of the animals ranged from dull black, brown and red to acid green. But everyone seemed to be so happy that no one cared about the black giraffe.
Walking toys
It's simple: the feet of the fauna are arched, which allowed the animals to swing from side to side. The turtle was great at sprinting down an incline - just push. The donkey is more advanced: it has a weight on its neck, which had to be hung, for example, from the edge of the table. There were also walking Winnie the Poohs and, of course, unforgettable penguins dear to the heart ..
sea battle
Was mechanical and electronic. No comment. It was a blessing to have both.
electric quiz
The device was a thick cardboard on which foil was glued and thick contact tracks were laid out along it. A piece of paper, divided into squares, was placed on top of the foil. They had questions and answers (or pictures). The goal is to answer the question and apply the contact to the foil through the hole in the corresponding box. If the answer is correct, the light will turn on. Hello Comrade Pavlov!
Table hockey, football and basketball
Hockey was the most popular sport in the USSR, and such a toy was a welcome gift for a child (I remember that on one birthday, thanks to the intractability of my parents and grandparents, I became the owner of three such hockey players).
Interesting: the grooves in the bottom could be finished, increasing the speed and dynamism of the game at times. Life hacks also included replacing standard springs with more powerful ones, bending clubs and replacing a standard rubber-metal washer with a homemade wooden one. Geniuses insidiously cheated: while no one saw, it was possible to weaken the springs of the alleged enemy team.
There was also table football, basketball and even bowling (!)
"Merry Carousel"
A secret weapon introduced into our country with the aim of corrupting the population from a young age, the carousel was nothing more than the simplest table roulette. The gifted quickly noticed this and used the "casino" for its intended purpose, playing for authentic or drawn money.
filmoscope
Or filmstrips. There were pictures on the film (mostly frames from Soviet cartoons), and under them there was text. It turned out that you were watching a cartoon, only with the speed of down and with cut scenes that you had to fantasize. Today's children do not understand how such nonsense could be watched at all.
Interesting: there was a device that looked like a mini-movie camera, inside of which there was a microfilm. By turning the knob, it was possible to view a segment of the cartoon as long as 15-30 seconds.
Stereoscope
Soviet children learned "tride" long before Avatar. It was something like binoculars, into which cardboard carriers were loaded with a dozen pairs of pictures - most often a storyboard of Soviet puppet cartoons. The device had no mechanical parts and therefore lived many times longer than filmoscopes. In theory.
Interesting: there were also monoscopes with a single photopositive. The picture is one, but with your image.
Burner
In addition to decorating cutting boards by March 8, it was possible to burn on a desk, on a neighbor's cat, a balcony door, a window, a car, it was possible to burn on paper, plastic and even thin metal. The burner could be used to light a cigarette, remotely ignite pipe bombs, exterminate insects, seal jam jars, carve rubber sculptures, weld plastic, vulcanize bike wheel patches, heat tea, and draw glowing letters in the dark. And all these pleasures for 3 rubles. 14 kop. or so.
Rubik's Cube & Co.
Everyone knows the cube, but not everyone remembers the triangular and cylindrical modifications of this iconic puzzle.
Puzzle "Snake"
These long things, in the presence of spatial thinking and even limbs beginning in the right place, could be folded into various compositions. Personally, I hung out for hours.
labyrinths
The geniuses of Soviet engineering gave birth to a series of very funny and sensible labyrinths. For those who had smaller convolutions, single-level labyrinths with a transparent lid were produced. For aesthetes, there were multi-level labyrinths in the form of a tightly sealed glass cube, ball or cylinder.
Kaleidoscope
It was possible to stick forever into bizarre patterns assembled from glass pieces (still did not dare to google, so as not to lose that feeling of a miracle).
magic screen
A very curious device for those times. On the inside, the screen was covered with a silvery powder, on which grooves were drawn. One of the heads on the panel was responsible for vertical drawing, the other for horizontal. With the simultaneous meaningful rotation of the heads, it was possible to depict something highly artistic. The drawings were erased by vigorous shaking. In the attached catalog, there were pictures that were unrealistic to draw without tearing off the pen, which caused tons of hatred against troll developers.
Electronic games
The wolf catches eggs - was the most popular, and there were even legends about it (a kind of cartoon that will be shown to you after 1000 points scored). There were several varieties of such games, and every child wanted them. At least borrow for the evening, at least for an hour ..
Dolls and girls friendly staff
Surprisingly, toys for girls did not mutate much over time. The same dolls, baby dolls, strollers, bathtubs, sets of dishes, plastic scissors and combs, paper patterns of dresses, fixed on paper figures. Only the quality has changed, sometimes, by the way, for the worse. The faces and bodies of the old-school dolls were, of course, not ice. But on the other hand, they did not have such pronounced sexual characteristics, which, according to many psychologists, are superfluous information for preschool children.
And it was also customary for children in the USSR to develop their hearing: pianos, xylophones, metallophones .. The apotheosis of musical literacy was singing frogs, which brought grandfather to hysteria. Fine motor skills and color perception were designed to develop a mosaic in various variations, stepping on the lost details of which dad gave unplanned lessons in obscene vocabulary. And cows on stands with bending limbs - like, fun for 5 minutes, but entered the annals. An assortment of plastic firearms - it was only later that the weapon began to make sounds and flash, terrifying .. The rubber industry supplied carlsons, pinocchio and naked baby dolls in wagons. And also the balls that we managed to pierce already in the first week of using .. There was a whole planet of board games: traffic rules, checkers, chess, loto, the first semblances of monopolies and erudite, walkers, walkers, chip rearrangements .. There were sets of equipment and soldiers - monolithic, brutal, monochrome, obviously created under the influence of Mayakovsky's poems, and even remote-controlled submarines ..
All of us, children of the 80s and 90s, simply have to remember now that the coolest jumper is the same black one from sports goods. Do you remember the old-school tags, the Pythagoras puzzle, carpet battles with primitive soldiers of dull colors and the same quality? Now it seems that some toys were given out as a burden to the apartments: the same bears, tumblers, dolls, cheburashkas could be found on any visit. In the same place, you were invariably offered to play loto or dominoes (for example, berry). There were also key chains in the form of silver plastic cars - well, many had them, right? And there was also an epidemic of multi-colored springs, though at the end of an era, but still .. Just then, the first transformers, kinder surprises began to appear and, as the end of an era (for me personally), Tamagotchi is a real enemy of children's minds.
In the next series, we will talk about children's outdoor games - both approved by the party, and illegal, backyard origin. And about the unusual use by Soviet children of quite ordinary household items. Well, there is a lot more to remember. Time machine after the yard sale fell into the hands of the locals.
Board games were popular in our country both under the tsars and under the general secretaries. But if under the tsars games were just games, a means to pass the time, then in Soviet times the games began to carry an educational and propaganda load. But let's look at Soviet board games in more detail ...
"Flight Moscow-China". (1925) In the 1910s and during the First World War, aircraft were built in our country, but our country was not included in the elite club of leading aviation powers. Why? Well, for example, here is one of the reasons - everyone knows that an airplane does not fly without an engine, and engine building was in its infancy in Tsarist Russia. And the most important "detail" for Russian aircraft had to be purchased abroad. The new government decided to put an end to technological backwardness. The slogan "catch up and overtake" came into use towards the end of the twenties - in the era of industrialization. But the joint-stock company "Dobrolet" (Russian Joint-Stock Company of the Voluntary Air Fleet) appeared already in 1923. 
The goal of the founders of the society was to promote the development of domestic civil aviation - passenger, postal, cargo. The society has existed for 7 years. During this time, Dobrolet planes flew almost 10 million kilometers, transported 47 thousand passengers and 408 tons of cargo (a very good result for an airline of the twenties). Dobrolet also advertised its activities with the help of board games. The game "Flight Moscow-China" is extremely simple - by throwing dice, players must get to Beijing as quickly as possible, taking off from the Moscow airfield. "Electrification" (1928) "Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country" - said V.I. Lenin. The words of the first head of the country by the Council did not differ from the deeds. In February 1920, the GOELRO plan (State Plan for the Electrification of Russia) was adopted. The result of this plan was the widely advertised "light bulbs of Ilyich", which caught fire even in the most remote villages of our vast country. Of course, the "electrification of the whole country" could not but be reflected in board games. 
Electrification could be played by two to four players. It offers players large and small cards with pictures. There are only four large ones - a village, a city, an aul, a port. These cards are divided among the players - these are the objects that they must electrify. The small cards are shuffled and distributed to the players. Players draw cards from their neighbors and set aside paired pictures. In the end, they should be left with unpaired pictures with electric bulbs. According to the number of such cards on the playing field, fields closed by circles open - electrified objects. The one who electrified his part of the playing field first, he turned out to be the winner. "Let's give raw materials to factories" (1930) 1930 - the First Five-Year Plan is in full swing, industrialization is in full swing, giant factories are being built in the country, huge industrial areas. Of course, manufacturers of board games could not ignore the topic of industrialization. 
In the game "Let's Give Raw Materials to Factories", players had to roll dice to move around the playing field and collect various recyclable materials that will be processed in the game factories. The winner, of course, was the one who gave the factories more raw materials. "Lenin goes to Smolny" (1970) And now from the twenties and thirties, let's fast forward to the era of "developed socialism." In April 1970, our country celebrated the centenary of the birth of the leader of the world proletariat, V. I. Lenin. The children's magazine "Funny Pictures" could not stay away from this festival either. On the pages of the magazine in the "anniversary" April issue, the game "Lenin Goes to Smolny" was published. The game was a classic "maze" - the players had to spend Ilyich on the historic night of October 24-25, according to the old style, from a safe house in Smolny. 
Nighttime Petrograd abounded with dangers - patrols, mounted junkers. However, for many players, a walk around the nighttime pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg seemed boring, and almost immediately a "multiplayer version" of this game appeared. There were already several players and Lenins, and the player whose Lenin reached Smolny first won. Board games in the first decades of the existence of Soviet power were both a means of propaganda and a kind of pre-conscription training. And there is nothing wrong with that. In the twenties, our country was preparing to repel a new intervention (severance of diplomatic relations with England, Curzon's ultimatum, "military alert"). After January 30, 1933, one did not need to be a great seer or a brilliant analyst to guess - a new world war inevitable (it was enough to read tangentially two hundred pages of the text of the Treaty of Versailles or read its summary in the newspapers). So, desktop military-patriotic propaganda, designed for future soldiers and commanders, was not superfluous at all. One should not be surprised at the abundance of "wargames" (war games or simply board strategies) that came out in our country in the twenties and thirties. We will not dwell on the rules of these games for a long time - a "wargame" is a "wargame". Let's take a look at the scanned game boxes. 
Board games were popular both in Tsarist Russia and in the Soviet Union. Many games turned out to be long-lived - after the change of power and the political system, only the name and design changed, and the "gameplay" remained unchanged. But in 1985, the government changed again in our country and the so-called "perestroika" began. Along with the policy of the party and government, board games have also changed. So, the games of the perestroika era. "Enchanted Country" In 1970, the Americans Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson released the first board game from the endless Dungeon & Dragons series (or D&D for short - Dungeons and Dragons). The players got into the world of heroic fantasy, and got used to the roles mighty warriors, wise magicians, immortal elves and other heroes of popular books at that time about worlds ruled by sword and magic. 
Map of the Encoded Country In the Soviet Union, such a historical event as the birth of D&D went unnoticed. Tabletop role-playing games were not popular in our country (of the role-playing games, only the field game "Zarnitsa" in pioneer camps was popular in our country). The reason for this unpopularity is simple - the complete absence of tabletop role-playing games. Citizens of our country could get acquainted with something similar to D&D only in 1990, when the Autumn cooperative published the Enchanted Country board game in a circulation of 40,000 copies. The game was a loose variation on the theme of the very first and simplest versions of Dungeons and Dragons. 
There is a playing field with locations, there is a leader's book with a detailed description of what awaits players in these locations, there are characters that players can play, there are cards with monsters and their "tactical and technical characteristics", and, finally, there are dice, with the help of which the outcomes of game fights were decided. The game instantly gained a "cult" status - traveling through the "Enchanted Land" captivated many. Like many other things in the last years of the existence of the USSR, the game belonged to the category of "deficit" (at that time, not only board games, but also many food products were in short supply). But those who got acquainted with it literally made their versions of the game "on their knees" . Largely thanks to the "Enchanted Country" in Russia, the role-playing movement was born. an oligarch (this game was especially relevant precisely in the early thirties, in the midst of the largest crisis in the history of the world economy - in America, the richest country in the world, millions of people were left without a livelihood). But in our country there was a socialist planned economy, crises did not affect us in any way, but Monopoly did not correspond in any way to the "general line of the party." The first Soviet desktop economic simulator was Conversion. 
In the last years of the existence of the Soviet Union, the word "conversion" was very popular. Translated from Latin, it means "conversion" or "transformation." First of all, at that time they talked about the conversion in the military industry - the transformation of military factories into factories that produce purely peaceful products. And then we have a lot of missiles, planes and tanks, but, for example, there are few household appliances. Let's not talk about how this conversion was carried out - this is a topic for a separate extremely politicized article, let's talk about the game. At first glance at the game box, it becomes clear another meaning of the word "conversion". Yes, it is clear to everyone that we are talking about the convertibility of the ruble. In the history of the Soviet Union there was a convertible currency - chervonets backed by gold (and the rate of chervonets on international currency exchanges sometimes almost caught up with the rate of the British pound sterling). But by the time the “Conversion” was released, there was one monetary unit in the country - the ruble, which was called “wooden” at that time, because it was impossible to buy anything outside of our country with rubles. No, again, we won’t talk about whether it is good or bad when the national currency is convertible and can be easily withdrawn abroad. Let's talk about the game. 
Playing field This is not a clone of Monopoly, but a completely independent game. Several people are playing. One of the players takes on the duties of a banker - distributes the starting capital to the rest of the players. The banker's duty is called "voluntary and disinterested" in the rules of the game. But according to the same rules, the banker in the game is not completely disinterested - during any of the moves, he can give any player a loan at an extortionate interest - he took 100 thousand, return 150 thousand on the next move. Starting capital can be spent on the purchase of raw materials, factories, transport funds. And in the future to engage in the production of goods, the extraction of raw materials or the transportation of raw materials or goods. Everything produced or mined from the earth can be sold either on the domestic market for rubles, or on the external market for dollars (there was also the opportunity to exchange rubles for dollars at the game rate). During each of the moves, the player must perform one of the actions - buy, sell, send the goods to the customer, take a loan. Whether the Russian oligarchs, who regularly appear on the Forbes magazine's list of billionaires, played Conversion, is not known for certain. 
This is how the internal market of the USSR looks like in the game 
And this is how the American market looks like in the game, where you can come with your product "Glasnost" Perhaps this is the first case of a "licensed" and "localized" game being published in our country. Even if not a computer one, but a desktop one (the very idea that computer games have some kind of copyright holders who want some money, would have seemed simply ridiculous to the citizens of our country in the late eighties). 
The board game Glasnost was released in America in 1989. At that time, everything connected with the Soviet Union was popular in America. It cannot be said that the "Soviet" theme did not come up in American board games, films, cartoons, and comics before. But during the years of the Cold War, from the point of view of Americans, Soviet Russians were bestial villains, ruthless bloodthirsty aggressors, dreaming of dominating the world and mass unjustified repressions. During the years of "perestroika" for a short time, the image of Russians in American mass culture changed "polarity". If in 1984 Red Dawn, a film about brave American teenagers who organized a partisan detachment on the territory occupied by Soviet invaders, became a hit in American film distribution, in 1988 Red Heat became a movie hit, a film in which a purely positive image the Soviet policeman was embodied on the screen by Arnold Schwarzenegger himself. 
The Glasnost game was just about establishing peaceful political and economic relations between the two superpowers. The players had to get used to the roles of the leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States, conduct political debates, and conclude economic deals. The political and economic aspects of the game were influenced by cards with news about what was happening in the world, in the Soviet Union and in America. The players had the opportunity to really establish equal partnership relations between America and our country, without losing one position after another, like this Gorbachev made "non-fiction". The game was promptly translated into Russian and published in our country in a large circulation. Now this game has been long and firmly forgotten on both sides of the Atlantic - the Soviet Union ceased to exist, and board games about it have become irrelevant. And finally: A selection of photos of Soviet board games and designers from different years 
For thousands of years, board games have been one of the forms of entertainment in various civilizations and cultures. There are games that appeared before the advent of writing, and games with religious overtones. We have collected 10 board games that modern people play with pleasure, not even suspecting how ancient this entertainment is.
1. Tafl
Tafl was a very popular game among the Vikings. The essence of the game is that one player seeks to take his king from the center of the board to the edge, while the others do everything possible to capture it. Tafl spread throughout Europe and became essentially the chess of the time.
2. Landlord game - the first "Monopoly"
The landlord game was invented in 1903 by Maryland actress Lizzie Meghi. The board game consisted of a square board, around the edges of which were placed the names of what the players could buy. The board game had four railroads, two enterprises, a prison. The corner squares gave players $100 each time their chip landed on those squares. Doesn't it sound familiar? But the landlord game was patented three decades before Charles Darrow "invented" Monopoly and sold it to Parker Brothers.
3. Vaikuntapaali
The Indian game Vaikuntapaali, invented in the 16th century and known as Leela, was a tool for instilling morality and spirituality in people. This game in America became popular under the name "Slides and Stairs". In the original version, climbing the ladder was meant to show players the value of doing good deeds in the search for enlightenment. The snakes were intended to show that vices such as theft and murder bring spiritual harm to the sinner.
4. Mill
Mill - a game in which the chips must be lined up in a line of three chips in a row. After this has been done, the player removes any enemy chip from the field. The game is considered over when one of the players cannot build a "mill", because he has 2 chips left or there is no way to make a move. Stone tablets for this game, dating back to 1440 BC, have been found in Sri Lanka, bronze ones in Ireland, ancient Troy, and the southwestern United States.
5. Mansion of Happiness
Happy Mansion is an instructive moral and entertaining game that was published in the UK. In 1843 it was also played in the USA. The game was completely made on the basis of Christian morality and was supposed to teach children the virtues of a real Christian.
6. Senet
Senet is the oldest board game in the world. Sets for this game were found in burial chambers dating back to 3500 BC. For example, 4 sets for this game were found in the famous tomb of Tutankhamun. Although the game was at first only a secular form of entertainment, soon the senet also took on a religious significance for the Egyptians. The squares were marked with various symbols representing the gods and other aspects of life after death.
7. Mancala
Mancala is a series of board games of the same type that are distributed all over the world. Some scholars believe that the mancala is even older than the senet. All you need to play is a patch of soft earth and a handful of seeds or pebbles. Holes are made on the ground, which the players take turns planting with stones. The goal of the game is to capture as many of the opponent's stones as possible.
8. Chaupar
The Indian game chaupar and the almost identical pachisi are the forerunners of the cross and circle games known today. In the West, the most famous is a much more simplified version of this game called ludo. Players strive to get around the chips around the outer perimeter of the board as quickly as possible and bring them to the “home”.
9. Chaturanga
Chaturanga is a game that many scholars consider to be the progenitor of chess. The Chinese have an approximate analogue called Xiangqi. There are versions in Korea, Thailand and India. What was the board and most of the pieces of the game, which dates from the seventh century AD, unfortunately, is not known today. But it seems that the creators of Chaturanga have managed to come up with a formula that has led to the spread of the game around the world: pure battle of skill, almost infinite complexity and beauty.
Royal Ur is the oldest board game known today for which the original rules have been preserved. The oldest sets for the game were found in Iraq in 1920, and artifacts date back to 2600 BC. The game of the Kings of Ur is similar to the senet: the players take turns rolling the dice and moving their pieces towards the goal. The game was long considered the progenitor of backgammon until Irving Finkel, who found the rules of the game carved on an ancient stone tablet, stumbled upon amazing photographs of a playing field in modern India.
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