What happened in 1957. Hot Cold War Threat
On October 4, 1957, the world's first artificial Earth satellite was launched into low-Earth orbit, ushering in the space age in human history.
The satellite, which became the first artificial celestial body, was launched into orbit by the R-7 launch vehicle from the 5th Research Test Site of the USSR Ministry of Defense, which later received the open name Baikonur Cosmodrome.
PS-1 spacecraft(the simplest satellite-1) was a ball with a diameter of 58 centimeters, weighed 83.6 kilograms, and was equipped with four pin antennas 2.4 and 2.9 meters long for transmitting signals from battery-powered transmitters. 295 seconds after launch, PS-1 and the central block of the rocket, weighing 7.5 tons, were launched into an elliptical orbit with an altitude of 947 km at apogee and 288 km at perigee. At 315 seconds after launch, the satellite separated from the second stage of the launch vehicle, and its call signs were immediately heard by the whole world.
“...On October 4, 1957, the first satellite was successfully launched in the USSR. According to preliminary data, the launch vehicle gave the satellite the required orbital speed of about 8,000 meters per second. Currently, the satellite describes elliptical trajectories around the Earth and its flight can be observed in the rays of the rising and setting Sun using simple optical instruments (binoculars, telescopes, etc.).
According to calculations, which are now being refined by direct observations, the satellite will move at altitudes of up to 900 kilometers above the Earth’s surface; the time of one complete revolution of the satellite will be 1 hour 35 minutes, the angle of inclination of the orbit to the equatorial plane is 65°. On October 5, 1957, the satellite will pass over the Moscow area twice - at 1 hour 46 minutes. at night and at 6 o'clock. 42 min. morning Moscow time. Messages about the subsequent movement of the first artificial satellite, launched in the USSR on October 4, will be transmitted regularly by broadcast radio stations.
The satellite has the shape of a ball with a diameter of 58 cm and a weight of 83.6 kg. It has two radio transmitters that continuously emit radio signals with a frequency of 20.005 and 40.002 megahertz (wavelength about 15 and 7.5 meters, respectively). Transmitter powers ensure reliable reception of radio signals by a wide range of radio amateurs. The signals take the form of telegraphic messages lasting about 0.3 seconds. with a pause of the same duration. A signal of one frequency is sent during a pause of a signal of another frequency...”
Scientists M.V. Keldysh, M.K. Tikhonravov, N.S. Lidorenko, V.I. Lapko, B.S. worked on the creation of an artificial Earth satellite, led by the founder of practical cosmonautics S.P. Korolev. Chekunov and many others.
The PS-1 satellite flew for 92 days, until January 4, 1958, completing 1,440 revolutions around the Earth (about 60 million kilometers), and its radio transmitters operated for two weeks after launch.
The launch of an artificial Earth satellite was of enormous importance for understanding the properties of outer space and studying the Earth as a planet in our solar system. Analysis of the received signals from the satellite gave scientists the opportunity to study the upper layers of the ionosphere, which was not possible before. In addition, information about the operating conditions of the equipment, which was very useful for further launches, was obtained, all calculations were checked, and the density of the upper layers of the atmosphere was determined based on the braking of the satellite.
The launch of the first artificial Earth satellite received a huge worldwide response. The whole world learned about his flight. The entire world press talked about this event.
In September 1967, the International Astronautical Federation proclaimed October 4 as the Day of the Beginning of the Human Space Age.
Press service of Roscosmos
1957 for the USSR was a year of great events and new hopes. A world youth festival was held in the capital, the first satellite was launched into space, the “thaw” gave hope for quick changes. Let's take a look at what our huge country lived like 60 years ago, and bright color photos of those years will help us with this.
VI World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow. Muscovites welcome guests from South America.
The guests of the festival under the slogan “For Peace and Friendship” were 34,000 people from 131 countries.
And from those that the USSR had never even heard of.
Thanks to the festival, many people abroad were able to discover the USSR, thanks to the stories of the participants and the reports of journalists. Well, we are left with a lot of interesting color shots of Moscow at that time.
In particular, a wonderful photo report was made by the young Swiss journalist Leonard Gianadda. Here he is posing on Red Square in the summer of 1957:
Often, this Swiss’s camera captured everyday scenes on the streets of Moscow:
An equally important event in 1957 for the USSR, and for the whole world, was the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, which took place on October 4. The first Soviet satellite.
The first animal launched into Earth orbit was the dog Laika. The flight took place on November 3, 1957. The dog died during the flight from stress and overheating:
This is what the cabin structure looked like:
Rocket mania began in the USSR!
In 1957, the first Soviet hydrofoil ship, Raketa, set sail from Gorky to Kazan. Photo from the Ogonyok archive:
It was a true masterpiece of Soviet shipbuilding, a miracle of design, a perfection of style. Even Western countries, for example, England, bought it.
AZ-13 "Chaika", pre-production model, photo from 1957:
This was probably the last Soviet production car built according to the principle “so as to be no worse than the Americans!” In the race of superpowers at that time, the appearance of cars was a matter of state prestige, and even though the scale of production of the USSR was tenfold inferior, it needed to “show its face” at international exhibitions. Therefore, the Chaika was more than a car, it was an attribute of superpower status.
In the summer of 1957, the first production Volgas finally appeared on the streets of Moscow and Leningrad, which, after two years of running-in and fine-tuning, were put on the assembly line. One of them was captured in close-up on the Admiralty Embankment in Leningrad by the American professor Hammond:
In most Soviet cities, the first Volgas will be seen only in the early 1960s. Of course, we saw it somewhere before.
At the May Day demonstration in 1957 in Murom, Vladimir region. The local radio plant has mastered the production of the A-9 radio receiver for the new Volga car:
At that time, the country lived with the genuine romance of labor exploits and achievements.
Construction sites, factories and collective farms were the main topic of photo reports by Soviet journalists.
Boiling with energy, the chairman of the Komintern collective farm, E. Andreeva, is at a construction site.
Soviet journalists, no worse than the Americans, learned to take beautiful shots in the industrial style. Azerbaijan. Sumgayit aluminum plant. The electrolysis bath is being processed.
At the entrance to the park.
Ice skating rink at the Dynamo stadium in Leningrad.
Soviet boats.
In the late 1950s, the KSP movement arose in the USSR, and the abbreviation initially stood for “student song competition.”
Folklore ensemble in Kabarda.
Although the number of owners of personal cars in the USSR in 1957 was still negligible, children were already taught the basics of motoring:
Children were also taught to defend their homeland. Kuibyshev Suvorov School. Excursion to a neighboring military unit, February 1957:
Soviet cinema of the 1950s is united by a common style: it is sweet, kind, moralizing, and very often in color! 1957 was no exception. In 1957, the film “The Street is Full of Surprises” was shot at the Lenfilm studio.
And at the Mosfilm film studio in 1957, director Eldar Ryazanov staged “The Girl with No Address”:
On the set of the feature film "Girl without an address, Moscow", 1957:
In 1957, the joint directorial work of Vladimir Naumov and Alexander Alov “Pavel Korchagin” was released, in which the main character was played by Vasily Lanovoy:
Even in the largest Soviet cities it was still possible to make films about pre-revolutionary Russia without scenery. Most of the streets seem to have been frozen in their form for 40 years. For example, in Kaluga in 1957 a film was made about the life of Tsiolkovsky:
A street in the city of Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod).
In 1957, many Soviet cities were photographed in color for the first time since the time of Prokudin-Gorsky. Here, for example, is one of the earliest Soviet color photographs of Uglich, A. Vorotynsky, RIA Novosti, 1957:
Cheboksary. Strawberry saleswoman.
February 25 – creation of the State Publishing House of Children's Literature of the Ukrainian SSR.
April 26 – in the city of Zhdanov, open-hearth furnace No. 12 was put into operation at the Azovstal metallurgical plant.
May 25-28 – 1st Republican Youth Festival in Kyiv.
August 16-23 – 4th Congress of the World Federation of Democratic Youth in Kyiv.
September 12 – in Moscow, a decision was made to publish the work “History of the Patriotic War of the Soviet Union 1941-1945.”
September 17-24 is the week of Belarusian literature in Ukraine.
November 6 – opening in Kyiv of the park-memorial of Eternal Glory to the soldiers of the Soviet Army.
November 11 – resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR on improving the work of cultural and educational institutions in the countryside.
December 26 – plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. The dismissal of Alexei Kirichenko and the election of Nikolai Podgorny as the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.
1957 – launch of the Lviv TV Plant.
1957-1961 - intensified anti-religious action in the USSR. In Ukraine, almost half of church and religious institutions were liquidated.
January 25 - information appeared in the press about the discovery by scientists of a new iron ore basin - the Krivoy Rog magnetic anomaly.
February 6 – creation of the Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine.
February 26 – decision on the reorganization of machine and tractor stations (MTS).
March – May – arts festival - “The First Ukrainian Theater Spring”.
May 17 – The Republican Exhibition Pavilion was opened in Kyiv.
May 28 – by resolution of the CPSU Central Committee, the tendentious accusations against the authors of Vano Muradeli’s operas “Big Friendship”, Ukrainian composers Konstantin Dankevich - “Bogdan Khmelnitsky” and German Zhukovsky - “From the Heart” - are withdrawn.
July 4 – in Kharkov in the park named after. The Lenin Komsomol opened the Green Theater.
November 5 – opening of the monument to the liberation of Kyiv from the Nazi invaders in the village. New Petrivtsy (now Vishgorod district, Kyiv region).
December – compulsory secondary polytechnic education in the USSR.
On January 16, 1957, Cuban rebels led by Fidel Castro attacked a government stronghold at the mouth of the La Plata River. This episode went down in history as the first battle of the Cuban Revolution.
On February 15, 1957, Andrei Gromyko was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR. He held this position until 1985.
On April 29, 1957, the film Height starring Nikolai Rybnikov and Inna Makarova was released on the screens of Soviet cinemas. The film featured the famous March of the Fitters: We are not stokers, not carpenters...
On June 29, 1957 in Moscow, at the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, V. Molotov, L. Kaganovich and G. Malenkov were called an anti-party group and deprived of their posts.
On July 28, 1957, the VI World Festival of Youth and Students opened in Moscow, which became one of the symbols of the Khrushchev Thaw.
On November 3, 1957, the USSR launched the Sputnik-2 spacecraft into low-Earth orbit. For the first time in history, a living creature went into space. It was the dog Laika. Unfortunately, her fate turned out to be tragic. A few hours after launch, she died from capsule overheating. Her memory was immortalized in a rather unusual way: cigarettes, which were very popular in the 1960s, were named in her honor.
Well, for example, this year Shepilov joined them (and he joined the anti-party group of Malenkov - Kaganovich - Molotov). This summer, for the first time, an international festival of youth and students was held in Moscow. For the first time, Soviet people saw living foreigners and they could even talk to them on the street (whoever knew how, of course) without fear of later being summoned to the KGB. Probably, if you type 1957 in Wikipedia, a lot of different facts around the world will come up.
On November 8, 1957, in the GDR (German Democratic Republic), in the city of Zwickau, serial production of small Trabant cars began at a local automobile plant.
The Trabant was conceived as a people's car. It cost a little more than a motorcycle with a sidecar. Therefore, he soon became very popular in socialist Germany.
It was affordable to a significant portion of the population. But another problem arose - the number of people wishing to purchase it significantly exceeded the capabilities of its production.
There was a queue to sign up for the Trabant, which could drag on for years.
Contrary to popular belief, the Trabant's body was not made of plastic, but of stamped steel. Only some hinged parts were made of plastic.
The Trabant (in various modifications) was produced until 1991. The weight of the car was 600-620 kg.
The name Trabant translates as Sputnik and was assigned to the car in honor of the flight of the first Soviet satellite.
Today the Trabant for many Germans is one of the nostalgic symbols of a bygone era.
I'll start with the major historical events that took place in USSR.
October 4, 1957- The world's first artificial Earth satellite was launched. The Russian word satellite immediately became international. In the same year, the first living creature was launched into space on Sputnik 2 - the dog Laika. The experiment did not involve returning to earth. It has been proven that a living creature is able to withstand overloads at launch and weightlessness. Testing of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons continues.
in 1957 in Moscow takes place VI World Festival of Youth and Students. It was then an event of unprecedented scale. Parents were asked to take their children out of Moscow. And young (and not only) people had the opportunity to participate in the festival events.
A top-class venue has appeared for the festival Festival, automobile GAZ-M-21 with a beautiful deer on the hood.
In 1957, the largest at that time in the USSR was opened hotel Ukraine.
The construction of Khrushchev-era buildings in New Chermushki has begun.
Celebrations were held in the USSR on the occasion 250th anniversary of Leningrad(later the year of the city’s founding was pushed back to 1703).
The country celebrates magnificently 40 years of the Great October Revolution.
The metro line in Moscow from Park Kultury has been extended to Sportivnaya (to the Great Sports Arena named after V.I. Lenin Luzhniki). The Moscow metro named after L.M. Kaganovich was renamed Moscow Metro named after V.I. Lenin.
For the first time in the USSR it takes place world championship(and at the same time Europe) ice hockey(in Moscow). Sweden became the champion, 1 point ahead of the USSR team. Countries: Canada, USA, Norway, Germany, Italy and Switzerland boycotted the championship in Moscow.
Becomes the USSR football champion in 1957 Moscow Dynamo.
Standard ones came out in the USSR Rules for driving on streets and roads.
The first nuclear power plant was launched in Leningrad icebreaker Lenin.
It was a year in the USSR Khrushchev Thaw, mass enthusiasm, carnivals, friendship between peoples.
Internationally, the counter-revolutionary rebellion in Hungary continues, in which the warring parties are the USSR and Western countries.
The Cuban Revolution continues. The rebels win victories in various cities against the forces of dictator Batista.
The fall of dictatorships in Colombia and Venezuela.
On October 4, 1957, the space age of mankind began. From the 5th Research Site of the USSR Ministry of Defense, which later received the name BAIKONUR Cosmodrome, the first artificial Earth satellite was launched by the R-7 launch vehicle.
The creation of the first spacecraft began at OKB-1 in November 1956. The satellite was developed as a very simple device, which is why it was named the PS-1 spacecraft (the simplest satellite). It was a ball with a diameter of 58 centimeters and a weight of 83.6 kilograms. PS-1 was equipped with four whip antennas to transmit signals from battery-powered transmitters.
A whole group of scientists and designers, led by the founder of practical cosmonautics, Sergei Korolev, worked on the creation of an artificial Earth satellite.
Exhibit of the Baikonur Cosmodrome History Museum
On October 4, 1957, at 22:28:34 Moscow time, the Sputnik (R-7) launch vehicle was successfully launched. 295 seconds after launch, the first satellite was launched into an elliptical orbit with an altitude of 947 km at apogee and 288 km at perigee. At 315 seconds after launch, the satellite separated, and it cast its vote. “Beep! Beep! – that’s exactly what his call sign sounded like. PS-1 became the first artificial object. The satellite flew for 92 days, made 1440 revolutions around the Earth (flying about 60 million km), and its battery-powered radio transmitters operated for two weeks after launch.
Newspaper "Pravda" dated October 5th and 6th, 1957 
In September 1967, the International Astronautical Federation proclaimed October 4 as the Day of the Beginning of the Human Space Age. Also, the date of the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite is considered the day of the Space Forces. It was the launch and control parts of spacecraft that carried out the launch and control of the flight of the first artificial Earth satellite. Subsequently, the first manned flight into space and many domestic and international space programs were carried out with the direct participation of military units launching and controlling spacecraft. In connection with the increasing role of space in matters of national security, an independent branch of the military was created by Decree of the President of Russia in 2001 - the Space Forces. Today the Space Forces are part of the Russian Aerospace Forces.