How was the Moon landing presented in the Eastern Bloc?

Thande

Donor
I don't know if any of our members from the former USSR and Eastern Bloc countries are old enough to remember this, but I thought I'd ask anyway: how did television and radio in the Communist states present the US moon landing?

Was it downplayed? Were there accusations that the Americans had used dirty tricks of some kind to get there first? Or did they present it as a 'human achievement' like I know Egyptian radio did?
 
I don't know if any of our members from the former USSR and Eastern Bloc countries are old enough to remember this, but I thought I'd ask anyway: how did television and radio in the Communist states present the US moon landing?

Was it downplayed? Were there accusations that the Americans had used dirty tricks of some kind to get there first? Or did they present it as a 'human achievement' like I know Egyptian radio did?

If I were in charge of the Soviet propaganda, I'd tend towards the "See how the Capitalist Plutocrats turn their imperialist tendencies to space! We must spread the Marxist-Leninist revolution to Mars to prevent the inhabitants becoming stooges and running-dogs!"
 
As far as I am aware it is immensely downplayed.

E.G I have had Yuri Gargarin's flight quoted to me as one of the great events of the 20th cenutry.
 
As far as I am aware it is immensely downplayed.

E.G I have had Yuri Gargarin's flight quoted to me as one of the great events of the 20th cenutry.

Which it was, him being the first man in space and all.

Ignoring the achievements of any nation because you don't agree with their politics seems a bit sad to me.
 
Originally posted by Wozza
As far as I am aware it is immensely downplayed.

It was downplayed, all right.The only country of Eastern Bloc in which tv broadcasted landing on the Moon live was Poland. AFAIK official commentary was that USSR also had considered landing there, but since Soviet automatic probes had gathered enough data and samples for scientific research, there was no sense to send people there; and that American landing was simply a stunt, without any bigger importance, and wasting of money.
Of course people in Poland (and other countries, I suppose) knew better. Communist simply tried to save USSR's face, that is all.
I must also add that the first time I heard about theory that landing on the Moon had been a hoax was in 1990s. Communists never questioned the landing itself.
 
Originally posted by Wozza


It was downplayed, all right.The only country of Eastern Bloc in which tv broadcasted landing on the Moon live was Poland. AFAIK official commentary was that USSR also had considered landing there, but since Soviet automatic probes had gathered enough data and samples for scientific research, there was no sense to send people there; and that American landing was simply a stunt, without any bigger importance, and wasting of money.
Of course people in Poland (and other countries, I suppose) knew better. Communist simply tried to save USSR's face, that is all.
I must also add that the first time I heard about theory that landing on the Moon had been a hoax was in 1990s. Communists never questioned the landing itself.

I think it was more propaganda than for research purposes, a triumph over the Soviets and a landing on the moon! I am surprised the Soviets did not count it off as fake...they would have been right for once.
 
I think it was more propaganda than for research purposes, a triumph over the Soviets and a landing on the moon! I am surprised the Soviets did not count it off as fake...they would have been right for once.

...Another No-moon-landing guy. Great. Where's that page I found debunking most of the theories when I need it?
 

MrP

Banned
...Another No-moon-landing guy. Great. Where's that page I found debunking most of the theories when I need it?

Quiet, you! We all know perfectly well you're working for the Royal Family - who are themselves secret space lizards! :mad:
 

Thande

Donor
Quiet, you! We all know perfectly well you're working for the Royal Family - who are themselves secret space lizards! :mad:

And the CIA and the FBI and the KGB and Prince Philip driving a white Fiat Uno, the fuggin' fuggers! :mad:

:D

Says it all really: the USSR, which presented all sorts of propaganda bunkum to its citizens as truth, considered the idea of claiming the moon landing was a hoax to be too stupid for even people under a state-controlled media to believe :D
 

MrP

Banned
And the CIA and the FBI and the KGB and Prince Philip driving a white Fiat Uno, the fuggin' fuggers! :mad:

:D

Says it all really: the USSR, which presented all sorts of propaganda bunkum to its citizens as truth, considered the idea of claiming the moon landing was a hoax to be too stupid for even people under a state-controlled media to believe :D

:D :D :D :D :D
 
Here's an answer.

I've just asked Mrs Vorkosigan, who was a young USSR citizen aged 11 in June 1969 and on holiday at the time in the Ukraine.

She tells me that everybody was interested and glad, and they watched it on big screens.

I've read that on a national/political level there was an unhappy feeling that the USA had got ahead- hence the Apollo-Soyuz mission a few years later was backed by the USSR because it wanted to show parity with the Americans. But it seems that on an personal level, people were well aware of it and happy.
 
Quiet, you! We all know perfectly well you're working for the Royal Family - who are themselves secret space lizards! :mad:

reminds me of a site i once found stating that the USA's biggest enemy was the british empire that was still at large secretly planning the downfall of the US...

and it also mentioned that churchill was a bigger menace than hitler :confused: for getting the US involved in WW2.....

it was very surreal, but you kept reading to see if there was any end to the madness
 
I can't remember exactly where I read it (probably James Hansen's First Man or Andy Chaiken's A Man On The Moon) that Pravda gave decent coverage of Apollo 11. It conceded that the first lunar landing was a great achievement, but downplayed the aspect of it being the ultimate goal of the space race and the importance it held as a symbol of human achievement.

It was more or less something like "Hey, the Americans landed a man on the Moon. Cool! Good for them! Now, in other news..."
 
In (neutral non aligned) Yugoslavia there was a color TV live broadcast with domestic aeronautics mechanical engineers giving coverage, special editions of newspapers... stuff like that. Though I have no knowledge of whether later lunar missions had such coverage. But coverage of Apollo 11 was comprehensive.
 
In (neutral non aligned) Yugoslavia there was a color TV live broadcast with domestic aeronautics mechanical engineers giving coverage, special editions of newspapers... stuff like that. Though I have no knowledge of whether later lunar missions had such coverage. But coverage of Apollo 11 was comprehensive.

Indeed, one of my parents' most vivid memories while children in Yugoslavia was watching the moon landing.
 
I guess there's no point to deny any more that my broken English and some knowledge of USSR has common cause of me being raised (very skeptical) Soviet citizen :) Although I have no personal recollection of the events, generally I remember that it was both downplayed (certainly, is it natural to trumpet achievements of your adversary?) and recognized as great technological achievment. Soviets both claimed (loudly) that their program of unmanned probes (culminated with Lunokhod program) yielded far more results per man-hour invested and admitted (in hush-hush tone) that moon landing is far greater propaganda achievement. I guess they were right on both counts.
 
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