Skip to main content
NEU Senior Regional Support Officer
Space Dogs: The Story of the Celebrated Canine Cosmonauts
Fascinating account of the Soviet dogs who conquered space
A 1960’s wood-mounted clock/barometer, a desk calendar from 1957 with rotary dial for changing the days and months, and commemoratory plate

UNLIKE the US space-flight pioneers — monkeys who couldn’t handle the pressure and were nervous wrecks on their return — Soviet scientists found that Moscow’s stray dogs were far more amenable and relaxed about the whole extra-planetary  experience.

Street-wise ruffians, they displayed intelligence, enterprise and solidarity. Each candidate was observed for weeks before snatch squads stepped in and scooped them up and then they were put through rigorous training.

Hand-painted Gzhel porcelain figurines of Belka and Strelka wearing cosmonaut suits and breathing apparatus
Set of five handmade and handpainted wooden nesting Matryoshka dolls. The largest is 15cm (6in) high.
The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
The crowd at Manchester Punk Festival 2024
Culture / 11 April 2025
11 April 2025
Ben Cowles speaks with IAN ‘TREE’ ROBINSON and ANDY DAVIES, two of the string pullers behind the Manchester Punk Festival, ahead of its 10th year show later this month
Free supplement / 8 March 2025
8 March 2025
Read Sisters, the journal of the National Assembly Of Women, below.
Anselm Kiefer, Wer jetzt kein Haus hat (Whoever has no House
Exhibition Review / 14 February 2025
14 February 2025
JAN WOOLF wallows in the historical mulch of post WW2 West Germany, and the resistant, challenging sense made of it by Anselm Kiefer
GUILTY PARTIES: Rembrandt Van Rijn (1606-1669), Syndics of t
Book Review / 4 February 2025
4 February 2025
CAROLINE FOWLER explains how the slave trade helped establish the ‘golden age’ of Dutch painting and where to find its hidden traces