The Space Race of the 1950s and ‘60s was just as exciting for the Soviet Union as it was for Americans, and both nations encouraged that excitement in children to build their interest in science and technology for the future. io9 has a roundup of illustrations from Soviet magazine, comic books, and children’s books about future colonists living on the moon and even further out to the planets. The pictures have many elements in common, like the domed structures and the proud outstretched hand showing off the progress, but the styles are varied and beautiful. You have to wonder about the helicopters, though.
The illustration shown here is by Andrei Sokolov. Typical of the time, those visions of a future in space had absolutely too much wasted space. As any real astronaut or cosmonaut will tell you, they don't give you an inch more than absolutely necessary. -via Metafilter