Monday , November 16, 2009
Random Picture Entry: Belka and Strelka, the Ultimate Soviet Space Dogs
Hello! I mean, Zdravstvuj! Vilkommen to the second (and possibly final, but who knows? Russia is a mysterious land) installment of Soviet Appreciation Week. Today, we will be paying homage to the USSR's involvement in the Great Space Race of the mid-Twentieth Century, which was- of course- weird and rad. One would expect no less of Russia. This great nation chose to test out the feasability of human spaceflight on their Sputnik satellite missions with the always-appreciated inclusion of cute dogs; I would probably consider this tactic damned cruel if it wasn't so damned adorable (FYI, I just Googled "cute Russian" to find out how to say "cute" in Russkie, and was instead treated to 14,700,000 links abetting me in an unforeseen search for cute Russian mail-order brides).
Out of all the Space Dogs Russia sent into Space during Space Race-era Russia, Belka and Strelka are by far the most notorious and beloved. They were the first Space Dogs who survived an orbital interstellar flight (RIP Laika, who died of stress on Sputnik IV). Not to defame poor Laika, but clearly Belka and Strelka had the "Right Stuff"; these were two toughies of terriers, Soviet badasses entirely unphased and nonplussed by the potential perils of interstellar trekkery. Goooooood Belka and Strelka!
(By the by, Strelka is Russian for Little Arrow, which is TOO cute, and Belka is Russian for squirrel, which is even TOO cute-er.)
One last Belka and Strelka-related factlet: Strelka eventually went on to give birth to six puppies with another Russian Space Dog, named Pushok. One of the puppies, Pushinka, was given to President John F. Kennedy. Pushinka then had puppies with a Kennedy dog named Charlie; JFK jokingly referred to her litter as pupniks, which is the TOO cutest thing of all. Descendents of the Kennedy pupniks are still alive today; will somebody please buy me one?
Let us now examine the Goods:
FIGURE 1: Actual Belka & Strelka (I'm pretty sure Belka is the white one, but don't quote me on it)
FIGURES 2.1 AND 2.2: Postcards of Belka & Strelka, signed by a Mystery Soviet! Belka & Strelka's owner, mayhaps?
FIGURE 3.1 (left): My personal favourite Belka & Strelka postcard; FIGURE 3.2 (above right): Belka & Strelka hand cream?; FIGURE 3.3(bottom right): Bulgarian Belka & Strelka postage
FIGURE 4: By and large one of the weirdest things I've ever posted to nogoodforme.com- an advertisement for the upcoming Russian animated adventure Star Dogs: Belka and Strelka, due to hit theatres later this year!
Tags: Belka, Belka and Strelka, cute animals, cute dogs, dogs, JFK, pupniks, RIP Laika, Russia, Soviet Appreciation Week, Space Dogs, Space Race, Strelka
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Posted by Laura in Random Picture Entry |
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