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The USSR has a rather frightening history when it comes to photo manipulation. Over time they’ve decided to use their photo manipulation skills for good instead of, well, disappearing people.
In 1987 Glasnost and Perestroika were in full effect. So the tools that would have been used to remove an “enemy of the people” like Leon Trotsky were being used to restore photos. It’s a long tedious process that involves drum scanners and computers with reel-to-reel memory. Remember this video next time you’re complaining about how difficult it is to remove red eye.
This actually makes me think we haven’t come that far at all in terms of digital manipulation.
Most of the improvements here stem from the personal computer and digital cameras.
The resolution you’ll get from a drum scan of a negative will knock your socks off and that application seemed to be doing a respectable job given it was running on a pocket calculator.
I was very fortunate to visit Star City in 1996 whilst living and working Russia. I happened to see stuff like this then, although no one was using it. I saw the rooms and rooms of reel to reel computers. I was lucky enough to step inside the MIR training module, which was a full sized replica of the original. It’s hard to appreciate what kind of cramped conditions those guys lived in for months on end. The whole mission was controlled by computers from the 60′s and 70′s with about as much computing power as a Tamagotchi. It was frightening and awe inspiring. It was a testament to Soviet determination, a will to succeed. I would imagine that the process of image manipulation took weeks per image.
On the way into Star City, there were men and women cutting the grass lawns using scythes. It was eery and somewhat surreal, a bit like an empty English villiage from an episode of the 1960′s Avengers series.