USSR: The Country and Its People in Artistic Photographs

Exhibition curated by Nikolai Drachinsky

Between 1969 and 1976, Drachinsky directed and curated USSR: The Country and Its People in Artistic Photographs. Presented in the five largest cities of the United States (1970), the USSR (with landmark shows in Moscow, Leningrad and Kyiv in 1970–1971), and more than 120 countries worldwide, the exhibition gathered 2,000 photographs by 500 authors from across the Soviet Union. Beyond press photographers, it included works by artists, cinematographers, and amateurs — groups absent from official exhibitions since 1937. In scale and complexity, the project rivaled Edward Steichen’s iconic The Family of Man.