In the final years of the Space Age (1957-1975), children in both the Soviet Union and Uruguay shared a beloved toy: the Zagorsk Cosmonaut.
In 1959, two years after the Soviets launched Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, Emma Fyodorovna Fadeeva created a 34-centimeter-tall cosmonaut figure made of polyethylene. This work was developed for the Toy Research Institute in Zagorsk, a city located northeast of Moscow, which has been known as Sergiyev Posad since 1991.
In the late 1950s, there were no suitable suits for “space travelers,” so it’s possible that Emma drew inspiration from the suits worn by deep sea divers and the astronauts depicted in science fiction publications. Despite the toy’s relevance and timely nature, the directors of the Institute did not approve it, presumably deciding to wait until the first successful human flight into space. This moment could have been marked by either a Soviet cosmonaut or an American astronaut, given the intense competition between the two countries in the Space Race.
The situation changed with the historic flight of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first person to travel into outer space and complete an orbit of the Earth, on April 12, 1961. Following this achievement, the Artistic Toy (Художественная Игрушка) factory in Moscow quickly produced one million copies of this cosmonaut, featuring the traditional orange color and the initials USSR (СССР) and the red star emblazoned on the front of the helmet.
A Soviet cosmonaut became an American astronaut
By 1970, except for Chile, most South American countries–including Uruguay–were aligned with U.S. foreign policy. Consequently, the Plastecnia / ECO Toys firm in Montevideo replicated the Zagorsk Cosmonaut. This time, they used the colors of the American flag instead of the traditional orange of Soviet space suits.
A 15-centimeter-tall version of the toy was included in a set called “The Heroes of Space,” now known as Astronauts, which featured figures of the three members of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission: Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins (see cover photo). These same figures were also part of a toy inspired by the Apollo command and service module, allowing children to simulate a spacewalk around the ship as it rolled along the floor.
This unique syncretism of NASA toy ships and Soviet toy cosmonauts during the Cold War represented an unprecedented cultural crossover in a small country in South America.
Diego M. Lascano was born in Córdoba, Argentina in 1962 and is a specialist in military history, conflict archaeology, and the history of the toy industry in South America. He is an audiovisual producer, researcher, publisher, and writer who has authored numerous books and articles in Argentina, Chile, France, and Uruguay. Additionally, he serves as an advisor to the Chilean Toy Museum-UC in Santiago and The Toymaker Museum in Montevideo. He currently resides in Uruguay.
