People take pictures near a Soviet flag flying on an embankment in Saint Petersburg, Russia on June 17, 2023. The flags of Russia, the USSR, and the Russian Empire were installed on the shore to mark the anniversaries of each flag's adoption. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)

A Ukrainian serviceman of the 65th mechanized brigade smoke on position of a Soviet-made 2s1 Gvozdyka 120mm howitzer in the Zaporizhia region, Ukraine, 15 November 2023, amid the Russian invasion. Russian troops entered Ukrainian territory in February 2022, starting a conflict that has provoked destruction and a humanitarian crisis. (Photo by Kateryna Klochko/EPA)

Two dogs sent into outer space by the Soviet Union after their safe return to earth. They spent 22 days in orbit. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images). 22nd March 1966

A group of women wearing dresses representing flags of the Allied powers (left to right: the USA, France, Britain and the Soviet Union) outside the Eglise de la Madeleine on VE Day in Paris, 8th May 1945. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Soviet cosmonaut and the first man to travel in space, Yury Alekseyvich Gagarin (1934–1968) arriving in London for a Russian trade fair. (Photo by Douglas Miller/Getty Images)

People wearing fancy costumes walk near a skating rink past signs requesting to use protective face masks and to keep a social distance amid the coronavirus disease (COVID 19) outbreak, as heavy fog covers a square named after Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin in Stavropol, Russia on December 1, 2020. (Photo by Eduard Korniyenko/Reuters)

“Michael Mathias Prechtl (April 26, 1926, Amberg – March 19, 2003, Nuremberg) was a German artist, illustrator and cartoonist. He served as a soldier on the Eastern Front during World War II and spent 1945-49 as a prisoner of war in the Soviet Union”. – Wikipedia

Photo: “Der Gestiefelte Kater (Puss in Boots)”, 1997. Artwork by Michael Mathias Prechtl

Girls in red neckerchiefs dance on Red Square, with the GUM, the State Department Store and the Historical Museum in the background, during a ceremony to celebrate joining the Pioneers organization and 100th anniversary of the All-Union Pioneer Organization, in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, May 22, 2022. Pro-Communist Russians are trying to preserve the Young Pioneers, which used to be the Communist league for pre-teens in the Soviet Union. (Photo by AP Photo/Stringer)