Soviet Radio Tuner

These images were created based on an old radio I had in my apartment in Moscow. The dial includes a variety of different shortwave signals, broken down by city – I like this feature because it reflects the world of the Soviet Bloc. It's not a map per se, but it does illustrate a particular geography, a geographic hierarchy of places of the Socialist world. I don't think many radios manufactured in the West would include stations based in Simferopol, Kharkov or Baku. Unfortunately, I don't know the model or vintage of the radio, and I never got to work, but the dial was just fascinating. Radio was an important part of life in the Soviet Union. It was indispensable to the state in its various campaigns of education, indoctrination, and national unification; as a result, nearly every apartment, hotel room and train compartment had one hard-wired into the wall. While this hi-fi system offered radio from across Eastern Europe, some of the built-in home models were just a speaker with volume control – no dial, as they only received one station, and no on/off switch, so you could never escape the faint hum of Kremlin propagandists when the volume was turned all the way down.

To the right you can download this image as wallpaper for your computer (I've only made it in 1280x800 resolution so far, and I darkened it to make it easier to see your desktop icons) or for your mobile phone (320x480).

Click images to enlarge.

Original image.

1280x800 desktop wallpaper.

320x480 mobile phone wallpaper.