Space Exploration In The 1920's

Since the early beginnings of the new socialist government, the Soviet Union was supportive of their scientists and their work. The 1920’s was a time period in which the government gave much support to the development of the rocket. Moscow even hosted the first “interplanetary machines” exhibit which drew crowds from all of the world in 1927. Though some of the appeal was due to being the first, the Soviet Union understood the importance of space exploration and the militaristic potential of utilizing the upper atmosphere and outer space. The Soviet army also issued a report emphasizing the importance of advancing into space. Many of the reasons were because of numerous potential military uses. The Soviet space program in particular, researched …show more content…
The Soviet Union also voiced concerns of the potential threat from the United States from space. The mentality was to be the first one, thus resulting in the Space Race. Also written in the Soviet Military Strategy handbook, states that the government thought that it would be a mistake to have the imperialist (the United States) become superior to the the socialist (the Soviet Union) in the outer space field. They argue that the socialist countries main focus regarding the space field was using space and space vehicles primarily for defence while suggesting that the capitalist country will utilizes space for offense. It was also stated that it was essential for the Soviet Union and the socialist countries to pursue research in order to stand up the the imperialists. Also, because the Soviet Union was the only socialist state at the time, historian Brian Harvey argues that they were very aware of their actions. Their stance was that the early success of the Soviet Space Programme was due to their socialist state and society. They wanted to show the rest of the world that socialist backed research was more progressive and successful than ones backed by corrupt capitalism. This showed the propaganda motivations behind the Space Race and the space programs that utilized these reasons to gain access. The Soviet Union was primarily focused in trying to appear and maintain superiority after the …show more content…
The Soviet Government, much like any other country, understood the significance of propaganda to create nationalism and pride in their socialist state. Due to them being the only socialist state at the time period, their image was essential to the spread of socialism. As the Space Race went on, there could be opposition to the government funding of these programs as other domestic and foreign conflicts arise. Thus, creating positive sentiments for this field of research was crucial for public approval. However, the creation of cold war propaganda in order to gain public approval was only a short term matter. The long term and ultimate goal for the Soviet Government was to uncover the military potential of outer space. After they recognized the scope of outer space and the technologies such as satellite, communications, navigations, and offense that could come from expanding on that field, it is apparent that uncovering new innoventions was a top priority in the Space