Russia's flea markets and online auction sites teem with stolen detritus of the Soviet space pragram. Wired has a good article with interviews with the dealers and buyers. The look and feel of commie space junque is completely awesome: there's a Russian science fiction publisher that finances its trips to American conventions by selling off thousands of kitschy Soviet space pins and memorabilia, stuff with the design feel of a Gernsback-era flying wing or phallic rocket-bomb. I can totally see how the actual detritus from the actual program would pose a nearly inescapable lure to a certain species of craphound.
I'm talking to a vendor named Vladimir, who, to protect himself from the bitter cold, has put on a pair of orange space gloves, which he swears belonged to Gagarin, and a bubble-shaped space helmet. A $2,000 price tag hangs off his right pinkie, and a $1,000 marker dangles from the helmet. Eager to make a sale, Vladimir lifts the face shield, revealing a set of bulging eyes and a two-day beard. "So," he says, speaking English with a heavy Russian accent to a tourist snapping a photo, "you wanna be a spaceman?"
Vladimir's stall is among hundreds that line Izmailovo's muddy pathways like a set of crooked teeth. Vendors hawk everything from pirated DVDs to antique rifles, just like any weekend market in the US. But Izmailovo's proximity to the famed cosmonaut training ground Star City – 90 minutes away by pothole-riddled streets – makes this bazaar unique. There are dozens of vendors peddling the same kind of wares as Vladimir. With a hand-rolled cigarette dangling from his mouth, he shows off artifacts that would be right at home in a museum clearance sale – an $800 leather headset, a $1,000 heat-resistant jumper with a Russian flag on the sleeve, and his prize, a $40,000 space suit from a 1971 Soyuz spacecraft.
