Soviet Life Magazine

What the heck is this?

It is the February 1984 issue of Soviet Life magazine, an English language magazine for the North American audience. This issue has Wayne Gretzky, Vladislav Tretiak and their fine feathered friend on the cover. 

I turned to the Facebook group "Hockey Books" for more information. List member Andrew Braverman knew all about it the periodical.

Braverman said: "In October 1956, the Soviet and US Governments agreed to allow each other to publish a magazine in their own nation, but limited circulation to 30,000 copies per issue. The Soviet Government published a magazine entitled The USSR, while the US Government published Amerika. A few years later The USSR changed its title to Soviet Life.

Soviet Life was generally not a political magazine, in the sense that it rarely delved into the political issues of the day, nor did it talk about political theory, etc. Instead it focused on Soviet culture (including national minorities), science, education and health care. The last issue of Soviet Life was published on December, 1991."