Russian Cold War Phones

image credit

With their ridiculous complexity of wiring, encased in the solid steel or finished in the humble wood, proudly wearing old-style heavy duty dials, these 1930s-1960s retro phones amaze and intimidate at once.

One wants to speak heavy, meaningful, clandestine phrases and sinister government orders into their rust-tainted mouthpieces. We tend to think of direct presidential lines, nuclear launch buttons, secret army base installations when we look at this obsolete technology covered in layers of dust.