History wears a gas mask

One of the first gas masks (Zelinsky model) from 1913:



Panzer driver protective mask, 1917:



Red Army Chemical Weapons Protective Suit, 1930:



Gas masks apparently refuse to protect capitalists:



This could easily be a shot from apocalyptic movie (the sign says "contaminated") -



The evolution of female beauty:



You don't want even to touch these rats:



Early gas masks for horses:





Pretending to be a mushroom does not help, but wearing this full-body suit (Red Army, 1940) certainly does:





More historic examples: vintage photography of people in masks, each impersonal face asking a silent question: "Why?" and "How long will this go on?"


(image credit: gasmasks.net)















Nurses wearing masks, 1942:


(image credit: Miss Magnolia)

This mysterious banquet occurs under very portentious slogan:
"Why wait until 1955? We might not even be alive!"



Considering this poster of atomic weather and back-then political situation, they could have been right:



And looking at the next posters, I'd say these soldiers should don their masks, and quickly:



This picture supposed to show the actual nuclear detonation as part of Soviet war games in the 50s in Semipalatinsk:
(many soldiers perished as a result) -



This is THE first Soviet atomic bomb: RDS-1 from 1949:



Later model bomb (smaller and more lethal, of course):



Some of the Soviet machinery of that period looked positively weird: this one TM-59 was supposed to clean up airstrips after contamination:



These girls are not in the masks yet, but soon will be:







Closer to our times:








"Pop!" goes the pop art

Modern pop art makes a good use of gas masks, making them a symbol of... well, holistic wickedness? wicked innocence? Who knows:


(vector art by se7en)

Gas masks end up on customized bikes:


(image credit: Ben Ransom)

... in the bathroom:



... all over the street:





or at "Burning Man" avant-garde art competitions:



And we'll close with the most emphatic image of all:
(nuclear fallout shelter? I only hope this is just a piece of art)


(original unknown)

Sources: Gas Masks in Action, Gas Masks Politics