Ordinary Life in the USSR 1961 focuses on women and children in a socialist society providing vivid documentation of the social safety network that existed in the Soviet Union. The book presents Harvey Richards' photography and the script of the films ?A Visit to the Soviet Union, Part 1: Women of Russia? and ?A Visit to the Soviet Union, Part 2: Far from Moscow? by Alice Richards to tell the story of our amazing journey to the USSR during the Cold War. The layout of the book follows the films as closely as possible adding many previously unpublished still images taken during the filming. The images in the book come from the photographs in the Harvey Richards Media Archive and from screen shots taken from the films. The resulting book reveals the achievements of the USSR in creating a social safety network. Alice Richards led our efforts in meeting and filming the women and children in a variety of settings including work places, maternity wards, schools, universities, homes and child care institutions, and even a fashion show. In 1961, in my first summer out of high school, I accompanied my father and step mother, Harvey and Alice Richards, on this photographic tour of the Soviet Union as an assistant. We spent most of our time in Moscow but also visited Sochi on the Black Sea coast, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and Irkutsk in Siberia. Our trip was arranged with the cooperation of the Soviet Women?s Committee as part of ongoing relationships that Harvey and Alice Richards developed hosting women from the USSR visiting the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1950?s and 1960?s. The Soviet Women?s Committee provided interpreters, transportation and arrangements for our itinerary.