‘You’re probably doing business with aliens now’: 50yo communist time capsule opened in Siberia

The retro-futuristic time capsule was placed in the city’s culture center 50 years ago to be opened in 2017 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Inside was a three-page letter outlining a vision of the future as seen by the Soviet people in 1967.

What a bitter disappointment would have awaited the authors, had they lived to this day.

“We believe that you have masterfully outfitted our wonderful blue planet, the Earth, explored the Moon and landed on Mars, that you are continuing the exploration of space started by the people of the first half of the century and that your starships have been long prowling the Galaxy,” the message reads. That sets quite a few daunting tasks for us people of the future – and we’ve missed all the deadlines.

Humans have only been to the moon once, and while Mars may be the matter of a decade if SpaceX is to be believed, establishing business with alien civilizations could prove a chore, given that we haven’t met any so far.

Again, sorry to the people of 1967, who wrote:

“We believe you are negotiating cultural and scientific cooperation with representatives of other, extraterrestrial civilizations,” the letter reads.

Hardly could the authors imagine that their addressees would not only fail to make enough breakthroughs in space exploration, but also witnesses the collapse of communist rule.

“We know, our time is interesting, but yours is more interesting. We have built communism, and you are living under communism,” they wrote optimistically.

At the ceremonial opening of the capsule, a minute of silence was held to honor the letter’s authors, none of which have lived to this day to see their communist dreams shattered.

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Novosibirsk, with over 1.5 million residents, is the third most populous Russian city after Moscow and St. Petersburg.