PrOP-M - Soviet Rover - 1971

USSR: The 1971 Mars 2 & Mars 3 Missions – Carried the 1st Soviet-Made “Mars Rovers” [PrOP-M]! (18.8.2026)

The USSR and Eastern Europe had been devastated by Hitler during WWII with the Soviets suffering 41 million (killed and wounded) casualties whilst large swathes of the Western USSR was materially devastated. Leningrad, of course, was reduced to starvation by the Nazi blockade (rather like what Trump II is attempting to do to Cuba). Despite suffering that material and psychological devastation – within a few short years of reconstruction directed by Joseph Stalin – the country was able to regroup and direct its resources toward space exploration, a process which sent shockwaves throughout the world of the US, a place which had suffered no material or economic damage during WWII. Make no mistake about, although Stalin passed away in 1953 – everything that unfolded in the USSR from a technological position – manifested from the groundwork laid by Stalin between 1945-1953. This dialectical preparation sustained the country for decades despites its leaders betraying Stalin and taking the country in a Counter-Revolutionary direction. Indeed, the Mars 2 and Mars 3 Soviet fact-finding missions to Mars in 1971 both carried a version of the world’s first “rover” designed to explore the area immediately surrounding the lander (or “Mars Station”). This “Device Assessing [through] Cross-Country Capability-Mars” [Прибор оценки проходимости-Марс – Pribor otsenki prokhodimosti-Mars] or “ПрОП-М” [PrOP-M] was attached to the lander via a 15 metre tethering cable (similar to the first-generation remote controls attached to TV sets and video recorders).

Descent module with aerodynamic screen

USSR: Mars Space Explorers – PROJECT M-73! (22.11.2025)

Marxist-Leninism uses dialectical materialism (logic and reason) to discern the truth of a matter. Recently, I was asked about the odd idea of the US and Soviets collaborating to land a joint Astronaut-Cosmonaut mission on Mars during 1973. This obviously fake story circles around the Western internet (like Haley’s Comet). The long and the short of it is that neither country possessed then – nor possess now – the technology to achieve this. Only China is edging ever-closer. Below, I translate a Russian language article explaining exactly what the USSR was able to produce in 1973. As impressive as it is, this technology is nowhere near the level required to land living beings a) on the surface of Mars, and b) successfully retrieve these beings and safely back to Earth. I am reliably informed that the US was in a similar position – with both sides investing heavily in unmanned probes. Ergo – “NO” – the US and USSR did not pool resources and land on Mars in 1973. Finally, Joseph Stalin beat the Nazi Germans in 1945 and laid the foundation for the success of the later Soviet Space Programme. Just 12-years after suffering 41 million casualties at the hands of the Nazis – the USSR re-built and took-on the greed and self-serving delusion of the capitalist West.