By Miles Clements

By my hazy calculations, I’m somewhere between one-third and one-half Russian—a fact that helps me explain why I tend to prefer pirogies to potstickers and why my vodka usually goes down smoothly. And as such, I understand that there are a lot of reasons why Soviet iconography came into fashion (things become cool when they turn out to be colossal failures) and a lot of reasons why it quickly fell out of style (stores like Target and Urban Outfitters jumped on the trend). But the Russian Scorpion is beyond all that. The attack submarine’s gift shop is playfully kitschy: flasks emblazoned with Soviet stars, furry naval hats, flags, t-shirts. What caught my eye, though, was the rack of mini-propaganda posters, little laminated bits of agit-prop, some famously iconic, some not. There’s a lot of art deco and mid-century styling, but the best are the most provocative: peasants wrapped in bandoleers, Russian soldiers kissing their mustached countrymen. Makes it seem like the Soviets had a sexual revolution, too. $1.95 each.

AVAILABLE AT RUSSIAN SCORPION 1126 Queens Hwy, Long Beach 90802. 562.432.0424.