Lessig (1995, pp. 964–965) writes:
Before the 1960s, motorcyclists in Soviet Russia did not wear helmets. In part this was because of a lack of any perceived need to wear helmets; in part it was because the Soviet economy failed to produce any helmets. Helmets were worn in Western Europe, however, and like most Western goods, by the late 1950s, helmets were slowly finding their way into Soviet Russia. Soon, some Russians began to wear motorcycle helmets produced in Western Europe. The primary design of these was French, and they were what we would now think of as half-helmets, primarily white.
When these helmets first began to appear, the Soviet government quickly reacted against them. For despite bearing the medical costs associated with cycling accidents, the Soviets perceived a much greater cost to the Soviet state associated with individuals wearing helmets, that is, the invasion of Western style. Because helmets were produced only in the West, wearing them was a political statement antithetical to the message the Soviet government wanted broadcast.
Thus began an extraordinary and self-conscious campaign by the Soviet government to vilify the wearers of motorcycle helmets. Cartoons appeared in the popular (read: government-controlled) press, mocking the "white heads" on cycles. By the early 1960s, people began wearing helmets only at night, to avoid easy detection.
The night-riding behavior suggests the campaign attacking helmet wearing as "imperialism" had some effect. For no laws were passed banning the wearing of helmets. The campaign, to the extent it had some effect on behavior, had its effect through stigma only. And to the extent behavior changed, this indicated that to some degree the Soviet government succeeded in stigmatizing those who wore white helmets.
Lessig cites no sources whatsoever for the above story. So I am looking for more credible sources/information as to whether there was ever any such anti-helmet campaign in the Soviet Union.
