In the USSR photography is still in the hands of a few.

Koltsov launched Sovetskoe Foto as a forum for photojournalists across the country, Soviet in ethos, and distinct from Pictorialist art photography.

It suspended publication between 19 because of the Second World War and the resultant postwar economic situation. It appeared only once in two months in 1934. In 1931 it was acquired by the Ogonek publishing company and briefly renamed Proletarskoe foto (Proletariat photography). It was published monthly with exceptions being double issues in some years and during 19, when it was published twice a month. Sovetskoe Foto's editorials, letters, articles, advertisements for photographic chemicals and equipment, technical instruction and photoessays catered to a broad audience from professional photojournalists to amateur photographers, 'worker–photographers' and the camera clubs established post-WWII at almost every industrial plant and Palace of Culture throughout Soviet Union, and promoted the 'worker photographer' and the official photographic culture of the USSR, though it also carried examples of state-sanctioned international photography. Founded by the writer and editor Mikhail Kotsov in April 1926, it was published in Moscow, Russia, from 1926 to 1991.

Sovetskoe Foto (Russian: Советское фото, English: 'Soviet Photography') was the sole specialist photography magazine in the Soviet Union. Cover of Sovetskoe Foto No.10, October 1927 featuring Aleksandr Rodchenko's portrait Mat’ ('Mother'), of 1924.

Foto in english