(CNN)She couldn't read and she couldn't write. She was remarkably bad at public speaking. Yet mention the name "Laika" to any Russian of a certain age, and their eyes will light up with patriotic fervor. Laika was, of course, a dog. Or to be precise, the first dog to be sent into orbit. "There was this whole propaganda industry built around Laika and her canine comrades," says Damon Murray, editor of the new book Soviet Space Dogs. "Pictures of the dogs appeared on children's books, posters, toys, stamps, matchboxes, postcards, all over. It was a real cult thing." Dogs or monkeys?
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A new book provides an insight into the bizarre world of Soviet space dogs
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The first living creature to be sent into orbit was Laika, a stray dog from Moscow
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The Russian dogs became propaganda icons, portrayed as sacrificing themselves for the good of the USSR
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The Soviets switched to monkeys in the Eighties, but it is the iconography of the dogs that is the most enduring
Murray's book draws together a collection of ephemera from the period, providing a window into the eccentric world of pop art from the @placeholder.