Road signs in the Soviet Union were regulated in the ГОСТ 10807-78 standard which was introduced on 1 January 1980.[1][2] This standard also specified the typeface used on road signs. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, this standard continued to apply in all countries that were formerly Soviet republics until some of them adopted their own national standards for road signs. The shapes and colors of road signs in the Soviet Union, and now in all post-Soviet states, fully comply with the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals, to which the Soviet Union was originally a signatory. On 8 November 1968, the Soviet Union signed the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals, and on 7 June 1974 ratified it with some declarations and reservations made upon ratification.[3][4]
Road signs in the Soviet Union were divided into 7 categories:
After 1991, the ГОСТ 10807-78 standard was replaced by the new ones, i.e., national standards for road signs in each of the post-Soviet states:
The ГОСТ 10807-78 Soviet standard is still valid in Azerbaijan[22][23] and Turkmenistan,[24] but with additions.
Below are images of road signs used in the Soviet Union before its dissolution in 1991. The galleries shown below do not show road signs that were included in the ГОСТ 10807-78 standard after 1991. The vast majority of road signs shown below are still used in post-Soviet states such as Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan but with some modifications in design.