Road signs in the Soviet Union



Road signs in the Soviet Union were regulated in the ГОСТ 10807-78 standard which was introduced on 1 January 1980. 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.

Road signs in the Soviet Union were divided into 7 categories:
 * 1) Warning signs (Предупреждающие знаки)
 * 2) Priority signs (Знаки приоритета)
 * 3) Prohibitory signs (Запрещающие знаки)
 * 4) Mandatory signs (Предписывающие знаки)
 * 5) Information signs (Информационно-указательные знаки)
 * 6) Service signs (Знаки сервиса)
 * 7) Additional signs (Знаки дополнительной информации (таблички))

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.

Post-Soviet states
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:
 * In Russia, it was replaced by the ГОСТ Р 52290-2004 standard on January 1, 2006. The same standard applies to road signs used in Kyrgyzstan since October 2019  and Armenia  (with inscriptions in Armenian and English);
 * In Ukraine, it was replaced by the ДСТУ 2586-94 standard in 1994, later ДСТУ 4100-2002 on January 1, 2003, ДСТУ 4100-2014 on July 1, 2015, ДСТУ 4100:2021 on November 1, 2021;
 * In Belarus, it was replaced by the СТБ 1140-99 on October 1, 2001, later СТБ 1140-2013 on July 1, 2014;
 * In Kazakhstan, it was replaced by the СТ РК 1125-2002 standard on January 1, 2004, later СТ РК 1125-2021 on July 1, 2022;
 * In Uzbekistan, it was replaced by the O'zDST 3283:2017 standard on December 15, 2017.

The ГОСТ 10807-78 Soviet standard is still valid in Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, but with additions.