[FPSPACE] interesting Soviet space paintings by Leonov and Sokolov

[Chris Jones]

http://englishrussia.com/?p=1501 has a gallery of 38 paintings of Soviet era
space accomplishments (imagined in the case of a manned mission to Mars).  I
find them very interesting, they cover Sputnik 1, the Luna "firsts", Vostok,
Voskhod 2 (a self portrait of Leonov's EVA, I think) the afore-mentioned
fictional mission to Mars, and Veneras landing on Venus.  The comments section
afterwards is noteworthy for its misinterpretations (a Vostok reentry is
described as showing blood on the window, Luna 9's airbag bursting is
described as a Venus fly trap on the moon, a Venera descending under parachute
toward Venus is called an atomic bo[m]b over New York city).

I found the Luna 9 painting I mentioned particularly interesting.  I don't
recall hearing anything about Luna 9 having an airbag until after the NASA
Mars landers used the technique, so I'd love to know the date the painting
was done.  I also don't recall any of the Luna 9 pictures showing any remnants
of this on the surface, which is curious (there are pictures of jettisoned
Venera hardware on Venus, as an aside).  The painting appears to show a cable
running from the bursting airbag back toward (to?) the still firing descent
stage as the folded up ball of the lander emerges from the "venting" air
bag.  I realize I am possibly reading too much into what may or may not be
a semi-fictionalized painting, but this would seem to indicate that the air
bag wasn't for the landing, but to protect the lander from the vacuum of
space (why?  it had to be able to survive a vacuum to function) until it
arrived at the moon.  That would also account for not seeing it at the landing
site, since it would presumably have gone down with the descent stage at
some distance from the lander.  Anyway, this one picture has got me very
curious about this feature of the Luna rough landers (Lunas 9 and 13 being the
successful examples).  Can anyone provide more information, or a pointer to
same?