This was in the 80s, during the Cold War. As such, it's not really surprising that most people (especially Americans) have not heard about it. It is a Soviet accomplishment after all.
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Oh, please.
This was covered extensively in the New York Times, not to mention lots of science magazines.
Find the dozens of NYT articles here:
http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/#/venus+probe
It was so well known that the TV show "The Six Million Dollar Man" had a multi-episode plot arc on the topic.
http://bionic.wikia.com/wiki/Death_Probe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4st0a0gWp0
Being born in the very early 1970s isn't good for much, but reminiscing about 300 baud acoustically coupled modems, and talking about the Soviet space program are two exceptions. ;-)
Oh please, yourself. From the abstracts, several of those New York Times articles you linked to are actually about US probes. Those that report on Soviet activities appear to mostly be about the failed missions from the 1960s, as opposed to the 1975 and 1981 missions discussed by the OP.
there was also scientific cooperation (from wiki on Venus)
> A suite of instruments more sensitive than those on Mariner 2, in particular its radio occultation experiment, returned data on the composition, pressure and density of the Venusian atmosphere.[102] The joint Venera 4 – Mariner 5 data were analyzed by a combined Soviet-American science team in a series of colloquia over the following year,[103] in an early example of space cooperation.[104]
Yeah, but how much was the coverage compared to, say, the Lunar Landing? How many movies were made about it, books written about it, conspiracy theories created about it, etc.
One involved getting people on the Moon. That is a significant difference.
You can bet your skippy that if ever someone steps foot on Mars, there will be books, conspiracies, movies, etc.
There are conspiracy theories around the Venus landers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_13#Suggested_photographi...
Not much. And you're asking the wrong generation about the '69-'72 lunar landings.
Coverage was there, for those who were interested in finding it. The Soviets' failures were, of course, highlighted, but their accomplishments weren't downplayed, either.