A presentation by Dan
Papperman

•Posters helped spread Lenin’s vision of total cultural and political transformation to the illiterate masses
•3,600 poster designs were created in roughly three years
•Images ranged from traditional to cartoons
•Major cartoonists:
•Alexander Apsit, Dimitri Moor and
Viktor Deni
•Era ended with defeat of the Whites

For the Red Army There are No Obstacles, 1918
The Ten Commandments of the Proletarian, 1919
Moor, Dimitri
Starvation is strangling Russia,
1922
Workers to Arms!
You are needed by the Red Army, 1920
Kochergin, Nikolai M.
Capitalism and
Company, 1920

• NEP allowed some private enterprise to return
• Small farms and businesses flourished
• State kept control of heavy industry, transport and foreign trade
• Mayakovsky and Rodchenko developed an ‘agitational’ style of advertising
– shrill slogans, aggressive compositions, strong diagonals and color
• State poster production headed by Yakov Ruklevsky
– Stenberg brothers, Georgii and Vladimir
– Nikolai Prusakov
– Losif Gerasimovich
– Mikhail Dlugach

Stenberg, Vladimir & Georgy
October: Ten Days that Shook the World, 1928
“From the
Russian NEP will be socialist
Russia”
-Lenin
Stenberg, Vladimir and Gyorgy
A Difficult Role, 1927

First Five Year Plan
• Stalin called for vast production increases and massive construction throughout the country
• creation of collectives where the peasants worked for the State
• Mobilization
• ‘realistic’ portrayals of Soviet life and Communist values.
• all forms of expression were mobilized to serve the state
• Gustav Klutsis
• praised collective farmers, Young Communists and women workers,
• demanded contributions for the air fleet or road construction
• stressed the goal of the Plan and a classless socialist society
Second Five Year Plan
• Made up for shortcomings in transport
• Stalin’s party purges
– Propaganda portrayed Stalin as greater than life

Soviet Airships accelerate the socialist advance, 1930
“Under Lenin’s banner, under
Stalin’s leadership, forward to the victory of communism!”
Mytnikov-Kovylin, A
14 Anniversary of the
Great October! Under
Lenin's banner towards new victories of socialism! , 1931
“Great Stalin – Banner of the friendship of the people of the
USSR!”

• The themes of Soviet propaganda shifted dramatically as the Nazi threat grew.
– Less against Capitalism, more against Nazis
• Stylistic shift toward realism
• Major Artists:
– Kukryniksky
– Irakly Toidze
– Viktor Koretsky
– Viktor Ivanov

“The enemy is insidious - be on the alert!”
Destroy fascists on land and on sea!, 1941
Builder! Your work shift is for peace! Build the homes of
Moscow quickly, soundly, and handsomely.,
1950
Moor, Dimitri
How have you
Helped the
Front?, 1941

• Return to Social Realism
• Stalin again focus of most posters
• Denunciation of religion
• Resumed attacks on Capitalism
• High Stalinist Period (1946 - 1953) revealed images of utopian harmony
• Protest became a common theme in later years

Happy Soviet Science Day, Comrades!, 1967
The whole world follows the path of
Lenin's thoughts, words and actions!,
1987
We're tied by friendship, motherland!, 1984
Don't wait for orders from above!, 1989