Monday, October 8, 2007

Death to world imperialism

Death to world imperialism
D. Moor (Orlov), 1920

We must bear in mind that imperialism is a world system, the last stage of capitalism — and it must be defeated in a world confrontation. The strategic end of this struggle should be the destruction of imperialism. Our share, the responsibility of the exploited and underdeveloped of the world, is to eliminate the foundations of imperialism: our oppressed nations, from where they extract capital, raw materials, technicians, and cheap labor, and to which they export new capital — instruments of domination — arms and all kinds of articles, thus submerging us in an absolute dependence.

Che Guevara

Communism is the antonym of Capitalism and Imperialism is its worst implementation - that was one of the key Bolsheviks' ideas in the twenties. Basically Imperialism is the domination of people over other people. This domination may be economical or political; it may be territorial or national. Generally Lenin put forward several distinct features of that very Imperialism which was ruling the world in the beginning of 20th century. First of all the concentration of production and capital (which was necessary for industrial revolution) led to monopolization of economies: and this had nothing to do with free market, as always the most advanced and powerful multinational monopoly swept the board leaving nothing to the local manufacturers. And another thing was that now it was the financial capital and not industrial capital which was feeding these monopolies giving them enough power for rapid expansion and economical conquests. These two trends always provided plenty of opportunities to intensify the exploitation of workers, who were the second most powerful force in the country, Lenin’s support was based on. The main force was of course the peasants – they were promised property of land.

The poster personifies Imperialism as a giant serpent, which does not allow the workers to take control over production means – the factories and plants. In reality the nationalization was running wild starting from 1918, when “Nationalization” Decree was issued. All the major enterprises were already under direct control of Bolsheviks. The poster however relates not only to the internal affairs. One of the basic Lenin’s ideas was that the Socialist Revolution in Russia would spark the fire of worker’s revolutions in other countries, thus leading to the World of Communism without boundaries. So this poster gives the workers an idea that soon they would have to help their fellow comrades abroad.

Buy “Satan” posters at allposters.com:

9 comments:

Meghan McKee said...

wow, i just found your site and i love that you are displaying these posters. I was in Moscow a year ago and feel completely in love with them there. i wanted to collect them all. the line work of the drawing and symbolism is fantastic. I loved the sculptures over there as well. And there are still so many buildings with the wheat and sickle embedded in the architecture. So gorgeous. Thank you for sharing these.

Anonymous said...

I too just discovered your blog because of the "Blogs of Note" column. All I can say is fantastic! I love what you're doing here. The posters are amazing and your descriptions are well written. Please continue...

Lester Hunt said...

Ah yes. Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man. Communism is just the opposite. Beautiful poster! Tragic that so much talent was spent on such a horrible cause!

Fuzz said...

Another blog of note referee. Glad I found your site. I was a Russian major and lived in St. Petersburg for a bit just after the fall of USSR. These posters bring back a lot of memories. Are these all pictures from your own collection? Or are you featuring them from whereever you find them on the Net?

Feel free to check out my blog. Just notes on travels and life with a Brave New Word.

Dimitri said...

Thank you, Alexander! An amazing collection, and I hope it will keep growing for years :).

urawizardharry said...

I love this article. I'm preparing a speech for one of my classes about how U.S. foreign policy favors imperialism over peaceful diplomacy. I'd like to use that poster as a visual aid. Check out blog http://literarymeme.blogspot.com/

We just got it up and it only has a handful of posts but more coming!

Creative-Type Dad said...

That's one creepy serpent.

I came for the posters, but I'm really enjoying your descriptions. Very interesting!

Alexander Zakharov said...

Stagnant Artist

Yep, lot's of marks of the past are still present on the Moscow buildings. The majority of them is being carefully restored nowadays, but some are recked. For instance on one of metrostations there was a huge mosaic with Stalin - after the restoration it was gone. In no way i am a fan of Stalin, but the artwork looked stunning indeed. I wonder why don't people of Rome demolish the statue of Emperor Neron he was also quite evil ;)

Jeff Mattison

No, i don't collect these posters on paper. The Internet has lot's of sources like this famous flickr set http://www.google.ru/search?q=flickr+soviet+poster&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:ru:official&client=firefox-a

Sprauchle and Trauchle said...

Regarding the emperor Nero - his statues were destroyed by the Romans after he was dead -- the arms, legs, and head broken and marks of ranks removed. The ceremony was called damnatio personae and was used when a public official had harmed the public good. The archeological museum in Bologna has a good speciment of one of these statues of Nero. So, I guess Joe just got was was coming.