The C.P.S.U. — the vanguard of the perestroika

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the ruling political party in the Soviet Union. It emerged in 1912 as the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party. C.P.S.U. started the October Revolution, which led to the establishment of a communist state in Russia. The party was dissolved in 1991, at the time of the break-up of the Soviet Union.

This poster was designed in the 80s. It welcomes the decisions made during the 27^th C.P.S.U. convention. The history of Russia was spinning rapidly at that time, probably being tired of 18 very quiet years of Brezhnev’s ruling called “Stagnation”. In 1982 the General Secretary of the Party - Leonid Brezhnev died at the age of 76. He was replaced by Yuri Andropov, who passed away only after 15 months of being the head of C.P.S.U. Then Konstantin Chernenko came to power, but also died soon – after 13 months. All those deaths were not deliberate. The government officials were just too old – Chernenko 73, Andropov 70.

In 1985 Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was elected – he was considered to be a «young» politician, being only 55. In 1986 the 27^th C.P.S.U. convention was opened. During this event Gorbachev announced several paramount decisions. One of them was that the Soviet economy was stalled and that reorganization was needed. This was called “perestroika” – “restructuring”, and was enthusiastically welcomed by the people. However the economical measures taken involved complete destruction of old economical relations, illegal privatizing of state property and waves of corruption and crime. It took more than 15 years for the country to cure itself.

We make friends, we create!
And we maintain peace in space!

On 12 April 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first man to travel to space and the first to orbit the Earth. This was a major breakthrough for the human kind and significant achievement for the Soviet Union, which managed to create such an advanced technological and industrial project in only 15 years after the devastating World War II.

In the seventies the Cold War was in full swing, with Soviet Union and United States of America investing numerous resources in their space programs. We all owe something to that confrontation, because fundamental research and experimental works of the decade finally resulted in development of civil microelectronics, supersonic avionics, polymeric chemistry and other scientific fields. Amazing, but even the Cold War has advantages…

This space race was not only about world prestige and scientific discoveries. Both Soviet and American military authorities were dreaming about space domination. Nuclear Deterrence Theory was preventing the strike and space could give key advantage over potential adversary. In 1983 Ronald Reagan proposed Strategic Defense Initiative project, which implied deployment of ground and space-based stations, with a purpose of protection in case of a nuclear missile attack. The project was soon nicknamed “Star Wars” because of its futuristic elements, including space lasers, rail guns and kinetic warheads – things technologically improbable even in the modern times. But SDI's main design flaw was its intricacy, which resulted in certain unreliability. Nevertheless the surveillance part of the project proved to be quite useful and despite the overall flop of the SDI, is now being implemented as a part of National Missile Defense Program.

By that time Soviet Union was developing its own space defense system, with more than 20 small space stations equipped with surveillance equipment and counter strike missiles. The information about is highly classified, reportedly this system is still operational.

The poster above proclaims the official Soviet attitude to SDI – Soviet Union stands for Peace and United States calls for war. The idea is being illustrated with Yuri Gagarin and white dove – an international peace symbol. Its wings are covered with flags of Eastern Block Countries - the allies of Soviet Union. These countries were either annexed after WWII or were supported economically in exchange for loyalty and adherence to communist ideology. Eastern Block collapsed in the nineties due to disintegration processes in the Soviet Union and its defeat in Cold War.

Let's build up! 1947
V.B. Koretskij

After the World War II the Soviet Union was celebrating the glorious victory over Nazi aggressors. Motherland was saved and the spirits were elevated. But the war wounds were hard to heal - the country was scathed, the factories, which were built during the industrialization of the 30s were partially destroyed. Those which remained, had been transported to the safe areas, and were very hard to get back to normal operation. Moreover all Soviet industries had been working for victory during the last 5 years and had to be set up to make civil goods and not tanks and munitions.
Soldiers were coming back home to find buildings demolished by bombs, houses burned down to ashes and roads with pavement torn apart by tank tracks. During the War 70 thousand of cities and towns were ruined across Soviet Union. And due to enormous causalities there were not enough strong men to recover. However Soviet people were facing the future with optimism - regular shortages (even famine in several parts of the country) and poor housing were still a lot better then muddy trenches and constant fear of death.

Let's build a zeppelin fleet for Lenin!

This poster was released in 1931 after the Airforce Ministry of Soviet Union (Osoaviahim) declared plans to build a fleet of 7+ huge zeppelins. This was inspired by 230m German LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin airship which landed in Moscow in 1930 after its long-range voyage around the world. Zeppelins were considered to be very advanced means of transportation, mainly because of its huge payload compared to small airplanes of the era. So a promotion compaign started: workers, factories, kolkhozy - all were to collect funds for the fleet. The fleet was to be named after Lenin (1870-1924), whose cult of personality was propagated at that time. Joint efforts paid off well - more than 25 mln of rubles were collected, resulting in building of several small experimental zeppelins and 4 big ones, which in 1932-1937 were transporting loads all over the country. However, rapid development of fast airplanes which proved to be an excellent weapon against sluggish zeppelins, condemned the project. The country was on the brink of war, Nazi Germany was declaring plans to invade Russia. The country needed more airplanes, battle tanks, war ships and cannonry. The Second World War was about to erupt.

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Beat the Whites with the red wedge, 1920

Beat the Whites with the red wedge, 1920
L.M. Lisitsky

Russian Civil War started in 1917 after the Bolsheviks seized power during the Russian October Revolution. At the moment Russian Empire was suffering internal contradictions and consequences of exhausting participation in World War 1. So when Russian Tzar Nicholas II was abducted the country split into two waging camps - Reds (Communists) and Whites (Monarchists). White was the color of the Russian Royal Family. The four-year war was bitter: it devastated the country economy and brought the young communist regime on the verge of destruction. Only fierce means like requisition of food from farmers and massive repressions allowed Bolsheviks to retain power.
Right after the Revolution Bolsheviks started altering all aspects of life - abolishing everything bourgeous and putting forward things for working class. One of the popular trends was Russian avant garde - a movement, which complemented well with the radical communist ideology.
The poster above is a masterpiece of the era. It was created by by El Lissitzky - one of the most notable artists, who took advantage of exploring the boundaries of art in that troubled time.

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Socially Dangerous, year unknown.
Alcohol addiction has always been a disaster in the Soviet Union. Tzar Petr the Great (1672-1725) who gave a powerful start to Russian trade and technological development also brought heavy drinking habits in culture. In the soviet period after the WW2 the overwhelming majority of Russians were socially protected with free education, medical services, fixed wages. But many of them could hardly self-actualize themselves due to total prohibition of private business. Alcohol became a joy and relief for many of them, resulting in low labor performance. So, various means of anti-alcohol propaganda came to life: theater plays, local organizations, posters. "Soberness" Magazine even published works by alcoholics, including "Moskva-Petushki" a poem by Venedikt Erofeev - unrecognized writer, who had great influence on the pre-perestroika society.

We strike the false shockworkers, 1931
Shockworkers are superproductive workers during the industrialization period of the Soviet Union History (1928-1932). Shockworkers were part of the Stakhanovite movement - an enthusiastic promotion campaign which was named after Aleksei Stakhanov, who had mined 102 tons of coal in less than 6 hours (reportedly, this was a PR-event). Nevertheless, the industrialization proved to be very successful, resulting in Russia becoming an industrial power.

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