Keep in revolutionary step!

Keep in revolutionary step!
V. Zhabsky, 1975

This is a poster from the seventies – and to my mind this is not the best graphical work of soviet poster heritage. But it is certainly worth mentioning because of its distinctive style.

The slogan says: “Keep in revolutionary step!” This is a quote from The Twelve (1918) poem by Alexander Blok (1880-1921) – one of the best poets of Russia, known by his outstanding talent and innovative poetic styles. The poem continues:

Keep in revolutionary step!
The restless enemy in on alert!
Comrade, hold the rifle tight, don’t fear!
Let’s send a bullet in the Saint Russia!
Moth-eaten, backward, fatassed!

The poem was one of the first poetic responses to the October Revolution of 1917. Here is an extract from Wikipedia: “The poem describes the march of twelve Bolshevik soldiers (likened to the Twelve Apostles) through the streets of revolutionary Petrograd, with a fierce winter blizzard raging around them. The mood of the Twelve as conveyed by the poem oscillates from base and even sadistic aggression towards everything perceived bourgeois and counter-revolutionary, to strict discipline and sense of "revolutionary duty" [] In the last stanza of the poem, most controversially, a figure of Christ is seen in the snowstorm, heading the march of the Twelve.

The Twelve, with its "mood-creating sounds, polyphonic rhythms, and harsh, slangy language" (as the Encyclopedia Britannica termed it), promptly alienated Blok from a mass of his admirers. Accusations ranged from appallingly bad taste to servility before the new Bolshevik authorities and betraying his former ideals. On the other hand, most Bolsheviks scorned Blok's mysticism and asceticism and especially the mention of Christ”.

Indeed the poem was a shock when published. Although it did depict the revolutionary mood of the 1917 perfectly well, the Bolsheviks forced the author to replace the word Christ with a similar sounding Russian “Sailor” – thus killing the undertones. Nevertheless many of the words from The Twelve became popular catchphrases – like the one on this poster.

Another reference to the poem is the mosaic on the poster which is inlayed with an image of a Russian sailor with a Kalashnikov in his hands. The background has three revolutionary symbols – the Red Star, Hammer and Sickle and cruiser Aurora, which gave signal to the successful assault on the Winter Palace (residence of the Russian tsars), which was to be the last episode of the October Revolution.

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Heavy washing

Go to banya after working hours
Unknown artist, 1932

Bid them wash their faces,
And keep their teeth clean.

William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Coriolanus

Russians always liked bathing in banyas, which is a traditional Russian steam bath. It is quite similar to Finnish sauna, but not as hot. Usually it has three rooms – a steam room, a washing room and a lounge. In the steam room people not only perspire heavily in hot temperature and high humidity, they also slap each other with tied branches of white birch, which massages the body, increases blood circulation and therefore is quite pleasing.

But banyas were not only about personal hygiene. The lounge place in banyas was usually a club, where men were chatting, drinking light beverages and resting - much like in the Roman Empire. In the Soviet times banyas remained but the quality of bathing services was significantly decreased – now they were mainly about washing oneself.

This poster is a social artwork, which popularizes personal hygiene among the workers. Many of them had arrived from the country and were not familiar with regular washing. Also, working in heavy industry was always a far more dirty occupation than farming.

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I broke the traffic code

I broke the traffic code
Unknown artist, 1939

The poster shows a man with an inscribed red Russian letter “Я”, meaning personal pronoun “I” in Russian. The man is on crutches as his leg is lacking. This is why the letter “Я” doesn’t have a lower stroke, symbolizing that the man’s body is incomplete as well as his “self”. Obviously this is due to a traffic accident caused by violation of the traffic code.

Actually the man should be happy because in this traffic accident no one was killed or seriously injured except for himself. The traffic code in Soviet times was always quite strict so in case of life losses the liability of the culprit was easily changed from administrative to criminal, with a high chance of imprisonment after investigation and trial.

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Better to feed one cat, than many mice

Bread for Motherland!
V. Kononov, 1978

In 1970 the new Five Year was being drafted in the same manner as the previous ones. But the worker’s riots at Gdansk Shipyard made the Soviet Government change its plans. The Prague Spring events and their dreadful political consequences when Soviet tanks suppress the anti-Soviet movements in Czechoslovakia were still fresh in the memory. To prevent the possible social distress Brezhnev decided to increase the production of consumer goods and foodstuff. Where to find the money to fund the undeveloped consumer goods industry and agriculture? The budget was dominated by huge military expenses, heavy industry investments and aid for the third world countries. These were the items no one dared cutting, although they were killing the economy.

So the export of raw materials like oil and diamonds was increased. The money was being spent on direct purchasing of grain and other products abroad, but not for development of domestic agriculture. The move may seem to be unreasonable, but it was not. Rather it has to be called short-sighted. The thing was that in the seventies return of investments in agriculture was negative due to the stagnated planning system. The diamond money would have sunk with no significant return.

So, the poster is ironic indeed: the artist was picturing a merry Soviet kolkhoznik, who was feeding the Motherland and got a sailor with a ship full of grain from the USA instead.

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Here’s our profit!

Here’s our profit!
V. Koretsky, 1965

By 1964 Khrushchev’s reforms in industry and agriculture were not quite successful. Growth was slowing down, erection of Berlin Wall and Cuban Missile Crisis damaged greatly the image of USSR in Europe and worsen the relations with USA. The political course which implied renewal of the party staff received hostile reception in the Communist Party, which was enjoying relative peace after death of Stalin in 1952.

So Khrushchev was dismissed and Leonid Brezhnev came to power. To cope with the problems the economic reforms were announced in 1965. They implied giving industrial enterprises more control over their own production and some flexibility over wages. The reforms were aimed at turning the enterprises' economic objectives toward making a profit, allowing them to forward some of the profits either to motivate personnel or self-financing. Prime Minister Alexsey Kosygin believed that these moves could lead to significant increase in production output and to fundamental changes in the country’s economy in future.

But the political system and the planned economy remained unchanged and the suggested measures were partly buried into bureaucracy or just not carried out all. And although the growth did happen, the country was advancing on the momentum of the past, using up the previously built resources.

The poster shows a hand with a Soviet Ruble – in the sixties this was a monetary unit of a significant value. The coin reflects block-of-flats with signs like “Kindergarten” being constructed, factories and electric lines being built and some machinery. The message is quite clear – now it is the economical effectiveness in a form of money, which is the main goal of work.
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Down with scamps, who harass women!

Down with scamps, who harass women!
K. Rotov, 1930

Dictatorships do cut down on rape, and pillage, not to mention sexual harassment, by the simple expedient of sending people to labor camps for life or cutting off their hands without a trial.
Barbara Amiel

In the thirties industrialization required lots of labor force. Women were working with men side by side at heavy industry factories and works, where they could rarely be seen before the Revolution. There morals and manners were rough, so harassment of women at work became frequent.

The verse for this poster was written by Vladimir Mayakovsky:

Down with scamps, who harass women!
We will tighten up these studs with discipline!

This poster shows a bunch of hooligans who attacks a communist woman. She is pictured red (signifying here positiveness) as well as the giant hand, which protects her by squeezing the attackers in giant tongs of discipline. This is an illustration that it was the hard work that was not only building industry in the country, but also making people equal.

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Can't reach Germany? Yeah, right.

Long live the mighty aviation of the socialism country!
V. Dobrovolsky, 1939

No enemy bomber can reach the Ruhr. If one reaches the Ruhr, my name is not Goering. You may call me Meyer.

Hermann Goering addressing the Luftwaffe (September 1939) as quoted in August 1939: The Last Days of Peace (1979) by Nicholas Fleming, p. 171; "Meyer" (or "Meier") is a common name in Germany. This statement would come back to haunt him as Allied bombers devastated Germany; many ordinary Germans, especially in Berlin, took to calling him "Meier". It is said that he once himself introduced himself as "Meier" when taking refuge in an air-raid shelter in Berlin.

Another cool aviation poster of the thirties. Here we can see the parade on the Red Square in the center of Moscow. The name “Red Square” has nothing to do with communism symbols, as in the Old Russian “red” meant “beautiful”. To the left there is a Kremlin Wall, to the right there is GUM (State Universal Store - see a GUM-poster here). The big red building with small towers in front is the State Historical Museum – one of the most beautiful and interesting museums of Russia. Before the Revolution the right gate to the Red Square was occupied by Iberian Gate and Chapel but in 1931 it was demolished in order to make room for heavy military vehicles driving through Red Square during military parades. Both the Iberian Gate and Chapel were completely rebuilt in 1996. See the Red Square and its surroundings on the interactive Wikimapia here).

Down on the Red Square there are hordes of marchers carrying red flags and communist slogans. In the center there is a large portrait of Joseph Stalin. And above there fly the pride and joy of Soviet Aviation – the red Polikarpov I-16 monoplane single engine fighter (also seen on this poster) and the dark-green Ilyushin DB-3 bomber.

DB-3 was a twin-engine low wing monoplane, which first flew in 1935. With 400 km/h maximum speed and 3500 km flying range it became one of the most successful flying machines of the Soviet Union. And it was its later deep modification Il-4, which in 1941 started first bombings of Berlin.

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