The perfect citizen

Smoke cigarettes
I. Rosanov, S. Sakharov, 1950

Just smoke cigarettes. No brand advertized whatsoever. This was because in the Soviet times all the factories were controlled by the ministries, which were specifying the amount of goods to produce. So to meet the goals (fulfill the plan, sent down by the Party) the ministries were issuing orders to the factories and works to make quantities of, say, cigarettes for a certain amount of money. The factories were producing them, utilizing the suppliers (which were in tern coordinated by the same ministries) and paying with the money from ministries. The stores were to sell these goods at fixed prices. A planned economy that is. The only thing not set in the equation was the client. This year he needs more shoes, next time the interest is driven to hats. The planned economy is too sluggish to follow the trends, and moreover it cannot follow the demand, resulting in constant shortages.

This very poster advertises cigarettes as a product. The reason for this is that the majority of the Soviet citizens were smoking homegrown low-quality tobacco (makhorka). The ministry of Food Industry (GlavTabak) – mentioned in the right top corner of this poster, had set increase of cigarettes’ production as their goal in the Five Year Plan, so to increase the demand for the expensive smoking products (and cigarettes were high-priced compared to makhorka) this poster was published.

The man on the poster is a Russian version of a Marlboro Man. He symbolizes the best personal qualities needed after the war. This is a Soviet engineer or a scientist: young, educated and handsome as well – this is an advertizing poster after all. The country was deep in the Cold War and the only way to win it was to advance technically and industrially. For the next ten years this is the scientist who is the positive protagonist of the Soviet culture.

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Marching into eternity

To Defend USSR
V. Kulagina, 1930

This striking poster was created by Valentina Kulagina, who was one of the most expressive woman poster artists of the first half of the 20^th century. She was married to Gustav Klutsis (see his posters) - another representative of Vkhutemas-artist generation.

This very poster has a strong influence of suprematism, an art movement originated by Kazimir Malevich. The giant red figures of soviet soldiers in budenovkas (military cap) are marching with their shouldered rifles. The slogan is simple and motivating: “To Defend USSR”. The poster space is multidimensional, with three color areas contrasting. The distorted cubist perspective of the factories in the left bottom corner adds another dimension. The idea behind is that both factories and the Red Army add to the defense potential of the country. The workers are transforming into determined soldiers as they are marching away from their workplaces. And the white airplane silhouettes fly through as if there are no barriers for them whatsoever.

What a mind-blowing work of art it is.

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Homo Homini...

A man is a friend, comrade and brother to a man!
B. Soloviev, 1962

This cheerful poster goes back to 1961. During the XXII Convention of Communist Party of the Soviet Union the Moral Codex of Communist Builder was adopted. This was a significant event, as the previous XXI Convention declared that socialism had been finally built in the Soviet Union. Now the new program was approved, with the new main goal of building communism. The deadline was set at 1980, and there were numerous tasks to complete, including the material and technical bases required for becoming the world number one in production of goods and the quality of life of the citizens. The other features of communist society yet to be implemented were the communist self-government and the advanced personality of soviet communists. The qualities needed for the latter were specified in the 12 points of the “Moral Codex of Communist Builder”.

Some of the points say: “Adherence to communism, devotion to the socialists Motherland and the socialist countries” (1), “Constructive and productive work for the society: the one who does not work – does not eat (2), “Mutual respect in family life, care of children” (7), “Irreconcilability to unfairness, laziness, lies, careerism, money-grubbing”(10), “Intolerance to the enemies of communism, peace and people’s freedom” (11).

This poster illustrates the point six of the Codex, which says: “Humane relations and mutual respect among people: a man is a friend, comrade and brother to a man!”

In Russian “A man is a friend…” sounds really ironical, as it resembles the famous Latin proverb “Homo Homini Lupus Est”, written by Plautus, meaning “A man is a wolf to a man”. English philosopher Thomas Hobbes popularized it in his Leviathan, mentioning that before creation of government everybody was at war with everybody, hence “Homo Homini Lupus Est”.

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One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind

Glory to the explorers of space!
A. Leonov, A. Sokolov, 1971

This is a remarkable poster, a result of collaboration between an artist Andrey Sokolov and a Soviet cosmonaut Alexey Leonov, who did the painting for this poster.

In 1965 he and Pavel Belyaev were launched on board of Voskhod-2 spaceship. During the flight Leonov became the first person to walk in space. The whole event took 12 minutes of being in open space, and was followed by an accident as due to spacesuit inflation Leonov couldn’t get into the airlock. He managed to keep cool and opened a valve, which drained some of the pressure, allowing him to get inside. Another accident happened at the landing – an automatic space orientation system failed, so they had to get back on manual controls. The landing was safe enough, although the touchdown happened in a far and uninhabited place in taiga - 180 km north of Perm. Due to severe weather conditions the cosmonauts had to spend two days there before being rescued. After this flight Leonov and Belyaev received the highest Soviet award – Hero of the Soviet Union for their personal courage.

Later in 1975 Leonov became the commander of the first joint flight of the US and Soviet Space Programs – the Apollo-Soyuz test project.

The space ship on the painting looks like a Soyuz 7K-OK spaceship. It is flying towards the space station, orbiting the Earth. The painting depicts the romantic intention popular among the soviet people – that all the promising results and space records combined with the very advanced socialist system would very soon pave wave to space for everybody. Why wouldn’t there be apple trees on Mars by 2015?

The Anniversary post!

This is the hundredth soviet poster covered in the blog so far. A kind of a small anniversary, it is. Four and a half month ago on July 12 I published the first poster “We strike the false shockworkers”. Since then many things happened: A Soviet Poster a Day was featured in “Beyond the Beyond” blog by Bruce Sterling on Wired, “The Daily Dish” by Andrew Sullivan, BoingBoing, “Blogs of Note” here on Blogger. I gave interviews to Yahoo.picks and Le Monde – one of the biggest newspapers in France. The blog turned out to be the second most popular English-speaking blog in Top-100 blogs about Russia with a Technorati rating of 534 (so far). Hurray!

I would like to say thanks for coming to everybody, I really appreciate your interest in Soviet art, your valuable comments and support. Thanks again! And there are hundreds of beautiful Soviet posters yet to cover. So it’s going to be fun! ;)

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Work is the curse of the drinking classes

Let’s thrash it!
V. Deni, 1930

This is a beautiful anti-alcohol poster created by Victor Deni – who was one of the brightest soviet poster artists of the first half of the century.

The poster shows a Red Worker standing in front of steaming factory pipes. He is about to smash a big bottle of alcohol. The giant hammer has words “The Cultural Revolution” written on. Unlike the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the sixties, which was a political struggle, the Soviet Cultural Revolution implied elimination of illiteracy, foundation of educational system, changing of private and social life of the citizens, development of science, literature and art under the supervision of the Party. Of course alcohol was considered to be the enemy of these reforms.

Below there are verses by Demian Bedny, who was one of the most noted poets of the Soviet times:

You, there, don’t trifle with booze
D’rather thrash it
Culturally,
Roughly,

Powerfully, wrathfully,
Smash daily,
At your every step,
Give no rest to the enemy.

An impressive artwork, indeed.

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Leningrad is calling up

Leningrad is calling up
Unknown artist, 1930

The telegraph tape stuck to the poster says (note the absence of punctuation marks):

ATTENTION EVERYBODY
THE WORKERS OF LENINGRAD FACTORIES
FULFILL THE FIVE YEAR PLAN ON
MAIN PRODUCTS
IN THREE YEARS
PROLETARIAT OF THE UNION
FOLLOW THE CITY OF LENIN

The background of the poster is occupied by the silhouette of Lenin with his famous gesture, showing the way to the bright future. He stands behind a massive red factory building; its workers standing in front of it, with their hands rose as if they are openly voting for the message on the tape.

Saint Petersburg was capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years (1712-1728, 1732-1918). In 1914 it was named Petrograd, as Saint Petersburg sounded too German. In 1917 it became the heart of Bolshevik’s uprising during which the city workers assaulted the Winter Palace (the Tsars’ residence). The city's proximity to anti-Soviet armies forced Vladimir Lenin to move his government to Moscow on March 5, 1918. Three days after Lenin’s death Petrograd was renamed Leningrad and remained until 1991, when the original name was restored to kill its connotation with the Soviet times.

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There and back

To The West!
Ivanov V.S., 1943

Our strength consists in our speed and in our brutality. Genghis Khan led millions of women and children to slaughter—with premeditation and a happy heart. History sees in him solely the founder of a state. It’s a matter of indifference to me what a weak western European civilization will say about me. I have issued the command—and I’ll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad—that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formation in readiness—for the present only in the East—with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need. Who, after all, speaks to-day of the annihilation of the Armenians?

The “Armenian quote” from a speech by Adolf Hitler to Wehrmacht commanders at his Obersalzberg home on August 22, 1939, a week before the German invasion of Poland.

Drang Nach Osten (German “Drive towards the East”) is a conception of German expansion on the eastern lands. The idea goes back to the campaigns of Charles the Great. The term was widely used in 19th century by the German intellectuals. But only in the 20th century it matured in the works of Karl Ernst Haushofer – a German geopolitician, who laid grounds for the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany. Drang Nach Osten was an essential part of Lebensraum (or living space), needed for the growth of the German population, so that to create a Greater Germany. This living space should have been found in the East where the traditional inhabitants of Russia, Poland, Ukraine and other Slavic states had to be exterminated.

The poster shows a sign with Drang Nach Osten slogan, nailed to the tree by the Germans during their offensive. After fighting the Soviet territory back a Russian soldier knocks it down by the rifle butt. In the background Soviet fighters attack and artillery men fire field-guns. The Battle of Kursk (July 4 – July 20, 1943) heroically won by the Red Army led to massive counteroffensive. So the slogan on the poster forms exact antithesis to the Drang Nach Osten saying: “To The West!”

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