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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A bigger pack

Smoke cigarettes “The Pack”
M. Bulanov, 1927

A tobacco advertizing poster from the NEP era. The slogan says:

Smoke cigarettes “The Pack”
[Available] Nowhere but in Mosselprom

The poster advertizes cigarettes named as simple as “The Pack”. The poster shows “The Pack” stationed on a gun carriage, forming a cannon with multiple barrels – the cigarettes themselves. This goes back to the popular vanity show of the times – a human cannon ball. The cannon has just fired a shot, and there is a smiling man riding a flying “papirosa” (a cigarette without a filter). He is dressed in a typical store clerk clothes – “kosovorotka” or Russian shirt, “kartuz” or peaked cap and jack boots. The store clerks responsible for the wholesale purchase were the target audience, as there was a Mosselprom building pictured in the background there. The poster was bright and energetic enough to attract attention to the cigarettes with such an ordinary name – “The Pack”.

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From Russia with Love

Intourist. Transsiberian express
M. Litvak, 1930

Here is a great example of the advertising posters of the thirties. This one is aimed at foreign audience as it is promoting the Transsiberian Express journey.

The poster shows a curved surface of the Earth with symbols of Moscow and Beijing shown: to the left there are Kremlin towers and a dome of Saint Basil's Cathedral. Moscow is the starting point of the Transsiberian Railway. Its four routes nowadays lead to Vladivostok – the largest of the Eastern Russian Cities (6430 km from Moscow), to North Korea, Mongolia and China arriving at Beijing. On the poster this is signified by the Chinese pagoda and Shinto shrine gate – torii, meaning that this is also an easy way to get to Japan.

The poster is very dynamic – the train is moving fast through the red star gate, gate to the communist Russia. The header sais: “Transsiberian Express! The shortest way from Europe to the Far East”. The footer goes: “Intourist. Moscow. Hotel Metropol. The tickets in all major travelling agencies of the West”. Intourist was the official state travel agency of Soviet Union, founded in 1929, after the Soviet Union had been recognized by the majority of the Western States.

The cars have signs, which prove the high class of the long journey – the train has sleeping cars and dining cars as well. Below the train there are the names of the cities like Berlin, Moscow and finally Beijing. The Earth also has the price tag displayed. The first class 12 day journey costs 250 USD – which was quite a reasonable price bearing in mind the Great Depression of 1929.

But why German is the language of the poster? The thing was that according to the Treaty of Versailles Germany’s rights had been significantly derogated, especially in terms of weapons development and manufacturing. So Germany was looking for partners who could help it restore its military potential after the loss of WW1. In contravention to the Treaty Junkers (a German aircraft builder) was assembling its plains near Moscow and Krupp was building artillery works in the Central Asia. By 1929 Soviet Union had agreements with 27 German companies.

And in return the young Soviet Union, who was in bad need for modern technologies on its way to becoming an industrial power, received perfect training for its specialists. German professionals could have ample wages if travelled to Russia and shared their experience.

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If the shoe fits, it's too expensive

Resintrust Galoshes
V. Bayuskin, 1925

Galoshes are waterproof overshoes made of vulcanized rubber. In the last century they were worn over boots and shoes to protect them in rough conditions. Nowadays in Russia they are used only with valenki (a traditional winter footwear) – to prevent them from getting wet in slush.

Galoshes were a popular accessory. The roads were often dirty, so when coming to an office or a house a respectable man had to take the muddy shoes off. Galoshes eliminated the need of a second pair of shoes and reduced changing time.

Before the Revolution tanning and shoe industries were hugely underdeveloped in Russia. There were only few shoe factories, and there were no machinery there – only manual labor. 90% of all shoes were made by individuals and small cooperation manufactories.

The situation after the Revolution did not change, so cheap galoshes which could protect expensive shoes were always in demand. Besides, those who could not afford proper shoes always had an option of wearing galoshes alone or with socks.

The poster shows a woman-worker in her holiday clothes. The advertisement says: “Resintrust. Moscow. Galoshes with Triangle trademark. Every cooperative store should have Resintrust galoshes on sale”.

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In victory, you deserve Champagne, in defeat, you need it

The best grape wine - The Soviet Champagne
N. Martynov, 1952

“Soviet Champagne” has always been a part of every Soviet holiday and anniversary feast. It was the one and only brand available for the people.

The “Soviet Champagne” brand was created in 1928 after the Government ordered the soviet wineries to produce the sparkling wine affordable for the soviet workers. The original Méthode Champenoise was quite complicated and therefore expensive, as it implied fermentation in bottles for 1.5 years for the wine to fully develop its flavor. After that the lees settled in the neck of the bottle, got frozen and removed. Then the bottle was finally corked.

The Russian wine-maker Anton Frolov-Bagreev (1877-1953) managed to speed up the process and simplify the technology. Now the secondary fermentation of wine was induced in special champagne-fermenting water-cooled tanks of large capacity. This cut down the production time from 1.5 years to a month, and made removing of lees obsolete.

In 1936 the Soviet Government decided to build a number of champagne wineries across the Soviet Union as it was much cheaper to transport wine-materials than the final products. Several wineries were built and in 1942 Frolov-Bagreev was awarded the Stalin’s prize for his inventions. Reportedly before signing the list with nominees Joseph Stalin tasted the Soviet Champagne and did not liked it – as it was brut which seemed to be too dry to him. Another bottle with semi-sweet was brought in, and the Frolov-Bagreev finally got his prize. But this is probably the reason why nowadays Russians prefer semi-sweet wines over the brut which is popular in the world.

I call architecture frozen music

The advertisement of GUM
V. Mayakovskiy, A. Rodchenko, 1923

Another classic constructivist poster. Again Mayakovsky wrote the rhymed text and Rodchenko did the graphics. The poster says: “Guests from cities, towns and villages, do not waste your soles on searching – go to GUM, where you’ll find everything – fast, neatly and cheap!”

This poster advertizes the GUM (Gosudarstvenniy Universalniy Magazin) – the State Universal Store in Moscow. GUM was a common name for the biggest department stores in the Soviet Union. The GUM in Moscow is actually a shopping mall with unique architecture.

Before the revolution the GUM building was known as the Upper Trading Rows. They were built in 1893 by Alexander Pomerantsev (responsible for architecture) and Vladimir Shukhov (responsible for engineering). Shukhov was an engineering genius – some compare him to Edison and Eifel. He developed practical calculations of stresses and deformations of beams, shells and membranes on elastic foundation, which allowed him to build the first Russian oil pipeline, various oil tanks and refineries. But he was most famous for his architectural projects including about 200 original towers (hyperboloid towers) all over the world, the most famous being the 160-meter-high Shukhov Tower in Moscow (1922); about 500 bridges; the Kievskiy Railway Station in Moscow (1912-17); several constructivist projects, designed in collaboration with another world-renown architect Konstantin Melnikov, notably the Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage (1926-28) and Novo-Ryazanskaya Street Garage (1926-29).

The Upper Trading Rows received Sukhov’s trade-mark feature – the giant glass-roof. This is a firm construction made of over 819 tons of metal with a diameter of over 14 meters. Illumination is provided by huge arched skylights of iron and glass, each weighing some 820 tons and containing in excess of 20,000 panes of glass.

In 1928 Stalin turned the store into office building but right after his death in 1953 the building’s original function was restored. During the soviet times it was one of the main sources for consumer goods with queues long enough to quit the building and reach the Red Square. All visitors from all over the country had the same list of Moscow places of interest – the Mausoleum, the Bolshoi (the big) Theatre and the GUM.

And all the sweet serenity of books...

Book trade-exhibition in spring
Unknown artist, 1926

This was 1926, when the country was still recovering from the WW1, the Civil War and the War Communism, introduced by Lenin. To avoid loosing power due to national distress, Lenin launched New Economic Policy which implied restoration of private property on a small scale in a number of fields. NEP boosted the agricultural output, resulting in significant rise of living standards. But many true Marxists considered NEP to be a betrayal of the communist ideals, so after Lenin’s death in 1924 the number of NEP supporters in the party started to decrease. Stalin who after Lenin’s death was gaining power finally killed NEP in 1929, replacing it with a program of global industrialization in a form of a first Five Year Plan.

This poster advertises the book trade-exhibition held in spring in Moscow somewhere on Petrovskay street, starting May 15, 1926. In the Soviet Times such exhibitions were a perfect way not only to meet with favorite authors but also to purchase a rare edition. Quality books were one of the main means of entertainment in the country so popularity of reading was skyrocketing, resulting in kilometer-long queues to events like this trade-exhibition.

I sell guns to every army but the Salvation Army!

A still of the Soviet trade and industry exhibition in Colombo Litvinov N. K., 1972

In the Seventies Russia was not only providing financial and technical help for countries, loyal to communist ideology (like Cuba, Yemen, Vietnam, etc), but was also entering world industry markets with the products and machines, which were sometimes based on the technologies from the defense industry. These were new alloys, precision machinery, high-tech materials. But the competition was fierce and the main source of hard currency income has always been and still is the raw stuff – like oil, gas and timber.

On May 22 1972 Ceylon was declared the Sri Lanka Republic. The country being a British colony for a long time had always been economically dependent and now was seeking new markets and trends. The soviet officials well realized that Sri Lanka had a perfect strategic position in the East-West and could become an outpost of communism in the region. So the new trade preferences were opened for Sri Lanka: now there was excellent Ceylon tea present on the shelves of every soviet store and there it matched well the cigars imported from Cuba due to the USA embargo.

Another thing was organizing an international Trade and Industrial Exhibition in Colombo in November 1972, right after the Sri Lanka Republic was established. The event was to show all the advances (military and industrial) which Sri Lanka could get if it only stuck to socialism and communism. To Sri Lanka’s credit they got the most of the situation: without making firm commitments on ideology they purchased some of the soviet arms and established very profitable trade relations.

Trust me, I know what I'm doing!

A. Hammer. American Industry Concession. Pencils and Pens. Moscow – New York.
Unknown artist, 1927

In the early twenties Soviet Union desperately needed ample funding to restore the economy. The hopes for foreign investments were vague, as gross nationalization had been only three years before. Moreover the process of international recognition had just started and there were only a few countries the diplomatic relations were established with.

But as the large international consortiums were cautious about doing business in the USSR, those young and ambitious were trying to snatch a roll. The Soviet Government was selling out masterpieces of art, furs, jewelry, caviar. Armand Hammer – a young businessman from New York had huge plans for purchasing some of those valuables for cheap. He came to Soviet Union with medical supplies for soviet citizens and made several deals with Lenin for importing of furs. Later he moved to Russia to supervise those operations, opening his most famous venture – a pencil factory. Although these factory products made him quite famous as every pupil in the country dreamt about getting Hammer pencils, which were of excellent quality, Hammer’s main source of income was in oil and coal. Somehow, he managed to talk Lenin into granting him exclusive rights to develop several asbestos and coal mines.

He returned to USA in the early 30s but his business ventures in the USSR remained. Although it is not known how Bolsheviks and Hammer shared expenses and profits later, but Hammer was the one and only multimillionaire, who had personal acquaintances with all the leaders of the Soviet Union starting from Lenin (died 1924) up to Yuri Andropov (died 1984) – 60 years of successful business in Russia.

Note the way the Armand Hammer's logo is emblazed on the red flag on the poster above. Instead of the original “Hammer and Sickle” is has got colors of the Star Spangled Banner and the Statue of Liberty image. This was quite a familiarity doing such things with a national anthem, but nevertheless Hammer could get away with it, as his enterprises were too valuable for the Soviet Union.

Visit the Zoo!

The Zoo has received a big lot of new animals
Bulanov D. A., 1930

The ad on the elephant’s forehead says: “The Zoo has just received a big lot of various animals, the Zoo is improved and expanded, the animals now live in new cage-houses, shows for children are performed at holidays”. The bar held by elephant’s trunk below gives a profound description of services offered for the grown-ups: “Public cinema with season thrillers is available in the Zoo, tickets 30-60 kopeeks, admittance to the Zoo included, “Petroraihrabkoop” (Petrograd’s Workers Society) bar – hot and cold lunches, snacks and refreshments, string band”.

That's the way to advertise!

Read “Young Guard” Magazine
A. Rodchenko, V. Mayakovsky, 1924

This is another work by constructivist classic Alexander Rodchenko and soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. This is an advertisement which promotes “Young Guard” literary magazine. Russia was always a country where literary magazines (or “thick magazines”) were extremely popular due to fast publishing cycle, as some times it took years for a book to hit the stores.
Besides even the most remote libraries always had those magazines available.

In the early twenties “Young Guard” magazine was formed by members of “Young Guard” literary society. Its members were writing revolutionary articles and books as well as speaking in public promoting education and revolutionary values.

In the sixties and seventies the magazine was a symbol of stagnation, publishing conservative socialist-realism fiction and bad science-fiction stories.

But the name “Molodaya Gvardia” – “Young Guard” became well known in Russia because of the WW2, and it was not the magazine, which had set the stone rolling. During the war "Young Guard" - an underground anti-fascist organization formed by young Komsomol members from Ukrainian town Krasnodon were performing guerilla actions against occupation forces of Nazi Germany. They were betrayed, tortured and finally executed. After the war revolutionary writer Alexander Fadeyev wrote an exciting fiction book based on the event. The film followed. And finally the “Young Guard” heroic myth was born. A publishing house, a huge bookstore, a pioneer camp and numerous other facilities, goods and things were named “Young Guard”.

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Welcome to Soviet Marlboro Country!

Smoke Captain’s Cigars!
Sakharov S. G., 1939

This is another distinctive tobacco poster. Dated 1939, right before the WW2, it promotes smoking of “Glavtabak” tobacco products. By this time all separate tobacco factories got consolidated under the “NarkomPischeProm” Ministry (National Food Industry Ministry), which was forming state orders to produce certain quantities of goods. It were the governmental officials, who were defining what soviet citizens could eat, drink, wear and smoke.

In 1935 Stalin declared that “It is people who are the most valuable asset”. This give way to the petty-bourgeois pleasures, like dancings, jazz, flowers on streets. Several recreational parks were opened, with the Gorky Park (named after famous Russian writer Maxim Gorky) in the center of Moscow. They were called “Parks of Culture and Recreation”, reminding that they are not about recreation only.

Nevertheless, the soviet society was heavily stratified. The majority was working in kolkhozy and on factories for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week for the wages which weren’t enough to buy ample food and to get rid of shabby clothes. On the other hands, the officials, trusted folk and young professionals were allowed to get goods at low prices or for free and visit resorts.

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You don’t smoke or drink – oh my! Do you think, you'll never die?

Everyone smokes!
Unknown artist, 1923

In Russia tobacco and alcohol has always been quite popular, being one of the main sources for state treasury income. Tobacco was brought to Russia in the 16^th century during the reign of Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible. Later smoking was strictly prohibited, as it supposedly caused a vicious fire which burned down Moscow in 1634. Infringers were subject to chopping of their noses. During the next 50 years Russian rulers were prohibiting and legalizing tobacco, until realizing that monopolization of the tobacco market could result in fantastical profits.

After the WW1 the Bolshevics were in financial trouble, as the country economy struggled to survive the nationalizing and planned economy measures. Tobacco and alcohol were the most significant financial drivers for the young soviet government, so massive advertising campaigns started – promoting tobacco and smoking. Although nationalized some factories were still operating under old brands.

This poster says: “Everyone smokes! Donskaya State Tobacco Factory (fomer Asmolov and Co)”. And this was sad but true – more than 90% of the adult population were smoking tobacco in the twenties. Later, this figure went down, albeit slowly, resulting in 70% of smokers among the adult male population nowadays.

Dummies for all ages!

Never ever better dummies one can hold
Gonna suck them till I’m old.

Sold everywhere.
Resintrust.

Mayakovsky V. V., Rodchenko A. M., 1923

This is one of the masterpieces of the era – The Dummies Poster. It was created by Alexander Rodchenko, a brilliant photographer and graphic designer. He is most famous for being one of the founders and apologists of constructivism – an avant-garde art and architecture movement, which denies art for art’s sake and proclaims manufacturing practicability as the basis for creation.

The text was written by Vladimir Mayakovsky – a talented Russian poet, who was one of the most notable representatives of early Futurism. Futurism is all about future – denying past and present, worshiping shoots of aftertime in our lives. Futurists of the early 20^th century were discovering new means of self-expression, new techniques and methods to impress, to strike, to startle. In Russian the verse on the poster sounds vigorously and brisk – an unusual way to advertise baby products.

Those two talents worked together in 1923-1928 when Soviet Republic was recovering from WW1 and the Civil War. That period of history was very unstable as the Kronstadt Rebellion of 1921 and other global resistance actions by workers and peasants, provoked by rough communist regime, were destabilizing the country. Famine and shortages were everywhere, unemployment was severe, those who were lucky to have jobs did not care about their duties as it was impossible to convert the pay into goods.

The Communist Party and Vladimir Lenin were forced to give the people a break. The communist ideology remained but small businesses were allowed under control of the state. Farmers could save and trade part of their yield, which was a substantial advantage over War Communism years, when they were forced to give away every single grain – leaving no reserve for seeding. This was the beginning of New Economic Policy (NEP).

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