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stalin poster of the week

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This blog was first published on the properganderpress website https://properganderpressblog.wordpress.com/category/stalin-poster-of-the-week/

Stalin poster of the week 68 (SPotW68)

25/2/2018

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Iraklii Toidze, Under the banner of Lenin, under the leadership of Stalin, forward to the victory of communism!, 1949

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Iraklii Toidze (Тоидзе, И), Under the banner of Lenin, under the leadership of Stalin, forward to the victory of communism! (под знаменем ленина под водительством сталина – вперед к коммунизму!), 1949

After the Great Patriotic War (Second World War), emphasis in propaganda was increasingly placed on technical expertise over the breakneck physical labour characteristic of the Stakhanovite era. Thee science budget of the Soviet Union tripled in 1946.


Iraklii Toidze uses a richly symbolic visual image to illustrate this new emphasis, captioned by the familiar text, ‘Under the banner of Lenin, under the leadership of Stalin, forward to the victory of communism!’


This 1949 poster employs the preferred Toidze palette of black, white and red, with small embellishments of gold. The top half of the poster is dominated by the figures of Lenin and Stalin.

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Stalin is shadowed by Lenin as they both indicate the way forward to communism.

Lenin appears as a life-size sculpture in characteristic pose, right arm extended and whole hand beckoning the crowd forward and appears to be shepherding Stalin forward.


Stalin, only slightly less monolithic due to the higher contrast on his figure, mirrors Lenin’s gesture almost exactly, except that his right index finger points and his left hand drapes over the podium.

The pole of the ubiquitous scarlet banner divides the background in half vertically, at exactly the place where the heads of Lenin and Stalin meet, identifying Stalin with the banner, but not Lenin, a link that is visually reinforced by the touches of red on Stalin’s uniform. The podium on which Stalin and the statue of Lenin are elevated divides the top and bottom halves of the poster.


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Brain replaces brawn in the postwar Soviet Union

Beneath the podium, with their backs to Lenin and Stalin, are civilian members of the populace. On the left, a young female agricultural labourer, a huge sheaf of wheat over her right shoulder, stands next to a young male worker, both looking forward in the direction indicated by Lenin and Stalin.

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The writings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin are enshrined in a sacred tome with gold lettering

On the right, a young man holds aloft a sparkling white book with the words ‘Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin’ emblazoned on the front cover in gold. His pose mimics that of Lenin and Stalin, although his right hand does not point, but clutches the sacred text.


Behind him is a young woman with windswept hair who adopts the same pose and looks up to Lenin and Stalin for guidance. In her right hand is a large spray of flowers, symbolising abundance and kultur’nost, the postwar emphasis on living a cultured lifestyle.


The left or ‘Lenin side’ of the poster is associated with the past — the two young workers are manual labourers, in the factory and field. Stalin’s side of the poster represents the present pushing on to the future.


The two young people are not dressed for manual labour and rely on education and a sound knowledge of the science of Marxism, as adapted by Lenin and Stalin, for the imminent victory of communism. The early 1950s saw a continuation of the emphasis on education and the mastery of science, with a number of posters published in 1952 on these themes.

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Stalin poster of the week 67 (SPotW67)

18/2/2018

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Aleksandr Zhitomirskii, Stalin is the greatness of our era, Stalin is the banner of our victory!, 1942

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Aleksandr Zhitomirskii (Житомирскии, А.), Stalin is the greatness of our era, Stalin is the banner of our victory! (Cталин – величие нашей эпохи, Cталин – знамя наших побед!), 1942

In his 1941 address on the anniversary of the October Revolution, Stalin cautiously told the military parade that victory was possible in 1942:

‘Some more months, another half year, perhaps a year, and Hitlerite Germany will have to break under the weight of its crimes.’*


Confidence grew cautiously and Stalin sometimes appeared without Lenin in war propaganda posters.

In most cases, where Stalin appears without Lenin, he is in gigantic scale, and only visible from above the chest as in this Red Army poster by Aleksandr Zhitomirskii** in which the picture plane is effectively divided in two.


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A titanic Stalin sees all

The top of the poster is dominated by just such a gigantic image of Stalin gazing out at the viewer. Down the right side of the top half of the poster is a red segment that contains the text ‘Stalin is the greatness of our era, Stalin is the banner of our victory!’

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Tanks are rolling and soldiers are marching to victory in the war

The bottom half of the poster shows a photomontage of Soviet tanks rolling through Red Square on parade, soldiers marching on parade and a tank in profile with open turret and crewman in the foreground.


The splash of vibrant red colour on the banner of the tank picks up the red field of the text in the top of the poster. Otherwise, the poster consists of a montage of black-and-white photographs.


Aleksandr Zhitomirskii was a leading political artist and satirist who pioneered photomontage techniques in propaganda work, alongside artists like Gustav Klutsis, Aleksandr Rodchenko and El Lissitzky,  and German artist John Heartfield.


During the Great Patriotic War, Zhitomirskii used photomontage techniques as part of a psychological warfare campaign in which leaflets, printed in editions of up to one million, were dropped from planes on German troops, urging them to lay down their arms rather than freeze to death in the long Russian winter at the front. This was was so effective that Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany’s Minister of Propaganda, is said to have placed Zhitomirskii on the Third Reich’s list of “most wanted” with the order “to find and to hang.”*** Although, Erika Wolf points out that this latter is just myth.


* I. Stalin, O Velikoi Otechestvennoi voine Sovetskogo Soiuza, 4th edn, Moscow, Gospolitizdat, 1944, p. 36.
** For an excellent book on Aleksandr Zhitomirskii, see Erika Wolf, Aleksandr Zhitomirsky: Photomontage as a Weapon of World War II and the Cold War, 2016
*** See http://www.nailyaalexandergallery.com/russian-photography/alexander-zhitomirsky

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Stalin poster of the week 66(SPotW66)

11/2/2018

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Mikhail Oskarovich Dlugach, 10 years of the civil fleet of the USSR, 10 years of hard Bolshevik struggle and the world’s greatest victories at the aviation front USSR, 1933

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Mikhail Oskarovich Dlugach (Михаил Оскарович Длугач), 10 years of the civil fleet of the USSR, 10 years of hard Bolshevik struggle and the world’s greatest victories at the aviation front USSR.(10 лет гражданского воздушного флота СССР – 10 лет упорной большевистской борьбы и крупнейших побед на фронте аэрофикации СССР), 1933

In the early 1930s, a significant genre of poster production emerged that focussed on Soviet achievement, presenting accomplishments in eye-catching format with striking visuals and simple, emphatic text.


This genre had its origins in Lenin’s time and flourished throughout the Stalinist era, from the time of the first Five-Year Plan, right up to Stalin’s death.


One of the early posters that linked Stalin with great Soviet achievements, Mikhail Oskarovich Dlugach’s, ’10 years of the USSR Civilian air fleet’ of 1933, emerges from a time at which facts and figures were still held to have more power than the charisma of the leader.


Stalin, looking ordinary, a little tired, and surprisingly disinterested, is perched in a corner of the poster, above the text which proclaims the celebration of ten years achievement.


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Stalin looks almost disinterested in this portrait, and is yet to take on the visionary look of the spiritual leader that will be a feature of later portraits

It appears as if Stalin’s primary role is to announce the anniversary of the founding of the civilian air fleet and its successes. Claims of success are backed up in scientific fashion with the three graphs near the bottom of the poster, showing the amazing improvements in the spread of the air network, the transport of passengers, and the transport of mail, cargo and baggage over the ten years. Propaganda posters of the 1920s and early 1930s often featured graphs and ‘scientific’ data as evidence of claims of progress.

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In March 1923, the Soviet government created a joint stock company named the Volunteer Association of the Aerial Fleet, or Dobrolet – the nation’s first major civil air organisation.

The centre of the poster is occupied by the large image of a civilian aircraft and a dirigible looming above a silhouetted power plant, which sends out one of two criss-crossing beams of light into the night sky, drawing the eye up to the figure of Stalin.


Electrification had always been associated with Lenin. Light bulbs were known in early Soviet days as ‘Lenin lamps’ – lampochka Lenina – and Lenin saw electrification as a cornerstone of progress towards the new socialist society, his famous slogan:


“Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country.”*
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Lenin’s work, begun immediately after the 1917 Russian Revolution, lay the groundwork for the glorious future of Soviet aviation

In Dlugach’s poster, Lenin’s ghostly and familiar silhouette, in benedictory pose on a pedestal, projects out into the electrical plant and points directly to the dirigible. It is Lenin’s work, commenced 10 years earlier, that made all of this development possible and in 1933, it is the spirit of Lenin who gives his blessing to the enterprises.


As if to make this message totally unambiguous, the second beam of light originates from Lenin’s feet. In 1933, Stalin is still claiming lineage from Lenin and his public identity is still primarily as Lenin’s ‘most able pupil’, the one who carries forth the torch of Lenin’s legacy.


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The graphs show the network of air services (in the NPM), the number of passengers transported, and the transported mail, cargo and baggage.

In keeping with the ‘scientific’ and ‘factual’ tone of the poster, Dlugach employs black and white photos, and a subdued but dramatic colour scheme of blacks, reds and dark blues.


The text on the side of the poster reads: 10 years of the civil fleet of the USSR, 10 years of hard Bolshevik struggle and the world’s greatest victories at the aviation front USSR.

The text at the bottom: Your messages go by air to all major destinations as one of the most important means of communication with remote areas and large industrial centres.


The focus is on Soviet achievement, rather than on the personal qualities of Lenin and Stalin. However it is interesting that even a poster that appeals so overtly to the realm of science and fact incorporates mystical and spiritual allusions.


*V. I. Lenin. ‘Our Foreign and Domestic Position and Party Tasks’, Speech Delivered To The Moscow Gubernia Conference Of The R.C.P., November 21, 1920, Collected Works, 4th English Edition, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1965, Volume 31, pages 408-426.

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Stalin poster of the week 65 (SPotW65)

4/2/2018

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Boris Belopol’skii, Peace to all nations!, 1952

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oris Belopol’skii (Белопольский, Б.), Peace to all nations! (Мир народам!), 1952

This is Boris Belopol’skii’s second 1952 poster on the theme of peace.

The poster is captioned ‘The world will be saved and enhanced if people take responsibility for maintaining peace into their own hands and defend it to the end. I. Stalin’,  with the words ‘Peace to all nations!’ inscribed in the background at the top of the poster.

The caption quotation comes from ‘A conversation with the Pravda correspondent of Pravda on 17th February 1951.* In this interview, Stalin labels as slanderous the declaration of British Prime Minister Clement Attlee that the Soviet Union has actually increased its military forces since the end of World War II.

Stalin also discusses the Korean War, labelling the Americans as the aggressors and calling the United Nations decision to declare China the aggressors as ‘scandalous’. He concludes the interview by championing the Soviet Union as the vanguard of the world peace movement on behalf of the international masses.

In the poster, a human, almost humble Stalin stands at a podium and makes a speech. Stalin appears in his old-style tunic, rather than the uniform of Marshal of the Soviet Union.  In this poster, the warrior archetype is not being emphasised.

In contrast to the other 1952 Belopol’skii poster (stalin poster of the week 26), there is no background – no banner, no crowd, just white light.

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Stalin is bathed in unearthly white light and looks both visionary and compassionate in this soft portrayal.

Stalin is more ‘real’, greyer in skin and hair, and softer and more rounded than in the other poster. His left hand, in a loose fist, rests on a copy of Pravda (the source of the quote, which is not from an actual publicly delivered speech) and his right hand points loosely in the direction of the future, on which his transcendent gaze is also focussed.

The podium is not real. Stalin leans on a text box or banner bearing his own words.  This is a quieter, softer Stalin, the teacher or wise man. He neither commands nor exhorts. In this poster he persuades and appeals, on an intimate, almost one-on-one level.

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*I.V. Stalin. ‘A conversation with the Pravda correspondent.’ Pravda, 17 February 1951, accessed at http://www.marxists.org/russkij/stalin/t16/t16_29.htm on 04/08/2013.

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    Dr Anita Pisch

    Anita’s new, fully illustrated book, The personality cult of Stalin in Soviet posters, 1929 -1953, published by ANU Press, is available for free download here, and can also be purchased in hard copy from ANU Press.

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BLOG ARCHIVE - STALIN POSTER OF THE WEEK
SPotW1 Toidze 1947
SPotW2 Klutsis 1930
SPotW3 Chronicle 1938
SPotW4 Podobedov 1940
SPotW5
Deni 1930
SPotW6 Klutsis 1933
SPotW7 Efimov 1933
SPotW8 Govorkov 1936
SPotW9 Koretskii 1949
SPotW10
Foreign policy 1940
SPotW11 Pravdin 1950
SPotW12 Karpovskii 1948
SPotW13 Mizin 1934
SPotW14 Klutsis 1931
SPotW15
Koretskii 1943
SPotW16 I.V. Stalin 1930
SPotW17 Volkova/Pinus 1938
SPotW18 Toidze 1941
SPotW19 Stalin's affection 1949
SPotW20 Berezovskii 1947


SPotW21 50 Years 1929
SPotW22 Petrov 1948
SPotW23 Arakelov 1939
SPotW24 Ivanov 1952
SPotW25 Solomyanii 1952


SPotW26 Belopol'skii 1952
SPotW27 Kaidalov 1940
SPotW28 Mytnikov 1950
SPotW29 Yang 1938
SPotW30 Golub' 1950


SPotW31 Vorontsov 1951
SPotW32 Belopol'skii, 1951
SPotW33 Deni 1931
SPotW34 Madorskii 1938
SPotW35 Leader, teacher, friend 1941


SPotW36 Al'menov 1951
SPotW37 Deni 1937
SPotW38 Cheprakov 1941
SPotW39 Enemy, 1941
SPotW40 Zotov, 1934

SPotW41 Grinets 1937
SPotW42 Vatolina 1939
SPot
W43  Zhukov 1940
SPotW44 Fedotov 1943
SPotW45 Golub' 1949

SPotW46 Vatolina 1950
SPotW47 Solov'ev 1950
SPotW48 Mel'nikova 1951
SPotW49 Kokorekin 1951
SPotW50 Ivanov El'tsufen 1952

SPotW51 Unknown 1952
SPotW52 Klutsis 1932
SPotW53 Printing 1950
SPotW54 Lukhtein 1951
SPotW55 Toidze 1946

SPotW56 Litvinov 1949
SPotW57 Serov 1942
SPotW58 Pinchuk 1943
SPotW59 Petrov 1952
SPotW60 Podobedov 1939

SPotW61 Babitskii 1944
SPotW62 Pen Varlen 1942
SPotW63 Bayuskin 1942
SPotW64 Belopol'skii 1950
SPotW65 Belopol'skii 1952

SPotW 81 Koretskii 1950
SPotW 82 Pravdin 1950
SPotW83 Vatolina 1938
SPotW 84 Deni 1938
SPotW85 
Koretskii 1945


SPotW66 Dlugach 1933
SPotW67 Zhitomirskii 1942
SPotW68 Toidze 1949
SPotW69 Mikhailov 1937
SPotW70 Cheprakov 1939

SPotW 86 Kazantsev 1944
SPotW 87 Civil War 1938

SPotW 88 Kun 1937
SPotW 89 Spirit 1941
SPotW 90 Ryvkin 1939

SPotW71 Deni 1935
SPotW72 Deni 1935
SPotW73 Defence 1938
SPotW74 Elkin 1939
SPotW75 Zarnitskii

SPotW 91 Moor 1938
SPotW 92 Ivanov 1948
SPotW 93 Govorkov 1951
SPotW 94 Denisov 1941
SPotW 95 Ledby 1942

SPotW76 Toidze 1943
SPotW77 Futerfas 1936
SPotW78 Mukhin 1945
SPotW79 Golub' 1948
SPotW80 Karpovskii 1948

SPotW 96
SPotW 97
SPotW 98
SPotW 99
SPotW 100

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