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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 1 (SPotW1)

8/3/2017

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Iraklii Toidze
Stalin’s kindness illuminates the future of our children! 1947

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Iraklii Toidze (ираклии тоидзе) Stalin’s kindness illuminates the future of our children!(озаряет сталинская ласка будущее нашей детворы!) 1947 61 x 43 cm Russian State Library, Moscow
This 1947 poster by Georgian-born artist Iraklii Toidze combines the themes of childhood, victory in the Great Patriotic War (Second World War), and the bright Communist future in one powerful image in which Stalin is visually compared to Christ.

Stalin is depicted in the uniform of Marshal of the Soviet Union, holding a toddler aloft. At first glance, Stalin’s kindness illuminates the future of our children!  appears to step back to the Stalin iconography of the mid-1930s, in which Stalin was surrounded by happy and affectionate children, all thanking him for their happy childhoods.

But the contact here is not fatherly, intimate or affectionate.

Stalin holds the child away from his body, at arm’s length, his hands placed in the same manner as those of Christ in icons of the Dormition of the Virgin, the child in the position of the soul of the Virgin which is held by Christ.

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Icon of the Dormition by Theophan the Greek, 1392. The Theotokos is depicted lying on a bier, surrounded by the Twelve Apostles. At centre, Jesus Christ is shown in a mandorla, swaddling the soul of the Virgin Mary (a red seraph is shown above his head). To either side of him are depicted the Hieromartyrs Dionysius the Areopagite and Ignatius the God-Bearer who, according to tradition, are responsible for transmitting the account of the dormition. Image in the public domain
The feast of the Dormition commemorates the ‘falling asleep’ (natural death) of the Virgin, her salvation by Christ, and her acceptance into paradise.

Unlike the ‘happy children’ of the 1930s, the little blond Russian boy does not look at Stalin, but off to the right. He holds a bunch of flowers and a little red flag over his head, sacred symbol of the revolution and blood sacrifice, protection and intercession.

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Detail of Dormition icon by Theophan the Greek, 1392
The boy wears white, as does the soul of the Virgin in Dormition icons. Stalin stands in the position of Christ in the icon. In the icon, the Virgin’s soul is held by Christ who conveys it to an angel who carries it to Heaven.

By showing Stalin in his Marshal’s uniform, reference is made to his role as Russia’s saviour in The Great Patriotic War. Russia has endured much pain, bloodshed and sacrifice.

However, from this sacrifice, the pure Russian soul has emerged, was placed into the hands of Stalin and thus conveyed through the passage of worldly suffering to the waiting gates of paradise.

In a socialist reading, this paradise exists here on earth – it is the long-promised land of the Communist utopia. The text of the poster associates Stalin with light and makes it clear that it is Stalin’s care and kindness which has enabled the Russian people to survive the war and emerge into the Communist paradise.

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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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