stalin poster of the week 20: boris berezovskii, we stand for peace and we defend the cause of peace. i. stalin, 1947 Once post-Second World War victory celebrations in the USSR had quietened, the task of rebuilding the devastated nation and getting back on track to the ultimate goal of communism moved to the forefront of propaganda. Alongside this, from 1947, was an attempt to merge Stalin’s Warrior archetype, appropriate for the crisis of the war years, into that of the Saviour of the nation by presenting him as the bringer of peace. This 1947 poster by Boris Berezovskii shows Stalin uncharacteristically out of military uniform and back in his earlier tunic as he proclaims the Soviet desire for peace — ‘“We stand for peace and we defend the cause of peace.” I. Stalin’. This quotation is taken from Stalin’s report to the Seventeenth Party Congress on the work of the Central Committee, 26 January 1934, many years prior to the onset of war in Europe, and suggests that Stalin has ALWAYS been a man of peace. Stalin appears softer, rounder and more genial than in most of the contemporaneous posters and, by wearing his pre-Victory plain tunic, plays down the Warrior archetype that is so prevalent in other posters of this time.
Engulfed by an undefined red backdrop, and with the poster caption in gold, the Russian Orthodox icon is invoked through colour symbolism, engendering a subconscious association of Stalin with the revered saints of the church for the initiated beholder.
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Dr Anita PischAnita’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. Archives
April 2019
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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 |
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 |