Vladimir Elpidiforovich Kaidalov, Departing from us, Comrade. Lenin urged us to strengthen and extend the union republics..., 1940 A 1940 poster from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, by Vladimir Kaidalov quotes from Stalin’s funerary oath to Lenin on 26 January 1924: ‘Departing from us, Comrade Lenin urged us to strengthen and extend the union republics. We swear to you, Comrade Lenin, that we will fulfil with honour your behest’. A giant head of Lenin sits above the Kremlin in a crimson sky. In 1940, Lenin had already been dead for 16 years, but was still the major legitimating tool for the Soviet government, and for Stalin as leader. By depicting Lenin as hovering in the sky, he appears as a protective spirit, guiding Stalin and the people on the path from socialism to full communism. Beneath the sky, a holy shade of red like the background in an Orthodox icon, a crowd of people in Uzbek dress carry large red banners and look up at Stalin, who stands at the podium, arm raised to swear his oath. The portion of Stalin’s oath that is quoted on the poster refers to socialist work to be undertaken in the union republics. In 1940, Tashkent was in the early stages of a total reconstruction that would see a ‘cultured city’ rise out of the demolition of a city of single-storey mudbrick houses, the opening of the Tashkent canal, and the opening of the children’s railway. Plans to refashion Tashkent’s inhabitants into high-rise dwellers were meeting with resistance, and this poster calls upon the apotheosised Lenin to legitimate Stalin’s plan, whilst also showing Stalin to be a man of honour, having given his word to carry on Lenin’s plans in his funeral oration.
Kaidalov, who was born in Barnaul, Siberia in 1907 and only moved to Tashkent in 1932, achieved considerable fame as a painter in Uzbekistan and was awarded the honorary title of the People’s Artist of Uzbekistan.
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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 |
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