Stalin poster of the week 53 (SPotW53)

Unknown artist, Printing should grow by leaps and bounds, this is the sharpest and the strongest weapon of our party. Stalin., 1950

Unknown artist, Printing should grow by leaps and bounds, this is the sharpest and the strongest weapon of our party. Stalin (печать должна расти, не по дням, а по часам, это-самое острое и самое сильно оружие нашей партии. Сталин.)., 1950

This charming Uzbek poster was published in Tashkent by Uzbek Poligraf in a small edition of 3000 in 1950.


Its publication coincides with an increasing impetus for literacy and secondary and vocational training for professional specialisation in Uzbekistan from 1950 onward.


Literacy at a primary level had been steadily growing since the 1920s and rapidly accelerated after about 1932.


From 1946, Uzbekistan embarked on a massive cultural program of language and literary training in the Uzbek language – 46% of the books published were textbooks or children’s books (see William Kenneth Medlin, William Marion Cave, Finley Carpentier, Education and Development in Central Asia: A Case Study on Social Change in Uzbekistan, 1971).


In this poster, publishing is seen as a means of disseminating propaganda and spreading the values, beliefs and ideology of the Communist Party. The poster shows several generations of Uzbeks, possibly all one family, reading a variety of newspapers that are specifically aimed at their demographic.

Stalin in military collar, and Lenin in suit and tie look to the viewer’s right (representing the future) on the cover of the newspaper Eastern Pravda.

The white-haired gentleman reads Eastern Pravda, a serious newspaper pitched at an educated reader. Stalin and Lenin are portrayed on the cover in profile in a similar manner to their appearances on banners in posters. Stalin, in military collar, is the man of action. Lenin, in white collar and tie, is the man of words. Lenin now sits in Stalin’s shadow.

Stalin is portrayed as a profound military strategist on the cover of Red Uzbekistan

The greying gentleman on his left reads Red Uzbekistan with a visionary Stalin in military uniform on the cover.

An Uzbek couple discuss the news in Young Leninist

The married couple discuss a copy of Young Leninist together, the woman wearing traditional Uzbek headgear, a suit jacket, and a medal – most likely an award for Communist labour.

There are Uzbek newspapers for young people too!

The young blond woman reads the Uzbek Komsomol newspaper while the children read Lenin’s Spark.


The poster caption, ‘Printing should grow by leaps and bounds, this is the sharpest and the strongest weapon of our party’, is a quote from Stalin, taken from a final word on the organisational report of the Central Committee at the XII Congress of the RCP (b) 19 April 1923.