When scanning through the Soviet propaganda posters presented, along with the short introductory prefaces provided, I was particularly shocked by how much the nature of these posters change with time, molding around the events taking place in and around Russia contemporaneously.
With Lenin, the posters are certainly anti-capitalist and supportive of the proletariat. The one that caught my attention was the worker with the washcloth. The text “После Работы, иди в Баню” is very in tune to the working man. Not only is the Russian Баня an incredibly important cornerstone in Russian society, a place to go after a hard day’s work and typically where many people went to clean themselves, the striking informality of “иди” vs “идите” is noteworthy (The suffix is used for both formality and plurality). Overall, the poster is both informal and appeals to the working man.
The shift towards collectivism is very palpable under Stalinist propaganda. The poster I believe signifies this most is Korestky’s “No to Fascism”. Aside from the obvious rally behind rejecting Fascism, I was struck by what is written in the red behind the woman. The text translates to “World, Friendship, Solidarity”, calling to a blanket and total societal rejection of the doctrine of fascism. “Solidarity” is then translated into several other languages, including English. This marks an important shift to a collectivist and global push back of fascism; the red it is imprinted on nudges the viewer in favor of socialism or communism, one of many alternatives to the fascism it is rejecting.
Capitulating, the favoring of the proletariat is slowly diluted under Stalin for a more united Soviet Union. This is undoubtedly a propagandic offensive against the rising ideologic differences with Germany and Italy paired with calls for unity during a time of war.
Jacob, this is a wonderful post–I’m so sorry that you missed seeing the Soviet poster exhibition that we had in the Bowdoin museum in fall 2017 (to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution)! It was incredible. Thank you for your thoughtful analysis–and the fact that you picked out the “After work — to the bath!” poster to analyze made me notice that a typo had crept into the English translation on the page, yikes! I will try to get that corrected asap. 🙂
Your observations of Russia’s transition to collectivism, I noticed how the Lenin era posters were explicitly targeted to a Russian audience. These posters feature clothing, national monuments, and color schemes that are evocative of Russian culture and traditional images of the communist party (such as red and the hammer and sickle). While the Stalin era posters definitely share some of these images, the imagery is more simple and makes a more general argument against fascism. I think the Stalin era images of women also utilize the image of the women as a “global mother” in tandem with the “Mother Russia” figure, to make a universal cry against fascism.
Your observations regarding how the propaganda posters transition from a favoring and focus of the proletariat towards a more unified, Soviet focus is interesting. Additionally, your observations regarding the verb “Иди” rather than “Идите” was very perceptive and underscored the effort to connect with and to establish a relationship between the government and the working class.
Your post, along with today’s discussion, really solidified for me the gulf between Leninist and Stalinist propaganda. It seems to me there was a profoundly utilitarian approach which drove the evolution of Soviet propaganda. In Lenin’s time, during the post revolution years when Bolshevism was taking hold on a cultural level, propaganda targeting domestic issues would have been needed to ensure ideological stability. Later on, when more external threats came to be, a more “collectivist” approach would have been needed to galvanize Russia into action.