Soviet posters first appeared during the Proletarian Revolution in Russia - they delivered Communist Party's slogans to the masses and called on workers and peasants to fight for freedom and justice.
The most outstanding among the first revolutionary posters are the works of D.S. Moor, V.V. Mayakovsky, M.M. Cheremnykh and V.N. Deni. Each of these artists used unique methods and techniques in order to create emphatic art with powerful propaganda messages.
During the Civil War, "ROSTA Windows" ("Okna ROSTA") - a famous project by the Russian Telegraph Agency, brought together artists who turned telegrams When the "great edifice of Socialism" was being erected through the first series of Five-Year Plans, propaganda posters could be found everywhere in the USSR - they were posted on construction sites, collective farm fields, grain elevator towers and massive concrete walls of the DneproGes dam. A look back at the posters from that era creates a chronicled timeline of Soviet Union's creation and evolution. Each and every major event in the life of the Soviet people is reflected in the legacy of socialist agitprop.
Over the period of WWII artists created thousands of posters, millions of which were reproduced and launched into circulation. Just like during the Civil War "Okna ROSTA" (renamed "Okna TASS" after the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union") played a very important role in motivating the nation. The distinctive style of the Soviet poster art was coined during times of war and struggle. It was always laconic, expressive and straight-forward. Even from faraway it was recognized by a person walking at a fast pace. The poster usually featured one or two figures whose actions were underlined by a characteristic movement. Clear contrast of the central figures (group) compared with the rest of the objects in the composition distinguished the best works. Eventually the artists started paying more attention to the human nature, and learned how to convey personality and emotions through facial expressions of their characters - thus making the posters more vigorous and effective. With the end of WWII, world peace and friendship among nations became the main theme of the propaganda poster. Young artists like N. Treschenko, O. Savostyuk and B. Uspensky, along with such distinguished masters of the poster art as Victor Govorkov, generated interesting and witty compositions agitating for USSR as the force of peace in the world. In the post-war period, the Soviet movie industry achieved considerable success. Famous movie-poster artists, such as V. Kononov, M. Heifitz, B. Zelensky and I. Hazanovsky refused to simply "announce" the movie releases in their work. Instead they explored artistic expression in order to reveal the film's content and essence through printed images. Works of these artists won numerous awards at international competitions. The grandiose 7-year program for the development of USSR's national economy, declared at the 21st Communist Party Congress, required renewed efforts from the propaganda establishment and especially the poster artists. Once again, colorful and visually engaging posters motivated the enthusiasm of working masses to carry out the Party's plan in the newly established agricultural communities and on sites of glorified construction projects. Soviet posters have always kept pace with the times. They created images of role models for generations of Soviet workers and soldiers, exposed international warmongers and fought for world peace. |