I believe we will meet the hundredth anniversary (Yu. Bondi, 1920)

On February 23 (N.S.), 1918, the appeal of the Council of People's Commissars of February 21 “The socialist fatherland is in danger” was published, as well as the “Appeal of the Military Commander-in-Chief” N. Krylenko, which ended with the words: “<…>All to arms. All in defense of the revolution. The general mobilization for digging trenches and the expulsion of trench detachments is entrusted to the soviets, with the appointment of responsible commissars with unlimited powers for each detachment. This order is sent as an instruction to all councils in all cities. Subsequently, a myth was composed about the victory won that day over the Germans near Pskov and Narva. Thus began the Civil War.

The White movement was defeated not only on the battlefields. The Whites suffered a crushing defeat on the propaganda front as well. For propaganda, it doesn’t matter at all whether the information on the poster or leaflet corresponds to reality (however, you shouldn’t go too far with false information either). Only one thing is important - a leaflet, a poster, a newspaper should be believed by the "target audience". And how it really is there - it does not matter. White propagandists could offer their audience elections for the Constituent Assembly and United Russia (there was no party of the same name yet, but the slogan already existed). The Reds offered: land to the peasants, factories to the workers, and peace to the peoples. And who won in the end? And the notorious terror was both red, and white, and green, and simply terror without political slogans. Civil war without "excesses" is not complete.

And we offer you a selection of propaganda posters of those years, both red and white.

Red posters.

Poster with Trotsky "Be on guard"

A very unusual poster - a Jew, a Bolshevik and a fighter against the church, Trotsky in the role of the Christian Saint George the Victorious.

Join the militia.1920

We will not give up Petrograd! (D. Moore, 1919)

What gave October Revolution working people (1919)

Did you sign up as a volunteer? (D. Moore, 1920)

Wrangel is coming! (N. Kochergin, 1920)

White posters

Why are you not in the army? (1918?)

For a united Russia (1919)

A happy worker in the Soviets (1919)

Your relatives and friends are groaning under the yoke of the Bolshevik commissars, they are dying from violence and hunger, they are calling you. Go save them! (1919)

What Bolshevism Brings to the People (1918)

My Russian friends! I, an Englishman, in the name of our common allied cause, ask you: hold out for a little longer such good fellows as you have always been. I have delivered, and will continue to deliver, endlessly, everything you need, and, most importantly, I will deliver you a new weapon that will exterminate these disgusting, bloodthirsty red monsters.

Motherland is calling.

A political poster as a type of printed artistic graphics is a large, bright, symbolic image, with a brief text, made for campaigning, propaganda, advertising or educational purposes, known in Europe from late XIX in. Posters appeared in Russia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The style and imagery of the popular print and the spectacular poster were the basis for the artistic solutions of the Russian political poster, which arose and took shape during the First World War of 1914-1918. and the revolutionary events of 1917.

Revolutionary times always presuppose the active involvement of the broad masses in political life countries, prompting in the minds and hearts of people an emotional response to ongoing events. Propaganda printed graphics affect the mind of the viewer through artistic techniques and allow you to achieve this response.

The February Revolution of 1917 was enthusiastically received in Russia as the beginning new era in the history of the country. All political forces of the country understood the importance of artistic agitation and propaganda in the battle for the minds of compatriots.

The first Russian political posters are an invaluable historical and artistic source. They reflect the course of events in 1917 in the country, as well as the emergence and formation of the main genre and stylistic features of the art of the national poster, in which the first attempts were made to generalize the types and images of the era, presented to the viewer for admiration or anger.

satirical poster

Since ancient times, humor has given people strength and helped in difficult trials. The most popular component of laughter culture is caricature. Therefore, in times of serious internal and external upheavals, it becomes one of the main propaganda tools and special attention is paid to it. During the revolutionary events of 1917, satire became a means of mass agitation, the main direction of which was to discredit the representatives of the overthrown monarchical system - the tsar, his entourage, ministers and senior officials.

The first revolutionary popular prints were published in March 1917 by the Petrograd publishing house Parus. To create luboks with satire on the collapsed system, Vladimir Mayakovsky, who had previously gained fame as the author of several vivid military pictures published by the Segodnyashny Lubok publishing house, and the popular cartoonist Alexei Radakov were invited. Their work became a kind of predecessor of the ROSTA Windows.

Campaign poster

Until October 1917, representatives of almost all political movements declared the need to continue the war until victory and loyalty to Russia's allied obligations. The government needed cash contributions from the population to finance the fighting. The pre-revolutionary War Loan has now become the Freedom Loan.

In August 1917, the Special Meeting under the Provisional Government published the Regulations on the elections to the Constituent Assembly - the body of power that was supposed to decide the fate state structure Russia. The first general election campaign in the history of Russia began - a fierce and uncompromising struggle for the votes of the Russian people. Several dozen parties and associations, both political and national, participated in the elections. The largest of these were the parties of Socialist Revolutionaries, Social Democrats (Bolsheviks and United), and Constitutional Democrats (Party of People's Freedom). The election posters of these parties are the forerunner of the world-renowned "brand" - the Soviet political poster.

The last poster dedicated to the Constituent Assembly was published at the end of 1917. It called on citizens to come out to a manifestation in defense of the legally elected authority. Its first meeting, held on January 5 (18), turned out to be the last.

information poster

The poster, as one of the main means of communication, has an informative function, informing about the fundamental changes in the country. The abdication of Nicholas II on March 2 (15), 1917 and the formation of the Provisional Government marked a new page in the history of Russia. In connection with traditional personification historical events and the need to popularize new faces in power, portraits of the leaders of the revolution began to be published.

Great importance was attached to the artistic embodiment on paper of popular sentiments during the period of the great turning point. So the Moscow Printing House of the Partnership I.D. Sytina released a series dedicated to the days of the February Revolution in the regions of the country.

Another important type of agitation used by the Bolsheviks in early years This is a poster campaign. The role of the poster is especially great in the years civil war. We can say that in those conditions posters replaced the lack of newspapers. The poster is clear, understandable even to an illiterate person.

The importance the Bolsheviks attached to poster propaganda is evidenced by the fact that the transportation of political propaganda posters was equated with the delivery of urgent military supplies. It was forbidden to tear down or damage posters with political content.

From an article by Chaus N.V. “Soviet posters 1917-1920. the main means of propaganda of socialist ideology":

“It is strictly forbidden to rip off and stick up the poster - the guilty will be held accountable,” was printed on many posters. “Anyone who tears down this poster or sticks a poster over it is committing a counter-revolutionary deed.” This was the stern warning printed during the civil war on political posters pasted on the walls of houses, on fences, on train cars sent to the front.

B1917 - 1920s propaganda teams () practice such a form of work as a poster exhibition.

Agitation train car

In the 1920s. propaganda posters are beginning to be actively used as social advertising: the struggle for universal literacy, health (the fight against tuberculosis, drunkenness, improper child care), women's equality, the fight against homelessness, etc.

Orphanage, 1920

E. E. Lezhen in the article “Poster as a means of political agitation in 1917-1930s” writes:

Most pre-revolutionary artists began to collaborate with Soviet power. Among them were Wanderers, and Russian impressionists(A.A. Rylov, K.F. Yuon), and World of Art(E.E. Lansere, M.V. Dobuzhinsky), and members of the association "Blue Rose"(P.V. Kuznetsov, M.S. Saryan), and supporters "Jack of Diamonds"(P.P. Konchalovsky, I.I. Mashkov, A.V. Lentulov). At first, a special place in the department of fine arts of the Narkompros was occupied by abstractionists V.V. Kandinsky and K.S. Malevich.

The revolution gave birth to new directions. Russian revolutionary avant-garde "UNOVIS"(“The Approvers of the New Art”, 1919 - 1920: K.S. Malevich, M.Z. Chagall, L.M. Lissitzky) declared a struggle for “pure” art and set about developing propaganda forms. "KNIFE" ("New Society of Painters") was close to the jacks of diamonds. Proletcult made an attempt to create an organization of a new proletarian culture "on the ruins of the past", abandoning the classical heritage, but did not last long.

Moore, Red Gift, 1920. The picture shows: the House of mother and child,Council of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies, Kindergarten, adult school, Library, Workers' Club

In the 1919s, the so-called "Windows of GROWTH":

In the post-revolutionary years, V. Mayakovsky contributed to the organization of the so-called "Windows of ROST" (Russian Telegraph Agency), in which M.M. Cheremnykh and D.S. Moor. At that time, artists were involved in the creation of agitation and propaganda materials that were understandable to the illiterate population. The posters were exhibited by the telegraph agency in the windows of the first floor, hence the name of the organization appeared - "Windows of GROWTH".

V.V. Mayakovsky. Poster about electrification for Windows ROSTA. December 1920

V. V. Mayakovsky. “Each absenteeism is a joy to the enemy…” 1921

Art critic Igorshina Tatyana Sergeevna writes:

The poster works of the first revolutionary decades were characterized by avant-garde compositional, graphic and stylistic devices. This is an active use of photomontage in the image, complemented by font compositions and hand-drawn background elements; eccentric diagonal compositions made up of graphic illustrations, letters, arrows, raster motifs, exclamation marks. In social posters, dominant figures were used in unusual angles and poses, reinforcing the appeal and emotionality of the poster. Avant-garde experiments of constructivist artists (A. M. Rodchenko, V. V. Mayakovsky, L. Lissitzky, brothers V. A. and G. A. Stenberg, D. A. Bulanov, G. G. Klutsis, S. Ya. Senkin and others) in the poster genre enriched the world's poster graphics with original means of artistic expression.

D.Moor, All-Russian subbotnik, 1919

Malyutin, 1920

The Soviet social poster is a very ambiguous and multifaceted phenomenon, its content changed in accordance with the main milestones of the socialist past. Therefore, when considering this topic, it becomes necessary to divide the long Soviet period into time periods. Below are the works of Saltsman and Kustodiev in 1917.

In the first years after the Revolution, when the country was in ruin and decline, the main task of the Bolsheviks was to instill in the newly minted Soviet citizens a new system of values, drawing a hard line between them and the citizens of Western countries, who were disgustedly called the "bourgeoisie". Therefore, contrast becomes a characteristic technique in the works of many poster artists. Of course, the bourgeois were portrayed grotesquely - all possible shortcomings were exaggerated. Such, for example, are the posters of the artist Denis “Capital” and “Comrade. Lenin cleanses the earth of evil spirits. If the caricature of a flabby gentleman sitting on a pile of gold does not yet raise questions, then the appeal to the theme of evil spirits in the second work leads to bewilderment. The disproportionate image of Lenin gives the impression that he is flying on a broomstick. I wonder if the poster artist had any idea about this funny effect.

The encouragement of workers is another common theme of this period. At the same time, a large array of social posters was devoted to the condemnation of bad habits and irresponsible attitude to work. Universal education was also promoted, with special emphasis on the education of women. Characteristic is the work of the artist Iznar “Woman, literacy is the key to your emancipation” in 1920.

Work by Kudryashov 1920

Mayakovsky's 1920 work

During the Civil War, Soviet poster artists tried to support the Red Army with relevant work. Noteworthy is Denis' poster "On the Grave of the Counter-Revolution" of 1920.

Separately, it is worth dwelling on the work of Moor "Help" in 1921, dedicated to the famine in the Volga region. The image of an emaciated figure with arms thrown up against a plain black background makes a strong impression. The emotional image did not even need additional details, with the exception of a thin spikelet behind the figure.

Another poster on this topic is the work of Simaov "Remember the Starving" in 1921.

New types of Soviet citizens were also widely reflected in posters: workers (both men and women) were depicted in characteristic clothes and with appropriate paraphernalia: a hammer, a scythe, red scarves, work overalls, and so on. With their posters, the artists sought to stop, discourage the viewer, inspire him with a certain way of thinking.