Soviet propaganda poster as a means of propaganda in different epochs

Modern PR-technologies have far advanced in comparison with propaganda means relatively recently. Today, the electronic media are most influenced by the public consciousness , among which the worldwide Internet is becoming more and more important. At the same time, such a seemingly outdated way of suggesting and forming right thoughts, like an agitational poster, remains in demand and effective.

Early Soviet posters

In prerevolutionary Russia leaflets and other print media, including posters, were rarely used by official authorities. But in the first years of Soviet power this type of propaganda acquired special significance, developed rapidly and even became a separate kind of modernist and futuristic art. The people should describe the joyful prospects of the new world, create an impression of the regularity of the changes taking place and inspire the idea of an inevitable and heavy bloody struggle and selfless labor. It required bright and bold colors, unusual approaches to the design of these massively replicable works of art. Soviet propaganda posters of those years are distinguished by the expressiveness and revolutionary nature of not only content but also form. They call on volunteers to sign up for the Red Army, beat the bourgeoisie, donate bread to proletarian detachments and not drink raw water, avoiding dangerous vibrios swarming in it. The creation of these masterpieces (their rare specimens today at a great price) was made by famous artists and poets (Denny, Mayakovsky and others), which explains their high artistic merits.

The interwar period

The harsh years have passed, and behind them began new ones, too, not easy. The curves of the political line of the party were repeated by propaganda posters. The USSR was building socialism, the NEP was curtailed, the scale of the industrial base was accompanied by no less grandiose transformations of the village. Industrialization was accompanied by collectivization, leaving the peasants with virtually no property, both private and personal. People were hard and hungry. There was a need to explain why and why they should patiently endure adversity and hardship in the name of what.

Today in some countries this task is carried out by television, less often by radio, pointing to bright prospects, for example, democracy and freedom. Then these funds were not, at least, the broad masses, but the agitation poster, which hung on a fence, billboard, or even just on the wall, successfully replaced them. In addition to calls to work shockly and to strengthen everything that is possible, warnings about insidious enemies and spies, from which one protection - vigilance became actual. And you do not need to talk much ...

Holy war

The most famous agitation poster of the war years in the Soviet years was familiar to everyone, both old and small. It depicts a woman whose face expresses anger. Against the background of the uplifting bayonets, Motherland called everyone who could stand up for her, under fluttering banners. Perhaps, in the world there are no more posters equal in their expressive power to this work. The song "Sacred War" sounds in the ears of everyone who sees it.

There were other examples of propaganda printing of the Great Patriotic War, the crimes of the invaders, children huddling against the wall in front of the fascist bayonet aimed at them, black bombs flying to peaceful Soviet cities, and Soviet soldiers, crushing the hordes of Hitlerites with a decisive blow.

Special attention deserves the posters, ridiculing the German Fuhrer and his political environment. Artists wittyly noticed the caricature of the faces and figures of the Nazi "Partaygenosse", and their works aroused laughter, and in war it is so necessary ...

Post-war decades

The propaganda poster did not lose relevance after the victory. Glorifying the Soviet soldiers-liberators, the authors should not forget about the urgent tasks of restorative and creative work. Many samples of those years acquired, in spite of the perfection of the artistic form, signs of statehood, unnecessary splendor, and sometimes complete meaninglessness. What, for example, is the call to vote for "the further flowering of our cities and villages"? And who in 1950 (yes, actually, today too) began to oppose? Or here is another topic - about collective farm crops. To whom is it addressed? The collective farmers already knew how they lived. Poor and poor. And the townspeople guessed this.

Alas, the decades that followed have continued this sad tradition. Posters devoted to the corn epic, virgin land, BAM and other accomplishments, not only did not reflect reality (this is not required from the means of propaganda), but also in an artistic sense was much inferior to the early works of proletarian artists.

Only those that were dedicated to our astronauts were worthily distinguished. They really drew from the heart.