Visual Cultures 8 - 1920's in Europe and Russia

Propaganda in graphic design and illustrations during the 1920's Soviet Russia

Propaganda

http://guity-novin.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/chapter-29-propaganda-posters.html

Propaganda is something governments use to manipulate and control the general public. The information used may or may not be true information. Propaganda is used to provoke the general public to do exactly what the government wants, without them necessarily knowing they are under the power of propaganda. 

The revolution

http://www.crestock.com/blog/design/propaganda-design-aesthetics-soviet-retro-posters-118.aspx

The revolution brought a new wave of various forms of art into the mix. Examples would be westernised culture, dada futurism, constructivism, surrealism. This lead to (especially in the early years) the propaganda posters that soviet russia produced being largely influenced by those movements.

Despite this the soviets poster did resinate its own style whilst still being influenced by other means. 

"A spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of communism 1920"

This poster entitled "A spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of communism, 1920" is a prime example of propaganda in Soviet Russia's posters.

Lenin was known as a great debater, who had a fire in his belly. This is well brought across within this poster by his stance, and him pointing. 

There is two main propaganda elements shown in this poster. 

One being the red banner, red represented the revolution in Soviet Russia. The second being the smoke stack which represented the industrial work that was said to help the country move forward to the future.

"Beat the whites with the red wedge 1920"

The picture entitled 'Beat the whites with the red wedge' is another prime example of propaganda poster.

Just like the previous poster this poster also contains a lot of red which again represented the revolution.

When you look at this poster it isn't hard to notice the massive influence of non soviet art movements. This poster is massively influenced by the new avant garde movement. This form of movement actually influenced a lot of other Soviet posters.

Propaganda although can sometimes be used in a bad way, was included in some very iconic pieces of art in the form of posters not only in the Soviet Russia but in other countries like America and Britain.