A new travelling exhibition organised by The Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford explores the art made during the tumultuous decade, and includes propaganda posters, revolutionary landscapes, papercuts and household objects. But private entities did their share in the comic book war against Communism as well. Witness a particularly wild example, Is This Tomorrow?, above. Published by the “Catechetical Guild Educational Society” in St. Paul, MN, this 1947 comic implicates government regulation of business, social welfare programs, anti-religious sentiment, and “people giving up their silly ideas about ‘sacredness’ of life” in a fiendishly orchestrated plot to take over America. Workers who embrace Communist doctrine are little more than dupes and pawns. You can read the whole feverish scenario here. Around this time, many artists sought to "outsmart censorship with subtle wit." Posters thus became the perfect way to accomplish this goal. Representing socialism as an ape-like demon strangling some sort of goddess of “prosperity,” this striking piece of poster art sets the tone for almost all of the anti-Communist propaganda to come in the wake of the Russian Revolution. At least since this early graphic salvo, Communists and socialists have generally been depicted as terrifying monsters. See, for example, an early, post-WWI example of Russian anti-Communist propaganda above, portraying the Communist threat as an apocalyptic horseman of death. It didn’t stop at posters. All facets of media were used as political tools to install kitschy hope and pride into societal bloodstreams.

Posters of the golden age of Soviet cosmonauts - BBC News Posters of the golden age of Soviet cosmonauts - BBC News

Wikimedia Commons During the Cold War, it was common to see Polish people waiting in long lines outside of state-run grocery stores. This digital collection comprises selected materials from the following archival collection at David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library: Russian Posters collection 1919-1989 and undated We must make the young into a generation of Communists. Children, like soft wax, are very malleable and they should be moulded into good Communists... We must rescue children from the harmful influence of the family... We must nationalize them. From the earliest days of their little lives, they must find themselves under the beneficent influence of Communist schools... To oblige the mother to give her child to the Soviet state – that is our task." As the perceived threat increased, so too did the scale of the monstrous caricatures. In the post-WWI era German and Norwegian posters above, Godzilla-sized Communists lay waste to entire cities. Below, in “Bolshevism Unmasked,” an example from the Second World War, the skeletal Communist destroyer straddles the entire globe. In the 50s and 60s, pop culture media like film and comic books lent themselves particularly well to anti-Communist propaganda, and they were exploited relentlessly by government agencies, production companies, and corporations. Films like I Married a Communist (below) and The Red Menace (top), both from 1949, offered sensationalized pulpy takes on the red scare.

What's so special about these vintage posters?

Relatively inexpensive, compared with Soviet-era paintings, for example, older examples from the 1920s and 1930s can be found in poster shops around the world. Take note: it is easy for both professional collectors and hobbyists to get burned.

Seeing red: The propaganda art of China’s Cultural Revolution Seeing red: The propaganda art of China’s Cultural Revolution

Polish movie posters dwindled in production throughout the 1970s, and all but disappeared by the late 1980s. In 1989, film distribution was privatized, meaning that the once vibrant art form was dead. This blog is inspired by a recent donation of Russian Revolution posters by Bill Broadbent to St Edmund Hall. Calling themselves The Red Guards, radical students set out to destroy the "four olds": old ideas, customs, habits and culture. They spearheaded the interrogation, humiliation and beatings of teachers and intellectuals, and travelled the country destroying cultural heritage.Between World War I and World War II, the purpose of posters changed slightly. Instead of promoting artistic events and performances, many posters were more geared toward advertising products. Other posters would promote Poland itself and encourage tourists to visit the country. When paired with an educational system that would indoctrinate and form a “new-man” to embody the Soviet cause, it seemed that the Soviet propaganda machine--and by extension, the Soviets--was unstoppable.

Communist Posters for Sale - Fine Art America

Original Soviet posters will include the print run, date and often the artist's name. Before they buy, collectors also should factor in gallery and auction house commissions and other costs. Lowry said cheaper posters can just be kept in a poster tube somewhere dry, but Grigorian insures his posters and stores them in a special art storage unit. During the Cultural Revolution traditional artists were condemned as counter-revolutionaries and their work destroyed. A new style of art was required that supported the Maoist line and served the worker, peasant and soldier. Some Soviet graphic artists are particularly prized, such as Georgii and Vladimir Stenberg, Alexander Rodchenko, El Lissitzky and Gustav Klutsis, partly because their vibrant, avant-garde designs have greatly influenced today’s western artists.

Why did you want to bring this project to life?

Russian and international collectors are enthralled by the history, subject matter and extraordinary graphic imagery of posters produced from 1917 to 1991. Prices have increased considerably since the Soviet Union broke up. Chisholm Larsson's founder, Robert Chisholm, says that posters bought in 1991 are probably worth three-times the amount today. In some cases they could be worth much more. These images permeated all areas of everyday life and were reproduced on all manner of objects including matchboxes, which before had usually shown images from Chinese folklore. There are some hungry, aggressive poster collectors and you're speaking to one of them,” joked Dr Sergo Grigorian, a Russian collector based in London who has over 2000 political Soviet posters. For those fascinated by Soviet graphic design and communist history, posters are an easy way to start a collection. Their topics touch on the environment, health, film and space exploration, as well as classic propaganda, depicting Lenin, Soviet workers and Stalin's five-year plans.