Our Notes & References

Scarce poster promoting literacy and reading in the young Soviet Union.

Enforcing literacy among Soviet citizens was crucial for developing a skilled workforce in industry and agriculture, as well as shaping a new way of life and work organisation. A nationwide campaign to eradicate illiteracy began in 1919, following a decree by Vladimir Lenin that required all Soviet citizens aged 8 to 50 to be literate in their native language. This was soon accompanied by a strong propaganda push nationwide.

This early poster promoting reading shows an interesting imagery, mixing pre-revolutionary aspects with typical Soviet representations abundantly used later. The man is close to the typical workers who were to embrace literacy for the first time: while holding a book in one hand, he is striking an oddly combative pose, with his other hand clenched into a fist and a large hammer resting against his left leg – a factory worker, or a builder. Opposite him however stands a young woman in a long, pre-Soviet-era dress, reading in almost a romantic pose; the style of the typography contains also pre-revolutionary elements. Looking at the towering stack of books between our two characters, they both might already be well-versed in reading— or at the start of carrying out their “obligation” or “duty”. Interestingly, the books piled on the floor look very much like antiquarian books!

The poster was printed by the Petrograd State Publishing House, but still bearing the name of one of the leading pre-revolutionary press, Adolf Marks’s firm, which was nationalised and fully integrated into Gosizdat in late 1920.

The artist, Sergei Ivanovich Ivanov (1885–1942), trained at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture under Russia’s famous impressionist Konstantin Korovin. Between 1906 and 1914, he worked as an artist and designer at the Bolshoi Theatre and later was also a member of the Stanislavsky Opera Theatre before serving as the chief artist of the Maly Theatre from 1924 to 1940. Ivanov died in 1942 while in evacuation in Samarkand.

Rare: we could locate only one copy in Western libraries (NYPL, not in great condition) and three in Russia (RGB, State Historical Museum, and Rybinsk Museum and Nature Reserve).