Our Notes & References

Rare ephemera, here in immaculate condition, produced in the framework of the illiteracy elimination campaign in the post-Revolutionary Russia.

Following the revolution of 1917 and in the conditions of ongoing Civil War the Bolsheviks desperately needed support of the population in order to secure and strengthen their control over the country. They were widely propagating revolutionary ideas in books, brochures and periodicals, however, with the literacy level as low as 31,9% the message was simply failing to reach the Bolshevik’s target audience. On December 1, 1919 the ruling body adopted a decree “On illiteracy elimination in the Soviet Federative Socialist Republic”, which was followed by an establishment of a special commission for its implementation.

Along with compulsory education measures the Bolsheviks embarked on a mass production of posters that effectively communicated simple messages through their eye-catching design and short easy-to-read slogans. In the conditions of economic collapse, low cost of production was no less important factor.

Printed on fragile cheap paper and destined to be put on facades and other surfaces in the open-air, posters were usually short-lived. Survivors in such fine condition as the offered copy are a rare find.

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.

Bibliography

Бутник-Сиверский Б.С. Советский плакат эпохи гражданской войны. 1918-1921. М., 1960. № 3317. Стр. 491. (138). Полонский В. Русский революционный плакат. М. 1925. № 738. Стр. 178. (057).