Modern PR technologies are far ahead of the propaganda tools of relatively recent times. Today, public consciousness is influenced to the greatest extent by electronic media, among which the global Internet is becoming increasingly important. At the same time, this, at first glance, already outdated way of suggesting and forming the right thoughts, like a campaign poster, remains in demand and effective.
Early Soviet posters
In pre-revolutionary Russia, leaflets and other printed media, including posters, were rarely used by the authorities. But in the first years of Soviet power, this type of propaganda acquired a special significance, received rapid development and even became a separate type of modernist and futuristic art. The people should have outlined the joyful prospects of the new world, created an impression of the laws of the ongoing changes and instilled the idea of an inevitable and difficult bloody struggle and selfless labor. Bright and bold colors were required, unusual approaches to the design of thesemass-produced works of art. Soviet propaganda posters of those years are distinguished by their expressiveness and revolutionary nature, not only in content, but also in form. They urge to sign up as volunteers for the Red Army, to beat the bourgeois, to hand over bread to the proletarian food detachments and not to drink raw water, avoiding dangerous vibrios teeming in it. Famous artists and poets (Denny, Mayakovsky and others) had a hand in the creation of these masterpieces (their rare copies are now at a great price), which explains their high artistic merit.
Interwar period
The harsh years have passed, and after them new ones began, also difficult. The curves of the party's political line echoed the propaganda posters. The USSR was building socialism, the NEP was curtailed, the scale of the creation of an industrial base accompanied no less grandiose transformations in the countryside. Industrialization was accompanied by collectivization, which left the peasants practically without property, both private and personal. People were hard and hungry. There was a need to explain why and why they should patiently endure hardships and hardships, in the name of what.
Today, in some countries, this task is performed by television, less often by radio, pointing to bright prospects, for example, democracy and freedom. At that time, these funds were not available, at least among the broad masses, but the propaganda poster hanging on the fence, billboard, or even just on the wall, successfully replaced them. In addition to calls to work hard and strengthen everything that is possible,warnings about insidious enemies and spies, from which one defense is vigilance, have become relevant. And there is no need to talk much…
Holy War
The most famous propaganda poster of the war years in the Soviet years was familiar to everyone, old and young. It depicts a woman whose face expresses anger. Against the backdrop of rising bayonets, the Motherland called everyone who could intercede for her, under fluttering banners. Perhaps there are no more posters in the world that are equal in their expressive power to this work. The song "Holy War" resounds in the ears of everyone who sees it.
There were other samples of propaganda printing from the times of the Great Patriotic War, they clearly showed the crimes of the invaders, children clinging to the wall in front of a fascist bayonet aimed at them, black bombs flying at peaceful Soviet cities, and Soviet soldiers, a decisive blow crushing hordes of the Nazis.
Posters ridiculing the German Fuhrer and his political entourage deserve special attention. The artists wittily noticed the caricature features of the faces and figures of the Nazi "Parteigenosse", and their works caused laughter, and in war it is so needed …
Post-war decades
The campaign poster did not lose its relevance even 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 were acquired, despitethe impeccability of the artistic form, signs of bureaucracy, unnecessary splendor, and sometimes complete meaninglessness. What, for example, is the call to vote for “the further flourishing of our cities and villages” worth? And who in 1950 (yes, in fact, today too) would oppose? Or here's another topic - about collective farm crops. To whom is it addressed? Collective farmers already knew how they lived. Bad and poor. And the townspeople knew about it.
The subsequent decades, alas, continued this sad tradition. Posters dedicated to the corn epic, virgin lands, BAM and other accomplishments not only did not reflect reality (this is not required from propaganda tools), but in an artistic sense they were much inferior to the early works of proletarian artists.
Only those dedicated to our astronauts stood out favorably. They were really drawn from the heart.
