Propaganda!

For much of this term Form 3 have been studying Communist Russia between 1918 to 1939. The topics we have studied, incldung collectivisation, the five year plans and Stalin's personality cult have been brought to life by analysing propaganda sources; looking for their meaning and discussing their purpose and reliability. Propaganda, as we discovered, was used on both sides of the political divide; Soviet Russia and The White's; a wide ranging group of anti communists 

 

Left: An anti-communist poster created by Russian exiles commenting on Stalin's use violence to silence potential critics. Right: A soviet poster portraying Stalin as an inspirational global leader.

Having discussed and written countless answers about sources, the class were tasked with creating their own propaganda sources about different elements of Stalininist Russia. They were asked to come up with, and explain the rationale for, two posters about the same topic, one from a Soviet point of view and one from the point of view of an exiled Russian who was against Communist reforms in the country. I think you will agree there are some very clever ideas...

Stalin's personality cult

             

Left: Poster by Azima (anti-Stalin). Right: Poster by Rattana (pro-Stalin)

Mr W: What topic did you decide to cover?
Anna: The personality cult of Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union who served for 30 years from 1922 to 1952. He built a society that was under his control. To do that, he made himself as a powerful political figure but behaved modestly in public and he often pretended that he and the commoners were socially and emotionally linked through posters and other propaganda campaigns. In other campaigns he is made to look strong or as a visionary.

Mr W: So what have you decided to draw to demonstrate his personality cult?
Anna: My propaganda poster shows kids giving flowers to Stalin and kids in a line at the back of Stalin. Giving flowers to Stalin represents that kids are respecting and praising Stalin. Stalin is also smiling so that he looks like a kind, generous leader, like the father of a nation. Kids at the back means they are following and are loyal to their leader. They are smiling too as if they are so glad that their leader is Stalin. It suggests that Stalin is the one who brings hope and happiness to kids. The caption again tells that Stalin is a great leader who cares about the commoners. The one on the left is obviously anti-Stalin!

Above: Pro-Stalin and anti-Stalin propaganda drawn by Anna

Mr W: Yours looks very different Azima, what is it about? (see above)
Azima: My first poster is about the propaganda of Joseph Stalin. Who is he? He is the leader of the Soviet Union and is best known for fighting the Germans in WW2 and starting the Cold war! In my poster you can learn that Stalin has been blinding the whole world with his “Red Propaganda”. This is shown by the drawing of Stalin pouring red propaganda from a bucket on top of the globe. This suggests that Stalin wants the whole world to think of him as a great global leader. The “black toxic” Stalin is pouring on top of the globe can also suggest oil production, something that increased in Stalin's five year plans. Therefore Stalin is well known for Russia’s oil. The table underneath the globe is the flag of Russia. This shows that not only other countries are blinded by Stalin but so are the Russian people.

Mr W: What about the poster at the top right?
Rattana: This is a propaganda that is pro-Stalin. I drew a group of family members watching Stalin’s speech together in living room and they were supporting him, that suggests that they loved him so much. And on the wall there’s also a picture of him hanging. It’s mean they really support him and loved him so much.

Mr W: I see, although remember that there weren't many TVs around when Stalin was in power, especially in the USSR!

Stakhanovite movement

Mr W: I was drawn to Benjy's poster, not because of the art, but rather the clever iconography of a coal miner. He choose the Stakanovite movement.  A Stakhanovite was a diligent worker who followed the example of Aleksei Grigorievich Stakhanov, a coal miner who supposedly held the record for the most amount of coal mined in a shift. Although these workers were used for propaganda purposes by the government, they were arguably uncommunist as Benjy explains.

Above: A poster about the Stakhanobite workers by Benjy

Mr W: So what is the message here Benjy?

Benjy: My propaganda poster is from the perspective of an exiled Russia. It shows a miner chipping away at a huge chunk of coal. Inside the coal is the communist symbol. This was to represent how the Stakhanovite miners, those workers that were seen as model workers, were actually destroying the idea of communism. This is because for the Stakhanovites, the government’s rule was, the more you work, the more you get. But is this really communism? No. Communism’s idealism is to share everything and wages should be largely equal. Thus the Stakahanovite system doesn’t fall into that idea.

Collectivisation

Mr W: What was Collectivisation?

Que-Bi: Collectivisation was the grouping of farms together into a collective farm. This was done in the late 1920's by Stalin.  Peasants were forced to give up their individual farms and join large farms. During this time Russia sold large quantities of grain and manufactured goods to other countries, but collectivisation resulted in famine as farmers burnt their crops and grew less food in protest at the reforms, causing severe food shortages, and villagers who did not cooperate were sent to the Gulags.

     

Left: Poster by Melanie (anti-Collectivisation_. Right: Pro- Colelctivisation Poster by Lisha

Mr W: How have you decided to talk about it?
Melanie: In did two posters. The propaganda poster shown above is from the perspective of a Russian exile. It shows how different life in Russia can be. In this picture there is Stalin standing on a mountain of gold coins, and a beggar dressing in torn clothes with only one gold coin in the hat. It shows that they both are living in very different conditions, despite the theories of communism. 

Above: Collectivisation Propaganda drawn by Cheng Yet

Mr W: What about the posters above?

Cheng Yet: The first picture is pro-collectivisation. It shows that the woman, as a farmer seems to be very happy while working in the collective farms. It suggests that there is a lot of food and that problems of the past, such as small farms and low technology have been solved.

In the second I am trying to show that farmers are sad and scared. This is clearly shown in the picture where the peasant is begging the government not to take away their food as they did not have enough for themselves. The Soviet government force-ably removed food before collectivisation, causing wide-spread famine.

Mr W: What about you Lisha?
Lisha: In Source 1, I made the poster look colorful, I drew Stalin smiling and some animals which look healthy. I drew this because that was the expectation of collectivisation, that it was a success. This poster also convinces people that Stalin made collectivisation a success and Stalin is a trust able and responsible leader.