Now I will present 6 propaganda posters that were shown during the period of 1917 until Stalin’s death.
At the bottom of this poster reads “We are READY for work!”. This poster is a strong form of propaganda. The purpose of this poster is to have more workers working for the country, to be specific, its target are the farmers. By saying that they are ready for work, it indirectly tells the audience (targeting farmers) to work hard. This poster indicates that if the Russians are able to say this phrase, the country would be proud of them. This form of propaganda psychologically affects the reader. As you can see in the poster, the main person is the woman with a determined and ready look on her face. She looks healthy, well-fed and most importantly, quite happy to be saying “We are READY for work!”. Without even realizing themselves, after reading the message, the Russians get the feeling of pride for working hard and of course would want to continue working hard to make the country proud. This poster proves very effective as the message and purpose is clearly passes across and soaked into the audiences’ brain. Yet it is hardly noticed by the audience.
On the upper right corner of this poster is written “The future is with us!” While at the bottom center is written “Leninism is our ideal!”. At first sight, the audience would see the three black and white people; then their eyes would probably move to read the upper corner words. Lastly they would read the bottom center words. The word Lenin would bring them to realize that Lenin was in the background of the picture! This is another tricky propaganda poster. The phrase “the future is with us!” is directing its audience to three groups of people, the workers, the farmers, and middle class people. The workers are substituted in the poster by the man with the hat, the farmers would probably be the woman, and the middle class people are represented by the man furthest from view. The message “Leninism is our ideal” is actually the vital part though. Of course, the people reading it wouldn’t realize that it’s that message that the poster was trying to give. After reading the poster, their brain would automatically see Leninism as a synonym for giving them a bright future. Without realizing, after they have read the poster, the message to support Lenin and his ideas has been successfully passed.
The white writing on the top left corner reads, “Don’t look where the bosses point their fingers to – have your own mind!”. This poster might’ve been created during a revolutionary period of Russia. Whoever created this poster knows that people were unhappy with their life already, the people wanted change, yet they still followed their leaders. When this sort of person sees this poster, they automatically thinks: yeah, why am I always following my boss and doing things that made no improvement, don’t I have my own mind? This poster would also be put up during a period when revolutionaries are striking. This suggests the audience to join that revolutionary party. The reader might’ve been thinking about joining the revolutionary movement already but this final propaganda poster gives them the decisive action to join. This poster, without ever suggesting the audience to join a revolutionary party, using indirect words such as “point their fingers” referring to whatever the people were forced to do, and “bosses” referring to whoever rules that they are unhappy with. This message might in majority be directing at not peasants or workers, because the smaller figure, seems to be a person with power in society, just not the most powerful. The message is successfully planted into the readers’ mind and would even be the final push to make the reader decide to join in the revolutionary party.
This is a poster of Stalin with a Red flag that reads, VKPB or the communist party in the background. The poster is titled at the bottom “Josef Vissarionovich Stalin” which is his full name. Stalin is holding PRAVDA, the truth which is a communist newspaper. This poster uses propaganda through psychological means. First they used his full name as to show respect, suggesting to the audience that Stalin s a great man. Next, it is also sort of an advertisement to read the newspaper PRAVDA (which is probably a censored newspaper) because if this great man Stalin is reading PRAVDA, shouldn’t everyone read it too? Showing Stalin dressed in a military uniform with Hero of the Soviet Union medal shows that he is a qualified warrior with a lot of accomplishment. And of course, this is to gain respect from the poster’s audience. Then lastly, in the picture, Stalin is looking far off, may be in to the horizon and beyond, with (as described by a writer on the internet) “the Mona Lisa smile” expression. This tells the audience that the future would be great. Yes, the poster is, in simple words, telling the audience that with Stalin as their leader, their future would be wonderful.
This poster’s main subject is Lenin with a phrase saying: “The symbol of peace – symbol of socialism” in the middle. Aside from Lenin, there is the Spasskij tower of the Kremlin and the Parliament building to the right and left. This poster is saying making Lenin act as the bright sign shining on Russia . Russia is symbolized by these two buildings. The Spasskij tower symbolizes eternality. The poster is saying that Lenin is a symbol of peace and socialism, eternally shining the way for the Russians. It gives that impression so the people would believe and support Lenin. Putting the word “peace” and “socialism” together suggests that a socialist government would provide peace. At that time, the Russians would do anything for peace. Looking at the poster in a whole, it makes Lenin and Socialism having direct ties with “peace”. Seeing this poster, the audience would naturally support socialism and Lenin and therefore, the purpose of this poster is fulfilled.
In this poster, the ballot says: “ For the Motherland, for Stalin, for World Peace, for Communism.” This is extreme propaganda to promote Stalin. Reading this, the people would get the impression that all these words means the same thing because supporting any one of the ideas would mean supporting all of them. Seeing all these words having a common meaning, the audience would support it. The people during that period wanted peace and were quite nationalistic, so they would support those two ideas. Then, seeing that communism could bring peace, they would support that too. And without knowing, the reader had automatically supported Stalin because communism and Stalin meant almost the same idea. Having gone through that process, the purpose of this poster is fulfilled as now they people is brainwashed with the idea that Stalin meant peace and they wanted peace, so therefore, they would fully support Stalin.As you can see, propaganda plays many roles during the Russian Revolution. It promoted ideas of revolutionaries, leaders, and what was wanted of the Russians. Propaganda was a very important source to get the people to feel revolutionary. It also promoted leaders so that the people would support and respect him. Having the support and respect for the leader wasn’t enough to control the people, so propaganda is again used to get the people to perform tasks for the country like farming surplus. Russian people were taught what to believe and told what to believe. They were blocked from the full truth because of severe censorship. They believed, trusted, respected their leader fully because the leader’s greatness was planted and had rooted inside their hearts so entirely that their brain couldn’t interfere with the truth. For Russia, propaganda to the leaders meant obedience, but to the people of Russia, it meant a lies or covered-up truth that they were brainwashed with. Nevertheless, propaganda proved its power on the history of Russia. Without the use of propaganda, the vast amount of people in Russia would’ve been impossible to please and control.
