soviet propaganda: the new woman

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From the foreward: “Women’s high position in the Soviet society, the position they have won under the leadership of the Party of Lenin and Stalin, has placed them, together with the rest of the Soviet people, in the vanguard of the progressive forces of mankind. … The sucessful solution of the woman question in the U.S.S.R. is eloquent, irrefutable evidence of the advantages of the Soviet social and state system over capitalism; it shows that only the path of Lenin and Stalin, the glorious path to Communism, leads to freedom and happiness for the people, to freedom and happiness for mankind.”

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I have found a treasure chest of a store. It is small and unassuming yet located in one of Delhi’s ritzier neighbourhoods, Hauz Kaus. It sits nestled among art galleries and designer clothing stores and lies next to beautiful old ruins and serene (albeit faintly lime-coloured) pond. Its treasures include hundreds of old Bollywood posters, old family photographs and musty, antique books. Among the piles of books I found one which was printed in Moscow in 1949 and titled “Women in the Land of Socialism”. This maroon-covered gem of a book is the closest I’ve come to original Soviet propaganda. “The Land of Socialism” didn’t, in fact, do very well by its population (male or female). The book is filled with romantic (and twisted), Stalinist lingo and pictures of various female Stalinist heroes. If one believes the images and personal narratives of the book, the Soviet Union was a land in which doing conveyor belt labour was a) of the upmost importance, b) a sign of gender equality, and c) the most delightful work on the planet.

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mother mother

“Natalia Filippovna Novichkova: recipient of the Mother Heroine title, has brought up ten children.”

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“N. A. Prozorova: Hero of Socialist Labour, in a hothouse of teh Krasny Oktyabr Kokhoz.”

Certain artists were considered “heroes of socialist labour” as important as the farmers, mothers and ice-skaters pictured above. Artists were essential: they created the visual propaganda which was part of the Stalinist backbone. Before he fell out of favour, Yuri Pimenov was one such artist.

Give to Heavy Industry

In keeping with the themes of my little maroon book, the “New Soviet Woman” was often the subject of Soviet poster art as gender equality was propagated by the state.

Down With Kitchen Slavery

"mother of the city" statue

Once upon a time I lived in the Soviet Union, and watched it fall apart from our apartment window. Economically, socially and politically speaking, I’m not sure that Russia has stopped crumbling since then.

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lining up for shashlik, gorky park, moscow

Moscow’s Gorky Park is named after Maxim Gorky, a Russian Socialist Realist author. He was allegedly a personal friend to Lenin for some time, although this relationship eventually turned sour. While in fascist Italy, Stalin personally invited Gorky to return to Moscow.  True to the violentally fickle nature of Stalinist leadership, a few years later the writer was placed under house arrest yet Stalin himself helped carry Gorky’s coffin during his funeral.

Visiting graveyards is a common, slightly morbid part of our family trips. John & I stand in front of Pasternak’s grave:

Pasternak's Grave

Like many Russian writers of his generation Boris Pasternak had to drastically adapt his poetry to suite Soviet politics of the 1920s. Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (for Doctor Zhivago) but due to severe censorship, told the Swedish Academy that he would be unable to accept the prize.

Beginnings of Collapse (in a square near our Moscow apartment):

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“Death to Capitalism” – Anti-Yeltsin protestors in Moscow.

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russian white house - bombed

family