Russian Placards

Propaganda lithographs from 

'Russian Placards, Placard Russe 1917-1922' 

by Vladimir Lebedev, 1923

"The activities of the painter, designer, illustrator, and constructivist, Vladimir Lebedev, encompass a very broad period: from the early 1910s through to the early 1960s, and, consequently, his stylistic [oeuvre] connects with many different trends and avenues of inquiry. In fact, Lebedev started his artistic career as a graphic designer when he was only 14 years old by designing postcards for the Fietta Art Store on the Bolshaia Morskaia in St. Petersburg (his home town); and only a few years later he was already a prolific illustrator of popular and children's magazines[..]

Consciousness of the material of the work (the ink, the print, the lightness of the paper, the brilliant color of the poster's chromolithography) is [..] a condition that unites the various artistic experiences and concerns of Lebedev's career. For example, Lebedev's activity as a caricaturist for the St. Petersburg satirical journal, 'Novyi Satirikon' (New Satyricon) might seem to be quite contrary to his experimental compositions for the posters that he designed for Okna ROSTA (the display windows of the Russian Telegraph Agency) just after the Revolution. 

Chronologically, no more than two years divide these different endeavors since Lebedev began to work for 'Novyi Satirikon' in 1913, intensifying his contributions in 1917-18, while in 1920 he was already invited to participate in the Petrograd Okna ROSTA. Visually and stylistically, the two collaborations are very different, but, nevertheless, they both derive from a single sense of the integrity and inner logic of the graphic materials being employed."
['A Public Art: Caricatures and Posters of Vladimir Lebedev' by Nicoletta Misler IN: The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Vol. 5, Russian/Soviet Theme Issue (Summer, 1987), pp. 60-75.]

The lamentation of the Entente

The union of village and town (workman and villager)

The red vision of Communism is brushing over Europe. 

The placard represents the bourgeois saving themselves from two workmen.

The Red Army and Navy defending Russia's borders.

The new bourgeoisie In the Republic of labour (threat to the proletarian State)

The Entente gives suck to Koltchak. Entente— a puppit (sic) 

decorated with a garland and the Tower of Eiffel, 

the latter with British and French flags on It. Koltchak 

in a three-cornered a pistol case on his back.

Productive propaganda. 

A caster with a casting spoon in his hands, a mould in the left corner.

Agitation for utilizing the bourgeoisie for proletarian purpose. 

The bourgeois in a grey top-hat and apron waits 

upon the workman (feeds him with fish).

Agitation for the closing of markets- "the marauder in heaven and the simpleton in hell". 

The placard represents an owner of a market- stall sitting in a grand house 

at a table with provisions and a gramophone standing on it, 

while a starving citisen under the table is defending the markets.

A work-woman. (Raising productivity through joining 

together small hand-working and trade industries).

A workman with nationalised entreprises in his hands.

A workman sweeping the criminal elements out of the Republic (work conrol).

A marauder at a stall with wares (the struggle against sale in the streets).

A bourgeois tearing his hair on account of the 

second meeting of the International Congress.

"In contradistinction to the satirical drawings of 1913-18, which, basically, still derive from the Decadent culture of the European and Russian Fin de Siècle, the ROSTA posters of 1920-22
rely on different external stimuli. These examples of "public art" are organized according to the juxtaposition of simple colored masses floating against the white background of the paper, i.e., they depend upon a much more abstract and austere formal arrangement for their effect. 

True, some of the ROSTA posters are also satirical and caricatural, but they are very different from the drawings in 'Novyi Satirikon'. For many reasons, they signalled a turning point in Lebedev's artistic biography, and it is not by chance that they evolved after his encounter with cubism."
['A Public Art: Caricatures and Posters of Vladimir Lebedev' by Nicoletta Misler IN: The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Vol. 5, Russian/Soviet Theme Issue (Summer, 1987), pp. 60-75.]

{for clarity, some very minor grammatical changes  were made to the quotes by Misler}

• 'Russian placards, 1917-1922' by Vladimir Lebedev, 1923 is available in html and pdf formats from Dartmouth College Library. (the images above derive from the html layout - they have been cropped back to the page margin and the colour saturation has been bumped up lightly)
• 'Russian placards, 1917-1922' by Vladimir Lebedev 1923 is also available in full from the Wolfsonian-FIU Miami website [thumbnail images of the whole book including all approx. 26 lithographs]
• MoMA biography of Lebedev | Wikipedia |
• Russian Placards by Lebedev at Amazon.
• An original 1923 edition of Lebedev's Placard book sold for >$US4K in 2000.
• British Library - Russian Posters research site.
• **Ne boltai!** "This website provides thousands of selections from a large archive of political propaganda—mainly works on paper—produced by artists in the Soviet Union and its satellites" (note exhibitions!).
• Large collection of digitised Russian futurist books from the State Public Historical Library of Russia (via Ptak Science Books post -->  @ptak).
• Thanks KH! I owe you a vodka. Or 3.
• This post first appeared on the BibliOdyssey website.