10 ms·

Soviet Posters

175 points by Phithagoras 6y ago

cpursley 6y ago
Can anyone recommend a good source within Russia to buy Soviet reproduction posters (I live in Russia)?
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  Maybe a museum, like in the frame story of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBnCo2SKafU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBnCo2SKafU ? (for context, the soviets didn't have separate boy and girl scouts — they were all young pioneers together. So today's russians apparently go clubbing in "sexy pioneer" outfits on 80's nights, much like Halloween in the US is the time for "sexy nurse") Yandex just gave me https://yandex.com/search/?text=ссср%20Плакат%20купить&lr=10520 https://yandex.com/search/?text=ссср%20Плакат%20купить&lr=10... 5 pages of hits...
DavidVoid 6y ago
If you ever have the chance to see parts of the late Ruki Matsumoto's vast collection of Soviet posters, then I highly recommend going! Seeing them in person was (imo) much more interesting than seeing them online. The sheer size of some of them really adds a lot to the aesthetic. I got to see some of them at an exhibition at Liljevalchs in Stockholm in 2018 [1]. My favorite was probably this one [2], which was encouraging workers to not be lazy. Design-wise I think this was the best one [3]. I apologize for the poor picture quality, but if you're interested then there are some more photos from that exhibition here [4]. [1] https://www.liljevalchs.se/utstallningar/sovjetisk-affischkonst/ https://www.liljevalchs.se/utstallningar/sovjetisk-affischko... [2] https://i.imgur.com/5l9t83s.png https://i.imgur.com/5l9t83s.png [3] https://i.imgur.com/fh1mv63.png https://i.imgur.com/fh1mv63.png [4] https://imgur.com/a/FfMOSA5 https://imgur.com/a/FfMOSA5
kalium-xyz 6y ago
Site has been hugged to dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20200602042013/https://www.sovietposters.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20200602042013/https://www.sovie...
voldacar 6y ago
>Soviet posters have always kept pace with the times. They created images of role models for generations of Soviet workers and soldiers, exposed international warmongers and fought for world peace. Ah yes, the peaceful non-imperial USSR, fighting against those international warmongers. That's the Soviet Union I know and love
baybal2 6y ago
I am very surprised to see this post come back from the third page back to front.
myth_drannon 6y ago
It's missing a lot of space themed posters that you can find on AliExpress
lostlogin 6y ago
There was a Soviet poster exhibition at The Tate Modern several years ago. It produced a great book and they reprint some of the posters. http://www.victoriasadler.com/russian-revolutionary-posters-tate-modern/ http://www.victoriasadler.com/russian-revolutionary-posters-...
lihaciudaniel 6y ago
Slashdot'd
dusted 6y ago
seems to have gone offline
every 6y ago
As a child I got to play around with a war surplus shortwave in the 50's and 60's. The English language Radio Moscow signal was very strong, even in Texas. The stories, vignettes and takes on the news were an interesting and sometimes confusing contrast to my essentially Ozzie and Harriet existence. Later, as an art student, I also became fascinated with their visual propaganda. It was not too dissimilar from our WPA stuff: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?st=grid&co=wpapos http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?st=grid&co=wpapos
082349872349872 6y ago
Both Russia and the US have a strong tradition of "demotivational posters", shared online. I've assumed this is because both countries had the non-lamp shaded version first. Do any of you all live somewhere that has demotivational posters as a common meme, but never had the propaganda poster?
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
  Hispanic countries didn't have them (some were Russian backed) but we love the demotivational posters. Dark humor is pretty commmon in spanish countries.
  - samplatt 6y ago
    I might have been too young to see/notice the motivational posters, but here in Australia both the motivational and DEmotivational posters became unironically popular at around about the same time.
Infernal 6y ago
Seems down to me, however http://web.archive.org/web/20200602043034/https://www.sovietposters.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20200602043034/https://www.soviet...
- rob74 6y ago
  Yup... too many visitors from Hacker News maybe? Or maybe they somehow angered the Russian hackers? I'm getting a good ol' PHP/MySQL error (EDIT: with credentials in clear text, I removed them): Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'PDOException' with message 'SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] No such file or directory' in /home/sovietpo/public_html/db.php:17 Stack trace: #0 /home/sovietpo/public_html/db.php(17): PDO->__construct('mysql:host=loca...', '[REDACTED]', '[REDACTED]') #1 /home/sovietpo/public_html/showposter.php(6): include_once('/home/sovietpo/...') #2 {main} thrown in /home/sovietpo/public_html/db.php on line 17
  - RL_Quine 6y ago
    That's unfortunate for a store.
medymed 6y ago
I’ve often been intrigued at the sense of fascination, cultural and technological, directed towards the USSR on HN. I share the fascination. It may stem from an appeal to see engineered works from a system far different than our own both on the technology front as well as cultural engineering/propaganda front; there may be some appeal in the notion that the USSR is historically contained/bounded in some sense and can be isolated and studied; also, the political message of focusing national efforts on progress/technology in some sense would resonate with engineers (though communist policies impeded innovation and no doubt industrious politicians stood to gain more than industrious scientists/engineers at most junctures). Would be interested in others’ thoughts.
- mhh__ 6y ago
  I'm very interested (slowly building up a library) in cold war espionage - no one does it better than the Russians. The present tense is not an oversight, the Lubyanka is still the tallest building in Moscow as the saying goes. To me the Soviet Union represents this kind of philistinic failed experiment (Lenin was literate which therefore elevates him above Hitler?) come horror movie that is simultaneously terrifying and yet very fascinating. One of the strangest things one finds in books about Soviet spies (double agents or not etc.) is that often the only photos of them in public taken with state blessing and thus surviving are those taken by the Soviet internal security services. I find Soviet aircraft design quite interesting too, in the sense that even just in the cockpit designs you can see the work of designers making do with relatively limited budgets. In a flight simulator it becomes obvious that US planes are almost easy to use whereas Russian cockpits are one size fits all (i.e. training vs design costs)
  - 9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago
    For those who haven't heard the joke: the [KGB HQ] Lubyanka is the tallest building in Moscow, because from its basement you [political prisoners] can see Siberia [gulags].
    - 082349872349872 6y ago
rdtsc 6y ago
Some of them are quite dark and powerful https://www.sovietposters.com/showposter.php?poster=871 https://www.sovietposters.com/showposter.php?poster=871 I remember seeing that growing up in a history book somewhere. It's just an image your never forget. There is also something completely unsettling with the "here is how the dead mother and the crying child would look against your mid-century modern furniture" on the website. Site was flaky sometimes returning 500s so I archived the page https://archive.is/ujUpy https://archive.is/ujUpy There is also a terrible and shameful one I had never seen before, "Everyone to the Polish front". Do the owners know what they are posting there? https://www.sovietposters.com/showposter.php?poster=85 https://www.sovietposters.com/showposter.php?poster=85 (https://archive.is/DvQLY https://archive.is/DvQLY) These might seems artsy and cool to some how haven't had their family members suffer during the wars there or who were sent to labor camps. But to those who have, these symbols and images carry a lot of significance.
- Dolores12 6y ago
  First link gave me an error, that revealed their db password. [redacted], '' I leave it here, in case the author shows up.
  - noir_lord 6y ago
    I'd hide the password, hitting it now doesn't give me the password but you are still publicising it here.
    - Dolores12 6y ago
      That's on purpose. It needs to be changed. If i saw it, someone else saw it too.
- zymhan 6y ago
  Does "Everyone to the Polish front" not mean "to fight the Nazis"?
  - dimitar 6y ago
smitty1e 6y ago
Notable in this context is the band Franz Ferdinand: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Ferdinand_(band)#Music_and_art https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Ferdinand_(band)#Music_a...

Soviet Posters

175 points by Phithagoras 6y ago

cpursley 6y ago

Can anyone recommend a good source within Russia to buy Soviet reproduction posters (I live in Russia)?

082349872349872 6y ago
Maybe a museum, like in the frame story of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBnCo2SKafU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBnCo2SKafU ? (for context, the soviets didn't have separate boy and girl scouts — they were all young pioneers together. So today's russians apparently go clubbing in "sexy pioneer" outfits on 80's nights, much like Halloween in the US is the time for "sexy nurse") Yandex just gave me https://yandex.com/search/?text=ссср%20Плакат%20купить&lr=10520 https://yandex.com/search/?text=ссср%20Плакат%20купить&lr=10... 5 pages of hits...

DavidVoid 6y ago

If you ever have the chance to see parts of the late Ruki Matsumoto's vast collection of Soviet posters, then I highly recommend going! Seeing them in person was (imo) much more interesting than seeing them online. The sheer size of some of them really adds a lot to the aesthetic. I got to see some of them at an exhibition at Liljevalchs in Stockholm in 2018 [1]. My favorite was probably this one [2], which was encouraging workers to not be lazy. Design-wise I think this was the best one [3]. I apologize for the poor picture quality, but if you're interested then there are some more photos from that exhibition here [4]. [1] https://www.liljevalchs.se/utstallningar/sovjetisk-affischkonst/ https://www.liljevalchs.se/utstallningar/sovjetisk-affischko... [2] https://i.imgur.com/5l9t83s.png https://i.imgur.com/5l9t83s.png [3] https://i.imgur.com/fh1mv63.png https://i.imgur.com/fh1mv63.png [4] https://imgur.com/a/FfMOSA5 https://imgur.com/a/FfMOSA5

kalium-xyz 6y ago

Site has been hugged to dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20200602042013/https://www.sovietposters.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20200602042013/https://www.sovie...

voldacar 6y ago

>Soviet posters have always kept pace with the times. They created images of role models for generations of Soviet workers and soldiers, exposed international warmongers and fought for world peace. Ah yes, the peaceful non-imperial USSR, fighting against those international warmongers. That's the Soviet Union I know and love

baybal2 6y ago

I am very surprised to see this post come back from the third page back to front.

myth_drannon 6y ago

It's missing a lot of space themed posters that you can find on AliExpress

lostlogin 6y ago

There was a Soviet poster exhibition at The Tate Modern several years ago. It produced a great book and they reprint some of the posters. http://www.victoriasadler.com/russian-revolutionary-posters-tate-modern/ http://www.victoriasadler.com/russian-revolutionary-posters-...

lihaciudaniel 6y ago

Slashdot'd

dusted 6y ago

seems to have gone offline

every 6y ago

As a child I got to play around with a war surplus shortwave in the 50's and 60's. The English language Radio Moscow signal was very strong, even in Texas. The stories, vignettes and takes on the news were an interesting and sometimes confusing contrast to my essentially Ozzie and Harriet existence. Later, as an art student, I also became fascinated with their visual propaganda. It was not too dissimilar from our WPA stuff: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?st=grid&co=wpapos http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?st=grid&co=wpapos

082349872349872 6y ago

Both Russia and the US have a strong tradition of "demotivational posters", shared online. I've assumed this is because both countries had the non-lamp shaded version first. Do any of you all live somewhere that has demotivational posters as a common meme, but never had the propaganda poster?

WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
Hispanic countries didn't have them (some were Russian backed) but we love the demotivational posters. Dark humor is pretty commmon in spanish countries.
- samplatt 6y ago
  I might have been too young to see/notice the motivational posters, but here in Australia both the motivational and DEmotivational posters became unironically popular at around about the same time.

Infernal 6y ago

Seems down to me, however http://web.archive.org/web/20200602043034/https://www.sovietposters.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20200602043034/https://www.soviet...

rob74 6y ago
Yup... too many visitors from Hacker News maybe? Or maybe they somehow angered the Russian hackers? I'm getting a good ol' PHP/MySQL error (EDIT: with credentials in clear text, I removed them): Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'PDOException' with message 'SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] No such file or directory' in /home/sovietpo/public_html/db.php:17 Stack trace: #0 /home/sovietpo/public_html/db.php(17): PDO->__construct('mysql:host=loca...', '[REDACTED]', '[REDACTED]') #1 /home/sovietpo/public_html/showposter.php(6): include_once('/home/sovietpo/...') #2 {main} thrown in /home/sovietpo/public_html/db.php on line 17
- RL_Quine 6y ago
  That's unfortunate for a store.

medymed 6y ago

I’ve often been intrigued at the sense of fascination, cultural and technological, directed towards the USSR on HN. I share the fascination. It may stem from an appeal to see engineered works from a system far different than our own both on the technology front as well as cultural engineering/propaganda front; there may be some appeal in the notion that the USSR is historically contained/bounded in some sense and can be isolated and studied; also, the political message of focusing national efforts on progress/technology in some sense would resonate with engineers (though communist policies impeded innovation and no doubt industrious politicians stood to gain more than industrious scientists/engineers at most junctures). Would be interested in others’ thoughts.

mhh__ 6y ago
I'm very interested (slowly building up a library) in cold war espionage - no one does it better than the Russians. The present tense is not an oversight, the Lubyanka is still the tallest building in Moscow as the saying goes. To me the Soviet Union represents this kind of philistinic failed experiment (Lenin was literate which therefore elevates him above Hitler?) come horror movie that is simultaneously terrifying and yet very fascinating. One of the strangest things one finds in books about Soviet spies (double agents or not etc.) is that often the only photos of them in public taken with state blessing and thus surviving are those taken by the Soviet internal security services. I find Soviet aircraft design quite interesting too, in the sense that even just in the cockpit designs you can see the work of designers making do with relatively limited budgets. In a flight simulator it becomes obvious that US planes are almost easy to use whereas Russian cockpits are one size fits all (i.e. training vs design costs)
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago
  For those who haven't heard the joke: the [KGB HQ] Lubyanka is the tallest building in Moscow, because from its basement you [political prisoners] can see Siberia [gulags].
  - 082349872349872 6y ago

rdtsc 6y ago

Some of them are quite dark and powerful https://www.sovietposters.com/showposter.php?poster=871 https://www.sovietposters.com/showposter.php?poster=871 I remember seeing that growing up in a history book somewhere. It's just an image your never forget. There is also something completely unsettling with the "here is how the dead mother and the crying child would look against your mid-century modern furniture" on the website. Site was flaky sometimes returning 500s so I archived the page https://archive.is/ujUpy https://archive.is/ujUpy There is also a terrible and shameful one I had never seen before, "Everyone to the Polish front". Do the owners know what they are posting there? https://www.sovietposters.com/showposter.php?poster=85 https://www.sovietposters.com/showposter.php?poster=85 (https://archive.is/DvQLY https://archive.is/DvQLY) These might seems artsy and cool to some how haven't had their family members suffer during the wars there or who were sent to labor camps. But to those who have, these symbols and images carry a lot of significance.

Dolores12 6y ago
First link gave me an error, that revealed their db password. [redacted], '' I leave it here, in case the author shows up.
- noir_lord 6y ago
  I'd hide the password, hitting it now doesn't give me the password but you are still publicising it here.
  - Dolores12 6y ago
    That's on purpose. It needs to be changed. If i saw it, someone else saw it too.
zymhan 6y ago
Does "Everyone to the Polish front" not mean "to fight the Nazis"?
- dimitar 6y ago

smitty1e 6y ago

Notable in this context is the band Franz Ferdinand: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Ferdinand_(band)#Music_and_art https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Ferdinand_(band)#Music_a...