Soviet Propaganda Women Artists

"WOMEN AS PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS:  Joseph Stalin's first Five-Year Plan (1928-1932), which aimed to increase industrial productivity and the construction of public infrastructure, created an urgency for Soviet women to enter the workforce.  A campaign for a 'new everyday life' (novyi byt), in which the state would provide services such as childcare, cafeterias, and public laundries, sought to free women from domestic duties and enable them to work outside the  home, in factories and communal farms, for example.  Central to this initiative was the creation of posters, often by women artists assigned to the theme, representing new ways female citizens could be producers and consumers in Soviet society.  These artists sought to reach a wide public as they shaped the socialist ideal of gender equality." 

Valentina Kulagina, Russian, Maquette for We are Building - Stroim.  1929.    "In 1929, no skyscrapers had yet been built in the Soviet Union.  Nevertheless, Kulagina created an aspirational vision of Soviet architecture.  With 'We are building' spanning the cityscape, this maquette promoted Stalin's First Five-Year Plan (1928-32), which supported public infrastructure projects as part of a program to increase the nation's industrial productivity.  Kulagina combined printed images of American architecture, such as the Detroit skyscraper at right, with hand-drawn elements, and inserted sandpaper to suggest the texture of concrete."

Liubov Popova, Russian.  "Long Live the Dictatorship of the Proletariat!".  1923.  Set design for the play 'Earth in Turmoil.'     

    "Artist Constructor:  To be a 'constructor' in 1920's Russia was to create by embracing modern industry, technology, and utility in the service of postrevolutionary society."

Valentina Kulagina, Russian, "Women Shockworkers, Fortify Your Shockworker Brigades, Master Technology, Increase the Cadres of Proletarian Specialists."  1931.

 

Varvara Stepanova, Russian, "Bolster Our Defense with Whatever You Can!", c. 1930.

Natalia Pinus, Russian, "We Will Build Daycares, Playgrounds, and Factory Kitchens, Enlist Working Women into the Ranks of Active Participants in the Industrial and Social Life of the Country!", 1933.

Natalia Pinus, Russian, "Women Workers, Women Collective Farmers, Be in the Front Lines of Fighters for the  Second Five-Year Plan for Building a Classless, Socialist Society!"  1933.