In the USSR even fabrics were used for propaganda. People ate on communist tablecloths, slept on communist sheets and hung communist curtains in their rooms. It seems crazy today, but such method of brainwashing effectively contributed to the huge propagandistic system of revolutionary communists.
It would be cool to have such fabrics at home today.
via streetart-ekb
Who says the Soviet Union didn’t produce high-quality toilet paper?
LOL @ Soviets, i like the one glorifying factories belching black clouds of smoke into the air.
Dear America, factories are an integral part of what econmists call an industrial basis of a national economy. That is something You do not have any more. Instead of this You got gas stations, fast food corners and drilling/fracking sites. And when it comes to environmental legislation the US is certainly not the trend setter. So a bit more humility from your side would be more appropiate.
LOL what is your partisan political point? It’s still comical that they would glorify pollution belching factories as fashionable fabric prints. Pure propaganda! Every bit as ridiculous and ignorant as 1950 Americans shouting “progress!” with no regard for the environment or anything else. Different times and sadly comical in a bad and ignorant way.
Also, what Jeebs said about “product placement”, i.e. propaganda.
And BTW while manufacturing in the US has declined greatly, there are still MANY US manufactures. Nearly every job I’ve had has been with companies that manufacture technical products within the US. Many of them export a great deal of their production to international markets too. Manufacturing may have decline greatly but its far from dead and gone in the USA.
In fact the 2008 economic crisis actually set the ground work for many new manufacturing operations here in the US that weren’t practical before. Not a silver lining but welcome nonetheless.
Also there are actually US companies that have offshored production only to realize the saving weren’t what they thought they would be due to various reasons and returned to the US.
I did not know that You are such a treehugger
These little ties are at least 30 to 60 years old. BTW back in the 50s or 70s in the US, the smoke comming out of factories symbolized wealth and prosperity. Because if the factory does not smoke, there are no jobs. Today we see, especially in the US, that there is some truth to that.
Thanks god, nowadays there is filter technology available to purify the emissions of factories. If you got one at least.
No treehugger just amused by what past generations choose to promote as fashionable for political reasons. Especially in hind sight. Just look at all of the Soviet era wastelands that exist today. Like Norilsk mining operations, etc… oh the horror of those places today! The surrounding earth stripped bare, trees dead, creeks and ponds of horrifically naturally color substances flowing throughout etc. Even third world poo holes like Mexico look like environmental saints by comparison.
naturally color=unnaturally colored
Today there is enough clean technology to be applied in any industrial operation. There are plants today that churn out cleaner air or water than they actually take in. The commies just gave shyte about the environment and about their people in general and the oligarchs of today are not much better. As I said, the smoke is symbolical, not that I want to see black smoke coming out of factories.
“As I said, the smoke is symbolical, not that I want to see black smoke coming out of factories.”
Exactly, which brings me back to what i already said… it’s propaganda.
“Also, what Jeebs said about “product placement”, i.e. propaganda.”
Looks like commie Hermes silk ties
I understand most counties have some sort of brain washing going on from subliminal to product placement. Russia you take first place
Ah, we can only wonder about the identity of the un-person who was so carefully cut from one corner of the “Lenin” piece!
A look at the other three corners reveals intact the resolute visages of Marx, Engels, and Trotsky, so whoever it was must have fallen from grace before Leon took his own fall during Communism’s gleaming dawn, in the 1920′s. (And good luck there was, to the brave soul who secreted this treasure from prying eyes, at great personal risk, once Trotsky too should have been clipped from his own corner.)
Trotsky’s presence reveals this piece of fabric to be a genuine antique, but who is the missing man?
If English Russia ever solves this small mystery, kindly let the rest of us in on the secret, please, oh do.
Ah, we can only wonder about the identity of the un-person who was so carefully cut from one corner of the “Lenin” piece!
A look at the other three corners reveals intact the resolute visages of Marx, Engels, and Trotsky, so whoever it was must have fallen from grace before Leon took his own fall during Communism’s gleaming dawn, in the 1920′s. (And good luck there was, to the brave soul who secreted this treasure from prying eyes, at great personal risk, once Trotsky too should have been clipped from his own corner.)
Trotsky’s presence reveals this piece of fabric to be a genuine antique, but who is the missing man?
If English Russia ever solves this small mystery, kindly let the rest of us in on the secret, please, oh do.
Thanks Lev, you have a good eye! I didn’t notice that. I’ve only seen one other Soviet image of Trotsky – they’re so rare, for obvious reasons. I also want to know where it came from.
To ER: rather than calling this work ‘propaganda’, can we distinguish between different periods of Soviet art? Yes, Constructivist art – of which I’d say 7, and 9 through 12 are examples of – was about seeing the new world in a new way, using human-made forms in place of organic ones, to show workers could make their own future.
This kind of art was shut down by the people who made the conservative ‘grapes’ fabric. Although this is one medium, there are opposing styles. It’s actually proof that, there was a revolution in Russia and it was defeated. You can trace that rise and fall of genuine socialism through art.
Great post!
The hidden guy is Sjuganov
amazing!!!An other planet.
Some ugly stuff!
It’s funny how readily most of Western folks points out “propaganda” — any red flag, red star or “USSR” on a fabric, immediately with hysterical comments like “communist monster Stalin eating kids for lunch” WHILE completely ignoring the real propaganda of the capitalism and human exploitation which is penetrating everywhere in the western world.
Maybe those ridiculous ties are not the best example, but the USSR was a huge brain washing tank, make no mistake about it. That is why people eventually had enough and overthrew the regime.
“That is why people eventually had enough and overthrew the regime.”
They had enough when the propaganda obvious no longer had any relative to the reality on the street. By the ’80s the Soviet planned economy was just in shambles and there was no denying it. The level of communist FAIL was blatant and intolerable so.
relative=relation