It's never really a happy experience, talking about death on the scale that I've just outlined. I take it from a perspective looking in very broad terms, the 1920s, the 1930s, the 1940s. Soviet scholars will go through those decades and talk about the peaks and troughs, the purges and you will be welcome to follow up, up in your own time. Now I want to go back to the idea of image and overlay. And how much the way the Soviet Union presented itself to the wide world, to its domestic population. was tried, tried to actually gloss over some of excesses to give a belief in a better way forward. Now certainly during Stalin's life, there was a committed population who having lived underneath the Tsar, almost took the line that anything was better. However, propaganda by the Bolsheviks and the communist party of the Soviet Union was portrayed in a, in a consistent way over, the period of Stalin's life, as I mentioned. And I just want to draw attention to, again, David King's work. In this case, his book Red Star over Russia. And just focus on the way that Lenin is protrayed. Now, this is, at least beginning with the images of Lenin at the Finland station and as you can see, there is a consistent pose with the open hand welcoming, trying to engage the population more widely. Giving direction to Soviet society. Which is repeated, whether it be on top of an armored car, a large bust, a stylized mural or, again, a poster. And we can actually find that again in terms of another pose in a different direction, but in this case giving greater leadership and direction again. It is the same pose repeated including the very stylized image at the bottom here. We flip over, we go back to the Finland station image once more. And slightly modified this is a variation of, sorry, these are six variations of the photograph by Goldstien. And again, it is the open hand, it is giving guidance, and Lenin's image is being critical to the direction of society as it goes through. So I think this is quite an important way of considering that Soviet society, may have not provided the same level of consumption or well being to the population as we've seen in Britain or even America in the great depression. but one of the things that you need to consider is that commitment to a better future through the propaganda. Offering a better future. Offering goals through the Communist Party and their imagery helped reinforce the rule of the Soviet hierarchy. In terms of broader propaganda, where leaders are positioned next to each other is quite an important issue within Soviet propaganda. We talked about this and of opening session of the course. Looking in the modern era on how politicians would be digitally removed from one position and place to another. So that their position of the-the shoulder of great leaders was-was emphasized. The same is true within the Soviet Union and again here are two photographs actually two, representations of banners one giving Stalin amongst the people, suggesting that he is a man of the people. And secondly Stalin juxtaposed next to Lenin but also with Marx and Engels there. So that what is put forward is if you like, a, a retcon view of Stalin's rise. That he was central to the development of Soviet ideology and leadership. that was far from the place. certainly in, in the way that Stalin moved forward we take for instance. Certainly in the way that Stalin moved the Soviet Union forward what we are looking at more than anything is the degree of control, not an ideological commitment, which is his important contribution to the way the Soviet Union developed. Just as banners and posters were an important part of the Soviet leadership's propaganda tools. So were the 1930s show trials if you like making clear to the public that those who dissented would be punished and to go through what appeared to be a judicial process. It was more for public consumption. Now, here we've got a photograph which starts to deal with an issue, we're going to come back to a little bit later. This photograph in 1935 shows Stalin with a group of Soviet leaders, yet you can just about pick out that four of them have had their faces scrawled out of this particular photograph, it's not done subtly. It is an indication of these people having being in Stalin's trust slowly moved out and being moved out of that trust where they [INAUDIBLE] and if you like If, if you like were fed to the dogs in giving the public indications of what happens to those who fail to commit to the loyalty that Stalin required. Now, to to think about another way of putting that into context, here are two presentations of the Soviet Union, one which is a very striking and bold image, Long live Stalin, the first martial of communism. And again, what looks like a tourist guide. In fact it is a tourist guide for the Soviet Union, very stylized, but something that you might see else where. So the contrast between what was shown for internal, internal consumption in a positive light and what was shown in a negative light do contrast really quite greatly. For Stalin, being seen as a great leader on the world stage was important. And these images indicate the degree of, quotes, cooperation that was put forward between the British, the Americans, and the Soviet Union against the common foe in Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. Now one of the recurring themes in discussions between Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt, during the 1940s, was when the Western front would be opened up. I think, given the loss of life of the Soviet Union on the Eastern front, that, that's understandable to dilute, and stretch the Soviet forces across Europe. Winston Churchill very politely, so to speak, decided to forget about the Ribbentrop. the Ribbentrop sorry the one Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of 1939 which saw Poland divided by both Germany and the Soviet Union in a non-aggression pact against each other. I think Churchill particularly was prepared to view his enemy's enemy as a friend at this point and time. So, while we have these strongly patriotic and, and reinforcing images, one of the things you've got to bear in mind is that this propaganda, the politics behind it were far more complex. But it's what's presented to the Soviet public, and again to a certain degree, what's shown to the public more widely. We're going to come back to the way that Stalin's image, and its useful changed over time but this is again another propaganda image from 1953. Him lying in state and in an almost semi-tropical environment with a number of flowers and leaves around it. So, the idea of veneration in death and the respect that's shown in this photograph is something that those who had direct contact with Stalin and his regime, might have found a little bit ironic. Considering the number of people who were not treated with the same respect in their own deaths. What we have is a number of David King's works here. Here, looking at, revolutionary posters. And I want to extend the idea that how the empower of image in the Soviet Union carried across. So, if you consider my comments regarding the wartime alliance, it's very clear from this particular poster um,a very anti-capitalistic view that's a stylized view of France, America and Great Britain as effectively bags of money, rather than being human beings, overlooking the stress of the Soviet Union. So again time of war, time of winning hearts and minds and bringing people together toward a common purpose. What we have is a different use of imagery of the three flags to hear the three bloated capitalists. Another important point of Soviet imagery is the idea of collective effort. So in many of the propaganda posters, you see ordinary people contributing. in these two posters workers holding flags, but, it's the farmer, it's the engineer, its the militia men. What we're actually seeing here is an embodiment of Soviet goals about the role of the individual in part of a collective struggle and if you like its eulogizing the importance of the individual even though the way the Soviet Union was run and operated was very much from the top down. Once more, in terms of the iconography almost of Lenin. Here we have another poster from 1924. he is in a similar pose to those I that I indicated before. You have the industrialization of Soviet Union in the background. But nevertheless, he's, pointing forward. He is leading the country in a consistent manner. As well as the positive images. we need to talk about how the enemies of the state were characterized. these posters indicate those who were the wreckers, the counter-revolutionaries. Again horribly caricatured. And also the idea of the rich peasant. The idea that farmers within the Soviet Union were, to a certain degree, taking advantage of the leeway of the new economic policy. And while they were fulfilling their quotas, they are also making profits for themselves. These who were not complying with the broad view of Stalinist rule, even portrayed in an extremely negative light. It's quite an important aspect of the way that the Soviet Union was portrayed, was in terms of modernity. The Soviet Union moving forward. these two posters pick up very well the idea that aircraft and production of in in that sphere moves the Soviet Union on from its older, peasant traditions if you like. It's pre revolutionary legacy. And it is now in the forefront of technological change. So what can the Soviet Union develop and what kind of offer. Well, the way that the, this composite posters are put together set in the 1930 a better future than possibly was in the West in the aftermath of the great depression. And again, in terms of the position of the leader, something which is very much,um, a composite picture quite stylized in some respects, but Stalin at the center being applauded by the population. But in the background almost giving approval, you have the image of Lenin almost overlooking what Stalin retconed himself to be his prodigy, which is hardly the case immediately after the revolution. Let's just look at two more images, both coming through in the war and post-war period. The first one showing Stalin as again, most prominent under the CCCP symbol but beneath him holding a similar pose, as if there was a commonality purpose. And beyond that, we have a very stylized view. Where again, you have Stalin on the red flag matched against a picture of Lenin, a statute of Lenin and this is looking at the 30th anniversary of the Russian revolution. once more it is important that Stalin is seen to be in proximity to Lenin and figuratively to have his blessing. Here's another poster which show the importance of Stalin's proximity to Lenin. Here Stalin is central, you have those around him appearing to give support, and again over his shoulder is Lenin looking on, we assume, approvingly. And for a larger poster, you get, you have the great theoretical leaders of the Russian Revolution. Stalin is in the picture along with Lenin, Marx and Engels. So while this is a very rapid and somewhat stylized view of the way that the imagery is used in the Soviet Union you could see that they were very bold and compelling images, either very positively or very negatively depending on the stance of the Soviet Union at the time. and this is why I think just to counterpoint what we're going to be doing next. the concern that Stalin had about his image in the population, and the, the success of the Soviet Union. This might explain to a certain degree how the poster images and these stylized images. Then moved through to the changed actual images.
