Iconography of Power: Soviet Political Posters under Lenin and Stalin (Studies on the History of Society and Culture) [Hardcover]

Victoria E. Bonnell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520087127 | ISBN-13: 978-0520087125 | Publication Date: February 5, 1998 | Edition: 1

Masters at visual propaganda, the Bolsheviks produced thousands of vivid and compelling posters after they seized power in October 1917. Intended for a semi-literate population that was accustomed to the rich visual legacy of the Russian autocracy and the Orthodox Church, political posters came to occupy a central place in the regime's effort to imprint itself on the hearts and minds of the people and to remold them into the new Soviet women and men.

In this first sociological study of Soviet political posters, Victoria Bonnell analyzes the shifts that took place in the images, messages, styles, and functions of political art from 1917 to 1953. Everyone who lived in Russia after the October revolution had some familiarity with stock images of the male worker, the great communist leaders, the collective farm woman, the capitalist, and others. These were the new icons' standardized images that depicted Bolshevik heroes and their adversaries in accordance with a fixed pattern. Like other "invented traditions" of the modern age, iconographic images in propaganda art were relentlessly repeated, bringing together Bolshevik ideology and traditional mythologies of pre-Revolutionary Russia.

Symbols and emblems featured in Soviet posters of the Civil War and the 1920s gave visual meaning to the Bolshevik worldview dominated by the concept of class. Beginning in the 1930s, visual propaganda became more prescriptive, providing models for the appearance, demeanor, and conduct of the new social types, both positive and negative. Political art also conveyed important messages about the sacred center of the regime which evolved during the 1930s from the celebration of the heroic proletariat to the deification of Stalin.

Treating propaganda images as part of a particular visual language, Bonnell shows how people "read" them--relying on their habits of seeing and interpreting folk, religious, commercial, and political art (both before and after 1917) as well as the fine art traditions of Russia and the West. Drawing on monumental sculpture and holiday displays as well as posters, the study traces the way Soviet propaganda art shaped the mentality of the Russian people (the legacy is present even today) and was itself shaped by popular attitudes and assumptions.

Iconography of Power includes posters dating from the final decades of the old regime to the death of Stalin, located by the author in Russian, American, and English libraries and archives. One hundred exceptionally striking posters are reproduced in the book, many of them never before published. Bonnell places these posters in a historical context and provides a provocative account of the evolution of the visual discourse on power in Soviet Russia.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Bolsheviks, Victoria Bonnell writes, were the world's first masters of visual propaganda, a form necessary to spread revolution in a largely illiterate nation. Political posters took the place of religious icons as a means of unifying the people, and artistic experimentation was encouraged--at least until Stalin came to power. After his ascension, artists were ordered to "typicalize" their work, to ignore present realities and instead imagine a glorious socialist future. This idealized artistic representation led to depictions of female collective farmers who might have been fashion models and to other such distortions. Bonner's text is packed with visual examples, and the whole book is a fascinating study in political imagery.

Review

"Replete with weighty arguments, learned allusions, and thick documentation. . . . For all that, Iconography of Power is refreshingly jargon free and . . . a delight to read. . . . [An] attractively produced and intelligently written book." -- Richard Stites, American Journal of Sociology

"This book reveals a great deal about Soviet culture and should become essential reading for all those interested in the history of Russian politics, society, culture, and art." -- Christina Lodder, Slavic Review

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 385 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (February 5, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520087127
• ISBN-13: 978-0520087125
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,884,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Iconoclasts of Power, January 15, 2009

By 

Ciprian E. Ivanof (Minneapolis, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Iconography of Power: Soviet Political Posters under Lenin and Stalin (Studies on the History of Society and Culture) (Paperback)

The scholarship is quite new for Westerners but is more common sense for those with the joy of life under Communism. That does not detract from the pioneering nature of her study though.

The real stars of the book are the posters themselves. For however much ink has been spilled describing them, few academics actually give pictures of them when discussing them. Collections of propaganda posters do exist but even the Russian ones are far from complete but even the collections sold in Moscow gift stores are more complete than this.

That is not surprising nor should it be taken too negatively, the author can only discuss so much in a sufficient level of detail. The book may be broken down into several key themes. These would be import and nature of propaganda posters in a time where even newspapers were a luxury. The early ideological and artistic influences on the posters designed is quite interesting but sadly is only partially covered in favor of analyzing the works from a sociological perspective emphasizing the distinctions between the Bolshevik Intelligentsia, the Urban audiences, and the rural audiences.

This last element is the best presented. The differences in time, relative literacy, symbolism, and political influences and ideological priority between rural areas and the urban workers is massive in considering how propaganda was framed (literally!) and to what it was oriented. Posters displaying peasants were not always directed towards the rural population and the occasional gaffs of the propaganda artists are instructive as well.

The next focus is on the cementing of Communist power and the efforts to reach out to the peasantry (which foundered in the face of actual harsh and cruel policies but was nonetheless in name) to broaden the scope and effectiveness of indoctrination efforts. The coverage of wartime posters is slightly less detailed but she finds time to talk more about the actual artists of the time than in earlier sections. The subject of the Postwar "High Stalinism" is interesting but is sadly left relatively unfulfilled.

The writing style has been described negatively by one reviewer and defended by another. The problem is two-fold. One is the need to explain a number of concepts that could have been done in English but to do so does not allow the author to show off her knowledge of Russian. The second is the Sociological approach she uses that comes from an academic culture hat is jargon-ridden. It has been said (often more in jest) that academics will not use one word when ten will do. There is some truth to it but most of the opaqueness has been clarified and contracted in the earlier sections. The editing seems to be poorer in the late-middle and the end as she becomes more needlessly verbose in it.

This is a valuable secondary source for the student and casual researcher alike. Her analysis is short-reaching but still quite valuable in understanding this and some ideological facets of the Soviet Union in the time period. It is not always an enjoyable read given her writing style but the information is worth the occasional desire to claw out one's eyes at the excessive writing. (Humorous quote but not my own: "Excessive verbosity causes communicative ennui")This is worth the money for the first three chapters for almost anybody. Chapters four and six are going to be more interesting to students of the Soviet ideological changes and dull to anyone else.

A dull read at times but fascinating one the sociological writing style is overcome.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A scholarly yet readable introduction to Soviet propaganda, November 16, 2005

By 

David D. Dudley (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Iconography of Power: Soviet Political Posters under Lenin and Stalin (Studies on the History of Society and Culture) (Paperback)

I respectfully disagree with the reviewer who found the writing dull. I found myself unable to put this book down, and plowed through the 300+ pages in only a few days. Bonnell is a very insightful and careful scholar, who does an excellent job decoding the visual language of Soviet propaganda posters. In the process, she transcends the apparent limitations of the subject matter: by the end of the book, I felt that I had gained a greater ability to understand visual symbolism in general, and also understood a great deal more about Soviet history and the process of collectivization.

If you have any interest in contemporary Soviet history, I'd highly recommend this book. I hope that Victoria Bonnell continues her great scholarship!

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great analysis of political meaning., August 2, 2000

By 

C. E. R. Mendonça "Carlos Eduardo Rebello de ... (Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Iconography of Power: Soviet Political Posters under Lenin and Stalin (Studies on the History of Society and Culture) (Paperback)

I do not agree that this is a sociology of Soviet posters, in the sense that it is a "long range" cultural analysis of their meaning. I think that the book's highlight is exactly in drawing a connection between changes in artistic style and "short range" political events. So, in the early days of Soviet power- from Lenin's time down to collectivization - one has an Expressionistic, unreal style that tries, above all, to convince strikingly the viewer to support a given political "lime". After Stalin's consolidation as leader, one has a pseudo-realistic style praising the "actual" quality of living in the USSR, in order to obtain the passive acquiescence of the viewer. Very useful book. Can be used - with due guidance - at undergraduate level.