Soviet poster, Making Shells

Soviet poster, Making Shells

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Description
During World War II, after the breakdown of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact, the Soviet news agency TASS issued a series of propaganda posters. Topics included anti-Nazi caricatures and Socialist Realist art encouraging the war effort. Beginning in June 1941, the Union of Soviet Artists established a publishing collective to produce the posters on an almost daily basis. Because they were displayed in the windows of the news agency's Moscow office, they are known as TASS window posters. It is estimated that about 1,500 different posters were produced between 1941 and 1945.
Well-known artists and poets worked on the designs and captions, and most of the posters were produced in limited editions using the stencil process for both graphics and text. Many posters were completed and reproduced within 24 hours, making them very responsive to political issues and war news. Copies were distributed abroad by VOKS, the Soviet Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. Their messages helped present the USSR favorably to its new allies, including the U.S. The Museum has six of these posters received in 1943 through VOKS. Other collections outside Russia include the University of Nottingham in England and Columbia and Cornell universities in the U.S.
TASS window poster No. 693 shows a male Soviet worker in vivid Socialist Realist style. An image of calendar pages behind him encourages increased production of shells for the war effort.
Location
Currently not on view
Object Name
print
Other Terms
print; Stencil
Date made
1942-1943
Physical Description
paper (overall material)
paint (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 158.5 cm x 82.5 cm; 62 3/8 in x 32 1/2 in
ID Number
GA.19083.02
accession number
167088
catalog number
19083.02
Credit Line
U.S.S.R. Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries
subject
Soviet Union
Firearms
See more items in
Work and Industry: Graphic Arts
Military
Work
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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