Gendered bodies on Soviet posters, 1917-1924. The visual representation of backwardness
- In this essay, I explore the visual representation of that backwardness. For revolutionaries of all stripes, a core value in the revolution was overcoming Russia’s backwardness. In Russian it literally meant “lagging behind” [otstalost], but it had a wide compass to include illiteracy, superstition, drunkenness, syphilis, lack of culture, and lack of political engagement. I ask how early Soviet artists conveyed this backwardness – especially as synonymous not only with ignorance, but also with “darkness” and a lack of revolutionary consciousness. How did they compose posters for the masses in those early years of Soviet power, especially during the extensive civil and national wars of 1917-1921? How and why was gender such an important part of that visual imagery?
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| Author: | Elizabeth A. WoodGND |
|---|---|
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:101:1-2511250056430.318187379205 |
| URL: | https://visual-history.de/2025/10/20/wood-gendered-bodies-on-soviet-posters-1917-1924/ |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.14765/zzf.dok-2953 |
| Publisher: | ZZF - Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History: Visual-History |
| Place of publication: | Potsdam |
| Document Type: | Online Publication |
| Language: | English |
| Date of first Publication: | 2025/10/20 |
| Release Date: | 2025/11/17 |
| Dewey Decimal Classification: | 7 Künste und Unterhaltung / 74 Zeichnung, angewandte Kunst / 740 Zeichnung, angewandte Kunst |
| ZZF Topic-Classification: | Gesellschaftsgeschichte |
| Staatssozialismus | |
| Gender Studies | |
| ZZF Chronological-Classification: | 1920er |
| 1910er | |
| ZZF Regional-Classification: | Europa / Osteuropa / UdSSR/Russland |
| Web-Publications: | Visual-History |
| (Theme) dossier(s): | Visual History / Putting images to work – gender and the visual archive |
| Licence (German): |  Creative Commons - Namensnennung-Nicht kommerziell-Keine Bearbeitungen (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) |
