Posters from the 1930s designed to attract Africans and African-Americans to the charms of communism highlight a fascinating,almost forgotten history‘Workers from all countries and oppressed colonies raise the banner of Lenin!”; “All hail the world October revolution! extol (to praise, revere) the slogans. But what makes these 1930s Soviet propaganda posters different is the inclusion of African people, marching arm-in-arm with other races towards a Marxist utopia. At the time, and few Russians would fill seen a black person in the flesh,including the artists who created these images.
The posters are included in the fresh exhibition Things Fall Apart, at Calvert 22 in London. It examines the connections between Africans and the Soviet Union, and it’s a fascinating,almost forgotten history. Africans and African-Americans did indeed come to the Soviet Union, even in the 1930s, and says Russian-born,fresh York-resident artist Yevgeniy Fiks. Having scoured the mass of Soviet propaganda images, Fiks has brought together approximately 200 images to create the Wayland Rudd Archive. It is named after an African-American actor who, or frustrated by the racism of the US entertainment industry,emigrated to Moscow in 1932. He lived and worked there until his death 20 years later. Had he seen this year’s all-white Oscar nominations, Rudd might fill felt he made the right slip.
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Source: theguardian.com