In the first years of Soviet power, the party set the task of eliminating illiteracy. For the period of its fulfillment, the role of an educator of the broad masses of the people was to take on visual agitation material. As a rule, it was a vivid picture printed on paper and provided with legible text. In order for those who have not yet mastered the letter to perfection, not to overwork, there should be less letters.
After the formation of the Soviet Union in 1922, posters did not lose their propaganda significance, although most of the population learned to read with time. The slogans of the USSR multiplied, they were invented so that for every life situation at least one suitable was found. The most important, about the proletarians, who must certainly unite on a global scale, was printed on the money and in the subtitles of almost all newspapers daily. So that people do not forget about the main goal.
But it only seems that it is a very easy thing to compose slogans. The USSR was a very politicized country, and any inaccuracy in the wording could entail extremely unfortunate consequences for the author of the dictum. The ideological correctness of each newspaper line - not that of printing campaign material published in huge print runs - was monitored by a whole army of trained censors who knew perfectly well that the party line sometimes fluctuated, and it was time to change the direction in time.
The first bright objects that a foreigner who came to our country paid attention to were slogans. The USSR was wrapped up in kumach, especially on holidays. The meaning of some texts was difficult to understand without any preparation. For example, a very long quote from one Leninist opus, written in white letters on a red background, made it clear that the newspaper should not be regarded only as an agitator. She is also a propagandist. But this is not enough, such a prosaic everyday item worth 2 copecks, it turns out, is also a collective organizer.
Other slogans of the USSR were laconic, sometimes they simply listed the basic values ​​suggested by the people — such as “Lenin”, “the party” and “Komsomol”. Or “peace”, “labor” and “May”, to which the wits verbally added a few more months, so that there would be little.
Sometimes a quote was chosen from the speech of the next general secretary, in which, as a rule, there was no more sense than in any call to “improve in every way” or “multiply” something, and was printed next to the image of the leader who spoke this wisdom.
A certain continuity is traced, which was followed by Soviet slogans and posters. The USSR was a country of scientific atheism, but the methodological approach itself was borrowed from the church. Banners at the May or November demonstrations performed the same role as the banners during the processions, the images of the leaders should be carried as earnestly as the holy faces, and the relics were located directly on the main square of the country.
The similarity was completed by the statement, completely devoid of a scientific materialistic approach, that a person who died several decades ago would be more alive than all those present and absent at this event combined.
The subjects of the Soviet agitprop were diverse. The children were encouraged to brush their teeth and be vigilant, like Pavlik Morozov. Adults were asked to keep money in a savings bank and also not to talk a lot, so as not to become a find for a spy. The slogans of the USSR about work deserve special attention. A statement of the inevitability of the coming to victory of communist labor coexisted with the promise to fulfill the plan ahead of schedule, no matter some particular one or so, in general.
Most often, labor cooperatives were engaged in the production of visual agitation, for which this business, despite the ban on private enterprise, served as a source of good income. Each enterprise - agricultural or industrial - was obliged to spend a certain part of its self-supporting profit on banners, posters, slogans and other tinsel, designed to create the illusion of a progressive movement towards communism. It didn’t work out very well ...