Darker shades of red

April 2, 2009 by Jorge Labrador 

Atomic Testing Museum exhibit offers a glimpse at ‘other side’ of Cold War

In Soviet Russia, propaganda tells you what you have to know – and that’s no joke.

The Cold War is about to get red-hot, just a few blocks away from campus, when the Atomic Testing Museum offers a peek behind the Iron Curtain with its “Darker Shades of Red” exhibit, opening this Saturday.

The showcase of propaganda materials from the Cold War takes a glimpse at the powerful images used to promote the USSR’s political ideology from the 1940s until its collapse in 1991. 

The propaganda of the era provides a window into a secretive totalitarian regime. In fact, “Darker Shades of Red” goes hand in hand with the museum’s mission of preserving the atomic age and educating the public, this time by exploring the “other side” of the conflict, according to Dawn Ham, program manager of marketing and development at the Atomic Testing Museum.

The Soviet propaganda poster has its roots in the Bolshevik Revolution, conveying ideas of revolution and socialism and replacing the once religious iconography of Russia with newercommunist images.

Dynamic images such as these frequently combine figures with text and geometric blocks of color, giving them a distinguished and memorable look.

Posters, postcards and children’s books had to reinforce communist objectives throughout the world.

“The people of Cuba are undefeatable,” reads one poster in bold, Cyrillic text, promoting the communist revolution in the Caribbean nation.

Schools, workplaces, homes and public spaces were splashed with these images, promoting the state and Soviet ideals and denouncing capitalist societies.

“We sow – a sea of cotton grows. Yankees sow –  death and despair,” reads a poster depicting two planes, one friendly Soviet biplane and one menacing American jet over fields of puffy cotton and cracked skulls, respectively. 

Common icons throughout the display include the short, stocky, well-dressed “capitalist,” an image which itself shares similarities with earlier anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda in World War II. 

“They must have thought it was effective, so why not use it against the capitalists?” Ham said.

Heroic images of state leaders, soldiers, workers and peasants are also common motifs in Soviet propaganda, but the industriousness of the Soviet state was another proud element of Soviet propaganda.

Locomotives, rockets, machinery and other symbols of industry and science promoted the progress made by the communist state. 

Few are as striking as the image of a Cosmonaut blasting into orbit, however, in “The Sky of the Motherland Calls Us to Conquer Unknown Heights.”

Just as the Cosmonauts sailed into the unknown for the sake of exploration, “Darker Shades of Red” beckons us to catch sight of one side of an era that still remains a mystery. 

The exhibit is set to feature various other artifacts from the Soviet days, including flags, banners and Communist Party paraphernalia, in addition to propaganda art, through June 7.