Bookvica

Fourteen black-and-white photo-collages of Soviet anti-NATO propaganda used for military training purposes. [Soviet Union, mid-to-late 1980s]

Item #2693

Fifteen photographic prints measuring ca. 24 × 32 cm. Light wear to edges and corners; occasional spotting, soiling, and foxing, not affecting image; two cards with light fraying, not affecting images; versos clean; good to very good condition.

A collection of Soviet didactic photo-collage prints produced for military instructional purposes, primarily aimed at disseminating anti-NATO propaganda. The images comprising these collages were sourced from a variety of visual materials—such as propaganda publications, Soviet poster series from the 1960s to 1980s, and related archival content—and subsequently arranged through digital design methodologies to reconstruct their original ideological function.
The prints consist of image montages designed to portray NATO as an imminent and existential threat to the Soviet Union. These include depictions of purported NATO missile strategies (notably the 1957 Operation Dropshot), annotated photographs suggesting NATO military exercises in close proximity to the USSR’s borders, and visuals intended to provoke indignation or derision—such as caricatures of American military personnel and photographic evidence of U. S. domestic repression and controversial foreign engagements, including the Vietnam War and the Soviet–Afghan conflict. One slide is showing the foreign tourist to USSR, smuggling in illegal literature, on the photos one can see an unnamed periodical in Russian, presumably printed by anti-Bolshevik emigres. Another one is showing a man wearing anti-Russia t-shirt on LA Olympics of 1984 next to a cartoonish image of US media ‘blowing out of proportion’ the information about the Chernobyl AES disaster. Another slide shows the graph of the military spending of US and Nato growing rapidly over an image of the US Airfare plane Boeing AGM-86 Air-Launched Cruise Missile. Another slide shows the American troops in Grenada and shelling of Lebanon, titled ’the way of robbery’. Another slide shows the insides and opitsides of the US spy planes. Another slide shows the US-Korean-Japanese joint drills. Probably the best collage is showing 10-dollar bill shaped in a rocket form, portraying the growth of American defense budget.
This particular set of prints, while non-consecutively numbered in the negatives, is reportedly complete in accordance with its original usage. The set was previously in the possession of a documented member of the Communist Party from Ulan-Ude, located in the Buryat Republic of the Russian Federation. These materials would have been employed in formal military education settings.

Price: $2,800.00