Iconography of Power: Soviet Political Posters Under Lenin and Stalin Volume 27

Iconography of Power is a must if you want to understand how Bolsheviks managed to seize the meaning of the revolution and mobilize the largely illiterate population in the name of Marxist philosophical abstractions, such as socialism or communism. They did it with pictures - using posters and other forms of visual political propaganda aimed at the population accustomed to venerating religious icons. This is a real history of Soviet visual propaganda written by a sociologist, who understands the way both art and power work in an actual political context. Indispensable in college courses dealing with Communist Russia as well as other regimes of its kind in the 20th century.

The scholarship is quite new for Westerners but is more common sense for those with the joy of life under Communism. That does not detract from the pioneering nature of her study though. The real stars of the book are the posters themselves. For however much ink has been spilled describing them, few academics actually give pictures of them when discussing them. Collections of propaganda posters do exist but even the Russian ones are far from complete but even the collections sold in Moscow gift stores are more complete than this. That is not surprising nor should it be taken too negatively, the author can only discuss so much in a sufficient level of detail. The book may be broken down into several key themes. These would be import and nature of propaganda posters in a time where even newspapers were a luxury. The early ideological and artistic influences on the posters designed is quite interesting but sadly is only partially covered in favor of analyzing the works from a sociological perspective emphasizing the distinctions between the Bolshevik Intelligentsia, the Urban audiences, and the rural audiences. This last element is the best presented. The differences in time, relative literacy, symbolism, and political influences and ideological priority between rural areas and the urban workers is massive in considering how propaganda was framed (literally!) and to what it was oriented. Posters displaying peasants were not always directed towards the rural population and the occasional gaffs of the propaganda artists are instructive as well. The next focus is on the cementing of Communist power and the efforts to reach out to the peasantry (which foundered in the face of actual harsh and cruel policies but was nonetheless in name) to broaden the scope and effectiveness of indoctrination efforts. The coverage of wartime posters is slightly less detailed but she finds time to talk more about the actual artists of the time than in earlier sections. The subject of the Postwar "High Stalinism" is interesting but is sadly left relatively unfulfilled. The writing style has been described negatively by one reviewer and defended by another. The problem is two-fold. One is the need to explain a number of concepts that could have been done in English but to do so does not allow the author to show off her knowledge of Russian. The second is the Sociological approach she uses that comes from an academic culture hat is jargon-ridden. It has been said (often more in jest) that academics will not use one word when ten will do. There is some truth to it but most of the opaqueness has been clarified and contracted in the earlier sections. The editing seems to be poorer in the late-middle and the end as she becomes more needlessly verbose in it. This is a valuable secondary source for the student and casual researcher alike. Her analysis is short-reaching but still quite valuable in understanding this and some ideological facets of the Soviet Union in the time

I respectfully disagree with the reviewer who found the writing dull. I found myself unable to put this book down, and plowed through the 300+ pages in only a few days. Bonnell is a very insightful and careful scholar, who does an excellent job decoding the visual language of Soviet propaganda posters. In the process, she transcends the apparent limitations of the subject matter: by the end of the book, I felt that I had gained a greater ability to understand visual symbolism in general, and also understood a great deal more about Soviet history and the process of collectivization. If you have any interest in contemporary Soviet history, I'd highly recommend this book. I hope that Victoria Bonnell continues her great scholarship!

I do not agree that this is a sociology of Soviet posters, in the sense that it is a "long range" cultural analysis of their meaning. I think that the book's highlight is exactly in drawing a connection between changes in artistic style and "short range" political events. So, in the early days of Soviet power- from Lenin's time down to collectivization - one has an Expressionistic, unreal style that tries, above all, to convince strikingly the viewer to support a given political "lime". After Stalin's consolidation as leader, one has a pseudo-realistic style praising the "actual" quality of living in the USSR, in order to obtain the passive acquiescence of the viewer. Very useful book. Can be used - with due guidance - at undergraduate level.