My dayom den’gi vzaimy tol’ko gosudarstvu [We Lend Our Money Only to the State], a poster by an anonymous artist. Produced for Finizdat, the publishing house of the Finance Ministry (Narkomfin), Moscow, 1927. 107 x 68 cm.

By 1927, Soviet policymakers had arrived at the conclusion that the country must embark on a program of rapid industrialization. To finance it, the State had to maximize its access to the population’s savings. The Finance Commissariat launched a two-pronged propaganda campaign. Citizenry was called to support the industrialization cause directly, by buying Industrialization Loan bonds. At the same time, workers were encouraged to keep their savings in the State-Savings Bank system. Alternative investments, like buying high yielding bonds still issued by Consumer Cooperatives, were discouraged.

As an aside, this elegant poster was prominently displayed at the entrance to the “World of Paper Money” exhibition held in Russian Museum in St. Petersburg in 2004. The selection may have had something to do with the fact that Sberbank [the former State Savings Bank], was the exhibition’s main sponsor.

Search extension words: Russian poster, Soviet poster.