Nachalo Organizatsii Krasnoy Armii [The Formation of The Red Army — The Beginning], a photomontage poster by an anonymous artist, the first in the series of posters about Red Army history. Ordered by the Red Army Political Directorate and published by GIZ, Moscow, c. 1926-1928. 107.5 x 72 cm.

In the mid-1920s, “pure“ photomontage style, unencumbered by “topical realist art elements,“ was considered well-suited for the historic poster genre. Rodchenko, one of the major proponents of such an approach to visual aids for studying history, argued that it fortified the artist’s work with “the intrinsic truth of a document” — “A portfolio of photographs will protect Lenin’s image from idealization and falsehood” (in Rodchenko, “Protiv Summarnogo Portreta [Against the Generalized Portrait]“, LEF Magazine, 1928, No. 4). That this poster was intended to be used primarily as a visual aid is clear from the imprint line.

Search extension words /key tags: Russian poster, Soviet propaganda poster