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

Promotion of State Loan bonds and of the State savings system was a perennial topic of Soviet visual propaganda, but some of the most interesting posters of this genre were produced in 1926-1928, when subscription to State Loans was truly voluntary. Note also the word “only” in the slogan — in 1927, the government still had to compete with private enterprises and consumer cooperatives that also needed financing, but no longer could easily obtain it from the state-controlled banks.

As an aside, this elegant poster was prominently displayed at the entrance to the “World of Paper Money” exhibition held in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg in 2004. The exhibition was sponsored by the Sberbank [Savings Bank], which might have played a role in the selection.

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