Vtoroi Internatsional [Second International] a poster by Mikhail Kupreyanov (1903–1991, People’s Artist of the Soviet Union), Porfiry Krylov (1902–1990, People’s Artist of the Soviet Union), and Nikolai Sokolov (1903–2000, People’s Artist of the Soviet Union), published by OGIZ-IZOGIZ, Moscow-Leningrad, 1931. 51 x 70 cm. Versed text provided by the talented Soviet poet Semyon Kirsanov.

The uptick in the number of posters denouncing the Socialist International in 1931 was primarily prompted by the election campaign in Germany, where the Communist Party was competing both with the ruling Social Democrats and with Hitler’s National Socialists. References to the situation in Germany are spread through the poster’s design. The derogatory “social-fascist” neologism promptly displayed on the “feathers” of the central figure was coined by the Soviet propagandists to paint all Communists’ opponents with a broad brush.

This is a rather early Kukryniksy political poster - 1931 was the year of their first individual exhibition of in Moscow.

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