Darker Shades of Red provides visitors with a rare opportunity to revisit the Cold War period through the exploration of the Soviet Union’s official imagery. Strikingly graphic in its socialist imagery, the collection reveals the economic, social and political ideology of the Soviet Union from the mid 1940s to 1990.

From the time of the Bolshevik Revolution and after, the poster has been a persuasive source for Soviet ideology. Leaders placed a high priority on communicating the ideas of revolution, socialism and social responsibility to its citizenry. Posters were used to shape and direct mass consciousness in accordance with Communist Party objectives. Symbolic images of Soviet leaders, soldiers, workers, and peasants were common heroic motifs; images of machinery symbolized productivity in industry and farming. Locomotives, sputniks and rockets suggested progress and achievement. This patriotic information was communicated to the public through dynamic compositions that combined figures, text (often poetry) and geometric blocks of color.

Post World War II tensions between the Soviet Union and the West lead to the beginning of the Cold War. Fear of nuclear proliferation and anti-west sentiments were often reflected in Soviet posters during the decades that followed. Civil defense posters illustrated how to prepare for a nuclear attack. Caricatures of American and British leaders depicted the West and its political structure as the enemy of the Soviet people.

Propaganda images also filtered down into the homes and daily lives of people. All schools, shops, factories, apartment buildings and public spaces were splashed with Soviet images. In this closed society, there were no competing images; people were exposed only to what was seen as fulfilling the goals of the Party. Common objects such as postcards and even children’s books had to reinforce Communist objectives. By looking at these official images, we are given an insider’s perspective into life in a totalitarian society.