| | | | SovietsDrawings by Danzig Baldaev. Photographs by Sergei Vasiliev.Edited by Damon Murray, Stephen Sorrell.
 Communism’s winners and losers: drawings expressing the absurdities of Soviet life, from the archive of Russian Criminal Tattoo’s Danzig BaldaevSoviets features unpublished drawings from the archive of Danzig Baldaev. Made in secret, they satirize the Communist Party system and expose the absurdities of Soviet life. Baldaev touches on a wide range of subjects, from drinking (Alcoholics and Shirkers) to the Afghan war (The Shady Enterprise), via dissent (Censorship, Paranoia and Suspicion) and religion (Atheism as an Ideology). He reveals the cracks in the crumbling socialist structure, describing the realities of living in a country whose leaders are in pursuit of an ideal that will never arrive. The drawings date from the 1950s to the period immediately before the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, with caricatures exposing communism’s winners and losers: the stagnation of the system, the corruption of its politicians and the effect of this on the ordinary soviet citizen. Baldaev’s drawings are contrasted with classic propaganda-style photographs taken by Sergei Vasiliev for the newspaper Vercherny Chelyabinsk. These photographs depict the world the Communist leaders dreamed of: where the local factory produced its millionth tractor and heroic workers fulfilled their five-year plans. It is impossible to imagine the daily reality of living under such a system; this book shows us--both broadly and in minute detail--what it must have been like.
Featured drawing (captioned "Topsy-Turvy’, a manmade monument to the idol of idiocy, stupidity, and bureaucracy of His Highness the Absurd") is reproduced from Soviets. |
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| | FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 3/30/2014 Featured image is reproduced from Soviets, FUEL's new collection of previously unpublished drawings by Russian Criminal Tattoo documentarian Danzig Baldaev and photographs by Sergei Vasiliev. The caption at bottom reads, "You’ve got to keep the plebs in constant fear and submission, make them work, and not overfeed them..." The text at top left reads: "The submissive, slave road to nowhere... (1917–1987)." The text on the chariot reads, "Those who have lost their sheepish meekness and obedience will be persecuted as enemies!" And the text on the bear's chest reads "NKVD" (Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del: the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs). The wolf, the bear and the fox are typical protagonists of many Russian folk tales. In this drawing, the bear is depicted as the 1980 Moscow Olympics mascot, Misha. continue to blog | FORTHCOMING AND NEW: VISUAL CULTURE |  | NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERYISBN: 9781855145771
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