Strakhov's lithographic masterwork

In 1920, during the early Civil War period of the Russian revolution, a poster was published by Ukraine-born artist, graphic designer and sculptor Adolf Iosifovich Strakhov Braslavsky (1896-1979) celebrating International Women's Day on 8 March of that year (Dickerman 1996).

Adolf Strakhov, 8 March - Day of Emancipation of Women, lithograph poster in four colours, 1920. Signed 'A. Strakhov 1920' lower left.

In it a stern looking, androgynous female figure - perhaps a young woman in her twenties - stands at the ready to commence work in the modern, mechanized and polluting factory silhouetted in the background. She is dressed similar to her male co-worker, in a buttoned up shirt and cloth cap to gather her hair and protect it from getting caught in factory machinery. The woman holds a red banner in her hand, reflecting a commitment to the prevailing Bolshevik political ideology and association with the recent October 1917 revolution led by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov alias Lenin (1870-1924). The flag blows in the breeze, like the plumes of progress from the factory chimneys behind her. Overall, Strakhov presents us with a strong, forceful image, wherein the woman is dominant rather than subservient to a male figure such as a husband or fellow worker, as was common in the iconography of the period. The poster is an early expression of motifs which would regularly appear in Soviet propaganda throughout the post-revolution era - the red flag, the worker with determined demeanor, and the industrial workplace (Guerman 1978). It can also be seen as part of Lenin's 'monumental propaganda' program whereby Russian artists worked closely with the new Soviet government to replace Tsarist iconography. Their output was in the form of public monuments, artworks and everyday print-based media and graphics such as posters, all reflecting the revolutionary deal and commitment to change. It was also aimed at brightening the streets of Moscow, Petrograd and elsewhere with posters, banners and colourful displays in association with numerous revolutionary holidays and commemorative events which sought to actively engage the populace in this national transformative process. The female focused imagery present in Strakhov's poster is reminiscent of Eugene Delacroix's famous 1830 painting Liberty leading the people, honoring the role of women in the French political revolutions of 1789 and July 1830.

Eugène Delacroix, Liberty leading the people, Oil on canvas, 1830. Collection: The Louvre, Paris.

In both works, a capped woman leads with banner in hand, though with the fighting largely over in Russia following the overthrow of the Tsarist regime in March 1917, there is now no need for a gun in Strakhov's poster, even though the flag pole and chimney stacks remind one of smoking rifles. Delacroix's similarly smokey background of the riotous mob advancing over a chaotic mound of rocks and refuse strewn with dead bodies is replaced by Strakhov's orderly, almost sterile image of gun barrel-like chimney stacks and a single female figure. Liberty is bare footed and bare breasted; the emancipated socialist female is asexual and completely clothed. Delacroix's warm palette of pale brown, blue and yellow is replaced by one where a cold black and red dominate - the colours of the revolution. Strakhov's design was also likely influenced by the German Karl Maria Stadler's more recent poster of 1914 celebrating International Women's Day. It updates Delacroix's image in featuring the full figure of a women holding aloft a red banner, energetically waving it, just as Liberty had called on those behind to follow her through the rubble, towards freedom from oppression.

Karl Maria Stadler, Give Us Women's Suffrage. Women's Day, 8 March 1914, silk screen poster.

International Women's Day originated with the National Women's Day held in New York on 28 February 1909 and organised by the Socialist Party of America. The initiative was adopted by the International Socialist Women's Conference in 1910 and first observed in Russia in 1913, despite opposition from authorities. Following the granting of universal suffrage with the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, International Women's Day on 8 March was declared a national holiday. It has been noted that:

Within a year of taking power, [the Bolsheviks] had created emblems and symbols (for example, the hammer and sickle, the red star, and the image of the hero worker), new or reconstituted rituals [8 March International Women's Day, May Day and 25 October]... and novel devices for transmitting their message... In addition, they used political posters, monumental sculpture, books, newspapers and journals, and film to bring their ideas to a broad audience. (Bonnell 1997)

With the Russian population substantially illiterate, though holding a strong visual tradition arising out of devotion to religious iconography, the poster became a decided weapon of choice in the propaganda struggle to secure support for Lenin's new socialist republic. Strakhov's poster is a political call to arms for Russian women to support the Communist regime, following on the revolution of 1917. They are to become equal partners in nation building and economic development. To facilitate this, their rights were significantly extended within the new constitution of 1918. Unlike their limited recognition apart from the roles of wife, mother and servant under the previous Tsarist regime, they could now, for example, go to university, own property, vote, participate in politics, obtain a divorce and enjoy wage relativity with their male co-workers. The focus, however, was to get women out of the home and into factories to work for the state. Such was their 'liberation' or 'emancipation' under the new, male-dominated Soviet. However, for most Russian women, this would prove an onerous task over the decades to come as their designated role as both wife/mother and worker constrained the desire for true independence in thought and action. The latter was something the harsh, totalitarian regime was less amenable to as the decade wore on and Lenin's efforts to secure his position as an autocrat took hold, giving rise to the gradual withdrawal of many of the rights initially granted to women. This situation remained until the rise again of feminism in the 1970s and the ending of the Cold War the following decade through the actions of Russian leader Mikhail Korbachov and the symbolic tearing down of the Berlin Wall.

Consideration of the significance of Strakhov's poster is warranted in light of its centenary in 2020 and feature role in the 2018 Tate Modern Gallery, London, exhibition of Soviet visual art. Matthew Gale, head of display at the Tate Modern, stated the following in an interview published in connection with that exhibition's opening:

The image used for the exhibition poster is a striking example. "Adolf Strakhov's image of the emancipated woman manages to achieve lots of different things simultaneously," says Gale. "It's essentially monochrome, but uses red very dramatically, so from a colouristic point of view it's extraordinary. Its got this amazing graphic command that is near photographic - and it communicates an image that's fundamental to the way in which society was formed under the Bolsheviks." (Macdonald 2017)

A review of that exhibition went on to point out that:

Few posters can be clearer in revolutionary proletarian sentiment than the steely grey worker-automaton, chiselled and aggrandised like a statue, in Adolf Strakhov's "Emancipated Woman: Build Socialism!", displayed at monumental scale in public squares and factories across Russia in 1926. (Wullschlager 2017)

The reference to the poster's public display at 'monumental scale' suggests the existence of photographic and other evidence of this in situ utilisation of Strakov's work, though the author is not aware of the specific examples. The poster was not just any ordinary piece of political propaganda. It has proven, with time, to be an iconic work of art, standing out amongst the thousands of political, film and trade posters produced in Russia between the First and Second World Wars. Victoria Bonnell, in her study of Soviet posters under Lenin and Stalin, specifically stated in regards to Strakhov's work:

The strong handsome features and determined expression of this woman, shown wearing a kerchief (tied behind the neck as befitting working women) and holding a red banner, make this the most powerful image of a woman working during the New Economic Policy period. (Bonnell 1997)

Another commentator has noted the poster's distinctiveness in that:

....it doesn't really resemble either socialist realism or the avant-garde styling of the early 20s USSR. (Reddit 2019)

This poster, like all great works of art and graphic design, is both of its time and timeless. Yet it does not stand alone. The Russian film posters of the 1920s by artists such as the Stenberg brothers and Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956) are renown for their innovative design and the quality of their production, making exemplary use of stone lithography in concert with photographic offset lithographic printing (Pack 2017). Adolf Strakhov was a contemporary of Rodchenko. He produced the 8 March poster at the beginning of the decade and it would no doubt have been noticed by fellow artists working in the field of poster production for the new regime.

The 1920 stone lithograph on paper was printed in red, black, grey and possibly also sepia - colours which strongly identify with Soviet Russia during the revolutionary period, when red and black dominated. Some 3.2 million copies of 75 separate posters were publically distributed by the Russian state publishing house ;Gosizdat in 1920 alone as part of an extensive propaganda campaign. This was in addition to the 7.5 million posters, postcards and lubok pictures distributed by Litizdat, another arm of government. The posters would have been substantially hand-printed on large machines which replicated the traditional stone lithograph process, but allowed much greater quantities to be produced. This was eventually replace by the photolithographic printing process in the 1930s, which was able to produce an almost unlimited number of prints without significant degradation of the image, and with a greater degree of automation. Needless to say, the quality of the stone and zinc-plate lithographic process was higher, and artistically more pleasing, than that of the equivalent photolithograph. In many instances the two processes were combined. This can be seen in the large number of photomontage-based posters which featured images of groups of marching and flag-waving workers. Strakov's poster does not include any such elements.

The posters were posted on the street and throughout work places, such that Russian women and men could not help but see them. They were both descriptive and prescriptive and a vital source of information beyond their propaganda function. The 8 March poster would have had a print run numbering in the thousands. It was immediately recognised for its success as both a work of art and powerful propaganda tool. As a result it was reprinted in 1926, once again using the lithographic process but with altered text.

Adolf Strakhov, Emancipated Woman: Build Socialism!, lithograph on paper, 63.5 x 88.3 cm 25 x 35 inches, 1926. Collection: Tate Gallery, London.

This time the printing was in red, black and grey, minus the sepia, and with the new text along the bottom edge which read (translated into English): You are now a free woman: help build Socialism! The reference to International Women's Day had been removed, replaced by a call to support the prevailing political ideology. The copy of this second poster in the Tate Gallery is emphatically titled therein: Emancipated Woman: Build Socialism! This is merely a variant translation, as is 'The Emancipated Woman is Building Socialism!' which was applied elsewhere to the poster in its description.

The original 1920 work, and later 1926 reprint, were most likely commissioned by the Zhenotdel, or Section for Work Among Women, set up in 1919 by the Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party. Alexandra Kollontai and Inessa Armand played leadership roles within this government department (Clements 1979, Farnsworth 1980). Both women were powerful forces in the new administration and supporters of Lenin. Kollontai was a radical feminist and influential in promoting the role of women as equals in a new, non-Tsarist Russia; Armand had a similar background and was Lenin's mistress. Unfortunately by 1923 Armand was dead from cholera and Kollontai had been exiled to a diplomatic post in Finland. Many of the gains associated with their radical for the time feminist program were pulled back and a traditional socialist ideology reinstated over the following years. This perhaps explains the re-titling of Strakhov's poster in 1926, with the removal of the 8 March reference to be replaced by reference to a celebration of the emancipation of women through employment. It was now a prescriptive statement that women would work for the implementation of the socialist agenda, rather then true equality of the sexes. This transformed the poster's original message from a transformative social one, to a political one. As American collector and Trotsky historian David King noted in his book Red Star Over Russia: an illustrated history from 1917 to the death of Stalin, Strakhov's poster was not necessarily a pronouncement of freedom and emancipation, but rather a call to the slavery of work:

Strakhov portrays the politicised woman factory worker as an integral part of the class struggle. Soviet communist policy, overwhelmingly decided by men, opposed the idea of an independent women's liberation movement. (King 2010)

The quality of the two original Russian posters was the result of a number of factors - the skill of the artist, the composition and design of the poster, and the exquisite detail arising out of the stone lithograph printing process as developed in Russia during this period. As a result, over the years since 1920 and 1926 Strakhov's poster has been reproduced and adapted a number of times. For example, it was reprinted by Aurora Art Publishing, Leningrad, in 1976, using the modern, photographic offset lithography process (size: 41 x 58 cm). This allowed for the machine reproduction of literally thousands of copies without any significant deterioration in the print quality, whereas stone lithography, and to a greater degree the later silkscreen process, were primarily manual processes with constraints as to the number of prints that could be pulled. A further edition of 5000 copies is known to have been published by Proletarian of Kharkov, and an American reprint appeared in 1980. As of 2019 copies are available world wide through numerous internet vendors, including print on demand by Redbubble in Australia.

The poster has also been subject to reinterpretation and adaptation by artists and graphic designers over the years. One of the best of these new renditions is the silkscreen version by Australian artist and print maker Gregor Cullen, published during 1982 in a limited edition of approximately 250 copies.

Gregor Cullen, Women & Arts Festival, silkscreen poster, 50 x 76 cm / 20 x 30 inches, Redback Graphix, Wollongong, 1982.

Cullen was a prominent member of the left-leaning Redback Graphix poster collective based in Wollongong during the early 1980s. His poster was produced for the Women & Arts Festival at Wollongong City Gallery during October 1982. It is very much a copy of, and homage to, Strakhov's original work. At the time of the poster's production, Wollongong was a heavily unionised, industrial town experiencing a downturn in the steel industry and subsequent job losses throughout the region. These spread to the local coal mines and clothing factories, with the latter having up to that point provided significant female employment opportunities. Activism was on the rise and women were seeking greater participation in the workforce and equal pay, alongside demands related to female rights and their place in society. This was not entirety new, however, as International Women's Day had been celebrated in Wollongong almost continuously since 1931 and women regularly took part in industrial protests. The Communist Party of Australia was also prominent within the local union movement and Soviet iconography would have been familiar to a young activist artist and graphic designer such as Cullen. Regular public events including the union-supported May Day march, International Women's Day march and celebration on 8 March, and Hiroshima Day memorial service on 6 August, were all evidence of the strong Left presence in the city. Local women were heavily involved in these activities, both as organisers and participants, and often leading the way. The feminist Witchworks Poster Collective also operated around this time, working out of the Wollongong Women's Information Centre, and producing posters, banners, promotional leaflets and t-shirts.

Cullen's poster, whilst not specifically referring to International Women's Day, does so indirectly by reproducing in large part Strakhov's iconic poster from 1920 and its portrayal of female will and strength in an industrial context. The original stone lithograph printing having been executed with red, black, grey and sepia inks, Cullen attempted to adhered to a similar palette, though with the sepia replaced by a darker bronze/gold ink. The two posters ultimately differ as a result of the printing methods used. The stone lithograph process allowed for finer detail as the image was drawn directly onto the stone and grading and shading within both the drawing and through the printing process was able to result in an almost photographic, 3D effect. With the silkscreen method solid blocks of colour dominate as there is less finer detail and an absence of gradation in shading in comparison to the lithograph. Cullen's image is therefore flatter than Strakhov's, though nevertheless striking.

Another variant of the poster was produced in 1994 by American artist Frank Kozik (b. 1962). With an American father and Spanish mother, Kozik grew up in Madrid under the Fascist dictator Franco before moving to the United States in 1977. A decade after Cullen, and in a different country, Kozik's poster for a concert by the rock band Dinosaur Jr. is brightly coloured in sharp contrast to the original. Kozik utilises appropriately gaudy orange, yellow, red, green, silver grey and black inks for his run of 450 finely printed silkscreened posters.

Frank Kozik, Dinosaur Jr. [concert], silkscreen poster, 44 x 56 cm, 1994. Signed and numbered edition of 450. Printed by Shock-Troop Krasnoye.

The result reflects the influence of the American psychedelic music and concert poster tradition of the 1960s, primarily coming out of San Francisco where Kozik has resided since 1993. These posters were above all brightly coloured and in some cases used inks which fluoresced under blue light. Kozik attempts to replicate Strakhov's textures through the use of contrasting light and dark inks, though the effect in relation to the silver grey face and hand of the woman makes her appear almost robotic and hard edged, as though a crude android in the style of Fritz Lang's Metropolis robot from 1927. The bright green eyes starring out of the poster and straight down towards the viewer are somewhat ominous and threatening, compared to the original where the gaze is upwards and away towards the left. Strakhov's female face of the 1920s is softer, though still hardened from factory work and thoughts of the task ahead. In no way does Strakhov present the female worker as glamorous, though the portrait is striking and beautiful in its artistry.

Whilst the Cullen poster is connected closely with the original in its reflection of Soviet ideology and iconography, supported by the strong use of red and black, this is not the case with Kozik. There is a basic disconnect between the 1920s revolutionary elements of the original poster and Kozik's Pop Art transformation, though the basic design elements are the same. To address this, the American places a Russian red star on the woman's chest, thereby signifying to his audience a relationship with the old Russian Communist regime. Ongoing American paranoia towards its Cold War antagonist, and ongoing fear-mongering in regard to socialism, perhaps explains Kozik's presentation of the woman as less sympathetic and downright menacing. His childhood experience of a Spanish totalitarian regime may also be a factor in this.

Adolf Strakhov's best known works - the 8 March / Women's Emancipation Day posters of 1920 and 1926 - are stunning examples of Russian graphic design and the propaganda poster which was such an important tool of mass communication in Soviet Russia during that period and up until the 1960s when television and radio became ubiquitous across the country. A century after their creation, the posters remain powerful statements on the place of women in the workplace and society. Like much of Russian propaganda and everyday art during that immediate post-revolutionary period, they 'bore the mark of an aesthetic elegance, a special harsh and angular clarity' (Guerman 1978).

References

Arthive, Adolf Losipovich Strakhov Braslavsky, Arthive [webpage], n.d. Available URL: https://arthive.com/artists/40943~Adolf_Iosifovich_Strakhov_Braslavsky.

Bonnell, Victoria E., Iconography of Power: Soviet Political Posters under Lenin and Stalin, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1999, 364p.

Clements, Barbara Evans, Bolshevik Feminist: The life of Alexandra Kollontai, Indiana University Press, 1979, 352p.

Dickerman, Leah, Building the Collective: Soviet Graphic Design 1917-1937, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 1996, 186p.

Emancipated Woman - Build Socialism!, Reddit [website], 2019. Available URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/PropagandaPosters/comments/adb49d/emancipated_woman_build_socialism_1926_adolf/.[Illustrated].

Emancipated Woman - Build Up Socialism! : Propaganda Posters in Communist Russia, International Museum of Women, 2019. Available URL: http://exhibitions.globalfundforwomen.org/exhibitions/women-power-and-politics/appearance/emancipated. [Illustrated].

Farnsworth, Beatrice, Alexandra Kollontai: Socialism, Feminism, and the Bolshevik Revolution, Stanford University Press, 1980, 432p.

Gallo, Max, The Poster in History, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 2000, 336p. [Illustrated].

Guerman, Mikhail, Art of the October Revolution, Collet's, London, 1978. [Illustrated, no.75].

King, David, Red Star Over Russia: A visual history of the Soviet Union from 1917 to the death of Stalin, Tate Publishing, London, 2016.

Kollantai, Aleksandra, International Women's Day - a militant celebration, Philosophers of Change [website], 11 March 2014. Available URL: https://philosophersofchange.org.

Liberated woman - let's build the socialism!, Soviet Political Posters - The Sergo Grigorian Collection [website], 2019. Available URL: http://redavantgarde.com/en/collection/show-collection/2331-liberated-woman---let-s-build-the-socialism-.html. [Illustrated].

Macdonald, Fiona, The early Soviet images that foreshadowed fake news, BBC Culture [website], 10 November 2017. Available URL: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20171110-the-early-soviet-images-that-foreshadowed-fake-news. [Illustrated].

Marie, Christine and Montague, Ann, Women & gender politics in the Russian Revolution, Socialist Action [website], 24 June 2017. Available URL: https://socialistaction.org/2017/06/24/women-gender-politics-in-the-russian-revolution/.

Pack, Susan, Film Posters of the Russian Avant-Garde, Taschen, 2017, 511p.

Raveski, S. E., A. Strakhov's Posters, Mystetstvo, Kharkov, 1936, 36p. [Russian]

Rowley, Elizabeth, Women's History in the Soviet Union, [blog], Rebel Youth, 7 March 2015. Available URL: http://rebelyouth-magazine.blogspot.com/2015/03/womens-history-in-soviet-union.html.

Sisley, Dominique, The art behind Russia's revolutionary uprisings, Huck [webpage], 14 August 2017. Available URL: https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/art-2/tate-announces-new-show-revolutionary-russian-art/.

Strakhov, Adolf, Artists of Kharkov Region [webpage], n.d. Available URL: http://kharkov.vbelous.net/english/artists/strakhov.htm.

Timofeychev, Alexey, 10 posters backing the struggle for Soviet women's rights, Russia Beyond [website], 2 October 2018. Available URL: https://www.rbth.com/history/329242-10-posters-struggle-for-women-rights.

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Wullschlager, Jackie, The Russian Revolution comes to Tate Modern, Financial Times, London, 10 November 2017. Available URL: https://www.ft.com/content/b4831bb6-c3ee-11e7-b2bb-322b2cb39656.

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Last updated: 4 March 2020.

Michael Organ, Australia

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Strakhov's lithographic masterwork

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