The Unintentionally Homoerotic Chinese-Soviet Communist Propaganda Posters, 1950-1960
“Long Live the Friendship between the Peoples and Armies of China and Soviet Union”.
In October 1949, the Chinese Communist Party led by Mao Zedong claimed victory and formed the People’s Republic of China. Socialist regimes now held power across one-fifth of the globe, ruling a combined population of almost 800 million people. Maintaining a friendly and productive relationship between Moscow and Beijing was seen as crucial for the survival and advancement of socialism. Continue reading »
Mark O’Neill Captures Fantastic Images Of Ghastly Soviet Brutalist Monuments Scattered Around Post-Yugoslavian Balkan States
According to a photographer Mark O’Neill: “Following a dark journey of discovery through the former lands of Yugoslavia, Spomeniki presents a visionary series of monuments with unique shape, form, and texture. Continue reading »
Most Beautiful Remaining Street Mosaics From The Soviet Union
Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, much of the vast empire’s public art—or propaganda—has perished as well. Socialist Realism was the dominant style of the day—that is, art that bolstered the socialist message by glorifying the proletariat and celebrating civic triumphs. Continue reading »
That’s Why We Wanted To Build Communism – To Open Bottles After A Hard Day’s Work
The worker’s hammer and farmer’s sickle, was the traditional symbol of the Soviet Union (and the countries that claimed it in the years afterwards). Here it’s a really cool bottle opener.
Worker’s from walks of life chare the common bond of cracking open a cold one after a long day at work. And this novel opener makes short work of any pry-off cap. Continue reading »
Toward A Concrete Utopia: Brutalist Yugoslavian Architecture
A new exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art focuses on the period of intense construction in the former Yugoslavia between its break with the Soviet bloc in 1948 and the death of the country’s longtime leader Josip Broz Tito in 1980
Photographs by Valentin Jeck, commissioned by Moma, 2016.
Situated between the capitalist West and the socialist East, Yugoslavia’s postwar architects responded to contradictory demands and influences by developing an architecture both in line with and distinct from the design approaches seen elsewhere in Europe and beyond. Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art from 15 July to 13 January. Monument to the Battle of the Sutjeska, Miodrag Živković, 1965–71, Tjentište, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Continue reading »
Soviet Ghosts: The Ruins of the Communism
Only the most intrepid urban explorers cross the tattered ruins of the old iron curtain to endure the excessive bureaucracy, military paranoia and freezing winds of the East to hunt for the ghosts of an empire.
Rebecca Litchfield is one who couldn’t resist the haunting allure of the ruins of the Soviet Union. Time and again she risked radiation exposure, experienced arrest and interrogation, and was accused of espionage while collecting the stunning photography in Soviet Ghosts. Join her on an adventure through the ruins of soviet bloc, never before seen by western eyes.
The emotional affect of this poetic collection will keep you coming back for more, while a series of expert articles offer in-depth analysis of the historical context. Contemplate the uncanny and disturbing emotional power of the imagery. Discover the story of the rise and fall of the USSR, the empire whose ghost continues to haunt Europe even today…
Hungary, MAV 424 Steam Train. Continue reading »
