The Rowley Soviet Ephemera collection, curated by Professor Alison Rowley, explores aspects of early Soviet history that are reflected in mass media, with a special emphasis on the shifting representations of women and cultural symbols of power and society. The collection spans the period from 1899 through the end of World War II and comprises 470 items, including 247 stamps, 49 periodicals, 46 postcards, 39 photographs, 30 sheet music pieces, and a number of newspapers, posters, books, booklets, and documents. 

 

Stamps, the largest mass media type group in the collection, reflect political and economic shifts beginning with the final days of the Romanov dynasty through the formation and early cultivation of the Soviet state. In 1913, stamps produced for a special celebration of the Romanov dynasty depicting Nicolas II and his predecessors grew increasingly controversial as not only was used postage thrown in the trash, thus denigrating the status of the Tsar, but postage was inked by the post office, thus desecrating the portrait, in the eyes of some conservatives. The most common symbol of the pre-revolutionary period, the Romanov coat of arms (ROW.00273) was quickly replaced by the hammer and sickle, the new insignia of changed political power (ROW.00301 and ROW.00291). A cultural celebration marking the dawn of a new era begins as the provisional government celebrates the worker slaying a dragon (ROW.00307). In the subsequent Soviet period, we see how stamps trace the emergence of new advanced industries such as aviation, how new heroes braving new frontiers are celebrated (ROW.00435), and how a new enlightened attitude toward women is advanced via designs that feature female workers (ROW.00339).

 

A dominant theme in the collection is the depiction of the Soviet woman, including the state’s message to its female citizens. Postcards, posters, photographs, periodicals and even the lyrics on sheet music promote the physical vigor of women as workers and athletes and highlight the role of women in the defense of the country. A collection of magazines for women published between the 1920s and 1940s reflects the evolution of the message. Early editions of Zhenskii Zhurnal (“Women’s magazine”) (ROW.00029) splash colorful, fashion-forward images that are bourgeois, anti-proletarian, and elitist. Color recedes and titles change as the early Soviet era progresses, transforming periodicals that resembled pre-revolutionary fashion magazines into more ideologically acceptable titles such as Rabotnitsa i krest’ianka (“Female worker and peasant”) (ROW.00045) and Rabotnitsa (“Female worker”) (ROW.00037). The new style focuses on industrial production, and thus work clothes replace dresses, kerchiefs replace hats, and women are illustrated in factories, working with heavy machinery, rather than as wives and mothers tending to children. 

 

The Soviet state harnessed and manipulated mass media to mold cultural consciousness and individual character. The rapid industrialization of the agrarian nation required both a connection with the peasants as well as their modernization. In Zdorovaia derevnia (“Healthy Village”) (ROW.00024), for instance, the tractor appears in the background while a strong peasant takes the stage. The same issue provides diagrams informing readers on bathing procedures, recommends food choices to avoid diarrhea, and offers swimming instructions. Postcards offer similarly didactic advice. They teach best practices for bathing newborns (ROW.00184) and for setting up collective childcare (ROW.00186). Other postcards encourage citizens to invest in life insurance (ROW.00154), to donate money to advance industry (ROW.00161), and even to purchase lottery tickets (ROW.00104).

 

Overall, the collection provides a compelling visual record that reflects how the Soviet state manipulated mass media to formulate and to influence its own society, and how pervasive such images were.