Okay, so the comment section is full of debates about whether or not the USSR was a communist or fascist or good or bad country… but let’s not get into that debate here.
(I’m Russian and grew up in Russia. Right now there is a trend of demonizing everything Soviet btw, at least in Russia. I’m not kidding, the government is sponsoring movies that do only the demonization.)
But anyway, that political shit aside, in the 1920s (Soviet Union just got formed and it was after a civil war with the monarchists…) there was a particular demand for PSAs, and not just of the “don’t mingle with the monarchists” variety. A lot of HEALTH PSAs, which makes sense considering that the goal was to spread awareness, especially in smaller communities that were still following some dangerous practices.
(Translation: Only a vaccine will save you from cholera!)
But they weren’t always just images with text telling you to get vaccinated and wash your hands. Back then some PSAs like that were actually poems (quite a lot, actually!):
Popular art style of the time period btw. This is going to be hard to translate from Russian, but let me try:
Hey, you folks, look over here!
See, one man’s already marred,
That one’s blind forever,
Those two, see? They’re crippled!
If you keep on being careless,
You might become just like them.
To a doctor run, right now
Context: This was before smallpox was officially eradicated in the Soviet Union, so the pox referred to here is smallpox. And yes, it could absolutely lead to (at best!) scarring, but it could also leave a person blind or with other “fun” complications. And it was contagious so it was crucial to warn the public about the dangers associated with the disease.
My feelings on the USSR are very complicated, but I think it’s interesting to see how PSAs looked in different decades in that country. Art does reflect a lot of context after all.
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