Soviet History Through Posters
A Visual Literacy Curriculum Kit
High School through College
This kit helps decode the messages of political posters created by Soviet regimes from Lenin and Stalin through Brezhnev and Gorbachev. Teachers lead students through the interactive process of applying their historical knowledge to the analysis of these documents using background and additional information and carefully selected probe questions. Students will learn core information and vocabulary about the history of the USSR, political and historical perspectives as communicated through visual media, visual literacy and media literacy skills, especially the ability to identify bias in art and propaganda.
All materials are classroom-ready, including: teacher guides, student handouts, overviews, and assessments.
- To order hard copy, click here.
- To download all print materials (130 Pages), click here.
Download each teachers guide, slide show or video below.
NOTE: To view the quicktime clips provided below, you may need to install the free media player Quicktime on your computer. Visit Apple for download instructions.
click a unit title to view/close list of downloads Units
Unit 1: The Birth of the USSR
Teacher's Guide with all print materials for this unit
Slide Show
Supplemental Resources
X
Links to Supplemental Resources from Federal Archives Unit 1
- PPT Doc.#1, Year of the proletarian dictatorship
Resource: Library of Congress: Postcard photos of the Russian Revolution
- PPT Doc.#2, The enemy wants to seize Moscow
Resource: National Archives Experience: Document of refugee from Russian civil war
- PPT Doc.#3, Crush capitalism or be crushed by it
Resource: Library of Congress: 1916 silent film on dangers of class war for the U.S.
- PPT Doc.#4, Beat the whites with the red wedge
Resource: Smithsonian: Artwork by same artist, El Lisitsky
- PPT Doc.#5, We destroyed the enemy with weapons
Resource: Library of Congress: Prints and drawings on capital and labor
- PPT Doc.#6, 1st of May
Resource: Library of Congress: Newspaper reports from the time of the Haymarket Affair
- PPT Doc.#7, Communist Youth International
Resource: Library of Congress: Communist International Archives project
- PPT Doc.#8, Citizens! Get an anti-cholera vaccination
Resource: Library of Congress: Newspaper article about 1892 Russian cholera outbreak
- PPT Doc.#9, Help!
Resource: Library of Congress: Photo of coffins from Volga famine
- PPT Doc.#12, Emancipated woman
Resource: Library of Congress: Photo of Soviet men and women workers at combine factory, 1930s
- PPT Doc.#13, Lenin
Resource: Library of Congress: Photos of Lenin
Unit 2: Stalin
Teacher's Guide with all print materials for this unit
Slide Show
Supplemental Resources
X
Links to Supplemental Resources from Federal Archives Unit 2
- PPT Doc.#14, Under the leadership of the great Stalin
Resource: Library of Congress: Mexican-born artist Miguel Covarrubias pairs the aging capitalist John D. Rockefeller, Sr. with the communist leader Josef Stalin
- PPT Doc.#15, Black Ravens
Resource: Library of Congress: Soviet anit-religious campaigns article from Revelations from the Russian Archives exhibit
- PPT Doc.#16, Come join our collective farm
Resource: Library of Congress: Photo of women collective farmers at Klishevo collective farm, near Moscow
- PPT Doc.#17, Not a single hectare
Resource: Library of Congress: Ukaranian famine article from Revelations from the Russian Archives exhibit
- PPT Doc.#18, Collectivization
Resource: CIA: 1988 memo on Glasnost-era criticism of Stalin's forced collectivization
[Scroll down to third bullet, page 9]
- PPT Doc.#19, Long live the industrial and finanacial development!
Resource: Library of Congress: Collectivization and industrialization article from Revelations from the Russian Archives exhibit
- PPT Doc.#21, National policy guarantees
Resource: Library of Congress: Meeting of Frontiers exhibit on opening of Russian Far East frontierconcurrent with U.S. settlement of the west
- PPT Doc.#22, 1935 1936 1937…
Resource: Library of Congress: The Gulag article from Revelations from the Russian Archives exhibit
- PPT Doc.#23, Have your own opinion
Resource: Library of Congress: Repression and terror: Stalin in control article from Revelations from the Russian Archives exhibit
- PPT Doc.#24, In memory of the 17th Congress
Resource: Library of Congress: Attacks on intelligentsia: renewed attacks article from Revelations from the Russian Archives exhibit
Unit 3: The Great Patriotic War
Teacher's Guide with all print materials for this unit
Slide Show
Supplemental Resources
X
Links to Supplemental Resources from Federal Archives Unit 3
- PPT Doc.#26, Fascism is Famine
Resource: Library of Congress: The Jewish anti-fascist committee article from Revelations from the Russian Archives exhibit
- PPT Doc.#27, The slaves stand up straighter
Resource: Library of Congress: Text of bill Designating the fiftieth anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact as Black Ribbon Day
- PPT Doc.#28, The motherland is calling you
Resource: CIA: Article on What Stalin Knew: The Enigma of Barbarossa Intelligence in Recent Public Literature
- PPT Doc.#32, For our motherland!
Resource: U.S Department of State: Exhibit on U.S. Soviet Alliance 1941-45
- PPT Doc.#33, Avenge us!
Resource: National Park Service: Blog post on A People at War: The Soviet Soldier in World War II
[Scroll down to fourth paragraph]
- PPT Doc.#34, My son!
Resource: Library of Congress: Photo collection of Russia during World War II
- PPT Doc.#35, To the west!
Resource: Library of Congress: Photo collection of World War II campaigns for Stalingrad, Odessa, and Moscow
- PPT Doc.#36, Three years of war
Resource: Library of Congress: Memo from Stalin on American-Soviet alliance
- PPT Doc.#37, Glory to the Red Army!
Resource: Library of Congress: World War 2 Alliance article from Revelations from the Russian Archives exhibit
Unit 4: The Cold War
Teacher's Guide with all print materials for this unit
Slide Show
Supplemental Resources
X
Links to Supplemental Resources from Federal Archives Unit 4
- PPT Doc #38, Love your motherland!
Resource: Library of Congress: Russian posters issued by several state agencies in 1947-1949
- PPT Doc.#39, Don't misbehave!
Resource: Library of Congress: Postwar Estrangement article from Revelations from the Russian Archives exhibit
- PPT Doc.#40, The peoples of the world
Resource: Library of Congress: Soviet Opposition to the Marshall Plan exhibit
- PPT Doc.#41, To whom does the national income go?
Resource: CIA: Article on The Validity of Soviet Economic Statistics
- PPT Doc.#42, In the USSR
Resource: National Endowment for the Humanities: Lessons on The Origins of the Cold War, 1945–1949
- PPT Doc.#43, In the lands of capitalism
Resource: Library of Congress: Composetrs in Russia exhibit
- Doc.#44, USSR: A mighty sports power
Resource: U.S. Dept of State: Article on The Olympic Boycott, 1980
- PPT Doc.#45, You will soon be an expert
Resource: CIA: Article on CIA's Analysis of Soviet Science and Technology
- PPT Doc.#46, No!
Resource: Library of Congress: Herblock political cartoonn on the arms race
- PPT Doc.#47, Two worlds!
Resource: Library of Congress: Soviet memo on Exposing Imperialist Policies from the Russian Archives exhibit
- PPT Doc.#48, Stop War!
Resource: Library of Congress: Cuban missle crisis article from the Russian Archives exhibit
- PPT Doc.#49, Colonial peoples
Resource: CIA: Report on Soviet Policy and the 1967 Arab-Israeli War
- PPT Doc.#50, Good morning, Africa!
Resource: CIA: Report on Soviet Policy and Africa
- PPT Doc.#51, 50th Anniversary
Resource: Library of Congress: Documents from the military archives of the Warsaw pact countries
- PPT Doc.#52, Chile September 1973
Resource: U.S. Department of State: Church report on Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973
- PPT Doc.#53, No forgiving the aggressors!
Resource: CIA: Report on Soviet attitudes and intentions toward the Vietnam war
- PPT Doc.#54,Peace is our ideal
Resource: U.S. Deptartment of State: Article on Détente and Arms Control, 1969-1979
- PPT Doc.#55, Through worlds and centuries
Resource: Library of Congress: Bibliography on 1957-2007: Sputnik and the Space Race
- PPT Doc.#56, Time, forward!
Resource: NASA: Article on Mir Space Station
- PPT Doc.#57, Stop the militarization of space
Resource: Library of Congress: Transcript of Congressional hearings on Strategic Defense Initiative
Unit 5: The End of the USSR
Teacher's Guide with all print materials for this unit
Slide Show
Supplemental Resources
X
Links to Supplemental Resources from Federal Archives Unit 5
- PPT Doc.#59, Bravo!
Resource: Library of Congress: Perestroika article from Revelations from the Russian Archives exhibit
- PPT Doc.#60, 1985
Resource: CIA: Report on Whither Gorbachev: Soviet Policy and Politics in the 1990s
- PPT Doc.#61, Every bureaucrat's table
Resource: CIA: Report on Gorbachev's Domestic Challenge: The Looming Problems
- PPT Doc.#62, Directive on plowing
Resource: CIA: Report on the January Plenum: Gorbachev Draws the Battlelines
- PPT Doc.#63, The position of the citizenry
Resource: Library of Congress: Report on Soviet workers and the collapse of pertestroika
- PPT Doc.#65, Perestroika of the press
Resource: Library of Congress: Attacks on Intelligentsia: Censorship article from Revelations from the Russian Archives exhibit
- PPT Doc.#66, The verdict of history
Resource: Library of Congress:Repression and Terror: Kirov Murder and Purges article from Revelations from the Russian Archives exhibit
- PPT Doc.#67, Power unbending
Resource: CIA: Report on Gorbachev's Domestic Gambles and Instability in the USSR
- PPT Doc.#69, Dangerous game
Resource: CIA: Report on Gorbachev's Approach to Societal Malaise
- PPT Doc.#70, Are you in good health?
Resource: National Institutes of Health: Article on smoking in the Soviet Union
- PPT Doc.#72, Nature will take revenge
Resource: Library of Congress: Chernobyl article from Revelations from the Russian Archives exhibit
- PPT Doc.#75, To respect the individual
Resource: Library of Congress:Attacks on intelligentsia: suppressing dissidents article from Revelations from the Russian Archives exhibit
- PPT Doc.#77, Perestroika Glasnost
Resource: CIA: Report on the debate over "openness" in Soviet propaganda and culture
- PPT Doc.#78, By forgetting the past
Resource: CIA: Bibliography on cold war's end






