Vladimir Lenin and his Soviet Russia proved that Porcelain, articles made of beautiful China, could also be used for propaganda. With a factory and some workers, using porcelain as propaganda could drive the Soviet Union to be seen as a utopia for many years.
In 1917, the Russian Bolsheviks took the throne from the Tsar with Vladimir Lenin, the founding head of government for Soviet Russia. All the Tsar royal family’s property would be taken apart, except the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory (IPM).
Vladimir Lenin used the once Tsarist-ruled factory to produce propaganda. White China and artists looking to show their utopian dream of socialism gave porcelain more than just innocuity, soft touch, and beauty. They began by hiring some professionals, the Avant-garde.
The Avant-garde dedicate their work to the arts. The Russian Avant-Garde was recruited by the factory to express the regime with an idiom for propaganda to receive a living in return. They were “grateful for the regular income and prestigious connections the factory afforded during the harsh post-war period when famine, civil war, and disease devastated so many Russian lives.” This meant the Avant-garde was getting paid to produce propaganda.
The original IPM hallmark was replaced by a cog, sickle, and hammer to symbolize a worker’s importance and ultimately be added to the Soviet Union’s Flag. “Smoking chimneys, telegraph wires, and tower blocks” replaced the original “pastoral scenes and intricate gilded heraldry the factory was once used for” to symbolize Lenin’s ideal trait, productivity.
“Socialist realism was born, but it was inevitably inauthentic and prosaic” because of mass incarceration, famine, and executions which were eventually shed light on. But the journey there proved art as propaganda could make a brutal regime look like it contained an adored leader and communist supporting citizens. The preservation and evolution of one factory, some porcelain, and a dictatorship-seeking government made this happen effortlessly.
Link to Articles: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656880002532x416782483752314900/How%20teapots%20were%20used%20to%20spread%20Russian%20propaganda%20-%20BBC%20Culture.pdf
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vladimir-Lenin
In 1917, the Russian Bolsheviks took the throne from the Tsar with Vladimir Lenin, the founding head of government for Soviet Russia. All the Tsar royal family’s property would be taken apart, except the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory (IPM).
Vladimir Lenin used the once Tsarist-ruled factory to produce propaganda. White China and artists looking to show their utopian dream of socialism gave porcelain more than just innocuity, soft touch, and beauty. They began by hiring some professionals, the Avant-garde.
The Avant-garde dedicate their work to the arts. The Russian Avant-Garde was recruited by the factory to express the regime with an idiom for propaganda to receive a living in return. They were “grateful for the regular income and prestigious connections the factory afforded during the harsh post-war period when famine, civil war, and disease devastated so many Russian lives.” This meant the Avant-garde was getting paid to produce propaganda.
The original IPM hallmark was replaced by a cog, sickle, and hammer to symbolize a worker’s importance and ultimately be added to the Soviet Union’s Flag. “Smoking chimneys, telegraph wires, and tower blocks” replaced the original “pastoral scenes and intricate gilded heraldry the factory was once used for” to symbolize Lenin’s ideal trait, productivity.
“Socialist realism was born, but it was inevitably inauthentic and prosaic” because of mass incarceration, famine, and executions which were eventually shed light on. But the journey there proved art as propaganda could make a brutal regime look like it contained an adored leader and communist supporting citizens. The preservation and evolution of one factory, some porcelain, and a dictatorship-seeking government made this happen effortlessly.
Link to Articles: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656880002532x416782483752314900/How%20teapots%20were%20used%20to%20spread%20Russian%20propaganda%20-%20BBC%20Culture.pdf
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vladimir-Lenin
