Proletarians of All Lands, Unite!

June 7, 2009 7:01 AM

Peasant! Free your pregnant wife from work, don't allow her to pick up heavy items since this will harm her and the child. An excellent collection of vintage soviet propaganda, public health, and infographics posters from 20s to 30s, many with full translations.
posted by madamjujujive (17 comments total)

We don't want to trust the wisewoman anymore! Down with the wisewoman!


Who is the wisewoman?
posted by orme at 7:10 AM on June 7

Baby-0, Flies-1.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 7:18 AM on June 7

orme, I think wise women were healers, herbalists, medicine women - sometimes witches. There is a recurring reference to them in these posters - I took it as "midwives."
posted by madamjujujive at 7:31 AM on June 7

midwife - pretty cool historical overview (western civ) in wikipedia

otoh, via

The wise woman is called the Svakhina, a most peculiar type, to be found all over the North of Russia. She is somewhat related to the midwife by temperament and character. One glance at her face would suffice to tell you that she knew too much.
posted by infini at 7:41 AM on June 7 [1 favorite has favorites]

wow, that second link leads to a treasure trove called Undiscovered Russia - thanks, infini!

Also - oops - I should have given a via to the excellent coisas do arco da velha
posted by madamjujujive at 7:52 AM on June 7

Can anyone explain "the black window"?
posted by availablelight at 8:01 AM on June 7

availablelight, I'm assuming it's the black market.
posted by small_ruminant at 8:23 AM on June 7

Actually, that doesn't make sense- sorry. So are they chastising the people who make their money selling alcohol? I don't know.
posted by small_ruminant at 8:25 AM on June 7

maybe "Shame on those who squander their paychecks on booze?"
posted by madamjujujive at 8:41 AM on June 7

you're welcome madamjujujive, and tbh didn't even realize it, thanks for pointing it out!!
posted by infini at 9:01 AM on June 7

Man, I used to have one of these posters! My high school Russian teacher gave it to me. It said, "Students! Protect [i.e. be careful with/take care of] your schoolbooks! Schoolbooks must be passed down to the next generation of students!" Very cool illustration of a schoolboy in a red kerchief holding his schoolbook proudly and staring up at the sky.

Lost it years ago in a move. Drat.
posted by trip and a half at 9:03 AM on June 7

This is awesome--thanks for posting!
posted by orrnyereg at 9:29 AM on June 7

Yeah I'm glad to see the Americans are completely "peasant-free" these days.
posted by Zambrano at 9:37 AM on June 7

Russian inwentions!
posted by kldickson at 9:40 AM on June 7

Can anyone explain "the black window"?

Not "window" but "cash register" or "till." "Черная касса" (chornaya kassa) is defined as the possession and use of funds not declared or known to the tax officials, in Soviet times often part of the black market but also used for all sorts of purposes that were made difficult or impossible by Soviet laws. You can read about their use in "informal associations" here.
posted by languagehat at 9:45 AM on June 7 [5 favorites has favorites]

Excellent. Also, Soviet Posters.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 10:21 AM on June 7 [1 favorite has favorites]

How to Breast-feed a Baby

At the bottom, I get "What a Nursing Mother is Not Allowed to Eat and Drink (Homebrew, beer, wine and liqueur)" but it also looks like onions, a large parsnip (?) and maybe mushrooms (???) are out of line as well? And weird lumpy sticks?
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 1:54 PM on June 7