Data Visualization in the Age of Communism
As the 20th century began, Russia was divided into three groups: the czars, who held a monopoly on political power, the intelligentsia, a group of highly educated citizens who were completely shut out of the government, and the peasants. This last group was almost completely rural, made up roughly 80% of the entire population, and had increasingly refused to acknowledge the rule of law or principle of private property.

‘The USSR is the Crack Brigade of the World Proletariat,’ 1931, by Gustav Klusis. Photo: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

To radically understate it, the Revolution of 1917 changed all that. A fraction of the intelligentsia known as the Bolsheviks overthrew and killed Czar Nicholas II and his family. The leader of the Bolsheviks, Vladimir Lenin, outflanked all political opponents and forced the country into complete Communist rule. The message of Communism, however, still had to be sold to the general populace.

Before the 1917 revolution, the Constructivists were loosely affiliated with other modernist art movements in Western Europe. They sought to develop a new visual language based on reducing decoration and streamlining shape and type in order to “construct” art. But after the revolution, they found themselves at the center of the Russian cultural overhaul.

Since many of the Constructivists were also Communists, they eagerly participated in the cultural transformation that played out on an unprecedented scale. The resources at their control were profound, and many of the Constructivists were installed as leaders in the art academies or put in charge of media or industrial design institutions.

Many Constructivists rejected painting in favor of graphic design and photography. Some, like Alexander Rodchenko (pictured above), turned to political propaganda. It was a successful pairing at first, as the visual sophistication of the Constructivists amplified the Communists’ reach and influence. Since the country needed nearly everything produced in Russia to be remade in the new image of Communism, the Constructivists had an opportunity to play a large role in creating that image.

The first five-year plan (1928–1932)

The posters in this story come from the Woodburn Collection, at the National Library of Scotland, and focus mostly on the economic and social issues from the first two of Russia’s five-year plans, to make an appeal to the proletariat. The scope of this poster series was representative of the massive change occurring in the country.

As the political structure of Russia was rewritten, so was its national identity. The Bolsheviks evolved into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and the Communist Party shifted its focus to transforming the country into an economic powerhouse. This coincided with the transfer of power to Joseph Stalin, who announced the first five-year plan — a device the government used for planning economic growth — on October 1, 1928.
['Jason Forrest']
['Ideas', 'Design', 'Media', 'Data Science', 'History']