Made in the U.S.S.R.
A new book explores the history of Soviet Export magazine, one of the only sources of capitalist-style advertising in the Soviet Union.
By Anna Malpas Published: April 13, 2007
A leggy blonde model strides down the steps of a groovy concrete building, her gaze fixed on the ride of her dreams: the Zaporozhets ZAZ-966, "a car for each and every driver." This unlikely scene was one of the advertising pitches dreamed up by Soviet Export, a trade magazine whose design innovations are celebrated in a new book.
Published from 1957 to 1989, the magazine was mostly aimed at potential foreign importers of Soviet goods, combining striking advertisements with texts praising the country's industry. For the first four years, it came out only in English, but it later added editions in Spanish, German, Japanese, French and Russian. The last of these was aimed at Soviet officials rather than the everyday reader.
While advertising design within the Soviet Union stagnated, the designers working for the magazine were allowed to experiment more freely in order to attract capitalist readers. A 300-page book published by WAM last month, "U.S.S.R. Advertising: Soviet Export Magazine," showcases the house style, from the colorful geometric compositions of the early years to the complex graphics of the perestroika era. (The book's English translator is Brian Droitcour, who is also a freelance art critic for The Moscow Times.)
The goods advertised range from raw materials to industrial and medical equipment, and also include as a number of consumer goods, such as matches, tinned food, vodka, cloth, cars, motorbikes and cigarettes. The designers take the seemingly uninspiring selection in stride, creating memorable images on a shoestring.
In one advertisement, a photograph of a beautifully laid table is shown with a question mark in the middle. The text explains: "What's Missing? Russian Vodka." A stylish Spanish-language advertisement shows a blurred photograph of a man running, his tie flying over his shoulder. The caption reads: "What has happened? A fire?" before explaining that the man is actually "burning with desire" to acquire the new Moskvich car.
The book includes reminiscences from magazine staff. Anatoly Yasinsky, a designer who worked there from the 1960s to the '80s, recalls borrowing a stuffed sable from a museum and dampening it to make it look more alive for a spread about the state fur company, while Valery Cherniyevsky, who worked there in the '70s and '80s, writes about creating an advertisement for an X-ray device that was in a semi-secret institute where photographers were barred. They improvised by creating a "fragment" of the device, using a washbasin with holes drilled in it.
The WAM publication was made possible by one of the magazine's longest-serving employees, former technical editor Lyudmila Gorokhova, who keeps a complete archive of the magazine in her Moscow apartment. She began working there in 1961, at the age of 27, and retired in 1989, when the magazine was renamed Business Contact and ceased to be printed on high-quality paper in Austria.
Due to ill health, Gorokhova was unable to show her archive this week, but speaking by telephone on Thursday, she described the WAM publication as the fulfillment of a long-held ambition. "I always cherished the dream of publishing this book, but I didn't have the money," she said, adding that it had taken 15 years to find a publisher who was interested.
The magazine's staff started as a group of young people: Editor Dial Vinogradov, whose first name derived from the word Dialectics, was only 35 when Gorokhova joined, she recalled. "We thought he was very grown-up." Many writers and artists stayed for years, she said. "Our staff hardly changed until the very end of the magazine."
Expressing her love for the magazine, Gorokhova said "it was annoying" that people in the Soviet Union were unaware of its innovative artwork. The Russian edition had a very small print run, she said. It was aimed at officials at the Ministry of Foreign Trade and people working for trading organizations.
She sees the importance of the WAM book as showing that Soviet advertising design continued to develop behind the Iron Curtain. "We can be proud that there wasn't any gap during that period," she said. "Maybe the book can even be useful for people who are starting to work in advertising today."
"U.S.S.R. Advertising: Soviet Export Magazine" is published by WAM.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/04/13/103.html
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