Poster Plakat
Poster of the Week
"I Will Become a Metal Worker!" This featured poster was designed by the artist Nina Vatolina (1915-2002).
The poster was published in August 1945 during the Second World War when factory and industrial training in the Soviet Union was undergoing a conscription campaign. Thousands of youths were sent to the schools to learn a trade, and to receive basic military preparation.
The Soviet Union maintained a system of factory training schools, industrial trade schools, mining schools, and other vocational schools as an alternative to a higher education. Early on, training was linked to a working factory, plant or laboratory where students learned from the experience they gained within the industrial setting. Graduates typically entered the labor trades. While the training model and its courses changed throughout the years, a core group of schools were consistently used.
This poster highlights the FZO (Shkola fabrichno-zavodskogo Obuchenia) -- factory and plant training school. Courses lasted six-months to one year and its students were between 16 to 19 years of age. The FZO produced semi-skilled workers such as stone cutters or commercial painters but it also offered training in construction, mining and metallurgy, as the featured poster indicates. The boy on the poster is wearing the uniform of a mining cadet.
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About The Collection
Poster Plakat is a private collection of Soviet and Eastern Bloc political ephemera spanning 1916 to 1991. The collection contains over 1,000 original posters and poster maquettes. Sizes range from windowpane posters up to large, multi-panel broadsides. Numerous artists are represented such as Gustav Klutsis, Victor Deni, Nikolai Dolgorukov, Vladimir Stenberg, the Kukryniksy, Viktor Koretsky, and hundreds more. All posters are linen backed and ready for display.
If you are interested in using images from the Collection or exhibiting posters from it, please visit the Contact Us page for more information. You can also email info@posterplakat.com and include the name of your organization, the name of the contact person and provide your phone number. In addition, please provide a general description of the exhibit you are considering or the poster you would like to use.