Posters of Republics & Autonomous Regions

In 1990, the USSR ranked third in the world as the most populous nation with over 248 million people, and yet only half the population spoke Russian. With millions of non-Russian speakers, printed matter was issued in a myriad of languages other than Russian.

Russian was classified as the common language of the USSR and this meant non-Russian speakers were obligated to learn Russian whereas the ethnic Russian population typically did not have to learn a second language. As a result, Russian fluency increased among non-Russian speakers in the republics and autonomous regions.

During the 1920s, the USSR propagated fluency in non-Russian language instruction through literacy campaigns that sped political education. By the mid-1930s, the government downplayed individualism. Native language use was subsequently curtailed via Cyrillization and Russification that reversed earlier linguistic instruction efforts.

To see posters in the Collection of the non-Russian speaking Soviet republics, click on the list below.

The following are some non-Russian language posters with descriptions and essays.

PP 625 in the Collection was published by NIANIS, the research section of the Peoples of the North Institute (A.K.A. Herzen Institute), an education organization that completed the Unified Northern Alphabet to serve as the basis for languages of other indigenous populations in the USSR.

This image shows a poster in Nanai language. In 1932, a Nanai alphabet was derived from the primer, Sikun pokto, (New Life) and the man on this poster holds that book in his hand. The second book in the background raised behind the man is Cuz Dif (New Word). Cuz Dif was a primer in Nivkh language, spoken in Outer Manchuria and on the northern half of Sakhalin Island.

Many people of the Northern USSR and Siberia had no written language until 1932. The NIANIS institute was the only link researchers had to these indigenous populations and their staff directed the first textbooks, political literature and propaganda written in a myriad of Northern languages. Production of the works was in partnership with the Prosveshchenie (Enlightenment) Publishing House of Leningrad.

PP 633 is a poster from the Collection in the Oriat language of the Kalmyk people. The poster was published by Tsentrizdat, the Central Publishing House of the USSR, developed in 1924 to promote the study of native languages and literacy along with the political education of the Soviet Union's national minorities. This poster was issued with only 1,000 copies.

Kalmyks are traditionally a Buddhist, nomadic people of Mongolia who migrated to Russia in the 1600s. They formed a khanate that was taken over by the Russian Empire. There are two divisions of Kalmyk populations: the Western Mongol or Oryad (Oirat) division, and its Eastern counterpart that settled in the Crimean region.

The Buddhist monk Zaya Pandita Namhaijamts developed an Oirat language in the 1600s. His Tod Bichig (Clear Script) was orthographic Oirat based on Mongolian script. Tod Bichig was used in the Soviet Union until 1927 when it was replaced with a Latin alphabet. In 1938, most of the USSR's Kalmyk population shifted to a Cyrillic alphabet while the Western Altai Oirats adopted Cyrillic in 1939.

The All-Russian Executive Committee (VTsIK) provided the Kalmyks with an autonomous region in 1920. By 1936, the region became the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (KASSR). During the Second World War, the Soviet Government deported the Kalmyks to Siberia under the accusation they were supporting Axis armies. The Soviet Union ultimately dissolved the KASSR and Kalmyks were scattered throughout the world. In 1958, the KASSR was reconstituted.

PP 593 is an Uzbek language poster from the Collection highlighting the Jadid (new) Uzbek alphabet. The Uzbek alphabet was created by Soviet linguists in the 1920s during a Latinization program that converted almost all Central Asian alphabets in the USSR. The program was later reversed in favor of a Cyrillic-based alphabet.

In the USSR's Muslim-oriented republics, the Jadid alphabet campaign banned ancient scripts in order to develop a unified alphabet based on Latin script. The change to a Latin alphabet meant literate Muslim Soviets were required to learn a new orthographic system for languages they originally wrote in Arabic or Persian scripts. This poster (by artist Nikolai Gerasimov) illustrates the significance of the Latin-based alphabet campaign.

According to a 2009 article in polit.ru (specifically about this poster), the author explains the overall artistic message conveyed:

In this poster we see the familiar image of the tractor of progress looming over the building of new secondary schools, farms and factory stacks. Groups of stocky workers in green overalls at the center of the poster display the new Uzbek Latin alphabet. One is holding a newspaper with the name "Lenin", already typed in Latin characters. At the bottom is a huge bucket excavator removing debris, classified as madrassas and mosques, mullahs and Jadid teachers of the old Muslim school, and above all, Arabic letters appearing very unpleasant. They look like sick curves and they fall in bunches along with the mullahs. One letter, 'ayn, is picked-up by an aspiring intellectual Jadid before being placed into the bucket's dredge and then, as a scene of life in old schools, a teacher beats a student into line.

PP 667 is a Yakut language poster from the Collection. The Yakut people speak Saha Tyla, a Turkic language. It was the principal language spoken in the Yakutia region until the mid-twentieth century. During the Russian Civil War, the Soviet government established the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (YaASSR) and Soviet linguists were sent there to develop alphabets and grammatical descriptions of native Siberian languages. Yakut was studied in northern language departments at universities in select Siberian cities.

The following is part of a 2010 article by Razib Khan, "The origins of the Yakuts".

Due to geographic isolation, many indigenous communities in the Soviet Union (including Yakutia) had no written languages. The Soviet linguistic program was broadened after 1925 when a People's of the North Institute (NIANIS) was established. NIANIS was the Soviet educational link to indigenous populations in the USSR and its staff directed implementation of the first textbooks, political literature and propaganda in what was then classified as Northern peoples' languages. In 1917, Yakut linguist Semyon A. Novgorodov created a Latin-based alphabet along with the first alphabetic book in Saha Tyla language. By 1922, the Soviet of People's Commissars of Yakutia (YaASSR) passed a resolution introducing Saha Tyla in the republic's schools. Soviet authorities subsequently published a magazine and the first Yakut-printed newspaper, Kyym (Spark), both in 1923. In 1939, Saha Tyla script was changed from Latin-based to Cyrillic as part of Joseph Stalin's orthographic and educational reforms throughout the Soviet Union. Cyrillic was used to correspond with the Russian alphabet and to also demonstrate, unity, brotherhood and Stalinist comradeship. In 1990, the YaASSR declared itself an autonomous republic, independent from the USSR. In 2000, the Russian government created the Far East Federal District which includes Yakutia and in that same year, Yakutia's president issued a decree making English mandatory in school.

PP 604 is a Tatar language poster from the Collection. This poster utilizes the reformed Janalif alphabet brought about after the Soviet-led Latinization program (the Unified Turkic Latin Alphabet) that converted almost all USSR Central Asian alphabets. The central design element of the poster is the alphabet table (enlarged below) that carries forward the main theme. Published by the "Kazan Janalif Society", the poster was designed around 1927 by Nikolai Kronevald who based his work on a design by Faik Tagirov. Tagirov was a book and typeface designer and a proponent of Tatar alphabet Latinization. By 1927, Tagirov and his artistic comrade Alexandra Korobkova were designing Tatar-language literature in Moscow. Although Tagirov was a Kazan-based artist, he spent the majority of his life in Moscow owing to the fact he studied at VKhUTEIN (Higher Art and Technical Institute).

Click Here to download a 2012 article on Tagirov from the Kazan Herald.