"Education is the Way to Communism" – Soviet Propaganda Poster in Yiddish – Moscow, 1920

"Education is the Way to Communism" – Soviet Propaganda Poster in Yiddish – Moscow, 1920
Bildung-awegveyzer tsum komunizm [Education is the Way to Communism], Illustrated lithographic poster. Moscow: The State Publishing House (Государственное издательство / Gosudarstvennoe Izdatelstvo), 1920. Yiddish.
A Soviet propaganda poster in Yiddish, printed as part of the campaign for the elimination of illiteracy launched by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in December 1919. The central illustration depicts a man riding a winged horse, holding a burning torch in one hand and an open book, reading "Workers of the World – Unite!" (Russian), in the other.
The slogan under the illustration, set next to the hammer and sickel symbol, reads: "Bildung-awegveyzer tsum komunizm" (Yiddish: "Education is the Way to Communisn". In the Russian version of the poster: "Literacy is the Way to Communism").
A similar illustration appeared on another propaganda item made in Russia in the early 1920s – a porcelain plate illustrated by artist Alisa Golenkina (featuring the slogan "We shall set the world ablaze with the fire of the Third International" and an illustration of a man riding a winged horse with a torch in his hand). Some attribute the design of this poster to Golenkina.
70.5X54 cm. Good-fair condition. Tears, some open, restored (paper replacement in several places). Minor stains. Linen-backed for display and preservation.