Seeing Red

The Soviet Union was a repressive regime that stifled all forms of creative expression. But author David King discovered a treasure trove of visual relics from the communist era by little-known photographers, designers, and artists.

SEPT. / OCT. 2009

In his forthcoming collection, Red Star Over Russia: A Visual History of the Soviet Union from the Revolution to the Death of Stalin, David King unearths otherwise lost Soviet images. From advertisements and political posters to photographs, and even mug shots, these works and images defined their time, evoking the drama of the communist era.

Lenin stands on the left side of the bottom step with comrades at a Marx Day rally in Moscow's Red Square in 1919. On a gramophone record, Lenin mercilessly lambasted the leaders of Karl Marx's First International and the Third International organizations, saying: "They betrayed the workers, prolonged the slaughter, became enemies of socialism, and went over to the side of the capitalists."

Photographer unknown.