Glasnost PostersWhen Mikhail Gorbachev
assumed power in 1985 the
words glasnost,perestroika,
and demokratiawere not
uttered. After a few years
they became the most
charged words of any
language: glasnost, “new
openness”; perestroika,
“economic reform”; and
demokratia, “popular rule.”
Ultimately, Premier
Khruschev’s admonition
“We will bury you” was replaced by “Do you want fries with that?”
Glasnost posters were early manifestations of the flurry of social
and political change that preceded the fall of the Soviet Union. Printed on
flimsy paper, these posters expressed the frustrations and fears of a nation
long under communist oppression. But the beginnings of change in Soviet
graphics began much earlier than the Gorbachev years. The evolution in
graphic design slowly gathered momentum towards the end of Khruschev’s
reign and continued through the early 1980 s during the Brezhnev years.
When Gorbachev finally emerged as leader of the nation, Russia
was still “the evil empire.” Glasnost was not proclaimed overnight. But in
terms of graphics the thaw had started. By 1985 , when glasnost, perestroika,
and demokratia were announced to the world, the initial evidence of this
new graphic excitement emerged—or rather exploded—in the Baltic
Republics of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, where poster artists had
already been exploring new methods of graphic presentation. Most of these
new posters, which owe a debt to the Polish poster, were done for local
cultural and performing arts events that had historically allowed artists
more freedom.
In 1986 a new genre, the protest poster, was displayed at a Latvian
political poster exhibition. Laimonis Chenberg of Riga had designed a
poster called Perestroika? showing two saucepans with different colored
covers. The symbolism, though seemingly obscure, was rather pointed.
Chenberg challenged authority by visually suggesting that if the34