Unknown artist, advertisement for Resinotrust (Rezinotrest) published in Soviet Travel: An Illustrated Monthly, March 1939

Quarto size (215 x 275 mm)

Inv. no. ST_3_1939

The English-language Soviet Travel: An Illustrated Monthly began publication in Moscow in 1932. Over the following years, it was advertised as publishing articles “by leading Soviet writers on all points of interest in the Soviet Union. … Profusely illustrated with photographs of Soviet life and the scenic wonders of one sixth of the globe.” It was intended both to offer an idealized view of the Soviet Union to readers, even those who might only be “arm chair travelers,” but also to drum up business for Intourist, the newly created official state travel agency, and to support Soviet industries looking for commercial outlets abroad.

In addition to the photographs, the wrappers were printed with brightly colored graphics and advertisements in styles often influenced by Constructivism, a movement excoriated by the government as alien to Soviet viewers. Editor-in-Chief Leon Abramovich Blok (or Block) and Managing Editor I.A. Urasov engaged early Soviet graphic artists who are now often unfairly forgotten or entirely unknown.

Resinotrust (Rezinotrest), advertised here, was the State Rubber Trust which oversaw a number of recently nationalized factories making galoshes, pacifiers, automobile tires, balls for sports, and other toys. Advertisements for the trust’s goods created by artist Alexander Rodchenko working together with poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, who served as copywriter, are now icons of modern design. Although this advertisement is unsigned and the author remains to be established, the artist’s prominent display of the underside of the galosh and its placement in an abstract space shows the clear influence of Rodchenko’s earlier compositions. In this case, it appears to be held aloft, brandished as a symbol of Soviet modernity and industrial might.