The evolution of graphics in newspaper holiday issues in the Soviet Ukraine (1953-1984)

Abstract

The article focuses on the issues of the Soviet Ukrainian periodicals Pravda Ukrainy(Kyiv) and Rabochaya gazeta (Kyiv), timed to the most popular Soviet public celebrations: New Year, May Day, and October Revolution Day. The author analyses the graphics of about 180 newspapers of 1953-1984 to determine the approaches to selecting visual elements (front page drawings, caricatures, cartoons and other decorative sketches). The chronology of newspaper images and symbols clearly shows the evolution of key political categories, their relevance, diversity, and interrelation, depending on the regional specificity of the newspaper. The visualization scheme naturally differed for each celebration. For example, the May Day or, especially, October Revolution Day newspaper issues invariably published portraits of Vladimir Lenin, while the political symbolism of New Year holiday referred to the Kremlin towers. In different years, the background that formed the plot of holday illustrations was industry or space exploration, international workers' parade or family life. The repetition of compositional and semantic elements not only emphasized their significance, but, in time, began to indicate the lack of new ideas. Meanwhile, the political satire, represented by foreign policy caricatures, gradually gave way to humorous cartoons related to domestic casual topics. The national specificity of visual symbolism could be found only in some types of visual images, as well as in accompanying texts in Ukrainian.