Semiotics of visual iconicity in Leninist `monumental' propaganda

Abstract

Leninist propaganda conveyed through artistic monuments (referred to in this article as `monumental' propaganda) — painting, sculpture, urban architecture — was intended as a way of communicating key political ideas to a largely illiterate population. The politically motivated character of the visual icon made it a helpful tool of communication and instruction, and gradually the visual icon became confused with reality itself. In the 1920s, the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (AKhRR) pioneered the use of artistic images as a documental attestation of reality. Under Stalin, monumental visual signs offered an idealized vision of the Communist future as an already achieved reality. Sculptures and paintings secured the state leader's symbolic presence in every corner of the country. Therefore, the subsequent change of political leadership resulted in damnatio memoriae — the destruction of visual images of statesmen from the previous regime. Leninist monumental propaganda perpetuated the neoplatonic artistic tradition of the Russian Orthodox Church, which meant there was no clear distinction between the iconic sign and its referent.