CARAVANS & COMMISSARS

In each location throughout Ukraine, the removal of tributes to communism was not just an attempt to modernize the new states. It played an important role in forging each country's new national identity. After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, massive statues of revolutionaries were erected throughout the republics of the U.S.S.R., including the land that is now Ukraine. Cities throughout the Ukrainian socialist republic were once filled with monumental portrait statues of V

“Pizza is for everyone.” Mikhail Gorbachev In 1990, Pizza Hut was among the first American restaurant chains to open in Moscow, Russia. The introduction of fast-food restaurants and other western goods were the direct result of President Mikhail Gorbachev’s economic and political reforms termed perestroika (“restructuring”) and glasnost (“transparency”). These market reforms opened the Soviet Union to material and cultural goods from the outside world. In 1998, Gorbachev ap

State sponsored images are rarely produced without a psychological motive. They use fear, anger, hope or pride, to influence populations. Political propaganda became especially prevalent during World War I and World War II to boost morale and dehumanize enemies. Totalitarian states like Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union used posters to control public opinion and eliminate opposition. One subset of images created during Stalin’s rule was designed to prevent the population from

“The physical education of the rising generation is one of the necessary elements of the system of communist education of youth.” -Vladimir Lenin, addressing the Third Congress of the Komosomol, October 1920 Historical Background Sambo is a Soviet sport that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s as a hand‑to‑hand combat system developed for the Red Army and security forces. Its movements are drawn from judo, wrestling, and other fighting arts. Its name comes from the Russian phrase

Children, like soft wax, are very malleable and they should be molded into good Communists - Soviet Educational Theorist The Millionaire (1963), an eleven-minute cartoon, tells the story of a bulldog who becomes rich by inheriting his owner’s estate. Directed by Vitold Bordzilosky and Yuriy Prytkov, the film mocks capitalist ideology and exposes the corruption of Western democracy. The film was produced by the major Soviet studio Soyuzmultfilm as a piece of anti‑U.S. propag