Anti-Alcohol, Soviet Propaganda

This poster, published by Politizdat of Ukraine in 1987, represents the visual culture of Mikhail Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign (1985-1988), one of the most significant domestic policy initiatives of the perestroika period. The campaign emerged from Soviet leadership's recognition that endemic alcoholism was devastating productivity, public health, and social stability across the USSR. Artist P.D. Egorov employs a sophisticated visual rhetoric that draws upon both constructivist graphic traditions and editorial caricature conventions. The composition centers on the symbolic act of purification through the sweeping broom motif, rendered in the ideologically charged red that dominated Soviet visual culture. The caricatured figures being expelled represent not merely individual drinkers but the broader constellation of social pathologies associated with alcohol abuse: gambling (indicated by playing cards), financial ruin, and moral dissolution. The Ukrainian provenance of this poster merits scholarly attention. While anti-alcohol propaganda emanated primarily from Moscow, republican publishing houses produced regionally distributed materials, making this Ukrainian-language variant less common than central Russian editions. The poster thus serves as both a document of Soviet public health policy and evidence of the decentralized propaganda apparatus that operated across Soviet republics. Size: 17.0" x 11.0" Condition: Very Good, Age-appropriate wear, fading and toning. General border wear. Please use the photo zoom feature to get a better understanding of overall condition. *Additional photos available upon request.