Found of graphic editions of the USSR 1953: statistical and content characteristics

Abstract

The presented collective work was prepared during the implementation of the annual plan of research works of the Book Chamber of Ukraine named after Ivan Fedorov. This article raises the issue of publishing graphic editions in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). The chronological boundaries of the study cover 1953 — a historic stage that was a turning point in the development of the world. A number of mutually conditioned events are connected with the year of Joseph Stalin's death. The beginning of the abolition of long-standing tyrannical rule in the USSR, the formation of a liberal regime in the world's first socialist country led to tectonic shifts in the entire structure of the then socialist camp and symptomatic fluctuations in most newly established people's democracies. 1953 was the first year of Khrushchev's "thaw" in Soviet Ukraine, which at that time was still living in a "post-war" war in the western regions of the USSR. The defining stages of this period, of course, affected the publishing business of the republic, however, the controversial component of the process of liberalization of socio-political life in the USSR (condemnation of Stalin's cult, carefully launched then the process of rehabilitation of innocent victims of Stalinism) did not find its bright reflection. First of all, this applies to loose-leaf graphic editions, which, taking into account the diversity of genres and the propaganda orientation of its own functionality, should be the first to react to the announced events. Meanwhile, the fund of graphic editions processed by us in the 1953 segment testifies to the complete alienation of the publishing business of the Ukrainian SSR from the shocking events of that time. Ukrainian Soviet printing, apparently, pursued a course to preserve the inertia of previous years, which was reflected in all types of loose-leaf graphic editions, such as: postcards, portraits, posters and more.