The “Space” Ideologeme in the Soviet Visual Propaganda of 1957–1965

Abstract

The aim of the article is to reveal and to elaborate on the figurative and symbolic frameworks in visualization of the topic of space in the Soviet print propaganda of 1957–1965 as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of the information and propaganda campaign in terms of public political sentiments. The source base is made up of several thousand of posters, caricatures, cartoons, and other thematic illustrations. The context of their creation, semantics, and distribution are reconstructed by means of bibliographic analysis and content-analytical methods. Analysis of personal sources (diary entries, memoirs, and “letters to the authorities”) is used to describe of the presence of the theme of space in everyday life. Visual propaganda embraced space in relation to almost all key aspects of the life of Soviet people through 1) political ideals; 2) self-identification as belonging to a particular entity; 3) a sense of active personal responsibility for the country; 4) understanding the USSR’s global role during the Cold War. In general, initially there were a genuine interest, pride for the country, and no rejection of propagandistic campaign about the space exploration. However, at the end of the period, some aspects were treated with skepticism due to a lack of novelty in the coverage of events and presence of problems in other fields. At the same time, visual propaganda contextually matched the Soviet citizens’ opinions, and some of them participated in creation of the “space” pictures, that indicate the audience’s attention to visual content. Anyway, its ideological role gradually underwent transformation from ideological to routine meaning.