Break from the Old World

This poster from 1917 depicts an industrial worker (the proletariat) empowered by communism, conquering the globe. On the bottom left, we see three men, presumably all of different race, standing side by side, united by their differences. The propaganda enriched poster captures the essence of communism – that of equality and the common man, the proletariat – and marks a divergence from the Old World notion of life whereby one way of life is elevated over all others, as can be seen by the image of the ordinary worker reigning supreme.

The account of Claude McKay is truly magnificent in showing the power and charisma of soviet society post-Bolshevik Revolution. It is the story of an ordinary black poet in the United States who travels to Soviet Russia out of curiosity to find himself become a ‘Black icon’ among the communist masses. Initially facing resistance in his travels, McKay arrives in Petrograd where his fate changes. For the first time in his life, he is celebrated as a hero by the whites, straddling the crowd on their shoulders, attending important soviet and factory meetings with the top Bolshevik officials and speaking as a guest speaker at the fourth conference of the Communist International, seated beside Zinoviev himself. The significance of such a reception can only be understated as 1922 was a time when African American men were only partially allowed to vote under the Dawes Act and faced severe racial oppression under the Capitalist regime of the United States.

The story of Mr. McKay is a story of differing ideologies in a bipolar world. It is a story of the fight between Capitalism and the Second World forces in battling centuries long European subjugation, first as a Black man, and then as a citizen of the Globe. The Soviet poster in this blog represents that very same fight. Capitalism is the mechanism through which the weak and poor have been oppressed and divided by the power brokers of the world, be it socially, politically, or economically. Communism is the light at the end of that tyrannical tunnel, that represents a break from the ‘Old World’ ways of life, promoting unity in diversity and a freedom long sought by mankind.

 Communism then, ideally, represents all that is good and pure for the common man. It gives the working- class citizen a respected status and shows a concrete belief in equality of all form. Asians, blacks, whites and browns, all stand united under the banner of communism, equal and elevated by their common revolutionary goals. Thus, for the likes of Claude McKay, it is this very ideology that represents hope of a better future, a more accepting future.