Soviet Internationalism - The World Breaking from the Old World

The Soviet regime employed the use of propaganda to exercise control on its citizens. However, another purpose these posters fulfill is the representation of the ideas that were being spread around at the time.

Dada’s account serves as a great first hand account of a brown man “breaking with the old world” who after enrolling in the University of the Peoples of the East, did not just find an avenue of intellectual opportunities but also saw a way out of the ways of the West and India.  Here, Dada experienced a grant of freedom in terms of intellect in the sense that their individualism, in terms of every individual person that was enrolled, was commended and addressed as they were all made to utilize their own languages in their intellectual discourse.

It was clear in Dada’s account was the relief of finding that there was no exclusion of dark skinned people in any way that people of colour had been encountering elsewhere. As exemplified in Dada’s account, the Soviets recognized differences and celebrated them. People of all colours, women and people clad in different clothing portrays the wide myriad of cultural and religious backgrounds coming together, marching under the USSR flag.

 This depicts the ability of the Soviets to amalgamate comrades under a single ideology that was a feat unachieved by many regimes elsewhere. However, it was not as if other nations or movements were planning to do so in quite the way Soviets attempted to do so. The Soviets idea was not about the domination of one culture over the other, instead was bringing together the dispersed ways of inhabiting the planet and bringing together different cultures under the similarity of differences.

 Peace! Friendship!

The Soviet Internationalism wanted to do more than just contest against wide spread imperialism but also to steer away from oppressive relations embedded in the social fabric around the world.. The idea was to provide colonized people with a home that was built on their conditions and provided a sense of belonging while being their own selves.

Soviet comradery provided its people with a sense of belonging that transcended their individual identities while anti-colonial and national movements tended to achieve that by catering to one unified identity. In Dada’s account, he felt a sense of inclusion when he arrived in Moscow when he was recognized for his identity. He was given more recognition than he was at his own country.

It also gave them a sense of a belonging to their time in the present world of the time. Colonised people in the pursuit of the White Man’s civilizing mission were made to believe that they are underdeveloped and behind whereas the Soviet internationalism gave them a sense of belief in their time of now instead of being made to believe that they were still on their way and had not yet achieved a stage of development. The Soviet promise was to be affirmed of their existence which was so adamantly denied before.