If the Soviet Union had an Instagram account, what would it look like?
22 September 2021
Text:
Paula Erizanu
If social media had existed during the Soviet era, what would the USSR’s account have looked like? Perhaps a little like twin accounts @ussrpictures on Instagram, or @PicturesUssr on Twitter.
With a mix of propaganda posters, official historical pictures, and photos of parades — including a ridiculous snap from Soviet Navy Day celebrations in 1950, which see Stalin’s portrait carried in the water among swimmers — @ussrpictures often provides flashbacks to the darker sides of Soviet history.
But besides symbols of a Soviet dictatorship laden with personality cults, the account also gives a sense of brighter times in the USSR, with everyday photographs of people on the beach, at school, or at work in labs.
We’ve seen the good, the bad — and now it’s time for the weird. Among the most surprising and creative assets presented on this account — set up in 2020 by an anonymous user or collective — is a 1939 poster celebrating Soviet sports. The unlikely collage shows a beautiful female athlete carrying a red flag with Stalin’s outline — just behind a gunman lying on top of a motorbike. It looks like it’s got all the elements of a viral meme.
