Early Era, 1920s-1930s

Postcard "Down with lynching! Long live negro workers!”, 1931

In the 1920s and 1930s, the People’s Commissariat of Posts and Telegraphs of the USSR (NKPT) produced vast quantities of propaganda postcards, printing two million copies of this one alone. The postcard’s anti-lynching caption and illustration align with anti-American attitudes, while its multilingual text reflects the internationalist ideals of the Soviet Union. This side of the postcard provides space for the recipient’s address and has a ten-kopek stamp printed in the corner. The back of the postcard is left blank for letter writing.

USA: liudi i nravy Ameriki [USA: People and Customs of America], 1932, front cover

Bogoras was an anthropologist whose work focused on the Siberian Chukchi people. This book is based on a three-month trip that he made to the United States in the late 1920s and reflections from when he worked at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City from 1901-1904. Bogoras includes chapters on “Negroes,” “The Fight Against Lynching,” “The Poet Langston Hughes,” and “‘Coloured’ Theatre.” He recalls many examples of segregation and discrimination during both visits but also observes the growth of Black intellectual life and culture. The cover was designed by Boris Titov, a prominent Soviet book designer and illustrator, whose work often included figurative drawings, such as of the man at the top of this cover.