Striking provinciality: "The Soviet man was a courageous ideal"

The “Russian House for Science and Art” in Berlin’s Mitte is a controversial place. Since the attack on Ukraine, people have been demonstrating in front of the huge, often empty-looking building on Friedrichstrasse. This was also the case when an exhibition with historical advertising posters from the Soviet Union was recently opened in the “Tolstoy Hall”. 22 posters from the state tourism agency Intourist will be on display. They were intended to lure travelers from Western Europe to the USSR between 1929 and 1989 – and are lasting testimony to the aspirations and aesthetics of a vanished empire. It advertised the coexistence of 189 peoples and yet partially suppressed them. While the spirit of the so-called “Soviet Russia” was in charge, the idyll of untouched landscapes and innocent people was on display in the constituent republics: in Armenia, Belarus, Georgia and of course in the Ukraine. The original, original posters are part of a larger collection by Essen-born Oliver Kempkens. ntv.de met the businessman and self-declared “Soviet nostalgic” to talk about his view of the motifs and the controversial exhibition location.

ntv.de: Mr. Kempkens, you collect travel posters from a lost empire: the Soviet Union. Why?

Oliver Kempkens: When I was 17, I went to Latvia, a successor state of the Soviet Union, for the first time. The fall of the Soviet Union was still an issue, it made me curious and I wanted to own a little historical attribute from the time. I spotted my first poster, a late 1930’s replica poster depicting Moscow. Soon I was looking for the original, but first had to save for it.

Are the posters art or kitsch?

After I have been dealing with them for 20 years, I speak of three phases: the first from 1929 to around 1939 used well-known artists and graphic artists such as Maxim Zhukov or Maria Nesterova-Bersina. In the second phase, the posters were also strongly based on the first phase, often without naming the authors. After that came more and more junk and kitsch. From all three phases I buy what I like.

How would you describe the style of the posters?

The first phase was formative. Their design reflects modernity and is constructivist. The stylization of figures, objects or landscapes as well as the coloring and the two-dimensional representations can be assigned to Art Deco. This style did not last forever. In the end there were many collages – sometimes more, sometimes less cheap.

Similar motifs are known from the first phase in particular, for example as advertising for Swiss ski resorts or for the French Riviera. Who stole from whom back then?

The French and Swiss were there first. Clearly, the Soviets appropriated a lot – or simply stole it. But according to Eastern philosophy, that’s also an accolade. Incidentally, the influence of the French painter Cassandre, who worked in the West, is remarkable. He was born and raised as Adolphe Mouron in Kharkiv – a city in Ukraine as we all know today.

What is your favorite subject?

There are several: The “Leningrad” poster with the military academy and two ropes running across the picture like a break invites interpretation. The “Stalingrad” poster reminds me of the Volgograd region and my first vacation as a young person in Russia. It was a great time, in which I also felt the melancholy of the people. I find them in the suggestion of a great tomb. The motif “Baku” with the oil refinery – by the way my most expensive poster – has a special history. But you have to know that Alfred Nobel lived in the oil town and financed part of the Nobel Peace Prize from his proceeds. At present, the poster “Soviet Ukraine” certainly stands out, the original draft of which I have. It shows what occupied the leadership in Moscow: combine harvesters in the background, the country’s industrialization and an amazingly exotic girl. In short: a clumsy and desperate portrayal of provinciality.

You mention the prices. How did they develop?

I paid between $150 and $24,000. The “Moscow” motif already mentioned cost around 1,000 euros. Today I estimate it at 5000 to 6000 euros. Not a cheap hobby, but a rewarding one.

Has word gotten around yet?

A few years ago I had to experience that there are people who see no value in the posters. My favorite poster at the time showed the five so-called “Stans”: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan, which is called Kyrgyzstan in English. I bought it on Ebay in the US for 1200 euros and gave it to the frame maker. There it sat in an unfortunate corner where someone thought it was junk – and threw it away! Since then I’ve been looking for it everywhere, it’s extremely rare.

How many competitors do you have?

I know three: a real estate developer from Russia living in Spain, a Japanese living in Warsaw and a Russian living in the UK.

Would you describe yourself more as a niche speculator or as a Soviet nostalgic?

When the collection was shown at the Moscow City Museum in 2019, I was offered a million dollars – a gigantic amount. If I were a speculator, I would have sold them. Since this option is gone, the other option remains, willy-nilly: Soviet nostalgic.

In your opinion, what was great about the Soviet Union apart from the posters?

In fact, nothing in the Soviet Union lasted. The posters are among the few great things that have remained. They are a mirror of the big idea that never became real but only existed in the minds of a few protagonists. At the center of their ideology was the vision of a new man who did not believe in God, who had no private property and who worked hard. The Soviet man was a brave, admirable ideal. In fact, an opportunist type has developed that is in no way inferior to the capitalist, who struggled through and was ridiculed as “homo sovieticus”.

Is the history of the Soviet Union reflected in these posters?

Looking at the effort and the vision, one thing is clear: the posters got worse and worse. The pictures under Stalin convey a lot of ambition and the motivation to convince the whole world of that great idea: Equal living conditions for Soviet people in magnificent metropolises and provinces. Many posters were still of high quality under Khrushchev, but they waned. Under Brezhnev it was just rubbish, Andropov and Chernenko probably had other concerns and Gorbachev ended up dealing with completely different issues.

How political is it to show your collection today?

The Soviet Union is not Russia, but both are and were used synonymously, also by many people in Germany: socially, politically and historically. Timothy Snyder or Karl Schlögel described this error aptly. My posters illustrate a vanished multi-ethnic state. Anyone who adopts it is doing politics with a fantasy empire.

The fact that the Russian House is showing your collection promotes the impression that the USSR was a precursor to the Russian empire that Putin aspired to.

Russia was the only former Soviet republic that did not declare its independence, but instead claimed to be the legal successor to the Soviet Union. That’s why formally it’s probably the case that it’s not appropriation, but a legitimate claim that I find neither good nor bad. The current development forces a reflection – and it is very important!

Many posters show areas outside of today’s Russia: Armenia, Belarus, Georgia and, again and again, the Ukraine. In the Russian House, don’t you allow Russia to appropriate this heritage for itself?

The Russian House requested the exhibition before the pandemic. No one ever cared about the legacy of the USSR. So I accepted the offer.

People who want to see your exhibition but are not from Russia will find it difficult to go to the Russian House.

A neutral exhibition location in Berlin would be best. I agree.

Before the opening of the exhibition there were protests in front of the Russian House. There it was said, for example, that aestheticization is also a type of warfare – when reality is simply painted over and presented as an idyll of fertile and peaceful provinces with 189 different ethnic groups. Do you understand this criticism?

I understand people’s anger and disappointment. Aestheticization is always and always political, regardless of whether it is commissioned by a state or whether a demonstrator is painting a black banner with red letters. Anyone demonstrating against Russia today should not overlook the fact that my posters are advertising posters from the past that create an illusion, an illusion sell reality. The state travel agency Intourist has intentionally made conflicts taboo and downplayed cultural differences. That was just as unreal and ridiculous as most of today’s commercials. A Russian idea of ??unity and a claim to leadership is thus presented rather than promoted. I am convinced that the morale of the exhibition will play into the hands of Russia’s critics!

You received your doctorate in Moscow and worked for several years as a senior employee of Sberbank. Are you still in Russia today?

I resigned on the day war broke out and returned to Germany. But I neither took down all the tents nor burned down my bridges. If only because privately I have a lot in common with Russia. My children’s grandparents live there and I have made many friends – for whom the situation is not easy. I remain of the opinion: it is better to talk than not to talk. What else can we do? Every war eventually ends. Although normalization seems out of reach at this point, I believe it is worth the effort. During my studies I studied Russian philosophy in the 19th and 20th centuries, which is why I understand many arguments – without sharing them all. As long as I don’t have to hide my critical opinion and can show the European perspective, you will find me in Russia.

Peter Littger spoke to Oliver Kempkens

The posters in the Russian House can be seen until February 6th.