⧉Image Bricks: 'The Soviet Union Is Our Model' Poster

This 1953 propaganda poster depicts a Chinese bricklayer in the midst of his work. He glances over his left shoulder at a vision of Soviet architectural sophistication – one of Moscow’s Stalinskie Vysotki, or Stalin’s high-rises, a series of seven towers built between 1947 and 1953 which were themselves inspired by early twentieth century American skyscraper design. The tower is graced by a portrait of Stalin himself, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The slogan 'The Soviet Union is our Model' hovers above the bricklayer. The term 'bangyang' (榜样), meaning 'example' or 'model', underscores the ubiquity of the ideal standard as a common element in socialist Chinese propaganda. Here, the model refers not only to the Soviet Union as a model country, or the Stalin high-rise as exemplary architectural form, but to Soviet building methods as idealized practices from which China should learn.