[Postcard for the Spartakiada (All-Union Olympiad), Moscow]

In 1928, just a decade after Russian Revolution, the Soviet government launched the Spartakiada, a kind of proletarian Olympics intended to demonstrate physical and political superiority and planned as a counterweight to the official 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. The Supreme Council of Physical Culture commissioned avant-garde artist Gustav Klutsis (1895-1938) to design promotional materials and mailers for the games. Klutsis immediately set to work creating nine color postcards, one for each sport, including diving, equestrian events, and motorcycle racing—and they are each tiny masterpieces of modernist design. Abstract circles and diagonals and bold blocks of color combine with dynamic and repeated cut-out photographs of athletes at various scales to create vibrant visual effects. Klutsis even added little portraits of the late Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin to link the sporting activities to the achievements of the state—a point underscored by the propagandistic slogans, such as “Love live the unity of the worker sportsmen of all countries!” Even amid today’s flashy high-speed communications, these early cut-and-paste efforts to promote the Soviet Olympics are true game-changers.