“Religion Holds Back the Five Year Plan… Religion is a Tool to Enslave the Workers … Join the Organization of Militant Atheists (Apikorsim).”

(SOVIET UNION)

Moscow c. 1928

Text in Yiddish.

A red worker wields a hammer and appears ready to strike at the restrictive hands of religion (crucifix, Koran, Torah). A productive city is seen in red, with numerous factories and chimneys, juxtaposed against a gray background of church spires and turrets. The five-year plan was designed for the rapid economic development of the Soviet Union. Stalin frequently blamed failure to meet quotas on religiously inspired laziness, and sought to make industriousness the new ‘god’ of the Soviet nation.