(LISSITZKY, ELIEZER)

Iskoustvo

U.S.S.R.

v.d.

USSR in Constrauction [illustrated propoganda journal]. Five Issues. i: No. 2 (1934). pp. 42. Devoted to the four Victories. (This issue was highly praised in Literaturnaia Gazeta). ii: No. 10 (1936). pp. 42. Devoted to the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Region. iii:No. 3 (1937). pp. 48. Devoted to the people of Ordzhonikidze Territory. iv: Nos. 5-6 (1938). pp. 64. Devoted to the Far Eastern Territory. v: Nos. 2-3 (1940). pp. 36. Devoted to the Western Ukraine and Western Byelorussia.

i: Busch-Reisinger Museum Catalogue, El Lissitzky (1987) no. 1934/1; ii: Busch-Reisinger no. 1936/2 & Lissitzky-Küppers, El Lissitzy: Life Letters Texts (1980), pl. 185; iii: Busch-Reisinger no. 1937/2 and fig. 37 (illustrated). iv: Busch-Reisinger no. 1938/1 (inside of back cover illustrated). v: Busch-Reisinger no. 1940/2 (illustrated)

Through his work for the Communist propaganda journal USSR in Construction, Lissitzky participated in the promotion of Stalinist Russia. Never a regular employee of the magazine, he was apparently able to choose which issues he worked on. He showed a preference for issues with themes of heroic achievement and avoided explicitly Communist subjects. In this way- Lissitzky was able to maintain some political independence in his involvement with the publication. Compositionally, Lissitzky’s typographical work varied widely and he employed design devices and material considerations which echoes some of his earlier conceptual concerns. In particular, the photo-montage cover of No. 3 (1937), devoted to the people of Ordzhonikidze Territory, bears striking resemblance to his Prouns works. (See An Introduction to El Lissitzky, pp.44-5 in Busch-Reisinger Museum Catalogue, El Lissitzky 1890-1941 (1987). Lissitzky also made innovative use of the staged or slanted photo-journalism form which is both aggressive and unequivocal as to its message. The deliberately dramatic cinematic effects of this technique is clearly demonstrated on the pages of USSR in Construction, where it was put to the service of the painful realities of the Stalinist regime. See: Photography in the Service of Propaganda in; The Russian Avant-Garde Book 1910-1934 (2002), p. 234