Tass

Following the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, the organisational committee of the Union of Soviet Artists established the TASS Window collective to produce propaganda poster to aid the Soviet war effort. In this they followed the example set by artists of the ROSTA Windows posters (so called because they often appeared in the empty shop windows of the day) of the Civil War period, 1918-21.

TASS (Telegraphic Agency of the Soviet Union), like ROSTA before it, was the official Soviet telegraphic agency. It became associated with the Soviet propaganda effort as it was able to able to provide poster artists with the latest news from the Front, allowing them to respond, often within hours, to major events.

The TASS Windows were both satirical and heroic, the theme being agreed with the leader of the collective. They were large, stencilled, brightly coloured, and hand painted, and by 1943 were produced in runs of up to 1000, or in even greater numbers when the content was considered to be particularly important to publicise. Often they were accompanied by a didactic text or lengthy poem.

New posters appeared almost daily, becoming something of a chronicle of the war. They referred to general issues as well as incidents of the immediate moment as they arose in the press. The physical display of the posters meant that inevitably the majority did not survive, although they were widely distributed to the front, to army units, factories and collective farms.

About 129 artists from various backgrounds contributed to the TASS Windows, including painters such as P.P.Sokolov-Skalya, A.P Bubnov, P.M. Shukhmin, M.V. Mal'tsev and F.V. Antonov. Similarly, more than 70 poets and writers contributed to the texts, in short and witty verses and slogans. Over 1500 different designs were produced in this series up to August 1945.