Revolution is a powerful word, and this exhibition – commemorating 100 years since the communist uprising in Russia – is about civil unrest, propaganda and disenchantment. It starts in a chandelier-lit foyer with images of Tsar Nicholas II and the bourgeoisie. The first-edition Communist Manifesto written by Marx and Engels (published in London) inconspicuously sits amongst maps of the former Russian empire. As you descend the staircase the exhibition winds its way, like a red snake, through the events leading up to, during and after the revolution. There are film projections of life during the rule of the Tsar, curios and audio accounts of the tension felt by civilians in Russia because of the anti-royal sentiment during WWI.
Photographs show the impact of the war efforts on everyday life – starvation, poverty and growing resentment. It’s heavy stuff. The highlights are images from political satire magazines and the propaganda posters that depict the stark divide between the White Army (capitalist) and Red Army (Lenin’s socialist Bolsheviks). The White Army propaganda is rare and worth seeing, with its heavily symbolic design. Trotsky is depicted as the devil incarnate and the Red Army as a dragon, death itself, a skeleton and pretty much anything hellish you can think of. There are also some interesting socialist and avant-garde artworks on the opposing side bolstering the Bolsheviks to even things out. Post-revolution, the propaganda changes to ascribe God-like status to Lenin. A powerfully uncomfortable shift.
This neat little exhibition ultimately shows that it’s not ideas and ideals that make the difference: it’s political party with the best propaganda who wins.