Aided by the complexities and permeability of the systems of censorship and control, posters dealing with aspects of the environment or the anti-nuclear movement, engaged the founding myths of the communist state. The history of the poster in the region is a story of aesthetic, political, and finally, national liberation. Socialist realist conventions established in the late 1940s had insisted on orthodox communist content, but these slowly gave way to individualist, liberal humanist critiques of contemporary communist and capitalist mores. The study has taken a transnational comparative approach, researching the foremost private and public collections in the Byelorussia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and the Ukraine. The approach has underlined the cultural diversity in the region, and demonstrated the limited impact of cultural directives emanating from Moscow.
Consistency is found in the ideological message, rather than the visual style.
Quantative analyses revealed a number of dominant themes and preoccupations of communist rhetoric in the posters extending from the great leader to the socialist future to picture a reality which did far more to conceal, rather than reveal existing conditions. Funded at first by the Department of History of Art and Design Research Group at Manchester Metropolitan University, subsequent support from the Central European University Research Support Scheme allowed for the completion of the research for the exhibition and book 'Signs of the Times'. The quality of the book and exhibition has been much enhanced, and the website made possible, by further financial support obtained from the European Union 'Raphael' Programme.