CIRCA: 1950’s
Vintage, mid Soviet era silk banner, printed on both the front and back, showing Lenin’s portrait and the emblems of all the countries that made up the USSR (including ‘mother’ Russia) at the time. The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a socialist and communist state that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991, when it collapsed and many (eventually all) the republics sought and eventually gained independence from Russia. In 1922 a treaty between Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Transcaucasia (modern day Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan) formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The newly established Communist Party, led by Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, subsequently took control of the government. In the decades after it was established the Russian-dominated Soviet Union eventually encompassed 15 republics ; Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belorussia, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan (whose emblems are displayed on the banner, along with Lenin’s portrait).
On the obverse at the left there is an emblem of the USSR with the state slogan “Proletaries of all the countries unite!“. At the right under Lenin’s face: “Under the banner of Marxism-Leninism, under the guidance of the Communist Party – forward to the victory of the communism!“. On the reverse there are emblems of the USSR and 15 Soviet republics. The text there is: “Glory to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics!” The banner was sourced in the 1980’s in Finland from a collector of old Soviet era paraphernalia and is in excellent condition, and obvious by its quality not just a cheap ‘tourist item’.