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Maker: Aleksei Rezaev

Our Road to Communism

Date Made: 1991
Country: Soviet Union

Measurements: 105 cm x 75 cm x 3.5 cm; 41 5/16 in x 29 1/2 in x 1 3/8 in; 101 cm x 70 cm; 39 3/4 in x 27 9/16 in

Description

Conceived as a poster design, this painting is inspired by Pieter Bruegel’s The Tower of Babel (c. 1563) in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Here it takes the form of a crumbling Tower of Socialism. Each level is marked with a significant date in Soviet history. The year 1917 references the storming of the Winter Palace and the October Revolution; 1937 notes the height of Stalin’s repressive Great Purge; 1953 marks Stalin’s death; 1975 alludes to the Helsinki accords, which would improve the relationship between the Communist bloc and the West; and 1991 indicates the year in which the Soviet Union collapsed. On ground level, people carrying red flags are entering the tower; at the second level with the year 1937 the red flags turn into blood dripping from the tower. The ship in the lake is the Aurora, which fired the first shot to the October Revolution in 1917.

Accession Number: 2009.053.001

Item Name: Painting
Credit Line: The Ferris Russian Collection, Donated by Tom and Jeri Ferris
Collection/Series: The Ferris Russian Collection, Donated by Tom and Jeri Ferris
Exhibition History

• Artist Collaborations in the Soviet Union and the GDR
• Crumbling Empire

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