Countering Anti-Communist Propaganda
Art and Socialist Realism
Socialism and National Development
Women and Socialism
Tulu
Tulu
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10 May 2023
Tulu was a Soviet state-sponsored publication in Pakistan that was in print from 1967-1991, and stopped production after the fall of the Soviet Union. Headquartered in the Soviet Union, it had Russian and Pakistani co-editors who wrote in Urdu, and later in English as well. The magazine was a part of the cultural war between […]
This is our house (November, 1975)
In order to illustrate the success of the socialist system, the USSR placed a high emphasis on the standard of living as a tool for attracting developing nations in adopting their theoretical framework. The portrayal of this can be seen throughout various editions of the magazine. The text on the right mentions some of the benefits for families and older people living in the USSR such as free healthcare for pensioned people and free time for families.
Soviet families eating together and playing with their children, while living in developed cities depicted Soviet life as a safe and peaceful haven.
The visuals depict a holistic image of the Soviet way of life as a haven for citizens at large. People are seen enjoying their time, socializing with others, and driving large cars in the metropolitan landscape. The ‘house’ of the Soviet Union as depicted here is very similar to lifestyles in the West.
Conference of Muslims in the Soviet Union (February 1971)
In October 1970, a conference for Muslims was held in the capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent. It was organized by the Soviet government in order to provide space to Muslims, and led by Mufti Zia ud Din Khan ibn Ifsha of Kazakhstan. This is an excerpt from the speech given by him at the conference;
‘Starting with the name of Allah, the most gracious and most merciful. Today I am going to talk about an issue that not only affects Muslims of the soviet union, but those around the globe. Despite the agreement made on 22 November 1961 in the United Nations Security Council, Israel has still sieged upon our Arab world and is persecuting our fellow Muslim brothers. This attack is a genocide, and we as Muslims see all of mankind as one, therefore we strongly resent these racist attacks and will continue raising our voices against this.’
In the years between 1930-1945, a vast majority of mosques had been shut down in the USSR and the
state had started actively enacting anti-religion policies. When Stalin consolidated power, religious
leaders were persecuted and Hujum came into implementation to discourage religious practices such as
veiling that were perceived to work against gender equality. This came with a lot of resistance from the
local populace, and also created a sense of distrust of Muslim populations for the alignment of Soviet
values with Islam. Such conferences were likely organized to create an image of the Soviet Union as a
religiously tolerant place, and it is worth noting that the focus of this conference was on the state of
Islamic internationalism rather than its practice in local communities. By contextualizing it in the state
censorship of Islam in the years before this conference, it provides a shaky basis for upholding Islamic
presences in the Soviet Union.
This conference was attended by prominent Muslim leaders in the USSR and the publishing of this excerpt in a magazine in Pakistan represents the importance of the Israeli-Palestine conflict for Muslims, as the Pakistani government also opposed the creation of Israel in the Security Council. This was a way for the soviet union to show its alliance with the Arab nations as well as Pakistan. Through this, Tulu is trying to break the anti-communist myth about communism being anti-religion, in an attempt to
dissipate its misalignment with Islamic movements in the past.
A little about the Soviet Union (January 1976)
The following is a translated excerpt from the editorial published in the January 1976 issue of Tulu in order to clear misconceptions about politics in the Soviet Union:
“Q: Who can become a part of the communist party and how many members does it have?
A: The Membership of the communist party of the soviet union is open to all citizens in any city of the soviet union, as long as they accept the social order of communism. All members need to work towards ensuring that the goals of the party are met, as well as paying the membership fee. If someone has inculcated the values of communism in their lives and wants to be a part of the Communist party because of that, their life will be a testimony of our mission. This is important to the communist party because it aims to be a party of like-minded people who share similar goals and values. It is also important for us that the members identify themselves as a communist because otherwise, it is possible that they believe in the ideology but do not see themselves as communists. We believe that if someone identifies as a communist, then they will be working for the welfare of the party and following its values.”
We, the Communists (February 1976)
The USSR-based, Pakistani-published magazine features excerpts from the speeches of Lenin to provide insight into the agenda of the communist party of the USSR, in order to provide first-hand information to its readers. This excerpt mentions the Soviet union’s 5-year plan, and what they aim to achieve till 1980. This includes an increase in;
- Electricity consumption
- Coal mining
- Steel production
- Cloth production
- Agricultural produce
The following is a translated excerpt from the speech:
“This plan will increase living standards as well as incomes by up to 22& in the Soviet Union because in the socialist form of living, everything is made for human well-being.”
Publishing this excerpt in a Pakistani magazine along will a picture of Lenin helps break myths about communism leading to lower economic growth and industrialization. It helps in the consolidation of a
unified soviet cultural identity that not only exhibits the Soviet Union as an ideological force, but also
creates an image of their economic prowess in the minds of the audience.
Pakistani Traders in Moscow (February 1970)
In 1969, 2 famous Pakistani businessmen from East and West Pakistan were invited by officials in Moscow. Their visit was seen as a part of the Pak-Soviet friendship which also included economic ties and bilateral agreements. Tulu mentions these visits to show the extent of Pak-Soviet friendship as well as the importance of the USSR to the economy of Pakistan. This also means that USSR’s economy is growing, unlike the US-based propaganda about communist states not being able to experience economic growth and well-being.
The text contains the remarks of the managing director of Atta Shah Zia and company in Karachi, and Muhammad Shafi, the managing director of Galaxy Industries in Dhaka. Both are in agreement that they were well-treated, and experienced high standards of living in the USSR. They also boasted the importance of friendly ties between Pakistan and the Soviet Union, as both countries can mutually benefit from their economic booms.
This was an event that followed the visit of Prime Minister Kosygin to Pakistan in 1968, after President
Kennedy had started promoting India as the leader of the Asian nations after large-scale military
assistance to India by the Western Powers. This led to a reorientation of Soviet Policy towards
Pakistan and significant investments had been made by the USSR into economic development projects
in Pakistan. A piece focusing on Pakistani traders in Moscow would perhaps play a role in creating the
image of a level playing field for both parties, where Soviet economic aid was not just a way of
dispersing aid into less economically stable countries, but also showed the Pakistanis as active agents in economic cooperation for future ties.
The Soviet state protects 332 heritage sites (January 1976)
This is a picture of the famous Bibi Khanym Mosque in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The mosque was constructed during Timur’s regime in the 15th century and contains Timurid-style art and architecture. This mosque was restored by the Soviet Union. The picture resonates with Muslims, the majority of the population living in Pakistan, and presents a positive image of the USSR. It depicts Soviet efforts to restore art and preserve culture.
After many years of converting mosques to warehouses and actively working to
control Islamic practices through state intervention, this is something that portrays the opposite of the
politics implemented in the Stalinist era. It may be well the case that Soviet attitudes towards religious
practices in their own spheres changed over time, as the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults created a version of Soviet Islam that focused more on moderation and progressivism as a part of religious cultural practices. Because of this, the 1950s onwards ended up being the most relaxed decades in terms of Soviet pressure on Islam.
Children’s Theatre (March 1976)
In the former Soviet Union, theater has been used as a powerful ideological tool to reach the masses since the early years of the revolution. Since the years of the October Revolution, the purpose of theatre especially for young audiences has been to contribute to their ideological and aesthetic education. The arts were seen as a unifying force for the moral enlightenment of the youth and created an integral relationship between art and pedagogy for upholding Soviet values in the 1940s-1970s. These theatres for young people remained the subject of close attention of the press as well as government organs. At the time this issue was published, the theatre played more of an ideological role than as a tool for self-reflection, as was the case in the 1990s onwards. The Young People’s Theatre focuses more on the humanistic ideology than the political ideology, as different children’s theater groups laid focus on one or the other more closely.
This photo is taken from the Young People’s Theatre, an organization that operated across multiple cities in the USSR, and had performances mainly aimed at the USSR audience as well as the Baltic republics and Central Asia. The theatre had performances in multiple languages to cater to the segment of international viewers outside of the USSR but mainly catered to children audiences in Moscow. The article appended to this collage mentioned how the nature of the YPT was such that as children grew up, the plays they saw would grow up with them. Performances are demarcated according to the age brackets watching them, and they accrued a viewership of over 400,000 children and young adults. The plays were mainly constructed for addressing questions of morality and humanism for the upcoming members of the USSR. It served as a place for dialogue between young people on literary as well as ethical themes.
Political Cinema (November 1975)
Realism as a cinematic style was the most dominant form through which the Soviet Union was able to captivate its audiences. In 1934, the communist regime employed socialist realism as an approach to make socialist themes accessible to broader audiences. From the mid 1930s onwards, plot-based storytelling was streamlined into Soviet cinema and became a part of soviet policy. Causality became a central element to all production that took place henceforth, and films were made not only as a pedagogical mechanism; rather they were also used as a means to deflect sensitive political discussions happening in real-time when the films were released. This article explores the official Soviet positioning on the role of cinema as a maneuvering tool for sculpting the landscape of political discussions taking place in the Soviet Union. The author specifically mentions how the ideological views of the directors of the films were invisible, and cinema played a vital role in propagating state policy. He also draws attention to why Soviet cinema was appreciated and acclaimed in other countries outside the Soviet Union too; realism was appreciated for depicting the human condition in a manner close to reality. This was also after the time Montage had become a forerunning cinematic art form in the Soviet Union, and it had become a popular cultural form by then. Films played the role of confronting recent social problems and creating a space where serious political issues could be talked about in a light-hearted manner. This article also emphasizes the role of humor and light-hearted drama in diffusing political tensions that would manifest themselves in real time during the year the films would be released. Cinema was seen as a long-term mechanism through which the mindsets of citizens could align themselves to the state policy and their awareness regarding sociopolitical issues could increase. Lastly, the author also talks about the role of films as a medium for facilitating cross-cultural propagation of communist ideology, as the viewership of Soviet film and cinema had spread out substantially to neighboring areas as well as developing countries sympathetic to the socialist cause.
Folk Dance (March 1976)
This picture shows Moldavian women participating in their folk dance tradition adorning traditional costumes. With over a hundred ethnic groups in the USSR, traditional dances were one of the ways in which they could exhibit their own national cultural norms and traditions. The USSR’s financial and political investment in dance surpasses that of any geopolitical group globally. The photo features young and smiling folk dancers. This is the only avenue through which the smaller Soviet republics are being showcased in the 1975 edition of Tulu. While sociopolitical control remained concentrated mainly in the hands of the Russian Soviet republic, art and dance from the other republics were used as a means of promoting the image of the Soviet Union as a culturally diverse place. After the October Revolution, dance was used as a mechanism to out-perform Western nations in a similar way to the Olympics. After 1936, the elements of ethnic identity propagated through indigenous folk dances became almost a cottage industry in its own right. The Moldovan and Byelorussian dances were the most common in international representations of Soviet dance and culture. Baltic countries were almost never represented through larger dance companies, and Uzbek dances would often be showcased due to Uzbekistan being a larger and more populous Soviet republic. The visibility of dance styles in Soviet media would appear in accordance with the pollical importance of the particular republics that made up the Union (Shay 2002). In the 1970s and the 1980s, Moldova received substantial financial support from the Kremlin for economic and scientific development. The dress in the photo is not a traditional Moldovan dress; rather, it seems to be traditional Russian attire.
Foto Exhibition in Pakistan (November 1975)
These photos are part of an exhibit that took place in Islamabad and Lahore that was meant to facilitate bilateral relations between Pakistan and the Soviet Union during Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s regime. It was sponsored by the international brand Foto that was one of the biggest manufacturers of camera and camera reels. The photos are from the Soviet Union and they are all meant to depict Soviet life for the viewership of the international audience. The article laid special emphasis on the fact that the photos also included those of Muslims in Samarkand, and the audience was informed about the secular nature of Soviet policy in order to create the image of the Soviet Union as a religiously tolerant state. The article appended with it was captioned, “A Photo Exhibition in Pakistan”. Contextual information mentions how people were particularly amazed by the free healthcare and education that the Soviet Union offered. These give an insight into how heavily photography was used as a socialist narrative-building tool in the 1970s.
The Fox, the Tortoise, and the Ant (March 1976)
This story from the 1976 edition of Tulu is a Tajik-origin children’s tale added with a visual of the fox in a folk painting style. Similar to Soviet cinema, the story focuses on causality and creates a plot centered around working in a field to create relatability with the rural audience. The fox tries to take the entire harvest through dishonest means and continually uses deception to avoid working with the fox and the turtle. But in the end, it is always the honest, hard workers who are rewarded and are able to divide their harvest amongst themselves. There is a balance between character education and entertainment value, and the moral of the story aligns well tightly with the socialist outlook. A focus on the distribution of resources is consistent throughout Soviet print and visual media.
Tractorgrad (March 1976)
The Soviet Union adopted new policies for industrialization in the twentieth century. One of these was the setting up of the Tractorgrad, or the Stalingrad Tractor Factory in the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd). The article published in a 1971 issue of Tulu magazine shows how the Soviet government has taken initiatives to bridge the gap of economic development in various regions. “Cheboksary Industrial Tractor Plant (ChZPT) was built in 1975. This industry created heavy industrial crawler tractors to work as bulldozers T-330.”
According to Edward Ochagavia, a resident of Stalingrad during the Battle of Stalingrad (1942), the Tractorgrad was established in 1930, as a part of the Bolshevik Party’s five-year plan. This industrial complex acted as a major enterprising ground for heavy industries such as tractors, and even military equipment. During World War II, when Stalingrad became an important battleground for the Soviet Union, the factory became strategically important due to its linkage to the economy of the country, and its location (near the Volga River).
Mentioning the Tractorgrad over a three-page article serves to highlight the industrial might of the soviet union despite being labeled as a socialist, and hence, backward economy by the US media forces. As Pakistan was undergoing industrial development with a growth rate of 11.4% in 1970 (World Bank), highlighting the Tractorgrad was a way to establish similarities between the Soviet Union and Pakistan. Moreover, the importance of the industrial complex as a military-equipment manufacturer was increasingly relevant to talk about during the Cold War era. The BTR-50 was an armored personal carrier mentioned in this article that was in production. Thus, industrial development was closely linked to the military might, and ultimately the show of strength during the Cold War through a cultural magazine in the Global South.
Moscow Automobile and Road Building Institute (March 1976)
The Moscow Automobile and Road Building Institute was founded in 1930 as a form of teaching technical skills to higher education students in the Soviet Union, and ultimately increase skilled labour in the country. This article in Tulu mentions the high-speed cars that are build by students of the Institute in their lab. It illustrates how technological and industrial growth were the priorities of the government and its institutions. The addition of this write-up in the bigger article about developments going on in the Soviet Union, such as those related to agriculture, depicts the long-term goals of the government, and the outcomes that are being observed.
While Pakistan did not have an automobile sector, or automobile institutes, the mentioning of these cars acts as a way to sway off the readers and curtail misinformation about the communist economy. Moreover, due to the friendly relations between the two countries, this could also be a way of incentivizing and motivating Pakistani students to join Soviet higher education programs given that the magazine focuses on cultural contexts and speaks to primarily the youth interested in the culture and development of the Soviet Union.
Introducing Omich (March 1976)
The young designers of the Siberian city sent an electronic guide named Omich in an exhibition of economic achievements. This guide can be further developed and used for different programs such as in the study of the fundamentals of electronics and electrical engineering. During the cold war years, western analysts claimed that the Soviet leadership was to blame for the region’s technological illiteracy. Much of the technological development that took place in the USSR was in military technology as opposed to nonmilitary high tech. Social robots play a parallel role in signifying both a technological development aspect as well as a social development aspect. The image used of a singing, dancing robot also creates an otherworldly appeal for audiences in the developing world of the state of technology in the USSR.
Story of the Soviet Union’s five-year Plans (January 1976)
A few years after the Bolsheviks came to power and the unrest and damages to the economy after the first world war subsided, Lenin introduced the New Economic Policy in 1921. After his death, Stalin changed the economic policy to a five-year plan (1928-32) in order to boost industrialization and agriculture, while going about with the policies and principles of collectivization. Due to its success, the second five-year plan was introduced in 1933, which continued the objectives of the first plan. Countries like China also took inspiration from these plans and the USSR aided them in its success.
The article maps the history of these five-year plans as they were crucial to the economy of the soviet union, and helped it during the world wars. The article places emphasis on industrial growth and the development of new products such as the steamboat, better forms of producing iron, and even automobiles like lorries.
The poster is a part of the five-page article and contains three images. The first one is from a gathering of workers at the opening of the first open-hearth furnace at a famous iron and steel factory in the city of Magnitogorsuk in Russia. The celebration represents the success of collectivization, and the importance of labourers in the Soviet economy. The second picture represents the electrification of Russia through the creation of a long-lasting lightbulb that would impact farmers’ agricultural growth and output. The third picture shows one of the first few lorries made by the Gorki Motors company in Russia. This automobile company contributed towards increased transportation of industrial goods, helping in the industrialization of the socialist economy.
The mentioning of all these projects and events in the story about the five-year plan speaks to the industrial growth in Pakistan. While this article was published in one of the 1976 issues, Pakistan also had numerous five-year plans targeting industrial growth since the time of Ayub Khan (1958). Moreover, Pakistan, under the prime ministership of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was on friendly terms with the Soviet Union, making it important for Tulu to highlight its economic policies and industrial growth for cooperation and support during the cold war.
Story of a Hardworking Soviet Woman (November 1975)
This piece exhibits the political prowess of the USSR women. The image portrays the life of Xen Tazoul, who is the Chairman of a village in the rural setting of the Soviet Union. She is hardworking and handles all the problems of the village with care and responsibility. She has developed a good connection with people. People come to her with requests and ask her for advice and support. People discuss changes in the value of land, day-to-day problems such as ones in the use of residential houses and public services, as well as issues of sports and cultural activities. The villagers have a unanimously positive opinion of her. The rural landscape of Pakistan is starkly different from this, but one would assume that the reason this piece is included in Tulu is to create an appeal to urban audiences which would be more conducive to ideas of gender equality. It creates a realm of possibilities for people who wish to envision a more egalitarian society within Pakistan and runs in parallel with the Western idea of female empowerment.
Role of Women in Society (March 1976)
The main idea of the above passages is that the actual guarantee of equality between men and women is essential for the all-round progress of society and for the development of women themselves. The author argues that the historical experience of socialist states, including the USSR, demonstrates that the elimination of discrimination against women and their involvement in social production and state affairs has been critical in building a developed socialist society in a short historical period. The author emphasizes that the abolition of private ownership and the exploitation of man by man proved to be the decisive factor in women’s real emancipation.
The author acknowledges that there is still much to be done to eliminate traditional inequality of women in everyday life, but the principal road being followed by socialist society is the comprehensive development of the system of kindergartens and nurseries, setting up a wide network of efficient public service establishments, stepping up state housing construction, and granting all kinds of privileges to mothers.
The context of these passages is a discussion of the importance of women’s rights and gender equality in socialist societies. The author argues that not only is equality between men and women a fundamental principle of democracy and respect for human rights, but it is also essential for the development of society as a whole and for the advancement of women themselves. The author draws on the historical experience of socialist states, particularly the USSR, to illustrate how the elimination of discrimination against women and their involvement in social production and state affairs has been critical in building a developed socialist society. He also acknowledges that there is still much work to be done to eliminate traditional inequality, but the socialists work towards addressing these issues.
Women in Sports (November 1975)
To emphasize on women empowerment and progressive nature of the USSR, Tulu magazine praises many women in sports. The title of this piece traslates to “An unbeatable personality in sports”, and displays a photo of her signing autographs for a largely female audience. Ludmilla Tourischeva, a Russian gymnast, was widely popular among Russians. Even though she was considered very calm, camera shy, and sophisticated, her sportsmanship attributes were praised by many senior sportsmen. She is both the traditional feminine woman yet operates in a male dominated sphere, and emulates classic Soviet sportsmanship styles. While Tulu speaks of women empowerment, it is careful to not tread too far away from traditional values of heteronormative ideals of style and beauty. Nonetheless, it paints an impressive image of the extent to which women have been advancing in nontraditional roles.
Why do Women want to work? (November 1975)
The following is a translation of the excerpt from Tulu as it explains why women in the Soviet Union want to work:
“Perm, a social media experience center in a telephone factory, once conducted a survey on the request of a newspaper that wanted to know how much a woman’s domestic work affects her work in the office or factory and her career development opportunities. One of the questions asked to women was whether they would quit their jobs if their spouses’ salaries were increased by their (women’s) salaries. The majority answered in the negative.”
It is an undisputed fact that hard work is not always the means to an end in social systems. The mentality of the hardworking people has undergone a complete change. Now, they are not only concerned about their personal or professional successes but also about the success of their industrial institutions. Female empowerment does not operate in an isolated sphere of progressive values; rather, it is seen as an extension of the socialist agenda. And in the larger context of creating an appeal for audiences in the global south, it is seen as a facet of the communist international values, where all members of society are working for the betterment of a united communist society.
Tulu
Tulu was a Soviet state-sponsored publication in Pakistan that was in print from 1967-1991, and stopped production after the fall of the Soviet Union. Headquartered in the Soviet Union, it had Russian and Pakistani co-editors who wrote in Urdu, and later in English as well.
The magazine was a part of the cultural war between the United States and the Soviet Union for instilling socialist ideology into global south populations, specifically Pakistan. The magazine was published at a time when significant global events were taking place within the context of the Cold War. In 1975, the Vietnam War finally came to an end, and the reunification of North and South Vietnam occurred in the same year. The global south was also experiencing a strong tide of pro-communist movements, with communist governments in Laos and Angola, and the Soviet Union following an intensive détente policy in southern Africa.
This teaching tool translates and contextualizes the articles, letters, and photographs published in Tulu between 1971-1976. These issues have been retrieved from the Magazine Archive in Punjab Public Library, Lahore, and divided into four major themes: Countering anti-Communist Propaganda, Art and Socialist Realism, Socialism and National Development, and Women and Socialism. These themes are prominent in each issue of the magazine, while some issues are solely dedicated to a single theme. For example, the issue of January 1976 places a huge emphasis on the newly introduced five-year economic plan along with industrial developments. This overlaps the themes of the countering of anti-communist propaganda by repeatedly mentioning the national industrial development of the country that was in a state of cold war with the champion of capitalism and industrial development, the USA.
The themes also help us create an understanding of the core and periphery relationship between the Soviet Union and countries in the Global South, through the publishing of the magazine for the Pakistani audience. Some issues of Tulu catered to a bilingual readership, while some issues were completely in Urdu. Apart from aiding the Soviet Union in the cultural war, Tulu became an important historical memorialization of Soviet sociocultural lives and their peripheral interactions with Pakistan within and beyond the Comintern.