Vasilii Nikolaevich Elkin (Russian, 1897–1991)

Alongside Gustav Klutsis, Valentina Kulagina, and Sergei Senkin, Vasilii Elkin was among the leading proponents of photomontage as a visual form capable of capturing the attention of the populace and promoting the goals of the first Five-Year Plan (1928–1932).

1911–1916. Studied art under Sergei Gerasimov (1885–1964) and Georgii Alekseev (1881–1951) at the Khudozhestvennaia shkola pri tipolitografii I.D. Sytina (Drawing school at the printing house of Ivan Sytin (1851–1934), a well-known publisher.

1916–1917. Served in an aviation unit in the First World War.

1918. Joined the Red Army in 1918. During the Russian Civil War (1918–1921), participated in the battles against the troupes of the General Anton Denikin (1872–1947), Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of South Russia, and then served in the Volga region and in Ukraine.

1923–1928. Continued his studies at VKhUTEMAS (Higher State Artistic and Technical Workshops; from 1927 VKhUTEIN) under the graphic artist Vladimir Favorsky (1886–1964). During this period, also worked at the Novaia Moskva (New Moscow) publishing house.

1928. Founding member the October Association, Vserossiiskoe ob”edinenie rabotnikov novykh vidov khudozhestvennogo truda “Oktiabr’” (All-Russian Association of Innovative Artistic Work “October”; 1928–1932). The group included, among others, artists Aleksandr Deineka, Klutsis, Kulangina, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Nikolai Sedelnikov, Senkin, Solomon Telingater; theoretician Aleksei Gan; architects Aleksandr and Viktor Vesnin; and theater and film director Sergei Eisenstein. 

Participant in the Soviet delegation to the seminal Internationale Presse-Ausstellung (International Press Exhibition) in Cologne.

1928–1929. Technical editor of Agitprop (Upravlenie propagandy i agitatsii, or Otdel propagandy i agitatsii pri TsK KPSS; Department of Propaganda and Agitation, or Department of Propaganda and Agitation under the CPSU Central Committee).

1931. Participated in the Antiimperialisticheskaia vystavka (Anti-Imperialist Exhibition) in Moscow. Appointed Secretary of the Bureau of the Graphic section of the Union of Soviet Artists.

1932. Elkin’s posters were included in the major exhibition Plakat na sluzhbe piatiletki (Posters at the Service of the Five-Year Plan) held at the Tretyakov Gallery. According to the catalogue’s author P. S. Kaufman, this exhibition “demonstrated a difficult path from a passive illustrative poster or a bourgeois advertising to an expressive type of poster that is clear and intelligible to the masses.”

1934. Worked at the 1-aia Obraztsovaia Tipografiia (First Exemplary Printing House), which was commissioned to design a brochure of Stalin’s speech at the 17th Congress of the Communist Party. Elkin suggested designing a cover with a portrait of Stalin in three colors. As a result of either incorrectly selected colors, poor paper quality, or some violation of the technological process, the portrait of Stalin appeared blurred. As a result, the edition was destroyed. Accused of “anti-Soviet propaganda,” Elkin was convicted under article 58, paragraph 10, and sentenced to three years in a labor camp. He served his time in the Dmitrov ITL (Dmitlag) labor camp, created for the construction of the giant Moscow-Volga Canal structure. Elkin’s artistic talent was noted by Semen Firin, Dmitlag’s director, who allowed him to work as a designer for camp’s needs. Elkin visited the Canal’s construction site and made numerous sketches, which became a part of a larger series of graphic works depicting its construction. Dmitlag published a book with Elkin’s works in 1937. Elkin also designed Moskvavolgostroi, a special journal dedicated to the construction of the Moscow-Volga Canal, as well as a literary-artistic journal Na shturm trassy (To Storm the Track), edited by Firin.

1937–1941. Produced many posters for Izogiz, the best of which were also published as postcards. During the Second World War, simultaneously with work on a military poster, he worked as an artist at the plant, designing propaganda stands.

1945–1955. Worked as a children’s book illustrator. From the mid-1950s, he devoted himself mostly to painting.

Books

[Possibly Elkin]
Maquette for book cover: De la construction d’habitations dans l’USSR (Moscou: Conseil de Moscou des deputés ouvriers et soldats de l’Armée rouge, 1928), c. 1928.
Cut-and-pasted gelatin silver prints and gouache on paper
7 7/8 x 6 1/8" (20 x 15.6 cm)
Note: The building pictured is Moisei Ginzburg’s Gosstrakh apartment building, Moscow, completed 1926.

Maquette for book cover: M.[ikhail] I.[vanovich] Kalinin, Vypolniaem zavety Lenina (We Make Covenants of Lenin) (Moscow: Partizdat, 1934), 1934
Gouache, ink and cut-and-pasted gelatin silver print on paper
8 1/2 x 6 1/8” (21.5 x 15.5 cm)

Maquette for book cover: L. M. Varkovitskaia, 400 svidetelei: Otryvok iz povesti “Tovarishch Liuksemburg” (400 witnesses: Excerpt from the story “Comrade Luxemburg”) (Moscow: Izdatel’stvo TSK MOPR SSSR, 1931), c. 1931
Gouache and halftone photographs on paper
7 x 9 11/16” (17.8 x 24.4 cm)

[Possibly Elkin]
Book cover: De la construction d’habitations dans l’USSR (Moscou: Conseil de Moscou des deputés ouvriers et soldats de l’Armée rouge, 1928), 1928
Letterpress
9 1/16 x 6 1/4" (23 x 15.8 cm)
Note: The building pictured is Moisei Ginzburg’s Gosstrakh apartment building, Moscow, completed 1926.

Book cover: M.[ikhail] I.[vanovich] Kalinin, Vypolniaem zavety Lenina (We Make Covenants of Lenin) (Moscow: Partizdat, 1934), 1934
Lithograph
8 1/2 x 6 1/8” (21.5 x 15.5 cm)

Maquette for book cover: 5 in 4 (5 in 4 Years), 1933
Cut-and-pasted gelatin silver print, gouache, and colored pencil on paper
7 5/8 x 11” (19.4 x 27.9 cm)

Periodicals

Elkin designed seventeen issues of the journal Stroitel’stvo Moskvy (Construction of Moscow) in collaboration with Gustav Klutsis.

Gustav Klutsis and Vasilii Elkin
Periodical cover: Stroitel’stvo Moskvy (Building Moscow), no. 1 (1929)
Offset lithograph and letterpress
11 3/4 x 8 7/8” (29.8 x 22.5 cm)

Gustav Klutsis and Vasilii Elkin
Periodical cover: Stroitel’stvo Moskvy (Building Moscow), no. 2 (1929)
Offset lithograph and letterpress
11 3/4 x 8 7/8” (29.8 x 22.5 cm)

Posters

In 1928, with the inauguration of the First Five-Year Plan as a major program of Socialist reconstruction, photomontage was briefly recognized as an effective means of boosting workers’ productivity and disseminating the agenda of industrialization. At the beginning of the 1930s, Elkin created his most famous posters, some in collaboration with Klutsis.

Maquette for poster: Da zdravstvuet Krasnaia Armiia—vooruzhennyi otriad proletarskoi revoliutsii! (Long Live the Red Army—the Armed Detachment of the Proletarian Revolution!), c. 1932
Cut-and-pasted gelatin silver prints and gouache on paper
11 11/16 x 8 5/16” (29.7 x 21.1 cm)

Poster: Kazhdyi kolkhoznik, kazhdaia brigada, kazhdaia MTS dolzhny znat’ plan bol’shevistskogo seva (Each Peasant, Each Brigade, Each MTS Should Know the Plan of the Bolshevik Sowing), c. 1931
Lithograph
39 1/2 x 27 7/8” (100 x 70.8 cm)

Related to Elkin’s poster: Profsoiuzy—na bor’bu za vstrechnyi [plan] v 10 mln. ton chuguna (Trade Unions, fight for the counter plan of producing 10 million tons of pig iron), 1932, c. 1932
Gouache, ink, cut-and-pasted gelatin silver print, and pencil on paper
8 7/16 x 3 7/16" (21.4 x 8.7 cm)

Poster: Novaia obstanovka—novye zadachi khoziaistvennogo stroitel’stva (New Challenges for the Economic Development), 1931
Lithograph and letterpress
40 7/8 x 29 1/4" (103.8 x 74.2 cm)

Poster: Da zdravstvuet Krasnaia Armiia—vooruzhennyi otriad proletarskoi revoliutsii! (Long live the Red Army—the armed detachment of the proletarian revolution!), 1932
Lithograph
51 3/8 x 33 7/8” (130.5 x 86 cm)

Documentary photograph showing Elkin’s poster with variant text: Batraki Bedniaki vmeste s aktivom seredniakov sozdavaite initsiativnye gruppy po organizatsii kolkhozov (Poor peasants in collaboration with the most active group of mid-income peasants [“seredniaki”] should organize collective farms), c. 1931, photograph date unknown
Gelatin silver print
6 x 4 1/2” (16 x 11.3 cm)

Related to Elkin’s poster: Profsoiuzy—na bor’bu za vstrechnyi [plan] v 10 mln. ton chuguna (Trade Unions, fight for the counter plan of producing 10 million tons of pig iron), 1932, c. 1932
Offset lithograph
8 7/16 x 3 7/16" (21.4 x 8.7 cm)

Poster: My dogoniaem i peregoniaem kapitalisticheskie strany v rezul’tate razvitiia sovkhozov i perekhoda bol’shinstva trudiashchegosia krest’ianstva na put’ kollektivizatsii (We are catching up with and overtaking the capitalist countries as a result of the development of “sovkhoz” [state farms] and transition of most of the peasants to the path of collectivization), c. 1932
Lithograph
21 5/8 x 15 5/8" (54.9 x 39.6 cm)

Documentary photograph showing enlargement of Elkin’s poster Da zdravstvuet Krasnaia Armiia—vooruzhennyi otriad proletarskoi revoliutsii! (Long live the Red Army, 1932—the armed detachment of the proletarian revolution!) on a building façade, photograph date unknown
Gelatin silver print
8 1/2 x 6” (21.5 x 15.6 cm)

Poster: Likvidiruem  besprizornost’ avtotransporta, dadim avtomobiliu oborudovannyi Garazh
(Let’s eliminate “homelessness” of automobile transportation, let’s put an automobile into the fully equipped garage), early 1930s
Lithograph
23 1/2 x 15 9/16" (59.6 x 39.5 cm)