WAM Journal Issue No. 27 was published in 2007. The issue comprises 304 pages. This issue was dedicated to «Soviet Export,» a journal that ran from 1957 to 1989 in six languages and was distributed in 120 countries worldwide, with a particular focus on the advertisements within that periodical.
The magazine «Soviet Export» is a unique phenomenon. Over thirty years of its existence have been marked by the work of an unprecedented team of artists and designers, placing it in a creative lineage with great journals of the 1920s and 1930s—such as «Veshch» or «USSR in Construction.»
Separate advertisements in «Soviet Export» formed an ideological facade—a unified brand image for the USSR. This was a one-sided and largely domestic advertising race—but it inevitably stimulated demand for advertising within the magazine itself. Consequently, this established «Soviet Export» as a primary advertising client. The high volume of orders spurred the engagement of numerous freelance designers.
When you examine this advertisement, what immediately strikes you is not the paradox of its aims and origins, but its organic wholeness. Primarily, it is a finished piece of art. It is objective in its content—presenting a product rather than persuading the buyer of its necessity. It carries minimal suggestion and maximum narrative depth.
Advertising in the USSR was curious, witty, and human, after all. Almost the main theme was the feeling of pride in a job well done. And that is the feeling the creators wished to share with the reader.
