Russian Telegraph Agency

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Agitprop poster by Mayakovsky

ROSTA or Russian Telegraph Agency (Russian: РОСТА, Российское телеграфное агенство) was the first state news agency in Soviet Russia and Soviet Union (1918-1935). After the creation of TASS in the Soviet Union in 1925, it became the state agency of the RSFSR. Its name was associated with ROSTA Windows.

[edit] ROSTA Windows

ROSTA Windows (Russian: Окна РОСТА) or "Satirical ROSTA Windows" (Окна сатиры РОСТА) were stencil-replicated propaganda posters created by artists and poets within the ROSTA system, under the supervision of Glavpolitprosvet (Chief Committee of Political Education) during 1919-1921. Inheriting the Russian design traditions of lubok and rayok, the main topics were current political events. They were usually displayed in windows, hence the name.

The first ROSTA window was created in Moscow by Mikhail Cheremnykh (Михаил Михайлович Черемных, 1890-1962). He was soon joined by Vladimir Mayakovsky, a popular and prolific author, Dmitry Moor (Дмитрий Стахиевич Моор, 1883-1946), Alexander Rodchenko, and others. Similar projects were performed in other Soviet cities.

The design featured graphical simplicity suitable for viewing from distance and often used lubok-styled sequences of pictures according to some plot, similar to modern comics. The posters were not printed but rather painted with cutout stencils made from cardboard. Once the required number of posters was painted, the stencils were sent to another city and put in circulation throughout the soviet union.

During the Great Patriotic War, this approach was reproduced in "TASS Windows" by Kukryniksy.